Orange County Register

As of last Thursday, there were 495 active homes for sale in Irvine, with an expected market time of 2.15 months, according to a biweekly report done by Steven Thomas of Altera Real Estate. That’s a benchmark tracking how many months it theoretically takes to sell all the inventory in the local MLS for-sale listings at the current pace of pending deals being made.

That number is unchanged compared to two weeks ago, when there were also 495 active homes for sale in Irvine, with an expected market time of 2.10 months.

One year ago, the expected market time was 5.56 months, and two years ago, the expected market time was a whopping 12.60 months.

Here’s Thomas’ take on where the demand lies:

There is very little fresh, new inventory. The lower the range, the “spookier” it gets. Properties that are priced right and in great condition are flying off of the market with multiple offers and tremendous activity. Buyers new to the market are dumbfounded by all of the competition. Their expectations are of doom and gloom and the ability to “cherry pick” whatever home they are interested in AND at a discount. Yet, just about every agent has pockets filled with buyers who want to buy but have been unable to purchase after losing out on property after property.

As someone who has made three offers on homes under $600K with no luck, I would have to agree with Thomas’ assessment. Do YOU agree?

The average list price for Irvine homes is currently $1.2 million, and 27.3 % of listings are distressed, meaning they are foreclosures or short sales. That’s a slight decrease from Thomas’ last report, when 27.5% of Irvine listings were distressed.

Other real estate trends:

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