The Buena Park real estate market

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The Buena Park real estate market, part of the generally upscale and affluent Orange County housing market, faced declining home sales and home prices in the most recent period for which statistics are available. According to figures provided by DataQuick and the Orange County Metro, the end of 2010 saw a decline in median sales price and the quantity of purchases. The median price for Orange County was $410,000 in December 2010, representing a decrease of just less than six percent relative to year-ago levels. This drop was also a decline of about six percent compared to November 2010. Relative to the rest of Southern California, Orange County fared particularly poorly – the six Southern counties saw a slight increase in median price, while Orange County fell. This weakness can be attributed at least partially to the weakness of the regional and national job market as well as the hesitancy of lenders to extend lines of credit. There were fewer properties sold in Orange County in December 2010 compared to year-ago levels, although there were significantly more compared to month-ago levels. DataQuick’s statistics indicated that there were 2,739 residential properties purchased throughout Orange County during December, representing a decline of approximately five percent compared to December 2009. However, this number did mark an increase of more than twenty-one percent compared to November 2010. One expert noted that a November to December sales increase is expected, although the increase seen in Orange County was larger than average.

There were an inordinately large number of properties seized in 2010, marking the third-highest quantity of delinquent residential properties repossessed in nearly twenty years. According to MDA DataQuick, there were approximately 7,900 homes seized in 2010, adding to the cumulative total of almost 33,000 homeowners who have had their properties seized since the beginning of the economic recession. On the bright side, there were fewer foreclosure filings during the most recent tracking period, backing off of the peak figure reached in 2009. However, one expert noted that this slight improvement cannot be entirely attributed to a rallying market, as an alternative to foreclosures – the short sale – has become more popular.