South OC $/sq ft survey

We're taking the 7 most recent MLS sales for each area ZIP code to find the average (median) price recent buyers are paying per square foot to own South Orange County real estate.

Remember to take these with a grain of salt since they are self-reported sales prices and don't always include incentives. There also isn't a guarantee that the square-foot measurements are fully accurate, for instance in cases of renovations or additions.



Some thoughts, in no particular order...

• We wish we had comparable price/sq ft data from the peak...but we don't. So this only is useful in terms of seeing what the most recent buyers are doing.
  
  
• Not surprisingly, the "most expensive" areas in terms of price/sq ft are: Laguna Beach, Dana Point and Laguna Niguel. Laguna Beach is in a class of its own - but then again we already knew that.
  
  
• The "least expensive" areas recently by this measure have been Laguna Woods, Lake Forest and Laguna Hills. It's probably not fair to include Laguna Woods in here since it is a senior community, but we are anyway since it is technically in South OC.
  
  
• There have been some high-priced sales in Ladera Ranch recently, but the median price/sq ft of the past 7 sales is comparably low. We consider this to be fair considering the tax base there is higher than most other parts, so the prices should be lower to compensate.