Inventory as of 24th March, 2013: 184.
I know, you all laugh when you hear the legendary Realtor statement “Buy now or be priced out forever”. But of late, the Irvine market has flipped, and is clearly on the seller's side, forcing people to buy before they are priced out, or the interest rates rise! Oh wait, this is Irvine. We don't care about interest rates. We buy all cash. At least most of the people I talk to are sharing stories of exorbitant down payments or all cash purchases. It's a different world from what we saw four years ago, when we looking to buy. Inventory was maximum, and even though there were multiple offers of properties, people were under bidding each other as opposed to over bidding now to get a property, guaranteed.
I have profiled the West Irvine condominiums a couple of times to show how the market has changed for them in a year, some even appreciating as much as $200,000. Today, I will profile another condominium from the 92602 zip code, but not in West Irvine.
46 Trailing Vine, Irvine CA 92602
Listing Price: $525,000
Beds/ baths: 3 Beds/ 2.5 Baths
Area: 1395 SF
Year Built: 2005
Monthly Expenses:
Mortgage: $1915
HOA Dues: $290
Mello Roos: $113
Property tax: $463
Total Monthly Expenses: $2781
Cost of owning/ SF: $2/ SF Monthly
When the market was going down a couple of years ago, there was a lot of chatter about shadow inventory. Technically, if the market performed as the graph projected, that would be the case, and we would have reached the rock bottom in the summer of 2012. But, now we all know that those who bought in the 2008-2011 time period did not catch a falling knife.
Here is a brief history of trailing vine properties:
2007: $419/SF
2008: $349/SF – $367/SF
2009: $311/SF – $329/SF
2010: $302/SF – $342/SF
2011: $297/SF – $306/SF
2012: $274/SF – $295/SF
2013: 81 Trailing Vine, $330/SF
92 Trailing Vine, $294/SF
33 Trailing Vine, $329/SF
38 League, $354/SF
From $419/SF to $274/SF, Tamarisk has seen it all.
What do you think?
Would you buy a Tamarisk house fearing that you might actually be priced out very soon if the trend continues?
Are you willing to pay half a million dollars to buy a house with a tiny patio, and view of the freeway from the bedrooms?
Share your views at Talk Irvine.