For those who still check this blog I have decided to join the crew over at irvinehousingblog and I will be posting there periodically. As a standard the comments section on this post has some great history.
The comments section of this first post are the headlines of a search of the Register's archives for "housing market" for years 1987 through 1993.
17 comments:
This is almost every article headline from the OC Register's archive from 1987 through 1993 with an exact search for "housing market". Only about ten are missing because they were irrelevant or didn't contain enough information. The format is not the best and I tried to clean it up a bit but it was very tedious. You will also notice that some end with an incomplete sentence but this is what came up without buying the article.
Make sure you scroll to the bottom to see my top ten similar themes.
More rate cuts should spark housing in '87
January 17, 1987
Byline: Jan Norman; Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
1987, fueling another good but not spectacular year for the U.S. housing industry, economists told the National Association of Home Builders convention here on Friday. More than 60,000 homebuilders and people in related industries are expected to attend the convention, which runs through Monday. About 1.6 million houses will be built nationwide in 1987, said David Seiders, chief economist of the 145,000-member National Association of Home Builders.
Standard-Pacific to split 2-for-1
Third in two years follows record sales
April 8, 1987
Byline: Jan Norman
The Register
The Orange County Register
-- Standard-Pacific L.P. declared a 2-for-1 stock split Tuesday, its third split since 1985. It follows a record sales year for Standard-Pacific and reflects the general boom in homebuilding, one analyst said.
The company believes the decision makes its shares more appealing to individual investors and "brings down the price in to the territory that is attractive for IRAs (individual retirement accounts)," said Robert St. Lawrence, chief financial officer.
Mortgages climb again; VA boosts rate to 9.5%
April 11, 1987
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Register
The Orange County Register
The Veterans Administration said Friday it will raise its mortgage rate a full percentage point to 9.5 percent, the latest in a series of sharp increases in home-loan rates during the last two weeks. It is the first increase in the VA rate since March 1985, when it rose one-half point to 13 percent.
Higher mortgage rates are adding confusion to Orange County's hot real estate market, industry executives said Friday.
Mortgages climb again; VA boosts rate to 9.5%
April 11, 1987
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Register
The Orange County Register
The Veterans Administration said Friday it will raise its mortgage rate a full percentage point to 9.5 percent, the latest in a series of sharp increases in home-loan rates during the last two weeks. It is the first increase in the VA rate since March 1985, when it rose one-half point to 13 percent.
Higher mortgage rates are adding confusion to Orange County's hot real estate market, industry executives said Friday.
British homebuilder unveils plans for OC
May 21, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Great Britain's 10th-largest homebuilder announced plans Wednesday to spend $40 million in the next two years building homes in Southern California. Costain Homes Inc., a unit of London-based Costain Group PLC, initially will build homes in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. But the developer plans to be in Orange County by the end of the decade, said Jeff Duggan, vice chairman of the new U.S. division, which opened a Newport Beach office in January.
Housing market caters to sellers.
South county real-estate agents say prices will continue to climb
June 4, 1987
Byline: Tim Woodhull
The Register
The Orange County Register
Rising demand and shrinking supply are pushing up the cost of housing from San Clemente to Laguna Beach and inland through the Saddleback Valley, a survey of real-estate agents shows. Sales prices have risen 10 percent during the past year in some areas of south Orange County, the report states, and as much as 100 percent in a few cases. And the escalation shows no signs of ending.
Where are the homes?
Population surge, demographic shifts will put pressure on building industry
June 10, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Tired of paying rent and living in a small house, Armando and Gloria Encalada bought a three-bedroom home in Santa Ana earlier this year. "We were real crowded and wanted a larger place to live," says Gloria Encalada, who has three children. "And we wanted to buy the home for an investment."
Big change causes little stir
Developers' flight from homebuilding won't shake market
June 24, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The announcements that two of Orange County's major developers -- The Irvine Co. and the Misson Viejo Co. -- are getting out of homebuilding will mean a lot to competitors but little to the local housing market, industry experts say. In fact, analysts believe the plans by the two concerns to leave the construction of their housing projects to other companies may go entirely unnoticed by homebuyers.
FYI: REAL ESTATE
July 22, 1987
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Used-home sales grow 22.3 percent in the last month Used-home sales in Orange County rose 22.3 percent in June, but the median-priced home fell to $166,282, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
June sales activity was about 55 percent higher than May. Two months ago many homebuyers were waiting to see what direction mortgage rates were headed before buying, the association said. The median price in June was 1 percent below May's level, but 6.3 percent higher
Out of Towners
U.S., international developers are vying to build homes in OC
August 2, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Toronto-based Bramalea Ltd. opened a Costa Mesa office eight years ago, but the big Canadian real estate developer didn't "arrive" in Orange County until this spring. That's when Bramalea became the first foreign-based homebuilder to win the right to build houses on Irvine Co. land. For Bramalea, which beat out several local powerhouse developers for the 105-house project, the feat was equivalent to hitting a grand slam in the World Series.
Savings and loans see red
Nine troubled OC institutions spoil otherwise bright picture
August 9, 1987
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Register
The Orange County Register
In the early 1980s, the savings and loan industry complained it needed a break from too many regulations and sky-high interest rates. In 1986, it got its wish. But even that dream climate was not enough to mend a split personality among Orange County's 38 institutions.
Costs associated with nine severely troubled local institutions continue the haunt total financial performance, a review of 1986 results by the Register indicates.
OC's housing market grows frantic
Heavy demand exceeds supply
September 16, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Irvine real estate agents Gil Ide and Lois Pallone expected the completely refurbished four-bedroom home in the University Park area of Irvine to sell fast. But they didn't expect it to sell in just two hours. Nevertheless, that's what happened when a family new to Orange County made an offer for $226,000.
Building on a good reputation
J.M. Peters sets sights beyond borders of OC
September 20, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Jim Peters slept through one of the biggest moments in the history of his 10-year-old homebuilding company. Three thousand miles and three time zones away, Wall Street traders on Friday began exchanging the first shares available to the public in J.M. Peters Co., one of Orange County's largest and most respected homebuilders. The trading began at 6 a.m. on the West Coast, before Peters gets out of bed.
Taubman was hesitant to sell Irvine Co. stake
October 8, 1987
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Shopping center mogul A. Alfred Taubman testified Wednesday that he initially did not want to sell his stake in the Irvine Co. to Donald Bren, but in the end he felt it would be better to turn the company over to him. Taubman received $141 million for his 14.4 percent interest when Irvine Co. was sold to Bren in 1983. His original investment, made six years earlier, was about $4.2 million cash.
Taubman is the latest witness in the trial to establish the value of the Irvine Co.
NOTEBOOK
October 14, 1987
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Everywhere but their own areas A majority of the developers and related industry professionals at the fall Urban Land Institute meeting in Los Angeles last week believed the U.S. economy is a worry everywhere but their own backyard.
According to a survey of 300 of the 2,700 attending the three-day conference, 44 percent see a weaker national economy but 46 percent say the economy is stronger in their own metropolitan areas.
NOTEBOOK
October 21, 1987
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Lusk founder primes pump at Menifee
When John Lusk cranked up an old water pump last week, he created a little waterfall that began filling a lake in the Lusk Co.'s Menifee planned community south of Sun City in southwest Riverside County. But the chairman and founder of the Irvine development company also was creating a windfall for eight homebuilders -- six from Orange County -- whom Lusk
selected to build the first of about 6,000 homes in its 1,977-acre Menifee
Builders are feeling right at home
Newport Beach developer Stuard sees good news in Treasury bond markets
October 21, 1987
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas; Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Dale Stuard is a Newport Beach-based homebuilder and president elect of the 150,000-member National Association of Home Builders. His family-owned firm, Signature Homes, is building in Yorba Linda, Mission Viejo and Riverside County.
Q. Yields on 30-year Treasury bonds are falling. What does that mean for mortgage rates and the housing market?
A. We've been scratching our head a lot since Friday trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Prospecting OC real estate
Housing: Mortgage rates hold key to industry's future
October 25, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Sue Shrock, a bookkeeper at an Anaheim auto parts store, watched Wall Street's upheaval last week but didn't think much about it. "I just didn't see any indication that it was going to send the economy into a slump," says Shrock, who is buying her first home, a three-bedroom, $106,000 condominium in Orange.
NOTEBOOK
October 28, 1987
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Real estate may benefit from crash
Last week's stock market crash will cause investors to examine real estate more closely than any time since the bull market began in 1982, economists and real estate agents say. "Whenever there's uncertainty in the market, investors will switch to hard, more tangible assets and one of those is real estate," says Joel Singer, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.
Man charged with grand theft in alleged million-dollar real-estate fraud
November 4, 1987
Byline: Steve Eddy
The Register
The Orange County Register
A 58-year-old man faces arraignment Friday on more than a dozen grand-theft counts in what investigators alleged is a million-dollar real-estate fraud case. Paul William Anderson of Orange was arrested last week at his home. He has been formally charged by the District Attorney's Office with bilking more than 20 victims in five counties out of nearly $1 million between 1978 and 1985.
Prospective buyers enter home `big spin'
Lotteries once again being used in north OC housing market
November 5, 1987
Byline: Frank Moraga
The Register
The Orange County Register
People all over the country play lotteries in hopes of winning the grand prize. But in north Orange County, sometimes the prize is the chance to buy a home. Local developers are once again using lotteries to distribute rights to buy homes.
They might not be quite as frantic or publicized as some held in the late 1970s, but more than 90 hopeful buyers gathered recently for a lottery to determine who would have the first opportunity to purchase a home at the Trails, a William Lyon Co.
Used-home sales plunge 13% in OC
November 24, 1987
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Sales of used homes in Orange County fell 13.6 percent in October from September levels, the largest decline in nearly a year. It was the largest drop-off in the state for a metropolitan area, the California Association of Realtors reported Monday.
The decline was blamed on rising interest rates in early September and a shortage of homes for sale.
The small number of homes available for sale, however, kept prices steady. October's median-priced home in Orange County was
Continued decline could have big impact on OC economy
As the dollar falls
December 7, 1987
Byline: Ann Imse
The Register
The Orange County Register
If you're thinking of buying a BMW, do it now. With the dollar headed down again, the same advice goes for a South Korean television set, a European vacation or any other foreign purchase on your wish list. Import prices are rising, economists agree.
For once, economists are speaking in unison. There is a remarkable consensus among the experts contacted recently by the Register that the dollar is on a downward spiral, unstoppable by central bank intervention.
People back slow growth, dream of detached home
Limits viewed as improvement by nearly 4 to 1, survey shows
December 11, 1987
Byline: Gary A. Warner
The Register
The Orange County Register
Fed up with roads jammed with cars and open fields giving way to new development, Orange County residents are ready by almost a 4-1 margin to approve county and local growth controls, according to a poll released Thursday. Mark Baldassare, a professor of social ecology at University of California, Irvine, called the overwhelming support for growth controls "the big shocker" of his 1987 Orange County Survey.
Poll of county finds trouble in `paradise'
Majority sees gloomy future
December 11, 1987
Byline: Marilyn Kalfus
The Register
The Orange County Register
Residents of Orange County long for homes they cannot afford, find their incomes falling behind the cost of living, creep along gridlocked freeways and fret about future growth. A new poll shows that although the county was built on an idyllic dream of suburban living, residents are awakening to find themselves caught in a "fantasy gap."
Computers help real estate brokers buy and sell homes economically
December 19, 1987
Byline: James M. Woodard
Copley News Service
The Orange County Register
Computers are playing an increasingly important role in helping real estate brokers serve your home buying and selling needs. Because of its wide usage of computer systems, the real estate industry now enjoys the lowest cost of computerization of any industry and will continue to experience that edge for the foreseeable future, according to Sherry & Associates, a noted research and consulting firm.
Housing construction shows strength in 1987
Projects under way in north-county cities
December 31, 1987
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
The housing market is showing signs of strength in northern Orange County. Three large residential developments are in the works for the Anaheim Hills area.
The Oak Hills and Highland projects have been approved by the city, said Mary McCloskey, senior planner for Anaheim.
When completed, Oak Hills will include 2,176 residential units. The development is located south of the Riverside (91) Freeway along Weir Canyon Road.
Experts see building slowdown
But trade-up market will insulate county
January 16, 1988
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Economists put Orange County homebuilders at the right place at the right time Friday by forecasting a national construction slowdown except for higher-priced or so-called "trade-up" housing. That prediction means the county's housing market -- which includes a number of high-income couples who accumulated a large amount of home equity -- may insulate local builders from the recession that forecasters expect in 1989.
Vasquez growth plan includes housing cap
Supervisor's measure would limit construction of new homes
February 4, 1988
Byline: Chris Knap
The Register
The Orange County Register
New-home construction in Orange County would be limited to no more than 1.9 percent of each year's existing housing stock under a growth-management proposal being developed by Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez and county planners, county officials were told Wednesday.
A 1.9 percent cap would represent a significant limit for county builders. There was a 2.3 percent increase in county housing in 1986 and the preliminary figures for 1987 appear to be even higher.
OC housing to get more expensive
February 6, 1988
Byline: Juanita Darling
The Register
The Orange County Register
Buying an Orange County house with an Orange County income is tough and getting tougher. And that could mean double trouble for the local economy, the nation's most expensive housing market. A Chapman College study released Friday predicts that housing prices will rise another 10.2 percent this year, while family incomes increase just 6.6 percent.
When workers can't afford housing, either companies move elsewhere to expand or their employees buy houses where they are more affordable.
Home prices hit buyers where they live
Even OC residents get `sticker shock'
February 8, 1988
Byline: Erin Kelly
The Register
The Orange County Register
Steve and Carine Nadel and their two children went house-hunting Sunday and discovered that the best bargain in Orange County might be the home they already own. As they walked through the models at The Irvine Co.'s Trailwood development in east Orange, the Nadels began to wonder why they were there.
Three years ago, the couple bought a four-bedroom house in Westminster for $139,000. On Sunday, they were looking at four-bedroom tract homes with smaller rooms that cost nearly
OC home prices rise 13% in '87
Fast job growth causing local housing shortage
February 11, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
A growing shortage of homes and an expanding work force combined to boost Orange County home prices an estimated 13 percent in 1987, the largest increase in California. The gain, to a median $166,948, came on an estimated 15.5 percent increase in the number of homes sold, the California Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.
A lack of homes available for sale was the biggest reason for the double-digit price gain.
Buyout boom seen among homebuilders
February 13, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The recent purchases of builders J.M. Peters Co. and Presley of Southern California are strong indications that another round of acquisitions is on the horizon in Orange County's $2 billion homebuilding industry, analysts said Friday. Leading the charge is the builders' desire for land.
"There is a major scramble among homebuilders to acquire positions in developable land," said Ken Agid, president of The Marketing Department, an Irvine
Some Marblehead homes approved, others denied
Clemente council gives nod to plans for 188 more units
March 10, 1988
Byline: Toni Mazzacane
The Register
The Orange County Register
The Lusk Co. last week took one step forward and one step back in its efforts to gain city approval for its Marblehead Inland housing project. Although the City Council unanimously approved the design for 188 single-family homes, plans for an additional 233 were denied by a 2-3 vote.
The Marblehead Inland project is proposed for a 762-acre site in the foothills north of the San Diego (I-5) Freeway and Avenida Pico.
Saddleback slow-growth fight brews
Realtors say initiative will raise housing costs
March 24, 1988
Byline: Judith Schroer
The Register
The Orange County Register
Some Saddleback Valley business people are trying to talk their neighbors into voting against growth controls in June. Members of the Saddleback Valley Board of Realtors and the Saddleback Regional Chamber of Commerce have united with area homeowners to spread the word of their position against the Citizens' Sensible Growth and Traffic Control Initiative.
Outlook good for new homes in Cypress
April 7, 1988
Byline: Hind Baki
The Register
The Orange County Register
When 66 new houses in a tract at Orange Avenue and Denni Street went up for sale last year for about $250,000 each, they were sold almost immediately.
Dorothea Byrnes, office manager for ERA Real Estate in Cypress, predicts the same response in 5 years when about 700 homes that Cypress Homes Inc. hopes to build on 144 acres formerly known as the Texaco tank farm are scheduled to be completed.
Although the $200,000 to $375,000 homes are above the median price in Orange County, Realtors
The OC housing market: It was bolstered by crash, not brought down
April 17, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Joel Pierce was driving home from work Oct. 19 when he heard on the radio that the Dow Jones industrial average had plummeted 508 points. "My immediate reaction was how it affected my personal assets, my mutual funds and stock," says Pierce, a senior pricing analyst for a local defense contractor.
It wasn't until the next day that he started thinking about whether the crash would affect his purchase of a $120,000 condominium in Anaheim.
OC home prices go up again
Buying surge pushes median to $193,563
April 22, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The median price of an Orange County home soared to a record $193,563 in March as lower mortgage rates and fears of escalating prices -- prompted in part by the upcoming slow-growth
initiative -- sparked a surge in home buying.
The figure is the highest in county history, the highest in the state, and probably the highest in the nation, the California Association of Realtors reported Thursday.
And it's only an indication of things to come, experts say.
Owners seek to change Stanton co-ops to condos
Status makes it difficult to sell or refinance units
May 5, 1988
Byline: Kathryn Montgomery
The Register
The Orange County Register
Elementary-school teacher Richard St. Laurent said he practically tried to give his co-op apartment away -- the buyer could have it without putting any money down by assuming the balance of his loan, which was $38,000, and paying the second-trust deed, $5,000 more.
He had no takers.
"You can't sell them, you can't refinance them," said St. Laurent, who purchased a unit at the Rancho Westwood Village co-op complex in 1979.
BCE to sell 4,400 acres of residential property
May 7, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
BCE Development Inc., attempting to conclude a three-year divestiture plan, has put more than 4,400 acres of residential property in five states up for sale for $350 million. The company also is considering selling its 75 percent stake in Newport Beach-based Rielly Homes, which was formed in 1986 to take advantage of Southern California's strong housing market.
Median OC home price hits $198,031
May 25, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The median price of an existing Orange County home neared $200,000 in April as concerns about escalating prices pushed sales to a third consecutive monthly record. The median home resale price in the county -- the price at which half sell for
more and half sell for less -- jumped 18.1 percent, to $198,031 in April, as sales climbed 3.4 percent from a year ago, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday. The jump solidifies Orange County's status as the most
Housing: Builders pass fees on to buyers
May 29, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Laer and Beth Pearce last week moved into their new home, a $250,000, five-bedroom, three-bathroom house in El Toro. Like thousands of Orange County homebuyers, they moved up from a smaller house to accommodate a growing family and a growing income.
"We'd been in our other home for about eight years and were looking for something bigger," said Pearce, an El Toro public-relations executive.
But the Pearces are paying for more than the lumber and
Founder buys all of Rielly Homes
Canadian firm sells 75% stake; Peters plays role
June 8, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
BCE Development Inc. has sold its 75 percent stake in Newport Beach homebuilder Rielly Homes to President Thomas J. Rielly and the J.M. Peters Co., the company announced Tuesday. Terms weren't disclosed, but a source said Peters was a passive investor, supplying Rielly with a $5 million, short-term note to help him complete the deal.
Rielly, with the financial backing of BCE Development, founded the company in late 1986 to take advantage of the booming Southern California
Real estate boom seen as more stable than last one
June 16, 1988
Byline: Allan Pilger
The Register
The Orange County Register
Less than a decade ago, California and the Saddleback Valley were caught up in a real-estate explosion, with runaway prices and relentless demand. Houses often were sold in as little as a day at the listed price. It seemed like just about everyone was buying or selling a home or working in the real estate industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In many ways, market conditions were similar to those of today -- a wave of high demand and rapid price increases.
Homebuyers caught in gap between OC prices, appraisals
July 11, 1988
Byline: Kim-Van Dang
The Register
The Orange County Register
Real estate in Orange County is so hot right now that some lenders are afraid of getting burned. Rapidly rising prices have not slowed eager buyers, who are willing to pay whatever price sellers ask and sometimes more. But those home sales increasingly fall into jeopardy as real-estate appraisals in California's booming markets fail to keep pace with prices.
More and more appraisals are falling short of the sales price, and it is these appraisals -- not the price – that
Build-out nears in Huntington
Land-use balance concerns officials
July 14, 1988
Byline: Ann Pepper
The Register
The Orange County Register
The breezes that roll inland from across the luminous green sea these July days refresh the army of carpenters pounding nails along Pacific Coast Highway. Their bustle at the condominium and apartment projects under way downtown belies the fact that the city has but 500 acres on which to put housing.
Five percent remains of the 11,500 acres that weredesignated residential in the General Plan adopted by the city in the early 1980s. But the demand for housing has not diminished .
A distorted housing market
July 18, 1988
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Economist Ludwig von Mises was fond of pointing out that when government intervenes into the orderly functioning of the marketplace, it creates problems and complications that often become the justification for future interventions that create new frustrations and inefficiencies -- a vicious cycle of control and eventual stagnation. The process can be seen in the affordable housing program run intermittently by the California Coastal Commission. In 1977, one of the hottest new housing markets
OC home sales soar 25%, fueled by buyers' fears
July 26, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County homebuyers, fearful of slow growth and rising interest rates, pushed home sales in June to the highest level in a year. Sales of existing houses in Orange County soared 25 percent to 1,536 in June from the preceding month, and rose 19 percent from June 1987, the California Association of Realtors reported Monday.
Those buyers were biting on prices that were bigger than ever: The median resale home price in June rose 4 percent from May to an estimated $211,038.
Affordable: Economic forces behind rising costs
July 31, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
For Kay Kocour, the drawbacks finally have outweighed the benefits. Like thousands of others, Kocour and her family moved to Orange County in the late 1970s for the promise of greater opportunity and the chance to enjoy the Southern California lifestyle.
But now, the 43-year-old divorced mother of two children plans to leave California, in part to use a teaching credential she earned in Illinois again.
Her main motive for leaving, however, is the cost of housing.
Whose home price is right?
August 3, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Quick, the typical home in Orange County in June sold for: a) $198,980.
b) $211,038.
c) Neither.
d) Both.
The correct answer is "d," both. And therein lies the confusion.
The figures were released by California Association of Realtors and TRW Real Estate Market Information last month, and both were reported as representative of the typical sales price of an Orange County home.
Need to buy is linked to fear of being left behind
August 7, 1988
Byline: Robin Pierson
The Register
The Orange County Register
When an item becomes rare, some people are willing to buy it -- at any price. Houses in Orange County are no exception. "If you let people know something is in short supply, they want it more," said Chaytor Mason, an associate professor of group psychology at the University of Southern California. They may not even have wanted it before they learned that other people did, he said.
"People aren't too original or too daring to try something new
FEEDING FRENZY: BUYERS, SELLERS, SCRAMBLE FOR SHARE OF OC'S WILD REAL ESTATE MARKET
August 7, 1988
Byline: Robin Pierson
The Register
The Orange County Register
Fear, the scent of quick money, pressure and a pack mentality have plunged the players in Orange County's frantic home real estate market into a buying and selling frenzy. Buyers are standing in line for the chance to make full-price offers -- and more -- on homes minutes after they enter the portals.
Builders, who have dangled a few dozen homes before hundreds of interested buyers, have been confronted with near-riot situations.
FEEDING FRENZY: BUYERS, SELLERS, SCRAMBLE FOR SHARE OF OC'S WILD REAL ESTATE MARKET
August 7, 1988
Byline: Robin Pierson
The Register
The Orange County Register
Fear, the scent of quick money, pressure and a pack mentality have plunged the players in Orange County's frantic home real estate market into a buying and selling frenzy. Buyers are standing in line for the chance to make full-price offers -- and more -- on homes minutes after they enter the portals.
Builders, who have dangled a few dozen homes before hundreds of interested buyers, have been confronted with near-riot situations.
Mortgage rates in OC rise sharply
React quickly to higher prime, discount rates
August 15, 1988
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Register
The Orange County Register
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose strongly at local institutions in quick reaction to last week's increase in the discount and prime rates. The average fixed-rate mortgage rate at 25 institutions polled weekly by the Register was 10.80 percent on Friday, up from 10.57 percent the previous week. Of the 23 institutions offering fixed-rate mortgages, only one lowered its rate and one stayed the same.
The higher rates put an additional crimp on already strapped homebuyers
Median OC home $219,542 in July
August 25, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County home costs continued their uphill march in July, as the median resale price rose 28.1 percent from a year ago to a record $219,542, the California Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The price gain came despite a 22 percent increase in sales activity from a year earlier, which the group said defied "conventional explanations."
July's median price was the sixth consecutive monthly record and the 14th time in the last 15 months that
OC home affordability hits record low
September 1, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The ability of the typical Orange County family to afford the median-priced resale home hit a record low in July. Only an estimated 18 percent of the county's 800,000 households earned the minimum $68,250 annually needed to afford a $219,542 house with a conventional fixed mortgage, the California Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.
But the record low rate has failed to stymie sales, which are running at or near record levels this summer as buyers continue to use equity
The government's price
September 2, 1988
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
It's getting so the only people in Orange County who can afford a new house are government bureaucrats or cocaine traffickers. Seriously, the California Association of Realtors reported this week that only 18 percent of county families can afford to buy an average-priced house here on a conventional fixed mortgage. That house would cost $219,542, and your family would have to make $68,250 annually to afford it. Of course, not all houses cost that much. If you make less you can still
Home prices continue to skyrocket
September 13, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's housing market confounded the experts by getting even hotter in August, as the average price of a house rose 4.4 percent in the month to $211,074. The gain over the previous 12 months was a sky-high 31.1 percent, compared with 12-month increases of 27.1 percent in July and 19.1 percent in June, TRW Real Estate Market Information reported Monday.
Countians go north, find home bargains
September 19, 1988
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Joanne and Anthony Burt are refugees from Orange County's slow-growth movement. Convinced that county officials were mocking their efforts to preserve a few acres of Laguna Niguel wetlands, they sold their town house in the Foothill Patio Homes subdivision and moved in May to a house on 51/2 acres in Hillside County, Ore., near the California border.
Thus the Burts are becoming part of the latest wave in a decade-long migration of Southern Californians who would rather flee
OC home price gains beat state's
September 23, 1988
Byline: Judith I. Brennan
The Register
The Orange County Register
California's red-hot housing market showed signs of cooling in August. But not in Orange County. Already the state's most expensive region for housing, Orange County's torrid rate of appreciation continued last month as the median-priced home rose 32.1 percent from a year ago, to $224,828, the California Association of Realtors said Thursday.
The increase, a 2.4 percent gain over July's $219,542 figure, marked the seventh consecutive month
Families camp out to buy homes in Laguna Hills
September 29, 1988
Byline: Harrison Fletcher
The Register
The Orange County Register
He has been shoved, herded into 100-yard lines for five
hours and planted in front of real-estate offices overnight in a tent. Pete Kalin said that's what it takes to buy a new home in south county.
"They're either all sold out or there are only 10 to 15 new homes available," he said. "There are not enough to go around and people become insane. I'm shocked."
OC home prices up 24% from year ago
October 12, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The new school year usually marks the end of the peak homebuying season, but 1988 has been an unusual year, and Orange County an unusual place. The average county home price in September reached a record $216,162, a 23.7 percent increase from a year ago, TRW Real Estate Market Information reported Tuesday.
The price gain came despite a 13.7 percent increase in the number of homes and condominiums sold during the month, to 5,437.
Japanese homebuyer: `Charge it'
Grubb & Ellis, Citibank offering credit cards for real estate
October 15, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
When the Japanese began buying landmark US office buildings, cynics joked that it wouldn't be long before they were snapping up homes and paying for them with credit cards. Well, that day has arrived.
Grubb & Ellis Co. and Citicorp Credit Inc. have teamed up to sell California and Hawaii homes in a Tokyo department store, where they offer wealthy Japanese a pre-approved credit line to "charge" the home of their choice.
OC home prices decline 3.4%
Fall in average price to $208,796 attributed to seasonal slowdown
November 8, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
The Orange County housing market ended a six-month winning streak with a thud in October. The price of the average county home fell 3.4 percent from September's price, to $208,796, according to figures released Monday by TRW Real Estate Market Information. However, that price was still 18 percent ahead of October 1987.
Countywide home sales, which have totaled more than 5,000 each month since February, fell 8.2 percent from September, to 4,988.
Real estate agents attributed
OC housing costs No. 1 again in US
November 11, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Led by Orange County, home resale prices on the West Coast rose at the fastest rate in the nation in the third quarter as prices in the once-hot Eastern markets cooled considerably, a real estate group reported Thursday. For the second consecutive quarter, Orange County was the most expensive resale housing market in both the state and nation with a median price of $226,225, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Fixed-mortgage rates expected to increase
November 15, 1988
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Fixed mortgage interest rates will ratchet up to 11.5 or 12 percent -- a critical threshold for the Orange County home sales market -- by June as federal regulators keep a strong hand on the
nation's money supply, two real estate industry economists predicted Monday.
Median home-resale price in OC falls to $226,792, third highest in the state
November 22, 1988
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Register
The Orange County Register
Fame can be so fleeting. After spending the better part of a year in the spotlight as California's most expensive housing market, Orange County plummeted to third place in October.
Prices of resale homes fell an estimated 3.5 percent from September, to a median $226,792, as the number of sales fell for the third time in four months, the California Association of Realtors reported Monday.
Ventura claimed top honors with a median price of $230,312.
Growth problems could cost OC jobs
Business consultant testifies at hearing called by Bergeson
December 14, 1988
Byline: Marc Lifsher
The Register
The Orange County Register
Two of Orange County's largest employers are considering leaving the state unless government moves quickly to improve transportation, provide affordable housing and upgrade the business climate, a Newport Beach business consultant warned Tuesday. "Just last week I attended a meeting of CEOs from major Orange County employers in which the cost of housing, traffic congestion and the cost of complying with Proposition 65 and new air-quality regulations were major topics of
WHAT THE SEERS DIVINE FOR '89
Frankly, it doesn't look good, so be ready to pay up
December 27, 1988
Byline: Robin Pierson
The Register
The Orange County Register
According to local astrologers, 1989 will be the year the bubble pops.
"There's this huge hype going on out there that everything is going great," Newport Beach astrologist James Baker said. "But our foundations are built on quicksand. And in 1989, those foundations will be tested." The Orange County stargazers are making varying -- sometimes contradictory --
predictions on everything from earthquakes to fashion to the Orange
Development continues: Condos, corporate tenants arrive
December 29, 1988
Byline: Laura-Lynne Powell
The Register
The Orange County Register
From condominium complexes being built along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach to the arrival of corporate tenants in Fountain Valley, 1988 saw change and growth in west Orange County cities. Fountain Valley Progress has been steady in creating what city officials hope will be a healthy business and residential mix in the bedroom community.
Development of the city's largest undeveloped piece of land is closer as two major tenants have been confirmed for the Southpark
Home builders expect a profitable '89
Prices will rise moderately, they say; first-timers can forget buying new
January 11, 1989
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Noted developer George Argyros offers some bad news for home-buying hopefuls looking for a new home in the county.
"New housing will never again be affordable for the first-time homebuyer in Orange County," Argyros said flatly after a Building Industry Association meeting Monday. Still, Argyros, now a homebuilder as well as a commercial and industrial developer, was among those predicting another booming year for the supply side of the housing market at the
Median home price jumps 2.8% in December
January 25, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
The median resale price for a single-family home in Orange County continued to appreciate at a rapid clip in December, gaining 2.8 percent in value over the previous month, the California Association of Realtors reported.
Orange County's median home-resale price of $237,114 was second highest among major regions in the state, the association said. Santa Barbara was on top with a $246,249 median price. The Orange County figure was up from $230,701 in November and $179,651 in
Dream houses
February 7, 1989
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
It is not terribly significant that 35,000 fewer houses were built in Orange County than the "quota" set by a committee of self-styled experts from the Southern California Association of Governments under a law passed by the state Legislature in 1980. To expect anyone, particularly government employees with no responsibility for anything resembling a bottom line, to forecast what's going to be "needed" throughout Southern California
Coldwell Banker's boss
New chairman Chandler Barton to slow down growth
February 8, 1989
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Chandler B. Barton moved into the chairman's seat at Coldwell Banker Residential Group in January, just in time to put the brakes on an expansion spree that had bumped the company from 245 offices in 1981 to 2,100 in 1989.
For the next couple of years, Coldwell Banker will digest its growth, says Barton, ending an aggressive franchising and acquisition program that had made the residential sales firm one of the largest in the nation. It is a calculated, planned slowdown, Barton
OC home fever cools
Higher rates, less speculating steady prices
February 15, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Last July, police were called to quell an uprising of 100 homebuyers outside J.M. Peters' Almeria project in the Tustin Ranch development. The buyers, who had camped out for more than a week for a chance to purchase one of the $400,000 homes, became hostile when Peters representatives refused to accept any of six different priority lists compiled by the buyer factions. The police eventually dispersed the crowd.
Those frustratin', debt-makin', first-time homebuyer blues
February 19, 1989
Byline: Martin J. Smith
The Register
The Orange County Register
For a 22-year-old trying to borrow $103,500, Daryle Moore Jr. was remarkably confident. "It seems like so little money now," he said as he steered his truck from his Stanton apartment toward a savings and loan branch in Buena Park.
He had reason to be optimistic. After months of searching, the owner of a two-bedroom Garden Grove condominium had accepted Moore's $115,000 bid to purchase the unit. In addition, a loan officer told him months earlier that,
The housing gamble
Are loans too easy to obtain?
February 19, 1989
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Register
The Orange County Register
William Steiskal is all too familiar with the risks of adjustable-rate mortgages.
The equity his parents had built through selling and trading up homes in the 1970s was wiped out when interest rates surged in the early 1980s. His parents' mortgage, unfortunately, had none of the consumer protections available today. They lost their home when they were unable to keep up with rapidly escalating mortgage payments. Nevertheless, when Steiskal and his wife, Catherine, went to buy
South county home resales speed up in 1988
March 1, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Homes in south Orange County sold faster and at higher prices last year than in 1987, an annual survey by Grubb & Ellis Residential Brokerage Services shows.
San Juan Capistrano reported the highest appreciation on resale homes from 1987 to 1988 -- 130.5 percent, to an average sales price of $409,316 -- while Newport Beach reported one of the lowest figures -- 2.8 percent, to $560,000. Part of the surge in some areas was because expensive homes sold during the year.
Unaffordable Irvine
March 3, 1989
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
There's no question that affordable housing is a problem in Irvine, perhaps more so than in the rest of Orange County. That may not be the end of the world -- lots of young couples have to scrimp and save and get by until they build up a nest egg. But it is troubling, and part of a larger problem. A dearth of reasonably-priced homes near employment centers aggravates traffic problems, which in turn increases pollution.
Sales of new, used homes tumble
But home prices continue higher
March 8, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Sales of new and used homes in Orange County dropped dramatically in February, although home prices continued to surge. According to a TRW Real Estate Market Information Services report released Tuesday, 3,146 homes were sold countywide last month. That is down 6.4 percent from January and 20.4 percent from February 1988. Sales of new homes plunged from 916 in February last year to 593 last month, the report said.
The average home price in Orange County, meanwhile, rose to $224,057
Home-loan rates rising
March 18, 1989
The Orange County Register
Fixed-rate home mortgages rose in the past week to their highest level since October 1987, and adjustable-rate mortgages are at their highest point in more than three years, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. reported Friday in its weekly national survey. The Federal Reserve for a year has been nudging up bank rates in an effort to restrain economic growth, and that has spilled into the mortgage market.
Analysts are forecasting a downturn in the housing market this year as higher interest
Film student casts self as successful developer
James Righeimer heads own firm in Fountain Valley
April 13, 1989
Byline: Rhoda Fukushima
The Register
The Orange County Register
To pay his way through film school, James Righeimer became a real-estate broker at age 19. He never went back to school.
Fourteen years later, Righeimer is president of The Righeimer Group, a Fountain Valley-based development company that specializes in single-family homes and apartment projects. The company has three full-time employees.
"I'm in this for a business," he said. "It isn't that fun."
First-time homebuyer's perseverance pays
April 24, 1989
Byline: Martin J. Smith
The Register
The Orange County Register
An occasional series updating people and events described in past Accent sections. At one point several weeks ago, Daryle Moore was ready to return the six gallons of flat, white wall paint, two gallons of semi-gloss, brushes, rollers and paint pans he had bought.
His deal to buy a two-bedroom, $115,000 Garden Grove condominium had fallen through a week before escrow was to close. The 22-year-old, whose quest to buy his first home was detailed in the Register on Feb. 19, was -- like so many
Interest rates slow OC home sales 19%
May 11, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County dropped more than 19 percent last month compared with March -- a result of higher interest rates and buyer apprehension, analysts said Wednesday.
The average price of a house shot up 5.8 percent in the month, to $238,353, according to TRW Real Estate Market Information Services. But TRW believes that figure is more of a mathematical blip than an indication that home prices are soaring.
The sales slowdown is hitting the low end of the market harder, said John
The Inland Empire
Finding room to move
Once-sleepy areas wake to building boom times
May 14, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
A year ago, Lynn and Peter Horton fled the high home prices of coastal California to set up housekeeping in the Inland Empire, buying a two-bedroom home in Rancho California for $112,900. Now they're moving to a bigger house, also in Rancho California, and have put theirs up for sale -- for $150,000.
"Or $160,000, it depends on the market," Lynn Horton said. "Of course, we added about $10,000 worth of landscaping. But everything in the Inland
Who built OC's housing market?
May 21, 1989
Byline: Ray Watson
The Orange County Register
A riddle for our time: Who is to blame for the high price of housing -- the land developer, the homebuilder, the homeowner, or local government? Economists say the market establishes the price, meaning that it depends on the balance, or lack thereof, between supply and demand. For the rest of us, that's a fancy way of saying that when there are more sellers than buyers, home prices go down; and if there are more buyers than sellers, home prices rise.
OC home resales decline in April
Higher prices, interest rates blamed
May 25, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Higher prices and rising interest rates slowed home resales in Orange County and throughout the state in April, the California Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. Sales in Orange County dropped 26 percent from March and 22.7 percent from April 1988, the trade group said.
The median resale price in the county reached $243,485 last month, up 2 percent from March and 24.7 percent from a year earlier. For California as a whole, the median price broke through $200,000 for the first time,
Market for condos heats up
They've become an alternative to high prices
June 14, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Cindy Collins spent more than three months looking for a single-family home in Orange County that she could afford, scouring neighborhoods in Huntington Beach, Fullerton, and Costa Mesa. "Most of the homes I looked at were really expensive -- most over $200,000, unless you wanted to live in a bad part of town," she said. "I didn't."
Shut out of the single-family housing market, Collins paid about $150,000 for a three-bedroom,
Home prices rose slower in 1st half of the year
July 13, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Single-family homes in Orange County, whose value grew an average of 22.4 percent during the first half of 1988, appreciated only 5.3 percent through June of this year. In addition, sales of single-family residences have fallen 24 percent during the first half of the year, TRW Real Estate Information Services reported Wednesday.
The results show what analysts have said all year: The Orange County housing market has stalled, and just as the home-buying season begins.
Building permits
July 16, 1989
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
Building permits
The value of residential building permits issued in Orange County during the first five months of 1989 is down from the same period last year -- $249 million in 1989,compared with $294 million in '88. Recent statistics have indicated that Orange County's torrid housing market is slowing, partly due to higher mortgage rates during the first part of the year
Rates stay high for larger mortgages
Borrowers pay less for under $187,600
July 20, 1989
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Register
The Orange County Register
Interest rates on mortgages over $187,600 are not falling as rapidly as rates on smaller loans -- another factor dampening Orange County's housing market. "Jumbo" mortgages, as lenders call them, are becoming a bigger part of the local real estate market as home prices continue to climb. In June, the average price for a home sold in the county was $231,303.
With a 20 percent down payment, the mortgage on that average home would be just $2,600 under the
OC residents are cashing in their homes to finance their dreams in San Luis Obispo County
July 23, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
John Coleman surveys his 3,700-square-foot house on five acres in Atascadero, 260 miles from Orange County, and smiles.
It has a master suite larger than many Orange County apartments. The bathroom seems right out of the pages of Architectural Digest. Near the custom swimming pool and spa, Coleman and his wife, Judith, are planning to erect a $50,000 barn. Coleman, a former Newport Beach resident, is beaming because the price -- $300,000 -- is peanuts by Orange County standards.
Home sales slump deepens
Higher prices, rates turn off buyers in OC
August 16, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
The slump in the Orange County housing market worsened in July, as high prices forced more buyers to the Inland Empire. Sales of single-family homes last month, normally the peak of the home-buying season, were off 17.1 percent from June and 37 percent from July 1988, according to a report Tuesday from TRW Real Estate Information Services.
The average sales price continued to climb, reaching $252,987, TRW said. That is up 1.8 percent from June and 18.1 percent from July 1988.
Sales of homes lag in south county
Average prices drop in five communities
August 23, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Homes in south Orange County sold much more slowly in the first half of this year than in the second half of 1988 -- and in some cases for less money, according to a survey by Grubb & Ellis Residential Brokerage Services. The average number of days a resale home or condo sat on the market increased in 11 of the 14 communities surveyed, and the average sales price dropped in five of them, the Irvine-based brokerage found.
This has changed the home-buying atmosphere.
J.M. Peters revenue off 34%
September 9, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
J.M. Peters Co., one of Southern California's 10 largest homebuilders, Friday reported a 34 percent decline in second-quarter revenue, a reflection of the sagging housing market in Orange County.
Peters said Friday that revenue from housing sales for the three months ending Aug. 31 totaled $56.6 million, compared with $86.1 million a year earlier. Earnings for the quarter fell 52 percent to $3.5 million.
Peters said the number of homes it closed during the three-month
Cautious outlook for OC
Local businesses believe economic trouble might be near
September 10, 1989
Byline: Kathleen Murray
The Register
The Orange County Register
There's a scene in "Batman" where heroine Kim Basinger is face to face with Joker's henchmen on a gloomy Gotham street. In a flash, Batman sweeps her up a "Batrope," and hundreds of feet out of reach. Out of immediate danger, but she's still left hanging.
The same thing might be said about how local businessmen feel about the economy. Earlier this year, as interest rates rose, businesses in Orange County and
OC home sales rise as prices hold steady
But resales still lag 1988 figures
September 27, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's residential resale market spurted ahead in August, while prices held steady, a trade association reported Tuesday. Resales of detached homes in the county climbed 14.6 percent from July to August, according to a survey by the California Association of Realtors. But resales continued to trail the pace of 1988, with August's figure 23.1 percent below August 1988.
OC home sales drop 23% in year
October 13, 1989
Byline: Kathleen Murray
The Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County remained sluggish in September, as lower prices continued to lure buyers to the Inland Empire. The number of single-family homes sold in the county last month was 4,095, a 23 percent drop from a year earlier, TRW Real Estate Information Services reported Thursday.
Meanwhile, the average price for a single family bungalow continued its climb, reaching a record $261,097, according to TRW, which tracks sales of new and resale homes on a monthly basis.
Home-buying craze slows to a crawl
OC market faces high prices, slow resales, fewer takers
October 18, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Gene and Mo Sutton spent last weekend traipsing through nearly a dozen Orange County residential developments looking to buy a new home.
The supply was plentiful, the Suttons found, but they felt prices weren't realistic. They are still looking.
"One sales agent told us their homes were selling fast, and that they were having a lottery because they didn't want people camping out," recalled Gene Sutton with a laugh.
The boom years are over in OC
Slower economic growth forecast
October 19, 1989
Byline: Juanita Darling
The Register
The Orange County Register
Don't sign those escrow papers just yet.
Orange County's boom is over and a slower economy will require different financial decisions, said Jerry Jordan, chief economist at First Interstate Bancorp. Jordan offered those words of caution as he discussed First Interstate's annual economic forecast for the county, state, nation and world.
"Orange County has grown so fast for so long that slowing down is not going to be as
OC home sales fall again: 27.2 percent in October
November 11, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County continued their downward spiral in October, falling 27.2 percent from a year earlier, TRW Real Estate Information Services said Friday. The average price for houses and condominiums sold in the county in October was $260,180, off 0.4 percent from September at $260,180 but up 19 percent from a year ago.
The Orange County housing market has cooled markedly throughout 1989 compared with the feverish pace of 1988.
NOTEBOOK
November 22, 1989
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Region's housing fever begins to cool
When housing fever hit Orange County last year, it wasn't long before the excitement spread inland to Riverside County and beyond. So, as OC's once-sizzling housing market cools, it may not be surprising that Riveside's residential activity -- particularly new homes -- should take a turn downward, too.
Sales, profits fall at J.M. Peters Co.
December 9, 1989
Byline: The Register
The Orange County Register
J.M. Peters Co., a Newport Beach home builder, suffered a second consecutive quarter of sharply lower revenue and earnings as the housing market continued to soften compared with a year earlier. In the quarter ended Nov. 30, Peters earned $5.7 million, off 33 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $70.4 million, off 20 percent. On Nov. 30 it had a backlog of 452 houses valued at $197.4 million, compared with 372 houses valued at $145.9 million a year earlier.
Doti: OC's population to decline
Too-costly housing keeps workers away
January 9, 1990
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County real estate is too rich for its own good. Sky-high prices for new homes -- 130 percent higher than the rest of the nation -- means people are turning away to find jobs and housing elsewhere, according to one of Orange County's most prominent forecasters.
In 1990, the county will lose 11,668 residents, the first time the area has failed to gain population since the 1950s, according to projections by Dr. James Doti, professor of economics at Chapman College.
Despite slowdown, experts see strength in OC market
January 24, 1990
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Register
The Orange County Register
Scot Stolberg and his wife are keeping the faith in Orange County real estate. They believe. Oh, boy, do they believe. Two-and-a-half years after their parents lent them the down payment for a $127,000 Costa Mesa condominium, they sold the home in December for $182,000.
True, it took them four months to sell their condo. Sure, one deal fell out of escrow. And, yes, they had to drop the price about 7 percent.
IRA withdrawal won't help many OC homebuyers
January 30, 1990
Byline: Ricardo Sandoval
The Register
The Orange County Register
President Bush's budget proposal to allow limited early withdrawals from Individual Retirement Accounts is expected to have a significant effect on savings and on housing markets throughout most of the country. Southern California, with its sky-high housing prices, is a notable exception.
The proposal -- which would allow individuals to take out up to $10,000 from IRA accounts without penalty if the money is used only as a down payment on a first home -- is not enough to help
Newport home costs rise fastest
Study says high-price housing going strong
February 16, 1990
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Newport Beach enjoyed the fastest-rising home prices in the county for the 12 months ended in January, confirming what real estate agents have maintained: the top end of the housing market continues to prosper. Villa Park, which reported the highest median home price -- $620,000 -- also did well in the appreciation race, according to a report from Dataquick Information Systems of La Jolla, a research company that monitors all real estate transactions in the state.
Peters may buy back firm
Founder considers leaving builder
March 2, 1990
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
James M. Peters, who built the J.M. Peters Co. into one of Southern California's 10 largest homebuilders before selling it five years ago, is considering buying the company back -- or leaving it. In a statement issued Thursday, J.M. Peters said its founder was among several parties who had approached parent company San Jacinto Savings Association about buying the homebuilder.
It also said Peters was negotiating a possible departure; his employment contract allows him to leave
Success at home: - Luck, savvy help some break into market
March 11, 1990
Byline: Ronald Campbell
The Register
The Orange County Register
Despite the high cost of buying a house in Orange County, thousands of middle-income buyers manage the feat every year.
The numbers seem daunting. The California Association of Realtors estimates that just 15 percent of the county's households could afford the median-priced, $245,262 resale home in 1989. But in fact, the pool of potential buyers for the 33,000 homes sold last year was considerably larger.
MOVING OUT OF REACH
Prices spoil dream to own home in OC
March 11, 1990
Byline: Ronald Campbell
The Register
The Orange County Register
Home for Dee Landreth is a 650-square-foot, one-bedroom condominium, tucked behind a sewage-treatment plant in Dana Point.
She bought it six years ago for $78,000. She cannot afford a larger place, she said. She can barely afford to stay there -- not with a $902-a-month house payment that will continue past her 75th birthday. "If I was unable to work and missed two paychecks," she said, "I'd be out of here."
In Irvine, jobs might equal homes
City considers fee to pay for affordable housing
March 28, 1990
Byline: Susan Kelleher
The Register
The Orange County Register
Developers who provide places for people to work might be required to help provide them with places to live also, under a proposal being considered by the City Council. Commercial and industrial developers, which have had no responsibility for meeting the housing needs of the city's work force, might be forced to contribute money to a trust fund that will be used to build affordable housing.
Sluggish market slows sale of J.M. Peters
April 5, 1990
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
When J.M. Peters, one of Southern California's Top 10 home builders, was put up for sale last August, most observers predicted a premier -- and fast -- deal. Peters had an excellent reputation, delivered a good product and was extremely profitable. Its stock shot up 21 percent, to $14, in the week before owner San Jacinto Savings put it on the block, and analysts talked of a sale price as high as $18 a share, or $250 million.
Eight months later, the stock's price
Higher gas tax vital, governor tells builders
April 6, 1990
Byline: Ronald Campbell
The Register
The Orange County Register
Gov. George Deukmejian told builders Thursday that voter approval of a 9-cent gas tax boost is vital to keeping the state's economy vibrant. The builders, meanwhile, wondered aloud what went wrong with their portion of that economy. Lackluster home sales and bulging inventories provided fodder for seminars at the Orange County Building Industry Association's real estate conference at the Anaheim Hilton.
South county home sales could buck trends
April 12, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Register
The Orange County Register
Call them optimists.
Builders of three south county housing projects say their upscale developments, all slated for occupancy later this year, will buck trends and sell quickly.
If they're right, they'll be beating some signs that point to a housing market that is slowing down. Consider:
After three months of 1990, more than 2,900 Orange County houses stood empty for want of buyers. About 60 percent of those are detached, single-family houses, according to a
Uptime in a down market
Aggressiveness, hard work pay off for 3 supersellers
April 18, 1990
Byline: Mike Sheridan
The Register
The Orange County Register
Five times a week, real estate agent Debbie DeGrote knocks on doors throughout La Palma to introduce herself. "I think I know the people there better than I do in my own neighborhood," joked the 29-year-old saleswoman for Century 21 Inland Pacific Realtors in La Palma. "Knocking on doors is something you're told to do when you're starting out in real estate. But I still do it, and I've been in the business 12 years.
OC home prices down from '89
May 19, 1990
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Weakness in the Orange County housing market continued in April, as the average home-sale price fell 1.7 percent from year-ago levels, TRW Real Estate Information Services reported Friday. The average price of new and used single-family homes and condominiums was $250,081 in April compared with $254,556 in April 1989. April's average price was up 3.7 percent from the previous month.
Sales volume for the month was up 6.2 percent from April 1989 but off 10 percent from March.
S&L that owns J.M. Peters says thrift insolvent
US regulators may take over failing thrift
May 23, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Homebuilder J.M. Peters Inc. moved a step closer to becoming government property Monday when its thrift parent announced that it was insolvent.
San Jacinto Savings Association, a Texas thrift that has owned 86 percent of J.M. Peters' stock since 1985, reported a loss of $67.2 million for the third quarter ended March 31. The loss dropped total shareholder equity in San Jacinto to negative $50.8 million, meaning that the thrift has run out of money to protect itself against
Homebuyers' pickle: Get in now or wait?
June 8, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Mortgage rates have dropped half a percentage point during the last month, but opinions are mixed on whether homebuyers should take the plunge now or hold out for even lower rates. Since early May, the average interest rate offered by Orange County lenders for a 30-year, fixed-rate home loan of less than $184,000 has dipped from about 10.75 percent to slightly less than 10.25 percent, according to Mortgage News Co. of Santa Ana.
Homebuyers getting 'em while they're hot
June 9, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
About 80 wanna-be homebuyers slept on the street last weekend, but it wasn't a 1980s-style camp-out for high-priced homes. These 1990 campers wanted condos -- especially a precious few priced under $100,000.
More than 250 shoppers visited the La Ventana project in the community's new golf-course neighborhood, hoping for a shot at 246 homes. Today, the first 138 shoppers are expected to return -- to drop off credit reports and cross their fingers.
Sweetening the bait for home shoppers
June 9, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
A free hot dog won't sell a house. But a free gourmet dinner, serenaded by members of the Pacific Symphony? That, at the very least, could put a home shopper in a buying mood, say marketing experts trying to promote new residential projects in Orange County.
In recent months, while most segments of the county's housing market have stagnated, home builders and their ad agencies have turned garden-variety grand openings -- the day when builders open their model homes
US puts 13 properties up for sale
June 19, 1990
Byline: Ricardo Sandoval
The Orange County Register
The former headquarters of two savings and loans lead the list of 13 Orange County properties put up for sale by the US government in its effort to unload real estate once owned by failed thrifts. But if you're looking to get your hands on the list of the 38,000 properties for sale nationwide, you'll have to wait until July 5, when agency officials will make it available to the public.
A call for campers even with a buyer's market
June 23, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Even in a housing market that has turned in the buyer's favor, home-buyer campouts continue. Homes priced under $250,000 and condominiums under $200,000 still draw shoppers in Orange County who are willing to camp out or pay a camper to get the house of their choice.
The phenomenon is equal parts economics and hype, said Kate Bourland, marketing director for the new-home division of Coldwell Banker in Newport Beach.
OC home resales slow
Fewer homes sold in May; prices up 5.9% from year ago
June 27, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Following a trend in many of California's urban coastal areas, home sales in Orange County slowed considerably during May, according to statistics released Tuesday by the California Association of Realtors. While the median price for a resale home in Orange County last month was $256,990, a 5.9 percent increase from May 1989, only 1,085 previously owned single-family homes and condominiums changed hands during the month, a 17.2 percent decrease from the same month last year.
The OC house-sales slide
Experts debate how soon market will rebound
June 30, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Ask any number of real estate experts for a down and dirty analysis of the county's housing market and you'll hear phrases such as "the beginnings of a slump" or "a return to normal." But Judy Frey thinks she knows better.
Frey, 42, has been trying to sell her five-bedroom, three-bath home in Anaheim Hills for about a year.
Price can make a condo a speedster or a snail
June 30, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Condominiums are hot.
During the first four months of this year, while other ends of the housing market have experienced sluggish growth or cutbacks, condominium sales have gone up nearly 23 percent. But competition is stiff, and the least expensive attached homes sell while their pricier cousins go begging.
"People have a very strong resistance to buying an attached home that costs more than $200,000. It's sort of a magic number in the market right
Careful buyers, sellers can turn lease-option into a good deal
July 7, 1990
Byline: David Silverman
Chicago Tribune
Like a mirage on the desert horizon, a down payment often seems out of reach for first-time buyers. Especially now, during a period of rising prices and fluctuating interest rates, many people have watched that once-shadowy vision fade altogether. But before condemning yourself to life as a renter, it might be easier to seek relief in a renting relationship that can promise ownership without a standard, upfront down payment. The lease-with-an-option-to-buy agreement, a once-popular scheme
Housing costs price many out of home
July 7, 1990
Byline: Nick Harder
The Orange County Register
"Let's get back to reality, shall we?" That's the way Jim Kiel of Anaheim started his letter to me this week. He has a real problem grasping the nature of housing prices.
"Today's (June 30) front-page introduction to Home said, `OC home sales still slow; When will the market rebound?' In the name of sanity, Nick, does it NEED to? If the OC housing market needs anything, it needs to crash-dive pronto to bring
Slump fails to `trickle up' as high-end sales stay hot
July 7, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
While the rest of the real-estate market sits in limbo, sales in the most expensive end of the county's housing market are still red hot. But nobody can figure out why.
In May, 27 homes valued at $1 million or more were sold in Orange County. That's a significant boost from the 19 million-dollar home transactions in May 1989, according to statistics provided by Dataquick Inc., a real-estate marketing service in San Diego.
McDonnell Douglas layoffs will be felt by OC economy
July 17, 1990
Byline: Jeff Rowe
The Orange County Register
McDonnell Douglas Corp.'s announced cutbacks will ripple through the area economy, experts say, with further job losses among suppliers and service businesses that cater to the company's workforce. These economists disagree on whether the effect will be minimal or mark the beginning of a broad slide.
Ultimately, the number of jobs lost might be two or three times the number of people McDonnell Douglas cuts, said Bill Dunham, president of Newport Economics Group,
The ax falls at McDonnell Douglas
Experts expect ripple effect in OC economy
July 17, 1990
Byline: Steve Hawk ; Jeff Rowe
The Orange County Register
After a week of wild rumors and impatient denials, the ax finally fell at McDonnell Douglas Corp. on Monday when Chairman John McDonnell unveiled plans to cut up to 17,000 jobs by the end of the year -- almost half at Douglas Aircraft Co. The layoffs -- as much as 11 percent of the company's work force -- are part of
a massive $700 million cost-cutting action announced last month.
Douglas Aircraft previously disclosed plans to lay off 4,000 full-time workers and 3,000
Realtors cope with home sales slump
Some cut back, others expand
July 20, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
Realtors in Orange County, faced with a slowdown in the housing market, are taking a broad range of steps to shore up declining revenue. What's unusual is the opposite directions brokerages are taking.
Within the past two weeks, Great Western Real Estate has closed its office in Huntington Beach and told employees in Irvine and Tustin that their offices will be shut down at the end of the month.
Reader says real estate articles built on shaky ground
July 22, 1990
Byline: Pat Riley
The Orange County Register
No doubt about it, the news media walk on the dark side because that's the nature of their daily duty. After all, there's no news if the plane lands safely. But some situations can be viewed with either gloom or glee, and when those crop up you can pretty safely lay odds of 8-5 that the media perspective won't be weighted toward glee.
Ted P. Martens of Orange accused the Register of preaching gloom in its June 30 Home section, where a package of stories,
Mortgage rates dip
But Middle East conflict could prompt reversal
August 3, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
With local interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages dipping below 10 percent for the first time this year, many Orange County lenders reported a big boost in business during the last week of July. But as oil and gold prices careened upward as a result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, loan officers said Thursday that interest rates soon could follow, bringing the lending party to a quick end.
"When the rates went under 10, our business boomed. We had a flurry of
Oil crisis causes OC fixed-rate mortgages to take big jump
August 7, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The oil crisis in the Persian Gulf hit Orange County on Monday, as a fixed-rate mortgage took its biggest one-day jump in three years. Local lenders, taking their cue from a plunging bond market in New York and events in the Middle East, raised interest rates for 30-year, fixed-rate loans between 0.25 and 0.5 percent. The countywide increases reversed a two-month trend during which the average interest rate for a mortgage of less than $187,450 fell to 9.868, said Earl Peattie, president of
County home sales down 19% from '89
August 8, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Sales of existing homes in Orange County fell 19.3 percent during the second quarter compared with a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Association of Realtors. The dropwas blamed on a combination of high prices and a sluggish statewide economy.
"The quarterly statistics, much like the monthly statistics, show that the housing market is slow -- there's no doubt about that," said Chris Taylor, manager of economics and
Hopeful home sellers sweeten the bait for buyers
August 11, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County homeowners haven't taken to riding hippos or elephants but, like some used-car dealers, they might gladly saddle up if they thought it would help sell their houses. This summer, with homes in some parts of the county staying on the market longer than at any time since the early 1980s, sellers are turning on charm and creativity to move their homes.
"When the market is slow like this, that's when you see the most creative deals come out of
Sales of most expensive OC houses dip in June from '89
August 11, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
An industrialist and a former pizza executive bought houses for more than $1 million in June, but few others followed their lead as sales in the most expensive end of the county's housing market slowed from last year. Donald Beall, chairman of Rockwell International Corp., bought a five-bedroom, 41/2-bath house in Corona del Mar for $4,751,000, according to county records. It was the most expensive house purchased in June.
Buie expects OC housing market to grow out of its sluggish state
August 12, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Q. & A.
In the mid-1970s, when he was working for AVCO Community Developers -- the now defunct development arm of AVCO Financial Corp. -- Robert Buie got the same bug caught by William Lyon, Jim Peters and other Orange County builders. He had grown tired of building houses for others and decided to start working for himself.
"You get the idea that you want to work on your own. You want to take risks, see your ideas get put into action and, of course, take a shot
New-home concessions irk Maricopa's early buyers
August 18, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home prices are down, buyer enticements are up and the natives are restless. About 50 homeowners, angered by what they claim has been a pattern of misleading sales tactics in the Maricopa housing tract, are asking the developer for a cash rebate on their homes. They plan to protest today at their neighborhood sales office.
Maricopa, a tract of 100 homes priced between $320,000 and $390,000, is being sold by Baycrest Development Co., a Newport Beach-based homebuilder owned by Cary Bren,
OC home sales up in July; down elsewhere
August 24, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County jumped in July, but individual sellers paid a price, according to a report issued Thursday by TRW Real Estate Information Services in Anaheim. July was a dismal month for house sales throughout much of Southern California, with four out of five counties surveyed -- Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego -- showing significant declines in sales.
The Orange County housing market, however, offered mixed results. Local sales slipped by about 6 percent
Price of home loan increasing
August 25, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard;Jonathan Lansner
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
House shoppers and people looking to park money got bad news this week as fluctuating interest rates drove up the cost of a mortgage and deflated the yields in short-term money markets. The increase in mortgage rates, which pushed the local average interest rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate loan to 10.39 percent, is the most recent in a three-week climb in interest rates that began Aug. 2, when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Demand for existing homes falls to lowest level since '85
August 28, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Demand for existing homes dipped in July to its lowest point in nearly five years in California, according to a report issued Monday by the California Association of Realtors. Sales of existing houses statewide were off about 15 percent for the month, the lowest level since December 1985, according to the report.
In Orange County, where recent reports of house sales have found demand increasing, the Realtors association reported that sales were off 18.7 percent.
Corte Bella opening gives partygoers a taste of Italy
August 29, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
What, if anything, do Wolfgang Puck, imported statues and a line of Italian clothing have in common with a bunch of condominiums in Orange County? And what the heck is a "Euro Villa" anyway?
These are just some of the questions that come to mind with the opening of Corte Bella, an unbuilt attached housing project in the Westpark region of Irvine that will open for sale Thursday afternoon, a dozen or so hours after a lavish party for about 750 invited guests.
Bankruptcy court filings reflect market
August 30, 1990
Byline: Mark Veverka
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Has the shakeout begun? While real estate soothsayers have been predicting for the past year that Orange County's market would eventually shrink, developers, builders and other related businesses have been watching for storm clouds.
The first wave of company failures might have arrived. While a smattering of filings by mortgage brokers and developers has trickled into Federal Bankruptcy Court over the past six months or so, five filings last week appear to be tangible evidence
Home sales in OC go begging
Many look, few buy, survey finds
September 2, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Gridlock -- real estate style -- has hit the Orange County housing market in a big way.
More people are looking to buy a home this year than at any time in the past four years. What's more, real estate agents say there are more houses on the market than there are buyers.
Still, hardly anyone is buying.
That's the home market's version of a traffic jam, and it's just one of the trends unearthed in The Orange County
Some Marines in OC live near poverty level
September 4, 1990
Byline: Gary A. Warner
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The few, the proud, the poor. For low-ranking Marines, the play on the corps' advertising slogan rings true all too often these days. Marines' pay has not kept up with inflation and taxes. Making ends meet is a tough chore -- especially in Orange County.
Marine officers find the high cost of living can mean tight budgets, overextended credit and less than desirable housing.
Hearts and minds
Mood key to selling houses
September 8, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Fred Moss can't sell his house, and he thinks he knows why. His would-be buyers are cranky.
"I wish that just once I could pick up a newspaper on the weekend and see a story about how this is a good time to buy a house," said Moss, who is asking $284,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath house about a mile from the ocean in San Clemente.
"But instead of good news, whenever I pick up a paper and read anything about real estate, it's
OC ad executive eschews pessimistic view
September 9, 1990
Byline: Martin J. Smith
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Q. & A.
As the nation goes, so goes advertising. The continuing economic slowdown has triggered concern in the industry that what Advertising Age magazine calls a "selective" recession already hitting some media is just the beginning of widespread cutbacks.
Magazine ad pages already are 3.3 percent behind for the first half of 1990 compared with the same period last year. The Newspaper Advertising Bureau cut its projected 1990 revenue gains from 5.9
A retailing dream dies
Failed strategy spells end for National Lumber
September 9, 1990
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
In 1942, a 35-year-old New Yorker named Sol Jaffee began picking up free wooden crates at Douglas Aircraft Co. in Lakewood.
Jaffee would dismantle the large shipping containers, and sell the used lumber at a hardware store he had opened on Woodruff Avenue in Bellflower. Today, they're still having a sale on lumber at the Bellflower location. But it's a sale that's probably breaking the 83-year-old Jaffee's heart.
Housing market picks up steam
Orange County posts region's best results so far in '90
September 19, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Buoyed by growing demand for condominiums and townhomes, Orange County was the strongest housing market in Southern California during the first eight months of this year, according to a real-estate industry report issued Tuesday. From Jan. 1 through the end of August, 31,623 houses closed escrow in Orange County, a 3.6 percent increase from the same period last year, according to a report from TRW Real Estate Information Services Inc. in Anaheim.
1990 not a good year for caviar dreams Multimillion-dollar homes have been for sale for a year
September 23, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Budweiser wishes, liverwurst dreams. For the folks trying to sell the three most expensive houses in Orange County, 1990 has not been a year for the rich and famous.
Last year at this time, the three houses were all priced the same: an oh-so-cool $22 million each.
One is a five-level, beachfront mansion in South Laguna.
Another is a bayfront estate with 11 bathrooms on a gated island in Newport Beach.
The third is a huge ranch -- complete with private dance floor, a weight
YOUR MONEY NOTEBOOK
September 24, 1990
The Orange County Register
MONEY FACT
21%: How many Calfornia banks cash government checks for
non-customers, says a Consumer Action study.
Personal bankruptcy rise puts dent in credit cards
Nearly half of all credit card losses are now attributable to personal bankruptcies, up from a third one year ago. That finding from the American Bankers Association demonstrates how the uptick in personal bankruptcies could harm the credit card industry. The trade group warned that if allowed to continue, the bankruptcy
Resales of homes in county dip along with median price
September 26, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The polite smiles, fresh paint and creative financing offered by home sellers didn't lure many buyers in August, as the number of sales and the median price of a resale house in Orange County dipped from a year earlier. Sales in Orange County fell considerably in August. For the month, the number of houses resold dropped about 23 percent from last year, according to a report issued Tuesday by the California Association of Realtors.
New homes: Third quarter sales drop 42% in OC
September 26, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
This summer's house-hunting season was anything but hot for individuals trying to sell property in Orange County. But they might take heart in the fact that they were not alone.
Builders have found it at least as difficult to sell their new houses and condominiums, according to a real estate industry report issued Tuesday.
New home sales in OC for the third quarter of this year were down 42 percent from the same period last year, according to The Meyers Group, a Corona-based
Realtors predict decline in sales
Resale prices also might dip, they say
AM HEAD VARIES
October 5, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Attention home sellers, real estate agents and builders: If you haven't liked the real estate market so far this year, don't read the California Association of Realtors forecast for 1991. In a speech Thursday at the association's annual convention in Los Angeles, the trade group's chief economist made several predictions about how the state's real estate market will perform in 1991. Her predictions include:
FHA loans might be reduced
October 11, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The maximum mortgage available to local homebuyers through the Federal Housing Administration's loan-guarantee program could be reduced this month, just as the program is gaining a toehold in Orange County's housing market. On Oct. 31, the maximum mortgage available in the county through the FHA program is scheduled to return to $102,250. For the past 12 months, would-be homebuyers in Orange County and about 20 other high-cost housing markets in the United States have
A-M Homes president resigns
October 12, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Tom Hover on Thursday announced that he has quit his job as regional president of A-M Homes to start his own home-building company. Hover has been president of A-M's Southern California operations, based in Newport Beach, since 1985. During his tenure, the Santa Barbara-based company built an estimated 1,200 homes in Southern California, including about 700 in Orange County.
In 1987, A-M became the US development arm of Jennings Industries Ltd., an Australian home-building
Blame Saddam; $1 million home sales are lagging
October 13, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Blame it on Saddam. In the weeks since Iraq invaded Kuwait and the nation's economy became fodder for the monologue on "The Tonight Show," the local market for million-dollar houses has gone the way of stock prices, "Twin Peaks" ratings and the Rams -- down, down, down.
In August, traditionally a high-volume month for sellers, 19 houses in Orange County changed hands for $1 million or more. That's down from 26 sales in
New report contains more grim news on county home sales
October 26, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Apparently, bad news is bad news for Orange County's housing market. In September, sales of previously-owned single-family homes in Orange County fell more than 31 percent from the year before, according to a report issued Thursday by the California Association of Realtors.
The CAR report also showed that the median price for a previously-owned home in Orange County was $240,280 in September, a drop of more than $8,000 from the median price of $248,610 in September 1989.
Westpark II plan OKd despite group's protests
November 1, 1990
Byline: Jack Evans
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The City Council on Tuesday approved the Irvine Co.'s plans for a 3,850-home development despite criticism from residents that there are no guarantees for low- and moderate-income housing. By a 3-1 vote, the council amended zoning of an area west of the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station to allow Westpark II to proceed.
The development is expected to add as many as 10,000 residents to the city. The city still needs to review specific plans for the development.
More OC residents can afford houses
November 13, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
With home prices falling and interest rates tumbling, about the only thing going up in Orange County's housing market is the number of people who, on paper at least, can afford to buy a median-priced house.
In September, the so-called "affordability index" in Orange County hit 16 percent. That was up from 13 percent in September 1989, and up slightly from the 15 percent affordability recorded in June 1990, according to a report issued Monday by the
OC home-sales report brings mixed news, but market still healthy
November 16, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Is the "Saddam swoon" over?
Possibly. In October, demand for condominiums and lower-priced houses increased sales by 209 houses from September, bringing the number of transactions in Orange County to the October 1989 level. For at least a few of those sellers, the rebound was costly. The average price of a house sold in October dropped $23,759 from a year ago.
YOUR MONEY NOTEBOOK
November 19, 1990
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
MONEY FACT
14%: Increase in business failures in first 9 months of 1990 over 1989, says Dun & Bradstreet.
`Hold' signal means different things to different analysts
Let's say you bought a stock some time ago because your investment adviser rated it a "buy." Now, it's been downgraded to a "hold." Should you take this word at face value? Or does it really mean the stock has worn out its
OC home resales fall 32%; median price drops too
November 28, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A winter chill came early to Orange County as the resale-housing market in October suffered its worst month since the early 1980s.
Home resales were down nearly 32 percent from October 1989, and the median price of an single-family home dropped 5 percent -- or $12,430 -- to $236,240,according to the California Association of Realtors' monthly housing report. The sales decline was the biggest one-year drop in Orange County since 1982, a year that many economists have since
Despite drop in prices, housing a big concern
Those under 35 have most trouble buying a home
December 4, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Despite a recent dip in local housing prices, the cost of buying a home in Orange County remains the fastest-growing area of concern among local residents, according to the 1990 Orange County Annual Survey.
Although 40 percent of the 1,017 people who responded to the survey listed traffic and transportation as the county's biggest problem, the issues of growth and housing -- each mentioned by 16 percent of the respondents -- tied for second as areas of most concern
Trees the price of Christmas past
OC sellers keeping spirits up while taking a stand on cost
December 5, 1990
Byline: Gary Krino
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
If you shop around, chances are you'll pay last year's price for this year's Christmas tree -- or even a little less.
A random check of Orange County's tree lots and cut-your-own tree farms shows that the economic slowdown, combined with an overabundance of cut-your-own trees, has helped put a lid on Christmas-tree prices. "My feeling is that people are going to go for a smaller tree at a lower cost," said Rick
Sales of OC's most expensive homes keep slipping as buyers move inland
December 8, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A curious trend may be emerging in the most expensive end of the county's housing market.
Though there were only 14 sales in October of homes priced at $1 million or more -- one of the slowest months this year -- exactly half of those sales were outside the coastal areas of Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. Some sales agents said the October figures are indicative of a pattern of high-end home sales spreading throughout the county when sales volume, in general, is down.
The rental penalty
December 9, 1990
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Bad idea. We know there's a big state deficit to worry about, but Gov. Deukmejian's proposal to raise taxes on renters as part of a budget-balancing strategy would trample all over basic notions of fairness. Why not put a carving knife to spending , not to renters?
Fortunately, a State Assembly committee this week rejected the governor's proposal, which would reduce the renters' credit on state income-tax filings from $60 to $52
Vote for year's top local stories
December 11, 1990
The Orange County Register
The Register would like to know what you think are the top 10 local news stories of the year. Please make your choice on the ballot, ranking them from one to 10, one being the top news story of the year. The results will be published in a special section on Dec. 30. (FOR FULL TEXT SEE MICROFILM)
Gang violence Gulf crisis
Economic downturn
Housing market slump
Medfly spraying
Richard Hubler shooting case
Amber Jefferson attack
David Arnold Brown murder case
Cote shuts realty office, moves to Grubb & Ellis
December 11, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Bill Cote, one of the county's better-known home sellers, has decided to shut down his Newport Beach brokerage and go to work as a sales agent for Grubb & Ellis, a move industry analysts say is indicative of a slump in the local luxury housing market.
The move ends -- at least temporarily -- Cote Realty, one of a half-dozen agencies specializing in the ultraexpensive neighborhoods of Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. Cote, who founded Cote Realty in 1972
Market conditions force homebuilders to make concessions
Unsold houses often mean lower profits, threat of bankruptcy
December 16, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
As the county's housing market has tumbled this year, builders have found themselves in one tough spot.
They're trying to please two groups of people: current home shoppers and recent homebuyers. Pleasing one group, in some cases, means alienating the other. And alienating either group could, ultimately, put the builder out of business.
Consider the pressures:
This year, in order to lure buyers, builders have had to offer the best possible deal.
Housing slump strikes fear in recent homebuyers
As builders lower their prices, current residents seek refunds
December 16, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Vic Perniciaro's neighborhood, a quaint stretch of new homes on the edge of Cleveland National Forest, is in an uproar.
Living-room meetings have been held. People have shouted. Angry letters have been fired off. The target of all this wrath is the William Lyon Co., the company that built their homes.
Perniciaro and about 25 of his neighbors in the Promontory area of Trabuco Highlands paid $340,000 to $390,000 for their homes between January and May. Now, new homes in the
Fed's rate cut isn't viewed as cure in OC
December 20, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Prospective homebuyer Colleen Stephano yawned when she heard of the Federal Reserve Board's move Tuesday to cut the discount rate one-half point to 6.5 percent.
"So what," said Stephano, who has been hunting for a $300,000 house in the Yorba Linda area since late spring. "Interest rates are not the problem with Orange County's housing market," she said. "Home sellers' attitudes
OC home prices up slightly, but sales decline 15%
December 21, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Although local house sales fell sharply and prices were up only slightly during November, Orange County's housing market out-performed the state, according to a report issued Thursday by the California Association of Realtors.
In November, traditionally a slow month in the real estate industry, the median price of a single-family resale home in Orange County was $231,250, up 2.4 percent from the November 1989 median price of $225,840.
J.M. Peters reports loss of $7 million
December 22, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home builder J.M. Peters Co. on Friday issued its weakest quarterly report since becoming a public company in 1986, reflecting a downturn in home sales and added costs from trying to sell its existing inventory.
For the quarter ended Nov. 30, the company reported a loss of $7.1 million, compared with an after-tax profit of $5.6 million for the third quarter of 1989. Revenue during the quarter was $39.9 million, down 44.8 percent from the $72.3 million reported last year.
Analyst: New-home market still slow
December 29, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
With the threat of war looming and recession talk booming, some homebuilders might have been fuming during the fourth quarter of 1990.
That's the state of affairs in Orange County's housing market, as new home sales, prices and inventory all headed in negative directions during the fourth quarter, according to a report issued Friday by The Meyers Group, a real-estate research company in Corona.
Housing
December 30, 1990
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County, recently one of the nation's fastest-growing housing markets, hit the wall in 1990.
Several factors -- a sluggish economy, years of overzealous homebuilding (and buying), a credit crunch for builders and the threat of war in the Persian Gulf -- all kept home sales slow and prices low. For most residents, the trend was a classic case of "good news, bad news."
On the plus side, the slump helped first-time homebuyers -- at least those who
THE PARTY'S OVER
County: Layoffs arise as '90 ends
December 30, 1990
Byline: Jan Norman
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County began the 1990s reaping what the '80s had sown.
After years of overbuilding, commercial real estate slowed significantly in 1990. Successive years of billion-dollar deficit spending forced the federal government to cut back, and the aerospace industry felt the sting of reduced defense spending.
After years of risky investments and thrift failures under banking deregulation, banks and savings and loans now must adhere to stricter requirements.
Million-dollar sales take another dive
January 19, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Though thoughts of war have dominated the media and many people's lives in recent weeks, real estate agents who specialize in selling homes to the richest people in Orange County said their customers generally buy -- or don't buy -- because of larger economic or political conditions.
And most high-end house sellers would not point to the crisis in the Middle East as a reason why the county's million-dollar housing market took a dive during the six-week
'90 home prices decline $3,000
January 23, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's housing market looked a bit like "The Love Connection" in 1990, with home sellers and buyers getting together more often here than in any other housing market in Southern California.
But sellers in Orange County usually were stuck with the tab. The average price of a house sold in Orange County in 1990 was $248,167, a dip of about $3,000 from 1989, according to a real estate report issued Tuesday by TRW Marketing Services in Anaheim.
County housing sales on upswing
War seen by some as pepping market
February 3, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The shockwave crossed two gulfs, one ocean and two continents to get here, but many believe it's here nonetheless.
House sales might be heating up again in Orange County. That's the claim of many local real estate agents and mortgage lenders who said that the past 10 days have been the busiest in at least a year for home sales and new home listings.
Though there are no statistics to back up their claim, and January home sales won't turn up in county
Home's record-setting sale has OC agents optimistic
February 5, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Whether it'll kick off a new frenzy of trophy-house buying is debatable, but a few real estate agents are happy that a price record has been set in Orange County's housing market.
Last month, after almost two years of negotiation, a Hong Kong hotel magnate finalized the biggest house deal ever in Orange County, paying $13.8 million for the former Leroy Carver III estate in the Harbor Island neighborhood of Newport Beach. George Yao, co-owner of the Radisson Plaza
Home prices show year-to-year drop
February 7, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
California home prices in 1990 took their first year-to-year drop since 1984, according to a report issued Wednesday by the California Association of Realtors.
The median price of a single-family house in California dipped 0.8 percent, to $194,010, in 1990, according to the association. Analysts who work with investors outside the state said the downturn has further eroded the notion that California's real-estate market is not vulnerable to economic downturns.
Making the best of it
Real estate ads promote up side of a down market
February 13, 1991
Byline: Martin J. Smith
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Coldwell Banker Residential Group, the Mission Viejo-based real estate giant, will begin a groundbreaking national advertising campaign this week that acknowledges the sluggishness of the current housing market while suggesting that there's never been a better time to buy or sell.
While many advertising and real estate experts agree with the campaign's central theme -- "Now's the time to make your move"
Housing market ends '90 in doldrums
February 23, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's housing market finished 1990 in the kind of nosedive one might expect when residents are facing a recession, a real-estate slump and a war.
According to a report from TRW Marketing Services in Anaheim on Orange County home escrows closed in January, home prices and sales were down sharply during the final weeks of 1990. The average price of a single-family house in Orange County was $242,953 for the escrows closed in January, down 4.1 percent -- or $10,513 –
Homeowners seek tax break
Recent buyers might get reassessments as county's real estate slump continues
February 24, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
In assessor-speak, it's known as a "negative increase."
To the rest of us, it's called losing money on a house. Under any name, homeowner Ed Abad -- as with other homeowners in Orange County -- hopes the paper loss on his $400,000 house in 1990 will translate into a lower property-tax bill for 1991.
"If I can prove that I've lost money on my house in the past year or so, then I'd like to see my taxes get
Outlook of consumers hurt by war
February 26, 1991
Byline: American Banker
The Orange County Register
Declines in short-term interest rates, supposedly a tonic for the slow economy, have not invigorated consumer confidence, recent surveys suggest.
Bank economists interviewed last week said the gulf war virtually dominates consumer psychology and continues to depress confidence indexes. Moreover, the economists see little on the domestic scene that could spark a quick upturn in confidence, spurring retail spending and thus helping pull the country out of recession. Falling interest rates
Hesitation giving way to optimism
February 26, 1991
Byline: CATHY TAYLOR
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Uncertainty, that intangible economic factor blamed for everything from declining retail sales to a poor housing market, is ready to burn off like fog on a June morning.
With President Bush's words Monday -- "make no mistake: we will prevail; Kuwait will soon be free; and America's men and women in uniform will return home" -- consumer and business confidence could well have marked a turn for the positive. Leading economists as well as the US
Lyon Co. to guarantee home prices with buyback offer
February 27, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The William Lyon Co. on Tuesday announced a buyback program that provides the first price guarantee by a major homebuilder on the West Coast.
Beginning March 2 at nine Lyon Co. projects in Orange and north San Diego counties, the company will buy back the house of any customer who wants to sell two years after escrow closes. The company will pay the purchase price of the house, less the typical 8 percent cost of brokerage fees and closing, effectively guaranteeing that home values in the
Tustin homes in on future
Housing project seen as good sign
February 28, 1991
Byline: Michelle Nicolosi
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Two tall, white walls capped with red brick line much of Tustin Ranch Road.
But north of Irvine Boulevard, the walls guard empty fields, a few half-finished houses and small clusters of model homes. This is evidence of what Tustin Senior Planner Dan Fox calls "a little slowdown" in construction of homes and apartments in the Irvine Co.'s Tustin Ranch development.
Homebuilder Peters to stay till firm sold
February 28, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
James Peters, founder and president of J.M. Peters Co., will stay with the homebuilding company until it is sold and new management has taken over.
Peters' current contract is scheduled to end Feb. 28. Real estate industry experts have speculated that the Resolution Trust Corp. -- which last year took over the homebuilder's parent company, San Jacinto Savings -- would have a difficult time finding a buyer for the company unless Peters is on board as chairman.
Real-estate agents are taking interest in military veterans
Many factors give area home sellers a new attitude
March 2, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Is selling houses to military veterans about to become chic?
Ernie Fregoso, owner of the local Veteran Real Estate franchise, thinks it is. He hears the next hot trend in Orange County's housing market in his phones -- which have been ringing off the hook. "Oh, man, the past couple of weeks have been the busiest we've seen," Fregoso said. "We've been getting a lot of calls from people who want to know if they qualify
E. Orange project slows up
March 2, 1991
Byline: Don Rosen
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Irvine Co. has slowed the pace of work on its massive East Orange development by bringing all outside consulting work in-house, but a company spokesman said the 7,110-acre project still is moving forward.
"The company made the decision to essentially move internally, to use our internal staff to do all the processing work that needs to continue in the east Orange area," spokesman Mike Stockstill said. "So what we did is inform all the various
Fannie Mae changes likely to continue
March 10, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae, recently set a milestone of sorts by surpassing the $300 billion mark in mortgages that are guaranteed by the company.
Considering the changes the company has undergone since the housing recession of the early 1980s -- and that Fannie Mae didn't get into the mortgage-guarantee business until 1981 -- reaching $300 billion was "of particular satisfaction" for the people who've helped with
1990 not so bad for OC real estate
Survey says price of average home fell 1.2 percent
March 10, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
As real-estate disasters go, 1990 wasn't all that bad in Orange County.
Yes, the county saw its first year-to-year decline in average sale price since 1983. And, yes, the home-price malaise was seen in virtually every type of neighborhood, from ritzy beach cities to supposedly "priced-to-move" markets of north and central Orange County. But now that the final numbers are in, the 1990 price downturn has proved to be less a financial debacle than it was
OC may face new-home shortfall
Available single-family homes down 13.5%
March 14, 1991
Byline: Elliot Blair Smith
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Just when it appeared the masonry was cracking in Orange County residential real estate values, forecasters now say the stock of new homes is dwindling faster than expected, raising anew the specter of higher housing prices.
The Newport Beach-based Meyers Group said Wednesday that the inventory of single-family homes in Orange County has declined by 13.5 percent since the end of 1990. That is well ahead of the average Southern California absorption rate of 8.7 percent and considerably
Hero homebuilders
Lenders hire companies to save developments
March 19, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
If 1990 was "The Big Chill" for homebuilders, 1991 could turn out to be "The Year of Living Dangerously."
George Meeker, president of Meeker Development in Newport Beach, knows all about living dangerously. In the past year, Meeker Development has been battered by the real estate slump. Though the company built about 750 houses and condominiums last year -- most of them outside Orange County -- it didn't make much money.
Real estate rooted in slump
Report suggests hints of a state upturn premature
March 26, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Amid growing speculation that the state's real estate slump is ending, the California Association of Realtors issued a report showing that housing markets statewide and in Orange County still are mired in a severe downturn.
Though sales of existing houses in California jumped 13.6 percent from January to February -- the biggest month-to-month increase in more than four years -- sales on a year-to-year basis were off nearly 26 percent.
OC home-sales slump continues from 1990
March 30, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
While home sales sizzled in much of the nation, Orange County's housing market remained depressed during the last days of 1990 and the first few weeks of 1991, according to a report released Friday by TRW Real Estate in Anaheim.
The report -- the third in four days on the local housing market -- showed that home sales recorded in February fell 18 percent from the same period last year. A similar report on the national housing market conducted by the Department of Commerce showed
Housing market takes a swing toward sanity
Experts predict slow but steady growth in sales
March 31, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A new idea is about to hit Orange County's housing market -- sanity.
Home sales are up, but not way up. Home construction is beginning again, but not at a pace that's going to outstrip demand. And job growth -- a key barometer to housing demand -- is due to rise slowly but steadily during the second half of 1991.
The result? By the end of this year, Orange County could become a pretty decent place to both buy and sell a house. For home shoppers, the party of the
Retail prices drop locally, nationally
April 13, 1991
Byline: David J. Lynch
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Falling gas costs nudged retail prices in Southern California down 0.1 percent in March from a month earlier, the US Labor Department reported Friday.
The local decrease -- which covered Orange and four nearby counties -- matched the 0.1 percent drop in the US retail inflation rate for March, also reported Friday. Local economists warmly welcomed the drops, with some saying they could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in an attempt to boost the economy out of
Auctions no longer being used as a tool of last resort in OC real estate market
April 16, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Will home auctions be going, going, gone in 1991?
Don't count on it. Though auctions traditionally have been used as a marketing tool of last resort by builders or bankrupt property owners looking for a quick sale, this could be the year auctions get a new image.
Instead of pitching them in desperation, many in the county's real estate market are touting auctions as a way to sell houses and condominiums that are anything but distressed.
OC housing market may be improving
April 16, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Although home sales in March were down from a year ago, Orange County's housing market did show some signs of rebounding.
A total of 3,772 houses in Orange County closed escrow in March, down about 14 percent from March 1990 but up 49 percent from February of this year, according to TRW Marketing Services in Anaheim. Home sales typically increase from February to March, as warmer weather and the end of holiday spending brings home shoppers out of hibernation.
Best-laid plans are taking longer
Talega's obstacles norm for developers
April 21, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
There's a town in Orange County so new you have to close your eyes to see it.
It's called Talega, and it's 3,510 acres of raw land spilling over the northern city limits of San Clemente. Today, Talega is populated with grassy hills, thorny bushes and earthmovers.
But by this time next year, Talega will be ready to open as Orange County's newest master-planned community. And by the year 2000, Talega could be a full-fledged town, with 13,000
Spring thawing housing market
April 25, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Although local home sales remain well below last year's level, the housing market is beginning to thaw, according to a report issued Wednesday by the California Association of Realtors.
Despite the fact that home sales traditionally jump in spring, most Orange County real estate agents are optimistic that this year's sales increase is a sign of bigger things to come. Overall, the Realtors' report showed that home sales have picked up in recent months.
Analysts say foreclosures are economic dead weight
May 5, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Foreclosures are up in Orange County, and economists believe the trend is weighing down the county's long climb out of recession.
Through the first three months of this year, about 800 local properties were given dates for trustee sale, the final step in foreclosure. An additional 2,240 properties were listed in default, indicating that the owners were 30 to 90 days late on their mortgage payments. In comparison, fewer than 650 properties were listed in foreclosure during all
Birtcher to build low-priced houses
May 8, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Birtcher Real Estate Ltd., one of the state's biggest developers of office and industrial buildings, plans to begin building low-priced houses and condominiums in Orange and Los Angeles counties later this year.
The company announced Tuesday that it has formed a residential real estate division, called Birtcher Homes, a move that sets in motion a corporate strategy that has been discussed since June, when Birtcher merged with Mitsui & Co. Ltd., a multibillion-dollar
BUILDING TO A CRISIS
Credit crunch fallout could reshape the housing industry
May 12, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Credit crisis? Hardly.
For most local homebuilders, living without money has become an ongoing fact of life.
Savings and loans, the biggest sources of home-construction money in the 1980s, have been forced by federal regulators to swear off real estate investment. Commercial banks, also suffering from sour real estate deals, have decided to make loans only on a few, can't-miss projects.
The upshot, for local developers, has been a two-year shortage of the most important
April housing sales in OC increase 16% from year ago
May 22, 1991
Byline: Mark Veverka
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Spring has sprung life into the Orange County housing market.
Home sales vaulted 16 percent in April compared with the same period a year ago, said Orange-based TRW Marketing Services. A total of 4,569 new and resale homes closed escrow in Orange County during April, a 21 percent improvement over March.
The increase marks the first time in recent months that sales outperformed those from a year ago.
Sales of OC homes improve
May 29, 1991
Byline: Jan Norman
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Statistics finally are catching up with rumors of a rebounding housing market in Orange County.
Sales of existing homes in April showed the first year-to-year increase of the housing recession, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday. Lower interest rates and lower home prices drove the surge. Sales for the month increased 17.6 percent from a year earlier, though prices lagged. The median selling price, $240,480, was down $4,300.
New-home sales surge
June 5, 1991
The Orange County Register
Blame it on the end of the Persian Gulf war or the fact that many homebuilders slashed prices so low that they actually lost money -- whatever the reason, new-home sales surged during the first quarter when compared with the dismal fourth quarter of last year, according to "The Competitive Housing Market Report," released Tuesday by Meyers Group in Newport Beach.
Overall, sales were up 77 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis in six counties in Southern California.
More buyers unhappy with agents
June 10, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
In the past two years the action in Orange County's housing market has shifted from writhing disco to ballroom dance.
Now it looks like real estate agents are getting the rap. In a survey of home-shopper attitudes conducted in April for The Orange County Register, nearly 46 percent of the respondents who bought a house in the past year said they wouldn't use the same agent again.
Costa Mesa's park tax
June 13, 1991
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A wonderful representation of the voracious appetite of government is taking place in Costa Mesa. Currently, the city has a statute that taxes residential construction to provide funds for purchasing land and creating park services.
Originally, the provision was broken down into eight sections, four each for single-family and multiple-family homes, and each division was delineated by the number of bedrooms. Also, the policy of the city was that 2.5 acres of land should be used for park
County's high-end housing market is bouncing back
June 15, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
OK, folks, you can toss away those crying towels -- the
county's million-dollar housing market isn't dead, after all.
After three months of depressed sales figures in the luxury-home market, 24 houses closed escrow for $1 million or more in Orange County during the month of April. That would not have been considered a strong month during the wild days of late 1989, when as many as 60 houses a month sold locally for $1 million or more, but it is a step up from
Builders' money dries up
Increase in housing sales fails to stir credit market
June 20, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
`Land" is still a four-letter word in the finance business.
Despite a burst of new home sales during the first quarter of this year, lending for new construction projects is down 64 percent so far this year from the same period last year in Orange County, indicating that the building-industry credit crunch is far from over. From Jan. 1 through May 31, local developers of residential and commercial real estate borrowed $398.7 million for construction purposes.
OC home sales jump 20.6% in May
June 22, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
For the past year, many real-estate agents in Orange County have been whispering a constant message in home sellers' ears: "Psst, lower your price."
Now, it seems, home sellers are listening. In May, the average price of a home sold in Orange County was $245,074, down 4.3 percent from May 1990, show statistics released Friday by TRW Marketing Services Inc. in Anaheim.
The price drop _ nearly $11,000 _ was the biggest year-to-year decline in the
Home sales march ahead
June 26, 1991
Byline: Mark Veverka
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Fruits from the seeds of home sales planted in March were harvested in a big way in May.
Sales of existing homes in Orange County vaulted 20.5 percent in May compared with a year earlier, according to a report by the California Association of Realtors, or CAR. Most of the May closings resulted from bids made in March, when interest rates fell and post-Persian Gulf war optimism triggered a surge in home buying.
"It was Miracle March," said Greg Haxton, an agent
Newport Coast's delayed debut
Will homes sell well after false start?
June 30, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Did the Irvine Co. pull a financial coup or a belly-flop by not opening its crown jewel development, Newport Coast, last summer?
The company _ and the county _ is about to find out. After more than 25 years of tough negotiations, lawsuits and politicking _ plus one very public false start _ the Irvine Co. is ready to start cashing in on its first coastal planned community.
Company officials said last week that they'll start selling custom homesites in Newport Coast in July,
Study says OC real estate market is at risk
July 18, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The University of Michigan has knocked Orange County's real estate market, and at least a few local economists are steamed.
On Wednesday, Dennis Capozza, a professor at the university's School of Business Administration, issued a survey of 64 US real estate markets, measuring which areas are at greatest risk of suffering severe drops in house prices and/or big jumps in office vacancies. The upshot? Orange County is the riskiest market in the nation, just ahead of San
Disney plan has housing hitch
With growth in Anaheim would come more workers needing affordable homes
July 24, 1991
Byline: Ricky Young
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Plans for the proposed Disneyland Resort show 470 acres of rides, fountains and fantasy. But those who fill the 20,800 jobs projected there would face the harsh reality of Orange County's crunched affordable-housing market.
Lush landscaping would need gardeners. About 4,100 new hotel rooms would need housekeepers. Rides at a Westcot Center theme park would need operators. All of them would need a place to live.
"It will be quite a problem," said Juan
OC home sales retreat again
June returns market to the doldrums
July 26, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Maybe the folks who invented bungee jumping have done something to the county's housing market.
While total home sales and home prices through the first half of 1991 are virtually unchanged from a year ago, the fluctuations in the past six months have been wild. So far in 1991, the status of housing in Orange County has run from near death to strong recovery and, now, back into the doldrums. June _ usually one month of the year that real estate agents and home sellers can count
MILLION-DOLLAR HOMES
OC, statewide luxury-home sales still down
July 27, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Gloom, doom and bucks - even in the most expensive housing markets the three sometimes go hand-in-hand-in-hand.
During the second quarter of this year, as postwar euphoria faded from the state's economy, the luxury-home market in California sunk like a stone, according to figures released by Dataquick Inc., a La Jolla company that tracks real estate sales. Statewide, it was projected that 648 homes sold for $1 million or more from April through June, down 26 percent from the 876
What the `average' price buys
A different house in different places
August 10, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
It's the perfect house for the "Leave It to Beaver" set _ four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a grade school just around the corner and a back yard big enough for some touch football.
In Garden Grove, an 1,800-square-foot house just like it sold last month for $237,000, or about $10,000 less than the current average Orange County home price of $248,689. But in high-priced coastal communities such as Newport Beach, Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach, the above
Buying into the summit
Sales rush on Turtle Rock's pricey homes surprises execs
August 15, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
On paper, Turtle Rock Summit sounds like a homebuilder's version of Evel Knievel trying to fly his motorcycle over one too many buses.
Tract homes priced from $1.1 million? In 1991? What observers might expect: Crash! Crunch! Splat!
But Turtle Rock Summit _ one of the most expensive subdivisions ever built in Orange County _ has defied what passes for logic in the local housing market.
Since opening in late May, 16 million-dollar tract houses have been sold at Turtle
Developer sues Northrop over site
Taiyo charges contamination was concealed
August 16, 1991
Byline: David J. Lynch
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A residential developer that agreed to pay $39 million for an Anaheim tract vacated by the Northrop Corp. last year has filed suit alleging the defense contractor concealed widespread chemical contamination of the 53-acre site.
The Northrop parcel, once home to almost 2,000 aerospace workers, is on Orangethorpe Avenue in Anaheim, just north of the Riverside/Artesia Freeway. From 1952 until last year, Northrop's Electronic Systems Division manufactured a variety of military
OC home sales still spiraling downward
August 24, 1991
Byline: Elaine Chow
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County dipped for the second straight month, according to statistics released Friday by TRW Marketing Services of Anaheim.
The 4,372 houses sold in July represent a 4.6 percent drop from June but an 8.6 percent increase from last July. The figures represent the new and existing homes and condominiums that closed escrow during July. The average sales price in July was $245,491, down 1.3 percent from June and down 0.9 percent from the same period a year ago.
Home resales in OC up 12.9% over year ago
August 27, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Though the rest of the state didn't show it, Orange County's housing market in July reflected a happy combination of low interest rates, lower prices and, according to some, a slight rebound in consumer confidence.
For the month, 12.9 percent more existing single-family houses were sold in Orange County than during July 1990, according to a report issued Monday by the California Association of Realtors. The upturn was the biggest year-to-year increase in the local
It gets tougher to qualify for home loan
September 8, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
After selling his old house in Santa Ana and listening to mortgage lenders vie for his business, Mike Anderson figured his next house buy would be a move up in the world.
Instead, he'll be lucky to step sideways. Like many Orange County house hunters this summer, Anderson is caught in a new type of housing squeeze.
On one hand, mortgage interest rates are as low as they've been in a decade and mortgage companies are waging frenzied advertising campaigns to make
Real estate slump hits Huntington
September 14, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Southern California's real estate slump has moved down Beach Boulevard and into one of the sandiest, sunniest spots in Orange County.
Downtown Huntington Beach _ which just a year ago was the county's last hot real estate market _ has turned soft. Buyer demand is down. Prices have been slashed. And, in recent months, auctions have become a fixed part of the area's housing scene.
Early next month, for example, an auction will be held for 42
Fed cuts 2 rates; banks lower prime
September 14, 1991
Byline: Jonathan Lansner
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Federal Reserve Board, concerned about the nation's ailing economy, lowered two key interest rates Friday _ a move that spurred major banks to cut their benchmark prime lending rate.
The moves, expected by many analysts, continued a trend to lower rates as the nation's central bank tries to nudge businesses and consumers into buying more goods. One sign that the economy hasn't healed from a recession that started in July 1990 came Friday: Retail sales
OC home sales ebb after postwar spurt
September 17, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's new-home market jumped in the second quarter, but a sales downturn during the late spring and early summer dulled builder optimism of a quick recovery, according to a report issued Monday by The Meyers Group.
For the three months ended July 14, new-home sales in Orange County increased 26.8 percent from the same period of 1990. But the bulk of the sales took place during the early spring, when consumer confidence was driven up by the quick end of the Persian Gulf
No surprise: Home sales still off
September 25, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Two real estate reports issued Tuesday showed what many anxious homeowners already knew: Orange County's housing market turned cool with the weather this past summer.
TRW REDI Property Data, which tracks closed escrows for all housing types, reported that the number of homes sold in Orange County during August fell 4.6 percent from August 1990. The closed escrows reflect sales that started from late May through July.
Slight gains seen for '92 housing market
October 1, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
California's housing market will snap out of its three-year losing streak in 1992 to post modest gains in sales and median home prices, according to a forecast released Monday by the California Association of Realtors.
But those rosy predictions from the state's biggest real estate trade group are based on the belief that consumers in California are on the verge of becoming considerably more optimistic than they are today, a notion disputed by some
OC foreclosure rates will dip in 1992, Chapman says
October 2, 1991
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Taking a look at grim indicators of a sputtering economy _ home foreclosures _ Chapman University on Tuesday issued a surprisingly rosy prediction for Orange County: The local foreclosure rate isn't going to boom after all.
The forecast is surprising because foreclosure rates in Orange County have been rising steadily since 1989. At the same time, notice of defaults _ the public listing of homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments by three months or more _
Recession isn't over in OC, home report shows
October 4, 1991
Byline: Mark Veverka
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Despite what White House economists say, the recession remains alive and well in Orange County.
That's the conclusion drawn from the latest home-sale report by the Meyers Group, a housing-market research firm. A total of 1,529 new single-family homes and condominiums were sold in Orange County during the third quarter, down 11 percent from the same period a year ago.
Sales were down almost 42 percent from the previous quarter, which is usually the most active period of the
REAL ESTATE
Overturning Prop. 13 could further depress soft housing market
October 8, 1991
Byline: Jeff Rowe
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Overturning Proposition 13 could cause convulsions in Orange County's real estate market, some experts say. In a worst-case scenario, it could force perhaps thousands of people out of their houses and further depress prices in an already mushy market.
"It would not be a pretty picture," said John Koeller, a Yorba Linda-based real estate expert. Koeller and other experts reason that as taxes increase, property values would decline.
Anaheim panel OKs hotel plan
Furnished rooms for as little as $250 a month mark a new kind of affordable housing for Orange County.
October 8, 1991
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A 208-room hotel designed for low-income singles was approved unanimously Monday by the Anaheim Planning Commission.
The hotel is intended to provide relief to the county's crunched housing market, said David Levy, coordinator of the Orange County Housing Now Coalition. "Full steam ahead," he said. "This will break ground for other programs to follow after it."
What's the plan?: At 1360 S. Anaheim Blvd., developer
Home sales rise in OC; state figures hold steady
January 3, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Existing home sales in Orange County improved during November, but statewide, the market remained virtually unchanged from the depressed period of late 1990.
Overall, the number of existing homes sold in Orange County during November improved 9 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics released Thursday by the California Association of Realtors. Also, the median price of an existing home in the county was $236,990 in November, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier.
Renters' relief
January 8, 1992
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
`It's only $60." More than one reader has pointed that out in suggesting we're over-reacting to Gov. Pete Wilson's plan to gut the state renter's-tax deduction for low-income people (the deduction has already been erased for the more affluent).
Well, yes, this deduction _ or "credit" as it's officially called _ is only $60 per individual.
Housing hullabaloo
January 8, 1992
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Officials with the county's Housing and Community Development Division, an agency that handles grants for home rehabilitation, mainly for low-income people, have 30 days to respond to a county audit that alleges sloppy practices and impropriety. Agency officials say the charges are exaggerated, that to correct them all would mean being buried in paperwork instead of out there helping people. The county auditors say their recommendations are simply sound business practice.
Home sales in county rose 4.8% last year
January 18, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
It's an old equation, but a report issued Friday on Southern California's housing market shows it is still true _ lower interest rates plus falling prices equal an upturn in home sales.
During 1991, two things influenced Orange County's housing market: Mortgage rates dropped to their lowest level in two decades, and the average sale price of a house fell by about $4,000. The result, according to figures from TRW REDI Property Data in Riverside, was a 4.8
THE LONG ROAD BACK
Potential bright spots seen for building industry
January 19, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
For Rex Landem, a construction worker who lives in Dana Point, 1992 is likely to be better than 1991.
Actually, there's no choice in the matter. "I can't really go through another summer like the last one," said Landem, who owns a small wallpaper-installation business.
"We were kind of busy until about June, but then I didn't really work again until October," Landem said.
THE LONG ROAD BACK
Many real estate experts see consumer confidence as the key to recovery in OC's housing market
January 19, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Think happy thoughts, Buster, or else!
The state of mind that got Peter Pan up and flying is, according to many real estate experts, the biggest factor in Orange County's housing market this year. Forget your lower home prices. Forget your cheap mortgages. The thing that's going to spur local home sales and pull the housing market from its two-year slide _ or keep things gloomy an additional year _ is consumer confidence.
State plans $600 million program for economy (PM HEADLINE VARIES)
January 23, 1992
Byline: Jeff Rowe
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Responding to growing fears that California's business climate is eroding, state Treasurer Kathleen Brown announced a $600 million program Wednesday to help stimulate the state's economy.
Economists immediately expressed reservations, saying the government ought to leave such programs to the marketplace. Dubbed Cal-Vest, the program is designed to boost the moribund housing market, help small businesses expand, and encourage farm exports.
Irvine Co. joins layoff trend
January 23, 1992
Byline: Mark Veverka; Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Irvine Co. laid off nearly one-sixth of its
staff Wednesday, citing dismal land sales and unrelentingly tight lending policies by banks.
Staff reductions have been commonplace among many major real estate concerns over the past two years, and the Irvine Co. has not been immune. Wednesday's layoffs of 60 employees marked the company's second round of cutbacks in 14 months. The developer released 40 employees on Nov. 7, 1990.
Home plate
January 27, 1992
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The state is coming to the rescue of struggling business owners and would-be home-buyers with millions of dollars of assistance in the form of loans.
This isn't the first time a rip-off sounded wonderful. What's wrong with direct government assistance to housing buyers? For one thing, it would do nothing about the underlying causes of sky-high home costs. Rather, it would enlist taxpayers to ante up for those costs, helping over time to fuel the rocket still
Lower rates boost OC home sales, prices
January 28, 1992
Byline: Jan Norman
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
An 18-year low in interest rates contributed to modest improvement in the Orange County housing market in December, an industry group reported Monday.
Both sales and prices improved from a year ago, the California Association of Realtors reported. The median price of Orange County homes was $239,320, 4.4 percent higher than a year ago. December sales of existing houses in Orange County inched up 1.5 percent from November and rebounded a strong 21.1 percent from a year ago, according to
2 proposals could affect OC builders
Tax credits rated OK, but IRA withdrawals seen as ill-advised
January 29, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
President Bush on Tuesday made two proposals that could have an immediate effect on Orange County's housing market.
The first, a plan for a $5,000 credit for first-time homebuyers, was generally well-received by builders and industry analysts. But the second _ a call to eliminate the penalties now charged for early withdrawl of Individual Retirement Accounts, as long as the money is used for home buying _ was seen by many as ill-advised.
Nation's builders say Bush dealt them a full house
January 30, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The housing industry appears to be batting 5 for 5 so far in the 1993 federal budget.
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, and again Wednesday in a detailed list of proposals for the federal budget, President Bush made it clear that he believes the nation's economic recovery hinges on a revived housing market and the upturn in consumer confidence such a turnaround could bring. "Real estate has led the economy out of almost all the tough times we've
A housing start
February 21, 1992
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Assemblyman Gil Ferguson is billing his proposed tax cuts on new homes as a recession-fighting measure. It might be that, but, in any case, it's the ethical thing to do. Mr. Ferguson wants to eliminate supplementary property taxes on homes bought within 12 months of passage of his bill. Well, that's a start _ but by rights they ought to be pared back permanently.
Why? Because of all the unfair, indirect taxes that are levied on people who want to buy into the housing
Cost of OC home foreclosures soared in 1991
February 22, 1992
Byline: Elliot Blair Smith
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The cost of home foreclosures advanced at an alarming rate in 1991, up almost 2.5 times in Orange County and nearly tripling to $6 billion for all of Southern California, according to a report released Friday by TRW REDI Property Data.
Yet despite the foreboding signals, real estate lending actually rose in Orange County. Much of it was in the single-family housing market. Lenders backed off dramatically elsewhere, TRW said. "The Orange County market received more construction
Mixed signals in real estate
Housing market on mend in OC, but recession still leaving mark
February 28, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
John Williams is sold. Greg Haxton is sold, sort of. And Eve Tibbs? Well, she's still on the fence.
In case you haven't noticed, Orange County has a serious case of the real estate willies, as agents and home shoppers alike struggle to understand several conflicting trends. On the upside, Orange County's housing market appears to be picking up some steam. After a two-year dry spell of Gobi Desert proportions, open escrows are up and home-shopper traffic
Kaufman, Broad wins right to pursue Peters
March 5, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
If irony were a tangible asset, Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. would be the richest builder in Orange County.
As it is, the Los Angeles-based company is in line to become one of the most asset-rich local builders. On Wednesday, Kaufman & Broad announced that it has won the exclusive right to negotiate with the Resolution Trust Corp. for a majority stake in Newport Beach homebuilder J.M. Peters Co., which epitomized Orange County's high-flying housing market
Which theory is an investor to believe?
March 10, 1992
Byline: Cathy Taylor
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Notes from the Orange County business community:
Investment manager William Gross on Monday likened today's economic environment to the clash of bumping thunderclouds _ cyclical theorists colliding with secular theorists. Gross is managing director of Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, and oversees about $36.2 billion. He spoke to more than 200 participants at Pacific Mutual's investment symposium.
What is he saying? The cyclical economists
Signs of life seen in housing market
March 13, 1992
Byline: Mark Veverka; Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Real estate experts claim that the local housing market is coming back to life. And, so far, sales of lower-priced houses, new and used, are running at a much faster clip than they were last year.
But if a recovery is at hand, why are so many housing projects still being sold at auction? Since January, at least two auctions have been held in Orange County. A third sale, in Corona del Mar, is slated for early April. The reason, say experts, is price.
The houses sold at auction this year
Home resales in OC up 19% from last year
March 25, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The hot housing market that local real estate agents have been talking about since the new year showed up statistically Tuesday, as the California Association of Realtors reported sharp increases in sales of existing homes in Orange County and throughout the state.
Low interest rates, a lack of new homes and a significant drop in home prices contributed to the February sales increase. The numbers: During February, sales of existing homes in Orange County increased 19.2 percent on a
OC new-home sales still in doldrums
March 27, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Despite recent signs of recovery, the county's new-home market was stuck in neutral during the first quarter of this year, according to statistics issued Thursday by the Meyers Group, a Newport Beach real estate research and consulting company. The numbers: New-home sales fell 17 percent on a year-to-year basis. But when compared to the last quarter of 1991, sales were up by about 51 percent. Sales typically increase from the fourth to first quarters, though this year's
DATABANK
March 30, 1992
The Orange County Register
A wealth of real estate
Orange County ranks as the third most expensive housing market in the United States; it ranks first in Southern California
Rank Metro area 1991 price (third quarter) 1. Honolulu $345,000
2. San Francisco 262,000
3. Orange County 242,100
4. Los Angeles 220,300
5. San Diego 191,800
6. Bergen-Passaic, NJ 189,700
7. Newark, NJ 184,300
8. Boston 178,500
9. New York-Long Island 175,100
10. Washington, DC 161,200 Source: National Association of
Kaufman & Broad out of Peters Co. bidding
Decision helps chances of homebuilder's founder
April 4, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Kaufman & Broad is out, Jim Peters soon could be back in, and homebuilder J.M. Peters Co. is, once again, for sale.
Those were just some of the consequences of a whirlwind game of corporate musical chairs Friday, when Los Angeles-based Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. announced that it has dropped its bid to buy Peters Co. from the federal Resolution Trust Corp. In a tersely worded statement, Kaufman & Broad officials said they had "terminated
Stradling, Yocca to stay at Newport Center
April 10, 1992
Byline: Mark Veverka;Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Irvine Co. has signed a high-profile law firm to a 10-year renewal at Newport Center.
After being heavily courted by other office landlords, Stradling, Yocca, Carlson and Rauth opted to stay put at 660 Newport Center Drive. The deal for 64,000 square feet was estimated to be worth about $14 million. The lease features a 17,000-square-foot expansion that includes remodeling of the four floors of space in the 16-story tower overlooking the ocean.
Hope builds in non-profit sector
Low-cost housing providers make deals
April 17, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Given almost two years of recession, it's no surprise that at least a few of Orange County's homebuilders are struggling to make money.
But there is a twist _ for a small but growing number of local housing companies, not making money is no accident. Non-profit housing _ currently just a tiny submarket in Orange County _ is about to become a growth industry.
"Obviously, there is no way of knowing for sure just how many people will get into this, but
Resale home market picks up in county
April 18, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home resales in Orange County rose slightly during the first quarter compared with same period in 1991.
The numbers: 4,228 homes resold in Orange County during the first three months of this year, a 3.6 percent increase from a year ago. The median price for a single-family resale was $224,000, down about $1,000 from a year ago. Condominium prices rose by about $4,000, to $153,000.
Quote: "It's obvious that the move-up market is still lagging. ... But
OC/US DATA
April 28, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
March was a solid month for the existing home market, with strong resales and stable prices reported locally, statewide and nationally. The data came Monday from the California and national boards of Realtors.
OC NUMBERS:
The median price for a single-family home resale in Orange County during March was $238,160, down 0.2 percent from March 1991. The number of homes sold was up 3.8 percent from a year earlier. OC ANALYSIS:
The slight upturn in sales is encouraging for two reasons.
Will riots in LA drive homeowners to OC?
May 5, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Last week's rioting squelched a minor housing boom that had been under way in south-central Los Angeles, and it could spark an exodus of Los Angeles-area homeowners to Orange County.
Economists and real-estate agents offered conflicting opinions on how the riots will affect housing markets in the two counties, but most agreed that homeowners wanting to relocate from middle-class neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Long Beach will at least consider Orange County.
Irvine Co. hires Bren firm
Homebuilding company will sell directly to public
May 6, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Irvine Co. has taken the unusual step of hiring Chairman Donald Bren's homebuilding firm to build and sell houses directly to the public.
Bren's Newport Beach-based building company, which last month changed its name from The Bren Co. to California Pacific Homes, has been signed to build two neigborhoods, a 176-unit project in Newport Ridge, near Newport Coast, and an as-yet unspecified project in Irvine's Westpark II, according to Irvine Co.
Builders say they'll avoid city in droves
New Costa Mesa standards frighten development firms
May 7, 1992
Byline: Zion Banks
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
For years, land developers enjoyed a virtual status quo on building standards from fees to setbacks.
But in the past year and a half, the city has jostled the development community with a series of standards designed to curb growth while encouraging home ownership. While residents say slowed development is the way to halt local traffic buildup, some developers and architects say the changes might force them to take their projects elsewhere.
OWNERS, BUYERS DECIDE THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
May 10, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Ed and Diana Burlingham don't want to say the word "forever," but they're thinking it.
The Burlinghams have lived in the same Costa Mesa house the past 17 years. Recently, after toying with the idea of moving, they decided to stay put, now and for the foreseeable future. It might not be the most exciting place in the world, but it's home.
OC DATA: HOME SALES
May 22, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Despite low interest rates and a glut of resale homes, the Orange County's housing market remains stuck in neutral, according to statistics issued Thursday by Dataquick Inc., a La Jolla-based real estate company.
THE NUMBERS:
During April, 2,507 houses and condominiums were sold in Orange County, down about 15 percent from a year earlier. The median price for a resale house fell 1.7 percent from a year ealier, to $225,000. The median price for a resale condominium rose 3.3
HOUSING
OC RATES CREATE OWNERS'
RENT LAMENT
May 24, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Ruben Spangenthal doesn't care that Orange County's rental-housing market _ easily the county's biggest cottage industry _ is in trouble.
Spangenthal doesn't lose much sleep over the plight of landlords, many of whom are going belly up as vacancies rise and real estate values fall. And he's even less concerned about the bankers, savings and loan executives and other lenders who are sweating out this real estate downswing in the
OC DATA: HOME RESALES
May 27, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Despite low interest rates and gradually lower home prices, there's been no serious recovery in home resales in Orange County, the state or the country, according to statistics from the California Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. NUMBERS:
While local sales were up slightly from March, when measured on a year-to-year basis sales of previously owned home in Orange County fell 14.3 percent during April. The median price fell 2 percent _ nearly $5,000
SELLING THE GOOD LIFE
Luxury condos to offer resort living, home ownership for seniors
June 9, 1992
Byline: Jane Glenn Haas
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The good life is for sale in Dana Point to seniors with about half a million in home equity, a good report card from their doctors and a yen for chauffeur-driven rides to the movies.
The Bluffs at Dana Point, a 180-unit luxury adult condominium project with a 20,000-square foot clubhouse, daily maid service and chauffeurs, breaks ground next month. Units ranging from 1,000 to 1,400 square feet are priced from $190,000 to $480,000 with monthly fees around $600. The $42 million project is a
FYI: REAL ESTATE
Pension funds inching toward housing market
June 12, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
For much of the past year, builders and advisers to builders have spoken wistfully of the day when pension funds will fund housing projects.
But so far, any serious homebuilding money from pension funds is just talk. Mark Held, president of the recently renamed Building Industry Advisors Inc. (formerly called Building Industry Capital Realty Advisors, or BICRA), said his group is closer today than ever to raising $125 million in pension-fund construction financing for California
CITIES
Yorba Linda's old, new fighting for space
June 29, 1992
Byline: Robert Chow
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
When Dario and Sharon Gomez built their dream house in 1972 on a three-fourths-acre avocado orchard on Easy Street, they sought to escape the hustle and bustle of the burgeoning cities of Orange County.
In Yorba Linda, they found pastoral tranquility, streets without sidewalks and a back yard big enough to accommodate a swimming pool, tennis court and stable. But Sharon Gomez, 45, said the breathing room and rural charm that drew them to Yorba Linda are quickly disappearing, giving way to a
More builders opting for low-risk, fee-based work
July 3, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
When you're losing, gambling stinks.
That's why many homebuilders, who've lost plenty in the past few years, are scrambling to trim the risk from what traditionally has been a very risky business. These days, more and more builders are trying to tap into so-called fee-management construction. It's a business strategy in which a homebuilder simply earns a paycheck, not a profit.
"Would I take on a fee-management project?
Sales in Newport Coast show market still strong
July 3, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The hottest thing going in the county's real estate market isn't condos in Rancho Santa Margarita or starter houses in Tustin Ranch.
It's land, very expensive land, that will sit under the fanciest homes in Newport Coast. The Irvine Co. is reporting that it sold 22 lots in five days after opening Pelican Hill last month. Pelican Hill is the third of four custom-home neighborhoods planned for Newport Coast.
Economic outlook still bleak
State jobless rate hits 8-year-high of 9.5 percent
July 3, 1992
Byline: Russ Stanton
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A flurry of economic news Thursday shows the recession still has a firm grip on the throat of Southern California and the nation.
Unemployment? The highest in eight years. The discount rate? The lowest in 29 years.
The prime lending rate? The lowest in 19 years. The seemingly conflicting news may have some consumers wondering what's going on. The answer: It's a very sluggish economy and the federal government is trying to coax it out of a two-year
New Americans' dream
Asian immigrants' desire to own home boosts OC market
July 5, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Meet the future of the Orange County housing market. His name is Cheng Pong Liu.
Liu, 45, is from Taiwan. For the past 15 months he has lived in Westminster with his wife and their 10-year-old son. Soon he plans to get a permanent working visa. Later he might apply for US citizenship. Until then Liu has done something he believes is almost as important. He has become a homeowner.
"I buy a home. ... Now I have a place in this country," Liu said.
OC DATA: HOME SALES
July 21, 1992
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
THE NUMBERS:
In June, home sales in Orange County dropped more than 20 percent from the year before. The median price of a single-family resale also dropped by 3.4 percent, or about $8,000 to $225,000, according to figures released Monday by the Southern California Real Estate Observer.
KEY FACTORS:
Home sales are down throughout Southern California because of unemployment and still-pricey housing. ANALYSIS:
A year ago, home sales boomed in the post-Persian Gulf war euphoria.
OC DATA: HOME SALES
July 22, 1992
The Orange County Register
THE NUMBERS:
In June, home sales in the six-county Southern California region dropped by about 20 percent. At the same time, the average price of all homes sold in the region was $220,951, down 2.2 percent, or about $5,000, from a year ago, according to figures released Tuesday by TRW/REDI Property Data.
KEY FACTORS:
Consumer confidence is down, unemployment is up and houses still cost more in Southern California than in almost every other market in the United States.
Computer snafu means extra tax bite for builders
Graded land in OC undervalued by $80 million
July 25, 1992
Byline: Ricky Young
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Developers have been getting a tax break for three years because the Orange County Assessor's Office failed to increase land value on thousands of lots prepared for development.
Fixing the problem might add $80 million to the tax rolls, Assessor Bradley Jacobs said, warning that the number was a guess. If the estimate is correct, developers would owe $1 million more in taxes. They were alerted to that possibility this week _ in midrecession.
Housing market in OC worsens
Demand dropping as supply grows
August 3, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
If Scott Mockler had more faith in the economy, he might have bought Gwen and Ron Linquist's $152,900 Garden Grove condominium earlier this year.
And if the Linquists could have sold their place, they would have bought that cute little house around the corner for $204,000. Then, after a few more buyers and sellers had worked their way up the real estate food chain, Sandy and Howard Kay almost certainly could sell their house in Newport Beach.
OC real estate market a mixed bag
Office vacancies down, housing market sluggish
August 5, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The good, the bad and the so-so in Orange County real estate came through in three surveys released Tuesday.
The best news was in Orange County's office market. The vacancy rate _ a measurement of empty office space _ dropped 1.2 percent during the second quarter, to 21.3 percent. The first-quarter rate of 22.5 percent equaled the most unoccupied office space here in at least five years, according to statistics compiled by CB Commercial, a Los Angeles-based commercial.
Report: Area needs million new housing units by 2000
August 14, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A report issued recently by the Southern California Association of Governments claims the six-county region will need 1 million more housing units by the year 2000.
That translates into a net growth of 130,000 new houses, condominiums and apartments every year for the rest of the decade. The region is growing at about half that pace. SCAG's prediction is based on an expectation that Southern California's population will grow by about 300,000 a year, with most of the
Irvine Realtors beckon Long Beach residents
August 20, 1992
Byline: John Westcott
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
About 130 Irvine real estate agents have their sights set on Long Beach.
Long Beach area residents are the subjects of a marketing effort by the Irvine Association of Realtors, a campaign intended to jump-start sagging real estate sales. The association is spending about $7,000 on a six-week advertising campaign in the Long Beach Press-Telegram urging people who live in that city and nearby communities such as Signal Hill and Lakewood to "Discover Irvine."
Foreclosure rate could double in OC this year
August 21, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez;Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Foreclosures could more than double in Orange County this year. And communities with the highest number of troubled properties also are those with the highest mortgage debt, according to a recent study by TRW/REDI Property Data in Riverside.
During the first half of this year, there were 1,264 foreclosures in Orange County. By comparison, there were 1,396 foreclosures in the county during all of 1991. Stanton, Laguna Beach and Santa Ana are among the communities on a pace to more than
YOUR MONEY NOTEBOOK
August 24, 1992
The Orange County Register
76.1
The number of billion dollars that Mexico had in foreign debt as of June 30.
Many Britons hold loans worth more than homes About one out of every 10 mortgages in Britain exceeds the value of the home that was purchased with the loan. What's more, the problem could get worse before it gets better. By 1994 as many as 1.6 million British households might hold mortgages worth more than their homes if UK house prices, which have fallen as much as 27 percent in southeast
Refinancing latecomers may lose out
September 8, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Someday 1992 could go down as the year of the great mortgage tease.
Interest rates are low. Home loans are cheap. Consumers, bummed by the long recession, are looking for extra dough. For the past 12 months or so, such conditions have produced nothing less than massive, unrepentant refinancemania.
In one year there's been as much refinancing activity in Southern California as there was in the four previous years combined. In Orange County alone, where home sales have fallen
OC home sales plunge 34% in August
September 18, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County plummeted 34.3 percent in August from the same month last year, believed to be the steepest such dive in two decades, according to a survey released Thursday.
Sales totaled 1,886 last month, compared with 2,872 in August 1991. Although comparable data was not compiled before 1988, the percentage drop is likely the steepest since the early 1970s, said John Karevoll, editor of the Southern California Real Estate Observer, which produces the survey.
OC housing sales down 17.1% in '92
September 25, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Any way you look at the numbers, Orange County's housing market is hurting.
The latest figures show that resales and new-home sales through the first eight months of 1992 are down 17.1 percent from the same period last year. The statistics, released Thursday by TRW REDI Property Data, come less than a week after the Southern California Real Estate Observer said sales were off a hefty 34.3 percent in August, compared with August 1991.
Meyers Group keeps forging ahead
Despite recession, housing-market expert focuses on expansion
October 12, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Jeff Meyers was only six months out of college when he started a real estate business in 1985. Working out of a garage converted into an office, Meyers, then 25, was hardly the picture of a seasoned, well-prepared entrepreneur.
By his own account, he was rather naive. He had only six months' full-time experience working with a San Diego developer before he plunged into the information and consulting business. Meyers went into the venture thinking he had only one competitor.
FYI: FINANCE
BofA introduces program for low-income homebuyers
October 22, 1992
Byline: Elliot Blair Smith
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
With one eye toward the recession and the other on a potential new source of profits, Bank of America is introducing mortgage-payment insurance for California homebuyers who qualify for its affordable-housing program.
Underwritten by Irvine-based Balboa Insurance Co., the policy will be offered to recipients of the bank's low-income and minority Neighborhood Advantage loans. The coverage takes effect when a qualifying homeowner is unexpectedly laid off or fired.
Home sales down 13.5% in OC last month
October 23, 1992
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's housing market fell again in September, but at a slower rate than it has so far this year.
For the month, local home sales fell 13.5 percent from a year ago, a slight improvement from the nine-month average drop of 16.8 percent, according to a report from TRW Redi Property Data Inc. of Riverside. The average price of a home sold in Orange County during September was $247,985, a drop of about $7,800, or 3 percent, from a year ago, according to TRW.
County home resales jump 9.7 percent in September
October 27, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Orange County resale housing market, after several months of decline, picked up a bit of steam in September, a state trade group said Monday.
Home resales rose 1.1 percent from September 1991 and 9.7 percent from August of this year, according to the California Association of Realtors. The improvement came as resales increased statewide in September compared with the previous month, while the national market slipped slightly.
September sales statewide totaled 374,220 on an
Coldwell banks on future
Real estate giant remains optimistic despite recession, impending sale by Sears
October 28, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The rumor mill was working overtime. For several days last month, businessman Mel Waite was hearing unconfirmed reports that Sears, Roebuck & Co. was planning to sell its Coldwell Banker real estate operations.
When the news finally was announced Sept. 29, Waite and two other owners of Sandpiper Realty in Indian Wells had a decision to make: should they continue negotiations to purchase a Coldwell Banker franchise? They answered, "Yes."
The vote is in: Now what?
Register Business Board skeptical of Clinton plans
November 5, 1992
Byline: Ronald Campbell
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County business leaders, who often bemoan government interference in the economy, awoke Wednesday to the advent of an activist president.
President-elect Clinton promised during the campaign to revive the economy with an undefined "partnership" between business and government. Members of The Orange County Register's Business Board, polled Wednesday, were skeptical about the proposed marriage. "If the new administration and Congress go
Presley misses loan payment date
Homebuilder seeks to renegotiate terms
November 14, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Presley Cos., a homebuilder controlled by Orange County developer William Lyon, missed a $19.1 million loan payment this week.
The disclosure was listed Friday in an earnings report that said Presley posted earnings of $2.6 million on sales of $50.2 million for the period ending Sept. 30. A year ago, the company earned $1.1 million on sales of $31.4 million. The improvement came from a one-time profit on the sale of a golf course, which created a pretax gain of $3.7 million.
Home resales in state heat up
Turnaround in consumer confidence cited by Realtors group
November 25, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Boosted by an apparent upswing in consumer confidence,
California home resales surged in October, a state trade group reported Tuesday.
About 417,000 single-family homes closed escrow on an annualized basis last month, up 10.9 percent from September and 7.6 percent from a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors. Orange County helped boost sales activity with a 14.3 percent increase from October 1991. "There are indications that consumer confidence has
Slump pinching Lyon Co.
Builder being forced into smaller operation
December 3, 1992
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The man employees and friends alike call "The General" is in the business battle of his life.
William Lyon, one of Orange County's largest and most consistently successful homebuilders for nearly 30 years, last week disclosed that he has pledged his 43 percent stake in Presley Cos. as collateral for a loan. The disclosure, made in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is just one of several signs that Lyon's homebuilding
December home auctions buck season's traditions
December 4, 1992
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
'Tis the season for Christmas shopping, holiday parties and sightings of a jolly old fat man. But residential real estate auctions?
Several builders are hoping to find holiday cheer by bucking tradition and auctioning new homes and lots in Orange County this weekend and next. They're selling in a month when home sales normally hit the skids. "It's traditionally the time when you go to sleep in real estate," Newport Beach analyst
Tustin residents protest developer's housing proposal
Zoning change would increase density
December 24, 1992
Byline: Zion Banks
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Tustin Ranch residents turned out Monday to protest a developer's request for a zoning change, allowing for increased density in a new housing development. They persuaded the City Council to delay a final decision on the plan.
The William Lyon Co. asked the city for the zone change so that it can build more, smaller homes on part of a 436-acre residential project. The proposal is for 25 units an acre on 146 acres and 18 units an acre on 97 acres. The new zoning would allow up to
COPING WITH ZERO
Despite forecasts for continued tough times, California companies needn't stagnate in '93
Growth: OC firms offer examples of proven methods
December 27, 1992
Byline: Jerry Hirsch
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
In previous recessions the slump ended and companies got back to business as usual.
Economists, especially in California, now wonder if "business as usual" will ever be the same. "Slow growth" or "no growth" figure to be the economic watchwords for the near term. Indeed, a Wells Fargo Bank economic report earlier this month forecast that Southern California won't begin to turn around until 1995.
3 builders buy land in Mission Viejo
Plans call for 511 homes
January 7, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Three major homebuilders have purchased 103 acres for what is expected to be one of the largest housing developments to come on line in Orange County this year.
The Fieldstone Co., Kaufman and Broad, and Lewis Homes are planning to build 511 single-family homes in adjacent projects in the Mission Viejo community of Pacific Hills. The land was purchased from Bank of California in what was believed to be the largest bank-foreclosed residential property deal in the county to date.
Hill Williams not paying investors
Builder suspends distribution because of cash-flow woes
January 12, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Hurt by the slumping real estate market, homebuilder Hill Williams Development Corp. has suspended monthly distribution payments to several thousand investors because of cash-flow problems.
President Donald H. Williams said the company hopes to resume the distributions once the housing market rebounds. "We just feel like we need to retain as much cash as possible until things start cranking up again," Williams said.
Lumber costs rise, builders' hopes fall
Environmental rules and world demand blamed for increase
January 12, 1993
Byline: Nick Harder
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The price of lumber is skyrocketing, and Orange County homebuilders are in knots.
Dwindling supplies, due in part to more environmentally sensitive cutting programs in the Pacific Northwest, and rising demand worldwide have US lumber prices at all-time highs. In the past two weeks alone, the wholesale cost of lumber has gone up 25 percent. The surge continued Monday when lumber contracts rose $5, the maximum amount allowed by commodity exchanges in a single session.
OC home sales and prices fell in '92, report says
January 18, 1993
Byline: Andre Mouchard
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
An improving national economy, the lowest mortgage rates in two decades and falling home prices should have meant an improved housing market in Orange County in 1992.
But that's not the way things turned out. Despite a late-year surge _ making December the busiest month in 1 1/2 years _ in 1992, Orange County home-sales activity and prices fell from 1991, according to a report to be released today by the Southern California Real Estate Observer, a Running Springs-based
Housing recovery: Reality or mirage?
Numbers are up, but some unsure
January 21, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Is this the Big Tease II? Or the underpinnings of a mild recovery?
The housing industry is pondering those questions after some encouraging numbers surfaced this week that some believe portend better days for Orange County's battered housing industry. On Monday, December home-sales figures showed a 38.8 percent increase in resales from a year ago and a 13 percent jump in sales of new and existing homes.
It was the busiest month in 1 1/2 years, leading some analysts to
Q & A: KENNETH KASDAN
Builders getting hammered by construction-defect suits
January 24, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
We're in the midst of the worst housing market in decades. Construction has dropped dramatically from the boom of the late 1980s. Thousands of jobs have been lost.
One business tied to housing is booming, but its venue is the courtroom, not residential lots. Depositions and expert testimony, not nails and hammers, are tools of the trade. Homeowners are suing builders and contractors in greater
numbers, claiming shoddy construction or other defects.
Irvine lawyer Kenneth
Standard Pacific earnings drop 44 percent in '92
January 27, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Still smarting from California's real estate woes, Standard Pacific Corp. on Tuesday reported a 44 percent drop in earnings last year.
For 1992, the company earned $4.5 million on revenue of $304.7 million, compared with profits of $8 million and sales of $299.1 million in 1991. Because the company operated as a limited partnership until last year, 1991 results were on an estimated basis. California's slumping housing market hurt Standard Pacific and led to higher
Renters deserve credit
January 31, 1993
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
`It's only $60." Some advocates of gutting the state renters'-tax deduction suggest it's only a pittance they're talking about taking from individual taxpayers, while the overall benefit to the treasury would be substantial.
Well, one person's pittance is another's person's plenty. This deduction _ or "credit" as it's officially called _ is only $60 per
Limit on mortgage tax break criticized
February 11, 1993
Byline: Elliot Blair Smith
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
A proposal to cap interest deductions to the first $300,000 of a mortgage loan would put new pressures on Southern California's housing market and cost homeowners thousands of dollars in tax savings, critics say.
But affordable-housing advocates say homeowners already enjoy more financial benefits through the tax code than all low-income federal housing assistance combined. The proposal, part of efforts by Congress and the Clinton administration to wring up to $4 billion in new
Dollar sign is behind vanishing sale signs
Condo neighbors fear lower prices
February 16, 1993
Byline: Gina Tenorio
South County News; Kim Christensen
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The mystery began Feb. 1, when John Inman put his Laguna Niguel condo on the market.
Every day, he placed "For Sale" and "Open House" signs on his lawn and just outside the complex. Every night, the signs disappeared. At first, he merely replaced them. But when the cost rose to about $20 a day, he enlisted a couple of neighborhood kids to stake out the scene. What they discovered shocked him.
The culprits were his neighbors.
OC CHECKS THE FINE PRINT
Real estate executives: It's a tough sale
February 19, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
President Clinton gets no "thank yous" from executives in Orange County's real estate industry.
Many fear that the effects of the tax proposals would make it harder for the industry to recover, particularly because higher taxes would hit the county especially hard. "His program will be a damper to a recovery, which will have a negative impact on real estate," said Michael Meyer, managing partner of Kenneth Leventhal &
Million-dollar homes a hard sell in '92
March 4, 1993
Byline: Jerry Hirsch
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Pity the wealthy. First they find themselves targeted by
President Clinton's tax plans. Now they find the housing market has fallen out from beneath their million-dollar homes.
California home sales dipped 7 percent last year. But the number of homes selling for $1 million or more fell 15.7 percent, to 1,776, according to La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems. Southern California was hit hardest.
Q&A
ROLAND OSGOOD
Low-cost homes bring buyers to builder
March 7, 1993
Byline: Kelly Barron
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
At a time when many homebuilders are flat on their financial backs, Los Angeles-based Kaufman and Broad Home Corp. is
aggressively buying land and building new projects in Orange County.
A year and a half ago, the publicly traded builder formed a Newport Beach-based division headed by former Irvine Co. executive Roland Osgood. Since then Osgood has expanded Kaufman's Orange County operations from three projects to 11. Osgood believes Kaufman and Broad will sell 500 to 600
BASE CLOSURES
El Toro closing could deflate south OC real estate market
Base's cloudy fate adds to other factors hurting home sales
March 10, 1993
Byline: Kelly Barron
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Unemployment. Economic uncertainty. Low consumer confidence. Now add El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to the mixture of elements likely to affect home sales in south Orange County communities.
While opinions from home sellers, real estate agents and analysts were mixed Tuesday as to what the effect of a base closing might be on home sales, most agreed the uncertainty itself is adding yet another troubling influence to south county's real estate market.
Average OC home price hits 4 1/2-year low
March 18, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's housing market failed to rebound in February, and the average price of a home fell to a 4 1/2-year low.
Sales and prices fell for the second straight month, belying the notion that the local housing industry is on the rebound. But one analyst said two months is not enough to gauge the market accurately.
Home sales fell to 1,704, a 4.9 percent drop from a year ago, according to statistics released by TRW Redi Property Data.
Building permits plummet in OC
February figures reflect weakened housing demand
March 31, 1993
Byline: Rob Perez
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's sluggish housing market isn't likely to rebound soon if February building permit totals are an indication.
Builders pulled only 265 permits for new single-family homes, down about 30 percent from a year ago, according to figures released Tuesday by the Construction Industry Research Board. It was even more dismal for multifamily dwellings. Only 18 permits were pulled, down 63.3 percent from a year earlier.
Time for new loan? Maybe
Many factors involved in refinancing home
April 7, 1993
Byline: Kelly Barron
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
As mortgage rates dropped to new lows last year, few homeowners thought there could be a better time to refinance their home loans.
Guess again. Rates on 30-year fixed home loans have dropped 1 1/2 percent from last year's peak. And some mortgage lenders, seeing a slight dip in their business after 1992's record activity, have begun to offer a slew of new incentives to homeowners looking to refinance
REAL ESTATE NOTES
April 16, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Commercial markets in O.C. still sluggish, update shows
Surprise. Orange County's commercial real estate markets are still sluggish. Such was the gist of Grubb & Ellis' first-quarter update on the county's office, industrial and retail real estate markets. Office vacancies in the county stood at 20.5 percent at the end of the first quarter. That was down more than a full percentage point from last year, when vacancies stood at 21.6 percent.
TALK BACK
A reply to a Register editorial
April 18, 1993
Byline: Bill Morrow
The Orange County Register
Last month's Orange County Register editorial entitled "Beyond the base," was beyond me. It effectively ran up the white flag on the El Toro Marine Corps base. You scolded several state legislators, particularly myself, for voicing their warranted opposition.
I am amazed that this newspaper intimated that the need for the base was lessened in view of our winning the Cold War and a perceived diminished military threat. The world is still a dangerous place.
FEEDBACK MAKES THE FLOOR PLAN
REAL ESTATE: In a bid to survive the recession local builders seek design advice from buyers.
May 3, 1993
Byline: ROB PEREZ
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
As they peered through a one-way mirror, Fieldstone Co. executives braced for some harsh words. They had invited potential homebuyers to critique floor plans that Fieldstone developed for a Mission Viejo project.
The executives got an earful. Quick with praise, the group was equally free with criticism. They wanted more flexibility in changing the home's interior. They wanted smaller or fewer windows. They liked three-car garages _ but not the space the doors took up along the
Builders' protests delay Tustin fire-sprinkler vote
CITIES: Industry experts say stringent fire regulations will drive up construction costs.
May 20, 1993
Byline: ZION BANKS
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
City Council members decided to hold off on deciding whether to require fire sprinklers in some homes after building industry officials complained that the ordinance would increase home costs.
Despite giving preliminary approval to tougher fire regulations this month, the council on Monday delayed final action after hearing from building industry officials. The council will discuss the regulations again at its June 7 meeting.
O.C. home sales, prices dip from April '92 level
REAL ESTATE: Low consumer confidence continues to plague housing market.
May 26, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Sales of existing single-family homes in Orange County dropped 8.7 percent in April from the same month a year ago, according to a recent report from the California Association of Realtors.
Median home prices also fell, dropping 7.3 percent to $218,200. Although home sales remain sluggish, April's numbers were a bit of an improvement from March. Sales of existing homes rose 0.4 percent in April from March.
Prices, however, continued to slip.
Home resales show little life in May report
REAL ESTATE: Volume in the county is up from April, down from year-earlier figures.
June 16, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The home-sales market in Orange County remained lethargic in May.
Resale activity in single-family homes dropped 3 percent during the month from May 1992, according to the Southern California Real Estate Observer newsletter. May sales volume improved slightly from April, up 2.3 percent. Home prices in the county also fell during May. The countywide median for a single-family home was $215,000 _ off roughly 7 percent from May 1992.
Condominiums fared better. Condo resales were up 17
Q&A
Lewis Homes builds up plans for O.C.
June 27, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The home-sales slump has been brutal for Orange County homebuilders. Some of the county's biggest, William Lyon Co. and Lusk Co., have stumbled. But the downturn also has created opportunities for a handful of well-capitalized builders that previously had been shut out of the local market. Lewis Homes is one of them.
The Upland-based builder, one of the largest in the state, has developed homes, apartments, and business parks in Baldwin Park, Azusa and Sacramento.
LAND: Signs of life are emerging from the local and national markets. But that doesn't mean it's time just yet to buy, buy, buy.
July 6, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Will 1993 be the year that breathes life into Orange County's nearly dead real estate market?
The Orange County Register has taken thermometer readings of several parts of the market to see how they are faring three years after the arrival of the hardest downturn ever to hit the region. What we found: clear signs of life _ but little expectation for robust health anytime soon.
"It's getting better," said Dennis Macheski, research director
RESIDENTS TRYING TO SELL HOMEBUYERS ON STANTON
HOUSING: One couple, who have had their home on the market for a year, blame the city's poor image for their bad luck.
July 8, 1993
Byline: VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The ad reads: Immaculate three bedroom, two bath, family room, fireplace, plantation shutters, central air, plush carpeting, designed landscape to custom-bricked atrium. $199,900.
Helen and Sam Russo's home has been on the market for a year. Eleven months listed with an agent. The last month, the Russos have been on their own. About two dozen prospective buyers called in the last month.
The Russos describe the tiled entryway, the mahogany doors, the window awnings and their
Westminster to meet on mobile-home laws
HOUSING: Residents of a park set for closure say they're getting low prices for their homes. City will hold hearing on laws governing owners.
July 8, 1993
Byline: STACI TURNER
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Homes in the Mission Del Amo Mobile Home Park used to sell for $40,000, resident Stan Hirsch said. These days, they go for $1,500 to $6,000.
One reason: Owners of the mobile-home park intend to eventually redevelop the 23 acres along Bolsa Avenue between Brookhurst and Bushard streets. It's tough to get a high price for a mobile home in a park that could close in the next few years, residents say. City laws require park owners to pay relocation costs when they close a park.
FINANCE NOTES
July 15, 1993
Byline: DAWN YOSHITAKE
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Savings league hoping to light fire under potential homebuyer Officials with the California League of Savings Institutions have a few things to consider this week at its Western Secondary Mortgage Market Conference in San Francisco.
The group is reviewing statistics on the number of people in the state who are interested _ or not interested _ in jumping into the housing market. S&Ls, like other financial institutions, obviously have a great interest in these things.
HELP FOR HOUSING
Q&A: Is the state mortgage-insurance program worth voting funding for?
July 17, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
With great fanfare, Gov. Pete Wilson announced Thursday that he had signed legislation to create a landmark, state-run housing-insurance fund.
Wilson and state officials say the fund, designed to back private mortgages to first-time homebuyers, would help remedy two of the state's woes: a weak housing market and an even weaker economy. But ultimately voters will make the call. The much-heralded program needs financing. And the governor will have to get that through a bond
O.C. housing market worsens in first half
REAL ESTATE: June home sales and prices also show declines.
July 20, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's housing market worsened during the first half of 1993 compared with a year earlier, according to two housing reports released Monday.
Analysts say the reports _ by TRW Redi Property Data and the Southern California Real Estate Observer _ show that consumers are still reluctant to enter the market despite the lowest mortgage rates in 22 years and favorable home prices. "There's no sense of urgency in the marketplace," said David
U.S.housing rebound skips Orange County
REAL ESTATE: Though O.C. median home prices rise slightly from May, they're still 6.2 percent down from June 1992.
July 27, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The nation's home-selling markets might have healed, but the state and local housing businesses are stagnant, two reports out Monday show.
According to statistics from the National Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors: Nationally, on a seasonally adjusted, annual basis, 3.69 million homes were sold in June, an 11.1 percent increase from June 1992. June's activity was up 1.9 percent from May.
Grant funds available for home financing
HOUSING: Via a non-profit corporation, the federal outlay will pay for home purchases by families earning less than $39,700.
August 6, 1993
Byline: The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Laying the framework for an affordable-housing program
that will serve 25 to 30 first-time homebuyers, Jamboree Housing Corp. said Thursday that it has been awarded a share of a $1 million federal grant.
Non-profit Jamboree said the funds will finance home purchases by families earning less than $39,700 _ 72 percent of the county median income. The company will employ a lottery system to select recipients. "This is a unique opportunity for lower-income families who have been
THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS
REAL ESTATE: The worse Orange County's market gets, the better it looks to builders elsewhere.
August 10, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Bob Toll, chairman of Pennsylvania-based homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc., has wanted to break into Southern California's housing market for the past five years.
On occasional trips to Southern California, the 52-year-old homebuilder said he often thought: "Wouldn't it be great to be in this market." Toll quickly added, "But it was always too expensive and overpriced." Not anymore. Land prices in Orange County are
REAL ESTATE NOTES
August 13, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Housing slump's latest victim is Tustin Ranch condo project
LDM Development Inc.'s condominium project in Tustin Ranch has become another housing-downturn statistic. Bank of America is foreclosing on the 129-unit project called Ventana. Laguna Niguel-based LDM is in default on $9.7 million in loans on the development, according to records from Orange County Superior Court.
Company founders Larry Lizotte and Jerry McCloskey say they've been trying to
O.C. home sales jump in July, but prices slide
REAL ESTATE: Analyst says August figures also should show some improvement.
August 17, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's home-sales market improved significantly in July, recording an increase from last year's levels for the second consecutive month.
Countywide resale activity in single-family homes jumped 18.6 percent for the month from July 1992, according to the Southern California Real Estate Observer newsletter. The 1,808 homes sold in July is the most since August 1991, said newsletter editor John Karevoll. July sales volume also was an improvement from June, up
SIDESTEPPING FORECLOSURE
REAL ESTATE: Banks are increasingly willing to negotiate with strapped homeowners.
August 19, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Last year lenders took back more homes through foreclosure in Orange County than they have in nearly a decade. Now banks _ loathe to add more bad real estate to their portfolios _ are trying a different tact. They're cutting deals with financially hamstrung homeowners.
Consider Matt McGraw's experience. McGraw fell behind in his monthly mortgage payments after his wife went to part-time work to care for the couple's newborn baby.
Lyon Homes, Ross Perot Jr. join forces
REAL ESTATE: In a joint venture, Texas' Hillwood Development and the O.C. builder will construct 144 homes in Aliso Viejo.
September 4, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Ross Perot Jr., the son of the Texas billionaire and one-time presidential candidate, has formed a joint venture with William Lyon to build houses in Aliso Viejo.
The partnership marks the entry of Perot's Dallas-based Hillwood Development into the Orange County housing market. It's also the first deal for Newport Beach-based Lyon Co.'s newly formed homebuilding division _ an entity created as a result of the homebuilder's restructuring with
REAL ESTATE NOTES
September 10, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Lotteries, camp-outs crop up even in this sleepy market
Camp-outs? Lotteries? In this housing market? As difficult as it is to believe, that's what's happening at Irvine Co.'s Newport Coast and Newport Ridge.
On Thursday sales agents at Taylor Woodrow Homes' Newport Coast project said they had five campers waiting to bid on town homes that go on sale Saturday. The homes, which have yet to be built, range in price from $184,990 to $264,990.
Home construction will build, slowly
HOUSING: Statistical analysis points to a more stable residential housing market in Orange County for the rest of the decade.
September 12, 1993
Byline: ESMAEL ADIBI
The Orange County Register
In 1960, Orange County's population was approximately 700,000 and the housing stock stood at 227,000. Assuming no vacancy, the number of individuals occupying a unit was about 3.1.
In 1990, the Census Bureau estimated the county population at 2.45 million and the housing stock at 887,000 units, leading to 2.8 persons per housing unit. It follows, then, that the prevailing weakness in the housing market, in part, could be attributed to housing construction exceeding population
A pause in the cause of home ownership
REAL ESTATE: Renting-vs.-buying debates among county residents heat up in a cool housing market.
September 13, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home prices and mortgage rates are down, so now's a super time to buy a house. Right?
Jay Krigsman, for one, doesn't think so. Krigsman has become an avowed renter after recently selling his Mission Viejo condominium at a $30,000 loss.
Krigsman and his wife bought the property three years ago with the hope of parlaying the purchase into a larger home. But with home prices falling and their dream of a bigger home dying, the Krigsmans cut their losses rather than
O.C. should create agency for El Toro plan, study says
DEVELOPMENT: A J.P. Morgan report shows that communities with a special unit have the most success.
September 15, 1993
Byline: MARY ANN MILBOURN
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County's best chance to successfully plan for the use of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station site is to create a special agency, a San Francisco-based investment banker said Tuesday.
Michael Patrick George, a managing director of J.P. Morgan Securities, based his advice on the firm's study of about 80 previous base closures. "Our study indicated you need a special-purpose government agency to capture the opportunity," George told
Among consumers in O.C., pessimists reign
POLL: Even so, a bare majority of residents say now is the time to make a big purchase.
September 16, 1993
Byline: RONALD CAMPBELL
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County consumers can't shake the blues.
Four years of declining home prices and three years of declining job rolls have beaten the optimism out of consumers: For the first time, pessimists outnumber optimists in the county, according to a telephone poll of 1,007 adult residents. The poll, part of the Orange County Annual Survey, showed that consumer confidence in the county is low in every income range, in every region and among every age group except those under 35.
FHA home loans' share of O.C. market doubles
REAL ESTATE: The reasons are more homes in the agency's price range and a bigger maximum loan amount of $151,725.
September 18, 1993
Byline: ANDRE MOUCHARD
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Uncle Sam is becoming a player in the local housing market.
A report issued Friday by TRW REDI Property Data found that loans issued by the Federal Housing Administration accounted for more than 11 percent of all home sales in Orange County during the first six months of this year. That's more than double the rate of FHA loans issued last year in Orange County and sharply above long-term levels.
A primary goal of the FHA loan program is to give first-time homebuyers a chance
He started with a hot_dog cart in 1941. His company grew into one of the largest fast_food empires. But with the millions he earned, Carl Karcher dabbled in everything from real estate to gold mines, investments that led to...A CHAIN OF LOSSES
September 26, 1993
Byline: RUSS STANTON; ANDRE MOUCHARD
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Carl Karcher received more than $2.3 million last year in salary, rent and dividends from the Carl's Jr. hamburger chain he founded in 1941. The shares in the fast-food venture his family trust owns are worth $53 million.
So how did Karcher land in such deep financial despair that executives at Anaheim-based Carl Karcher Enterprises accuse him of trying to peddle the vice chairmanship of the company for a $6 million loan? The Orange County entrepreneur who parlayed an
O.C. home resales rise 7%, but median prices decline
REAL ESTATE: State and national sales show a drop in August.
September 28, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Home sales in Orange County showed sizable gains in August, while sales statewide and nationally slipped from a month ago, according to housing reports released Monday.
Here's how the home-resale market shaped up: Locally, single-family resales jumped nearly 7 percent in August from July and a whopping 44 percent from resales in August 1992, according to the California Association of Realtors. Median home prices in the county, however, continued to tumble.
REAL ESTATE: Low rates and low prices spur signs of improvement in the county housing market.
September 29, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Believe it or not, Orange County home sales have been hot this summer.
The formula for the sales surge is simple: Low interest rates, bargain home prices and motivated home sellers have lured buyers back into the market. So much so that August was the busiest sales month in two years. Overall, home sales were up 12 percent from last summer, according to La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems. And single-family resales, the largest segment of the market, were up 21 percent.
O.C. home sales keep rolling
REAL ESTATE: Low mortgage rates and falling prices fuel the market.
October 12, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County home sales are on a roll.
Home sales activity remained brisk in September, topping off a summer sales surge, according to data released Monday by La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems. The total number of homes sold in the county in September increased 5.5 percent from August and was up 46 percent from September 1992, as low mortgage rates and home prices encouraged more buyers to enter the market.
THEY'RE CONDENSED BUT NOT CONDOS
O.C. REAL ESTATE: Small houses on small lots are the hit of homebuilding business as an alternative to condominiums.
October 14, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
You don't need a riding mower to cut the lawn. Heck. A good pair of scissors may do.
But at least you've got a yard and four walls to yourself. And Orange County homebuilders are bringing it to you for about the price of a condominium. The catch is that these single-family homes are on pint-sized lots lined 10 to the acre _ nearly double the density of traditional single-family-home projects. It's the American Dream albeit a miniaturized version.
SPOTLIGHT
Mortgage rates dip to lowest level since '68
October 16, 1993
Byline: Bloomberg Business News
The Orange County Register
The last time mortgage rates fell to current levels _ 6.81 percent this week for a 30-year loan _ Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, Vietnam was rocking the country and the Beatles were still together.
The year was 1968, of course, and economists are starting to suspect that the current drop in interest rates may be bringing the United States even further back to an earlier time of price stability. "We have entered an era of low inflation much like that which we enjoyed in
Realtor official sees challenging market
PROPERTY: An Orange County Realtor takes the lead statewide, serving as president-elect of the California Association of Realtors
October 17, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
In two decades in the real estate business Pat Neal has never seen a market quite like this. Interest rates are at historic lows. Home prices are falling. And recession-weary homebuyers aren't buying.
Those market dynamics should make Neal's tenure as the California Association of Realtors' 1993 president-elect all the more challenging. Neal was recently named to the 115,000-member statewide trade organization.
REAL ESTATE NOTES
Presley's new lenders reflect homebuilder's growing woes
November 26, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
New lenders have entered the fray to pump some financial life into money-losing Newport Beach-based homebuilder Presley Cos.
Last week the company announced that Foothill Capital Corp. and First Plaza Group Trust replaced First Interstate Bank, the Bank of California and California Federal Bank as credit-line lenders. Pearl Street L.P. and Internationale Nederlanden (U.S.) Capital Corp. also joined as credit-line lenders by replacing Continental Bank. Presley recently restructured and
REAL ESTATE NOTES
December 3, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Construction-lending pace
appears to be picking up
The slowdown in construction lending appears to be leveling off, according to a report released this week by La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems. But that may not be saying much. In Orange County anything would be an improvement from last spring, when lending hit the lowest point since Dataquick began tracking the data in 1988.
In March, for example, just $22 million in construction funding was doled out. Compare that with
National homebuilder acquires Yorba Linda lots
REAL ESTATE: Toll Bros. aims for high-end housing niche.
December 15, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Toll Bros. Inc., a Pennsylvania-based homebuilder that is one of the nation's largest, has broken into the Orange County market with the acquisition of 160 lots in Yorba Linda.
Toll acquired the lots from Summit Chase Associates, a partnership that included Woodcrest Development Co. owner John E. Wertin. Terms weren't disclosed. A builder of luxury homes in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, Toll plans to develop semicustom homes at the Visa Estates project on
Home sales in O.C. jump 38%
REAL ESTATE: Low mortgage rates and falling home prices spur the industry.
December 21, 1993
Byline: KELLY BARRON
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Orange County home sales are turning out to be a bright spot in an otherwise dim Southern California economic outlook.
Last month Orange County home sales jumped 38 percent from a year ago, according to La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems. November had the highest sales recorded for the month since 1990 and was the second-best sales month of the year. "We're seeing a lot of activity with homes priced between $160,000 and $200,000," said George
STATE HOME SALES PICK UP STEAM
December 23, 1993
The Orange County Register
Home resales increased statewide in November for the sixth consecutive month, while prices continued to fall, according to new statistics from the California Association of Realtors. Faster sales mean shorter sales time. The realty board calculates that it would take 10.0 months to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current rate of sales. That compares with 11.1 months in October and 13.6 months in November 1992. Home resales make up about 80 percent of the housing market.
O.C. home defaults fall
ECONOMY: In a bright sign for the county and state housing markets, foreclosures are declining sharply.
December 25, 1993
Byline: JEFF ROWE
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
Another ray of light has shone through for the region's housing market: Fewer people are defaulting on their mortgages.
In Orange County, 2,685 default notices were posted in September, October and November, a 13.5 percent decline from the previous three months, Dataquick Inc., a real estate information company in La Jolla, reported Friday. The news was equally positive statewide. Default notices on California homes fell in November for the third straight month, and were 13.3
Notice anything familar? All you would have to do is change the dates and it would be very much like today. Here are ten favorite similar themes.
1. There is no mention of a recession until after the housing market tured.
2. Affordabilty is one of the first issues mentioned.
3. Sales volume was first to see a drop while the median price was still going up.
4. Even when rates were lowered they had no effect on picking the market up.
5. As the market turned the builders went to building more condos.
6. Fed rate cut is not the cure.
7. Homebuilders start posting losses.
8. High end homes suffered and suffered greatly.
9. Notice the early "now is the time to buy" theme.
10. Several mentions of a turn for a better market only to turn out to be false. A lot of cat back bounces.
I find it just eerie how similar these articles are. So let me know which one is your favorite by exact date and if the register permits me I will buy the top five and post them on the blog.
Very nice! I'll pull out some gems and feature this (and link to it) today, if I can find the time.
Graphrix, I've finished the post. I ended up swiping about half of these and commenting on them. Any objections to my posting them? You did a lot of hard work here and I don't want to steal the spotlight...
Wow...that is amazing. What is depressing is that it took so many years for the prices to actually decline.
I did find it interesting that the developers and major players seemed to jump ship before the affect of the layoffs really hit.
OC_Fliptrack go ahead and take what you need. Just site me as your source. I enjoy all the bubble blogs but with mine I want to show how the local economy is effected by housing and other factors. Not that Lansner doesn't do a great job but I think we need another amateur opinion. So point people my way, keep checking here and I am sure that all the local OC bubble bloggers can work together to form a great alternative info source.
I could combine it with a blog intro ("featured blog"), perhaps. Do you have anything really hard-hitting in the pipeline that perhaps I should wait for? Something that will "wow" people on their first visit?
OC_Fliptrack I don't think I have anything yet that would be considered "wow" yet. I am working on comparing the last cycle's RE job growth and this cycle's. It will be a few days for that one. I just posted some info on foreclosure comparison. I am going to working with oc renter on revisiting Sutters Mill in Ladera and that should be interesting.
Great stuff graphrix! Welcome to the blogosphere! :) I'll send some traffic your way soon.. although it'll be a pittance compared to what OC Fliptrack is doing :)
Keep up the great work!
vanmorrisonfan - That would be a great idea to compare the income historically to todays is a great idea. I may have to dig deep for that one. One thing I know is that too many of these people who have bought in the run up really don't have the income. Check out http://bubbletracking.blogspot.com for more info to come.
graphrix:
Welcome to the blogging world. Orange County is near and dear to me so I am definitely going to keep up with what is going on in this neighborhood!
2007 is a good year to start. The action is set to begin. Los Angeles Q4 defaults came in at 37,273. Looking hot!
Cheers,
Dr. Housing Bubble
Hi graphrix, I am looking forward to your commentary and analysis! Thanks for pulling all that history out from the ether for us. Skimming through the articles makes it even more clear that the bulls are just kidding themselves if they want to believe that real estate never goes down, certainly not in OC where everyone is rich and beautiful!
Is it a lack of content or pressure. This sucks.
There's one thing that history doesn't account for. The level of this recent boom is significantly greater than that in the early 90s. Is it possible for the fall to be even more severe than the last one?
whoa
Have you guys found a new Forum to replace the irvinehousingblog Forums ?
Thanks !
Hi, I came across your site and wasn’t able to get an email address to contact you about a broken link on your site. Please email me back and I would be happy to point them out to you.
Thanks!
Harry
harry.roger10@gmail.com
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