Homes are up 23% in price over last year alone. Don't Wait!

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-----As we look around San Clemente, we see that the median home price is between $650,000 and $750,000 depending on whom you trust for your housing figures. And the high end represents an increase year-over-year of some 23%.

I am always stunned by those reports of median home prices being that high since many homes, especially condos here are in the $300,000 to $450,000 range and it would seem that they’d therefore make the median price lower. Of course it just means that there are some whopper big homes in the mega million dollar range trading hands in San Clemente. 

Foreign buyers love that 23% increase in housing prices and most can afford to buy at the high end, or have already.  And high end investors can hire flippers to remodel bank-owned homes that once sold for $1 to $2 or $3 million and get even more for them in a current sale.

 What do consumers in general think about this vibrant, almost scary, increase in home prices over last year? Well, Fannie Mae’s Economic Strategic Research Group has released a new research study that investigates the impact of consumer attitudes toward renting and homeownership on the future of housing in America.

 Fannie Mae’s recent National Housing Survey provides insights into whether current renters, particularly younger Americans, aspire to become homeowners and when they expect to achieve the goal of home ownership. 

Findings show: 

·       Ninety percent of aspiring owners expect to purchase a home in the future, even though most have ranked their renting experience favorably. 

·       Renters who prefer to own appear to have a sense of measured optimism about their homeownership prospects, although most believe it would be difficult to get a mortgage today. 

·       Forty-two percent of those who expect to buy believe that they will not be able to do so for at least five years. 

·       Despite the hurdles renters anticipate on the path to homeownership, many say they are renting now primarily as a stepping stone toward making that move in the future.

 ·       Younger renters aged 18 to 34 are nearly twice as likely to say their main reason for renting is to prepare financially for future ownership, compared to renters aged 35 and up.

What does all this mean? I think that, combined with more and more new housing starts nationwide, we may soon find that sellers see an advantage in selling and buyers see one in buying---unlike the low-inventory way that it has been for the past few years.

 In short, it seems like we’re on a housing roll, but this time let’s all use caution so we don’t repeat the recent dismal real estate condition of the past few years.

To find all rentals and homes for sale in Orange County, go here to Search the MLS  . Or, if you need help in searching the MLS (especially for rentals), call or email me: 949-463-4111 ---- Debbie@DebbieFerrari.com  and I will walk you through it. Debbie Ferrari, 35-year local Real Estate Broker