New Home Sales Reported Strong Last Month
By DANIEL D. WILLIAMS
Orange County real estate sources say they expect to see a big spike in January new home sales when numbers start coming in later this month.
“It’s been an awesome month,” said John Burns, president of Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. “Homebuyers have returned in full force.”
South County areas such as Ladera Ranch, Irvine’s Shady Canyon and Coto de Caza reported the strongest activity, according to Burns and other sources. The North County communities of Amerige Heights in Fullerton and Yorba Linda’s Vista Del Verde also saw strong activity, they said.
“There is a sense of urgency,” said Nick Lehnert, vice president of sales and product development for Irvine-based Centex Homes, part of Dallas-based Centex Corp. Homebuyers “see that interest rates are low, and, with the strength of the market, homes prices will not come down,they’ll continue to climb.”
Observers say the strong month signals renewed consumer confidence after Sept. 11. Plus, they said, the county’s housing shortage is as persistent as ever.
Lower priced homes sold quickly in January, according to Burns. Anything less than $300,000 wasn’t on the market for long, he said. Homes at $500,000 and less also did well, he said.
Even the county’s priciest homes,which were the first to feel the squeeze of the slowdown last year,fared well in January, Burns said.
“Homes in the million-plus range have picked up,” he said.
At Ladera Ranch near San Clemente, where homes go from $400,000 to $1 million, some 150 homes were sold on Jan. 19 alone at the opening of the community’s Avondale village, a spokeswoman for master developer Rancho Mission Viejo LLC said.
In all, 4,000 home shoppers showed up, the spokeswoman said, and the village has another 10,000 names on file for the 1,212 homes that eventually will make up Avondale.
Ladera’s first village of 960 homes is sold out while 100 homes remain up for sale in the development’s 978-home second village, she said.
The Irvine Company said it doesn’t have January numbers yet but expects the month to follow December’s pace. In December, home sales on what the company refers to as the Irvine Ranch were up 50% from December 2000.
The company’s Shady Canyon development,where custom lots go for $550,000 to $2.5 million,is doing brisk business, according to Don Moe, senior vice president of residential sales and marketing for Irvine Community Development Co.
“We’re running well ahead of our anticipated sales rates,” he said.
North County isn’t seeing as much activity as the sprawling new developments in South County, sources said. But the numbers are strong there too because newer homes are harder to come by, they said.
“The numbers are intense,” said Jennifer Ball, marketing coordinator for Orange-based Toll Brothers Inc.
The company counted 1,500 shoppers at a recent open house at Vista Del Verde.
So will it last? Low interest rates have helped fuel homebuying in recent months. But rates are inching up from the lows of last year. That could be prompting homebuyers to strike now before rates go up further on their own or maybe with the help of the Federal Reserve later this year.
A selling point for local homebuilders: local homes have proved a great investment, gaining in value in the past year while stocks, for instance, declined.
“We all hope it’s not a premature blip, but all indications are that it will continue,” Centex’s Lehnert said.
