Laguna Sales Crater - Laguna Beach Has 6.25 Years of Real Estate Inventory

Based on the latest dataquick reports (6 properties sold in Feburary), Laguna Beach has a huge inventory of homes for sale that would take over 6 YEARS to sell. (Redfin indicates 442 properties are on the market right now)

What does this indicate? More huge price corrections to the downside for Laguna Beach home prices. When nothing is selling, sellers must reduce prices or not sell. No one can fight the market direction. Buying a home now at the typical high asking price would be a stupid, catastrophic decision.

Honey, the neighbors undercut us by $500,000!

I've been following Crystal Cove home prices closely. There are some very disappointed home sellers in Crystal Cove. This probably goes under the category of "the market giveth and the market taketh away." Crystal Cove homes appreciated hugely in the bubble years.

Now is the time for the home values to give it up.

Take 2 Tideline Bluff, for example. Originally listed for $4.5 million, it has been reduced to $3.6 million. This about half way up the hill in Crystal Cove, where homes have been listed in the 4-5 million dollar range. Now, the price cut on 2 Tideline Bluff and the listing price on other homes have made it clear that the $4 million dollar days are gone for good.

Just down the street is 20 Tideline Bluff, listed at $4.8 million. This one is, well, pretty clearly over valued in view of this development. Yet Coldwell Banker is still trying to sell it at this price. What does that say for Coldwell's credibility? Thoughts anyone?

It should be appreciated that the neighbor's price cut really does nothing other than demonstrate that the true market values for these homes have gone down. If the values are down, they are down, no matter what the various asking prices. If either home were worth 4 million dollars, then someone would step up and pay it. Not going to happen because in reality the homes are not worth it.....

Ocean Views - $315 sq/ft in Arch Beach Heights!

I recently noticed that the house at 1420 Del Mar sold for only $832,500, about 50% of the original asking price. It is a 4 bedroom, 2640 square foot home with ocean views. I toured it a while ago.

That works out to $315 per square foot. This is about what Arch Beach homes were selling for in 2002 or 2001.

This is a price point that will attract buyers in Laguna Beach, yet there are plenty of sellers out there who are asking much more, hoping for an ill informed buyer to happen along and get suckered.

Luckily, no buyer gave any credibility whatsoever to the original $1.6 million asking price, as listed by Keller Williams realty. Sorry Keller, no morons bought your perception of "value".....

January Home Sale Prices Crater in Laguna

My prior post on January Laguna Beach home prices was based only on data through January 15.

Well, the last two weeks of January were ***MUCH**** worse.

When all the January numbers from Dataquick were in, the median home price in Laguna Beach was down to $825,000, a whopping 50% decrease over last year. This is single family home data only, and does not include condos.

You know that this means.

No one who is sane is buying any of the overpriced homes on the Laguna Beach MLS. The few sales that did happen? I chalk that up to the "moron" factor - ill informed buyers who have made catastrophic buying decisions.

There has been a drastic step change downward in the true home values in Laguna Beach. The median home prices in Corona Del Mar, Newport and Newport Coast also dropped like lead balloons.

Are there any agents out there who disagree? Sellers? Buyers?