This lake is part of the Regional Park supported by County Tax dollars not an expense for the City of Laguna Niguel. The park is immense. Lots of room to picnic, fish, play, host events, & BBQ.
Month: September 2021
California voted to keep the Governor in office!
Governor Newsome was not recalled. The vote appeared to be cast along party lines with the Democratic Party winning the day. That will have a stabilizing effect on the real estate market.
Right after the election was decided, he signed into law several possibly controversial pieced of legislation. The assumption is he did not want to sway the election with changing some very basic real estate laws. For instance, the Counties and Cities in California decide how to organize the areas of residential and commercial properties. There were areas zoned for single family housing. The State has removed that obstacle to multi-family housing unilaterally. This could be unpopular. It was an attempt to create more housing on existing desirable land.
Would you like to read the legislation? Click here SENATE BILL 9
Steven Thomas -Reports on Housing
Steven Thomas is our Real Estate Economist. He specializes in several counties in Southern California. You can access his report and join to be fully appraised of the economics of our current real estate market and what it forecasts. Orange County Housing Report Above is his graph based on the data he tracks continuously and has done so for years. These are just the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 statistics. The inventory levels for each year are a different line. You can see how dramatic the decline in inventory is for 2021. We are scraping the bottom of the graph. The lack of homes on the market does force prices up. We need more homes on the market!
With the income protection program coming to an end ($300 weekly if you or a family member’s income was affected by Covid 19) and the eviction moratorium ending ( in a Court of Law it was found unconstitutional), more homes should come on the market. Some lower income people were making more money by taking government assistance than they were by working. Now all those workers, many in childcare, are back seeking employment. The schools are all open so children do not have to be supervised by their parents during the day. Those parents can go back to work. There should be plenty of childcare workers available.
About a million homes were in forbearance as we started September, those people now have to catch up on their mortgage payments or sell their homes. Lenders are due the full amount owed for the mortgage payments deferred. Eviction does take a few months but the courts are open so those will now happen. The good news is the appreciation in home values should allow the delinquent homeowners to pay the lender in full and have cash toward their next residence.
The Fall Market is starting to cool
Fall starts now. The recovery from the height of the pandemic has been slow for real estate in terms of volume. However, low inventory pushes up prices especially when you have historically low interest rates.
As you can clearly see, once we got released from a general quarantine to go back to work, prices recovered then climbed. We started at under $1 million a year ago and we are now at the $1,350.000 range. Interest rates are historically low. The monthly payment has dropped for loans of $800,000+ from what it was just a few years ago. More people can afford to stay in their homes longer. Every time you refinance, the loan is extended out for another 30 years. Assuming you had paid down your house somewhat since the last loan took effect, you are refinancing less of a loan and extending the payment horizon out 30 years.
Because the Federal Government does not allow lenders to discriminate based on age, you can be 90 years old and qualify for a 30 year loan. There is literally no end to when you can refinance as long as your credit remains good and you have sufficient income.
If you would appreciate seeing the entire report go to Report. Scroll down and choose the month that interests you from the drop down menu. The list of all properties that sold will appear with the sold price. If you click on an address, you will see an icon appear on the map of Laguna Niguel. Click on the Detailed Listing link. You will see all the details as well as the pictures. You can do this for each of the last twelve months.
When you visually see the 30%+ appreciation in just one year’s time, it is astounding. Many people could not afford to buy the home they live in. Fortunately, the property taxes are limited to a 2% increase annually despite the appreciation in value. And people who are 55 years of age or older and move their property taxes with them to a replacement home. This gives retirees incentive to leave large homes and find smaller, one story residences without facing a huge increase in their property taxes.
The most expensive home that sold last month was 35 Vista Montemar. This home sold for $4,100,000. The average home only took 24 days to sell in August. This home is a super luxury home and it was on the market for 64 days. That is not a lot of time.
If you would like to see the current active listings for single family homes, click here, homes. There are currently 47 homes on the market. If you are interested in seeing one of these homes, give us a call or send us an email. Homes go quickly. If you need financing, we can offer you our contacts within the lending industry that can get you the best rates and give you amazing service. Don’t delay.
Laguna Niguel is beach-close, beautiful and much more affordable than the beach cities. Laguna Niguel movie
Please join us! Let us know if you would like to see any homes to purchase. Expect the process to be very fast!