There’s a housing shortage in our market, and it means we’re in for a strong summer.
The supply of homes for sale in the Greater Orange County and Los Angeles area is very low. In my 15 years as a Realtor, this is one of the lowest levels I’ve ever seen.
Specifically, there are about 2.1 months of inventory. As a reminder, this means if no one else put their homes on the market, it would take 2.1 months to sell all available homes. To put this into perspective, there were about 3.5 months of inventory during this time of year in 2019 and 2018. We saw really strong appreciation in the summer months of both of those years.
A “normal” market (i.e., one that’s balanced between buyers and sellers) has between five and six months of inventory. Anything below that mark is considered a seller’s market, so at 2.1 months of inventory, you can see that we’re deep into a seller’s market. There aren’t enough homes for sale for all the buyers out there.
What does this mean for you? It means our market is in for a strong summer. The summer is when we typically see the most buyers enter the market—the weather is nicer, the days are longer, families want to get settled in before the school year starts, etc. In general, summer is when we see the most homes bought and sold. It’s also the season where we see the greatest increase in home values.
The bottom line is that as we approach the spring and summer, this lack of inventory means prices will likely rise quite a bit.
If you’re thinking of buying or selling soon, be sure to check out our website. There, you can search for homes or request an online home valuation. If you’d like to start looking at homes in person or would like a more exact calculation of your home’s worth, feel free to call or email me. I can put together a customized home search and discuss our strategies to find homes that aren’t on the market.
As always, if you have any other real estate questions, feel free to reach out to me as well. Make it a great day!
