Laguna Beach Named Toughest City for Sellers

After an encouraging surge in the past couple of weeks, Laguna Beach seems to be back on the slow track. Recent data shows that the South Coast city is the hardest place to sell a home in Orange County in terms of market time (number of homes for sale vs. number of sales closed in the past month).

According to the latest inventory report from Altera Real Estate, as of February 18th,  Laguna Beach saw an average of 35 sales out of an inventory of 320 homes. This puts the market time to 9.1 months, or roughly a year and seven months.

Newport Beach came in a close second with a market time of 8.4 months, less than half that of Laguna Beach. While it had a larger inventory of 497 homes, a larger portion of them managed to sell, totaling an average of 59 deals as of February 18th.

Coming in third was Corona del Mar, officially considered part of Newport Beach and once the slowest market in Orange County. The seaside village sold 19 out of 153 homes on average, bringing its market time to a more encouraging 8.1 months.

All three areas are well known for their prohibitively high home prices, which go well past the million-dollar mark. Laguna Beach homes cost $3.7 million on average, Newport Beach $2.4 million, and Corona del Mar $3.2 million. Only Newport Coast, which came in fifth, has a higher average of $4 million.

Meanwhile, the best place to sell a home is Aliso Viejo, where 102 of the 133 homes for sale sold in the same period. The market time is calculated at 1.3 months, making it officially a seller's market. Other "hot" areas include Rancho Santa Margarita (1.3 months), Lake Forest (1.4 months), Ladera Ranch (1.6 months) and Foothill Ranch (1.6 months).

 

Earlier in Laguna Beach Real Estate News:
Montage Resort Plans $400 Million Utah Expansion
Emerald Bay Home Slashes Price By $1 Million
Laguna Beach Market Times Rise To 14.5 Months