An active December and January hints that luxury buyers may be coming out of a wait-and-see mode.
“I think that people have been sitting on the fence, and they’re tired of it,” said real estate veteran Lee Ann Canaday of the Canaday Group & Re/Max Fine Homes, which has three locations in Orange County.
In December, six homes sold above $8 million in Orange County, according to real estate website Zillow, followed by two more sales in the first week of 2020, for a total sales volume that nears $80 million.
“It’s been a strong start to the year, which isn’t a typically busy time,” said Canaday, a Business Journal Women in Business award winner in 2012.
China Thoughts
Canaday is also bullish on buyer demographics in the region, having seen “new diversification of buyer pools.”
“We’re seeing a lot of out-of-state buyers, and foreign investment is still strong locally,” despite recent pullbacks in the sector.
An annual report by the National Association of Realtors found that between April 2018 and March 2019, the dollar value of homes purchased by foreigners dropped 36% to $77.9 billion on a national basis.
China still represents the top foreign buyer in the states, representing 17% of this market, while California is the second most popular investment spot for foreign buyers, following Florida.
Canaday said that while investment from the country has slackened as of late, there’s still “a large pool of very high-end Chinese buyers that see California as a safe haven for their investments.”
She also noted that she sees potential for a growing demographic in California: Hong Kong.
“They have always had more liberty with their money, and I think that market could fill in some of the gaps,” Canaday said.
TV Showcase
Canaday’s sales range from the $1 million to $16 million, with strong volume of late coming from the lower luxury end.
A recent broker preview for a new home in the Ocean Del Rey Estates community in Dana Point, where prices range from $2 million to $3 million, brought in nearly 100 prospective buyers, she said.
Part of this success can be attributed to the broker’s long-standing marketing strategy: her television show, “Re/Max Fine Homes, Luxury Living in Orange County.” She started the show in the 1990s, making her an early adopter to the now pervasive tactic of using video in real estate.
The show, which airs on KDOC-TV Los Angeles, is pricey—it costs $500 per minute to make, according to Canaday—but it pays off.
“It has 17 million viewers, and brings in tons of new clients.”
