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.
