Orange County Market Report- May 2022

In 2002, the Los Angeles Angels won the World Series for the first time in franchise history. The next year they missed the playoffs completely with a losing record. After hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy the year before as champions of the world, they missed post season play due to a slump in wins to close out the year from July through September. The Orange County housing market is amid a similar slump in the middle of the Spring Market following the best year for local real estate since 2005.

Demand has stalled this spring. During the Spring Market, demand normally is on the rise along with the active listing inventory. More homes come on the market during the spring than any other time of the year. There is cyclically more escrow activity because that is when families desire to open escrow in hopes of closing and moving at the end of spring or during the summer when the kids are out of school. The housing market cyclically revolves around families and the school year. Spring is when there is the most activity, followed by summer. Then housing decelerates during the autumn after the kids go back to school. It then downshifts further during the holidays, the slowest time of the year.

The active listing inventory surged higher, adding 372 homes in the past couple of weeks, up 21%, and now sits at 2,104 homes, climbing above the 2,000-home threshold for the first time since last October, six months ago.