Mr. Blue, last time I checked, Laguna Beach is still part of Orange County. As for my posting of the O.C. median price, it was in direct response to YOUR statement from 8 days ago. I'll repeat here, just for you:

" I don't care because i know that the OC median price is dropping, has dropped, and will continue to drop. Nothing flat about it. "

Coming back 8 days later, trying to change the subject, still finds you were wrong. Why am I not surprised?

What does the median home price from all of Orange County have to do with prices in Laguna Beach, Bob?
Nothing. I'm glad I am not your client.

Mr. Blue, I DID answer your query with data - in one of the many other threads you keep flittering to. This is from DataQuick, showing a relatively flat median price for the past 6 months - just as I have stated:

$430,000 = Nov
$425,000 = Dec
~2009~
$418,250 = Jan
$434,500 = Feb
$431,500 = Mar
$430,000 = Apr
$435,000 = May 7

MOST observers would consider those numbers a relatively flat line. I have provided profuse data to refute your postulations of doom and gloom. You're just not open to accepting it.

Keep renting, Mr. Blue. We who are landlords applaude you.

Hey Steve, from faraway land. No need to stalk me just because I have continuously pointed out the error of your ways. My blog IS a public record, and it is NOT all real estate cheerleading. It gets great SEO because it is popular, and it is popular because it provides good content.

Here it is - thanks for the plug: http://southorangecounty.wordpress.com/

You keep coming into this area's threads, with your doom and gloom mantra, and I keep shooing you away with the LOCAL truth, and the LOCAL facts. I humbly suggest you go find a venue where they might be more receptive to your obsolete ideas - Zillow, perhaps.

They - your negative rantings - for the most part - have not been relevant to Orange County. I keep proving that point to you, and you keep coming back - not because you're correct - but in an ill conceived attempt to try to prove me wrong. Give it up, my friend - it isn't working for you.

Ming, you won't find anything substantial in Bob's ramblings. If you check out his blog-spam over the last 16 months, it's the same tired cheerleader stuff - same "articles" reposted on every possible outlet hoping for search engine relevance, with comments always disabled to avoid people pointing out failed logic.

For all I know, Bob's the best buyer and/or seller of homes in all the land. One might hope so at least, as his forecasting abilities have been proven bleak.

Bob, call me a dissenting voice or whatever. I don't care because i know that the OC median price is dropping, has dropped, and will continue to drop. Nothing flat about it. Just look at the chart on Lansner's blog in the OC Register. Bob, I'm going to have to rename you "Bob Dontneednodata Phillips" -- you don't have one fact in any of your posts. You do know that there is plenty of real estate data available, right? Or are the data collection firms all run by "dissenting voices" and are thus suspect?

Ming, still another dissenting voice. What's going on? Did Zillow kick all the bubble-heads off their site today? Nobody said hurry up and buy. What we HAVE been saying - that you and a few other doom and gloom cronies keep choosing to ignore - is that many people HAVE decided that the bottom is either here, or close enough, and they are out in droves, BUYING real estate NOW.

Most of your other drivel, re: the mythical option arms "tidal wave" and other negative bomb old news has been answered in this and a couple of adjacent threads that the bunch of you have been flittering to and fro from like a swarm of doom & gloom butterflys, as you try to perpetuate the tired old news - from a year ago - that is being rendered completely irrelevant by the bigger swarm of investors and buyers out ignoring your postulations of doom.

For every negative article you can dredge up - citing increasingly irrelevant year's old Case-Shiller and Credit Suisse charts and graphs, I can counter that obsolute hogwash with more positive CURRENT news and data.

If you don't want to buy - keep renting. We who are landlords love you.

Bob-

Do you ever look for information beyond the propaganda of CAR or NAR? You are doing a terrible dis-service to buyers by promoting this crazy idea that the worst is over and you had better hurry up and buy.

Did you read this today?
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/…

It doesn't even address what happens when the option ARM resets hit. Thousands of borrowers who have been paying the NEG AM payment are going to be walking away from their homes. The coming foreclosures are no myth.

How about from Realty Trac - 342,038 Foreclosure Filings in April - Up 1% from March, 32% from 2008

You think they make this stuff up?

The median may have stabilized but that's only because the the low end has been slaughtered and buyers are consistently buying at that level. The next wave that you and Valorie choose to ignore is coming. I can't wait to hear you explain how you were so wrong.

No, I didn't Steve. I was very clear in that blog post, and it was for a very specific type of property - which IS selling today, for the same price it was then. But you knew that from where we discussed it the last time.

Just more smoke and mirrors from another doom and gloomer.

Bob, you declared bottom in Orange County in March.

Of 2008.

Fifteen months ago.

Why bother arguing anymore? In whatever world you live in, we're way past bottom anyhow.

Ah, another dissenting voice - this one from afar - NonRealtor. Just where IS the town of 23456? Or do you live in Virginia Beach? ( Nice town this time of year.)

Now THAT location should provide you with some authoritative relevance to make comments about South Orange County's market, wouldn't ya think? Actually, the correct answer is a resounding NO.

If they paid their mortgage on time, they wouldn't get a "notice of default"--let's hope most of them work it out. Foreclosures are still happening at a record pace. Wait another year to buy, save another 20% on the price. Good luck Cali

Actually, Valorie, the "foreclosures are coming" bubble-heads DID have a date, courtesy of Credit Suisse. It WAS going to be this year - 2009.

Unfortunately, Credit Suisse miscalculated the efforts of the new administration to mitigate the foreclosures problem. Now, they THINK it could happen next year - kinda, maybe.

Or, ir could go the way of the Y2K Scare. We ALL know how much of a debacle that was, don't we?

I wish all you "foreclosures are coming" would give us a date. I have buyers that wish they had bought 4 to 6 months ago. Now every property that they qualify for has 7 to 12 offers on them. Dosn't matter if it is bank owned or short sales. Short sale, 2 days on the market and 7 offers 3 of them over listing price.

Cythia, Wish I'd seen this question when it was posted. Realty Trac preys on what little Trust some of the public have in the claim of RE Sites to provide accurate information to them. They are a Pox on the RE Industry and as such have no place where Honesty, Professionalism or Accuracy are claimed.

As far as California Real Estate. It's obviously at the bottom or the way back up with rising sales, no foreclosures, multiple offers, rising employment, and a strong economy. Buy now before all the good deals are gone.

Cythia a belated TU for your question and comments.

Stupid Dunes

Bob, what's going to happen now that California is going bankrupt? How do you figure this is the bottom with all the schools having their funding cut? The next wave of foreclosures now that foreclosure moratoriams have been lifted?

If your this confident we're at the bottom, I would expect you're out there buying aggressively.

Mr. Blue, without scrolling through your entire blog's negative diatribe, to find out when your sale actually happened, it did NOT happen years ago, as you suggest below, but, rather, in the past year and a half, if at all. I do remember at one point - which I'll confirm later when I have more time, one of your posts talking about your escrow falling apart.

You are correct that there is no comparison between Eagle Rock - which was only a minute portion of the article I linked - to Laguna Beach. Here though, is a headline from the article: "The median price in Southern California may have plummeted, but in more desirable neighborhoods, home buyers are still engaging in bidding wars."

Contrary to your incorrect sugestion that there is no interest in Laguna Beach, I would humbly submit that it IS a more "desirable neighborhood". Again, you should seriously intensify your search instead of wasting time pontificating on what happened over the past couple of years. There are some good buys out there - right now.

Bob, you can't seriously be suggesting that Eagle Rock, with its $400,000 single family homes has any relevance whatsoever to the market in Laguna beach. There are many buyers who can afford Eagle Rock. There are no where near as many buyers who can afford Laguna Beach. Thus, there are no bidding wars, there is low interest, land ow activity in Laguna Beach. Save your hype for the uneducated.

You are right that the dive in Laguna Beach home prices hasn't wiped out all gains. But that is not a factor in any reasonable home buying decision. People buy in part based on future value expecations not on some arbitrary comparisons to past home values. I certainly saw the collapse coming - and I sold my house - and I have the money in the bank! There was plenty of warning if you simply followed the stats and the news.

You mean the one that came and went?

You mean the one whose declines haven't come close to matching the prior gains?

Like pretty much all the other price adjustments of the past 40-50 years?

So, is there anyone out there who didn't see the market collapse coming?

Let me try that link again:

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-cove…

Nice dig up of a four and a half months old thread, Mr. Blue. Your suggestion to wait 6 months - might work for you - though I seriously doubt it. You seem to be a bit out of touch with what's been happening for the last few months in Southern California.

This article could easily apply to Laguna Beach:

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-cove…

The truth is, there are some fabulous opportunities out there - right now. There is NO compelling reason to wait even ONE month, let alone 6. Negotiating is great right now, in these higher price ranges - make the best of it - NOW.

RealtyTrac provides a good picture of one thing happening in a dynamic down market. More notices of default, auctions and other foreclosure indicators mean that home values are decreasing. Buyers and sellers would be wise to take notice. Sellers who are realistic can sell NOW, for MORE than they would otherwise get by pricing the home too high and waiting 6 months to reduce the price, chasing the market down with the listing price. Saw the same thing happen in the early 90's.......

We agree Cynthia- and we just did! Anyone else who wants to tell Trulia how they feel about this should look at the very bottom of the page where there are a number of places where people can write to Trulia, under "Company Info," "Trulia Links," and "Partners." Good luck!

All very true...but what are we going to do about it? We all need to write to Trulia and express our concerns.
Cuz it aint right :) Thanks for all your feedback.

I am relatively new to Trulia but so far I have seen dozens of inquiries on properties that only show the default amounts. That only deceive prospective Buyers leading them to believe that these figures are the asking prices. Latest, a $ 13,000 default on a property in La Jolla that was probably worth 7 million that triggered several inquiries from very hopeful Buyers that thought they could buy it cash for $ 13,000. Realty Trac should stop spreading deceiving information.

Realty Trac's "listings" are indeed "bait and switch." Trulia has said they "could do a better job" several times, since last Fall. So far nothing has been done. Here's the important thing: Realty Trac's "listings" are not listed! So why allow them on the site? If they are listing Notice of Defaults there is never any guarantee that home will ever be listed, as Cynthia mentioned. It's hard to believe, but people might make their payments! Stranger things have happened. Realty Trac is just trying to get people to sign up for their service, and every single day we see Trulia users confused by Realty Trac listings. It really is time Trulia stopped allowing these listings which are just an ad for Realty Trac and are not even on the market! We suggest people contact Trulia administrators and let them know what they think about this!

Chris, That's very bizarre, why would they include those properties in Laguna Beach? I think we all need to do something about this...it's just not right.
Jeremy and Thom, Thanks for your response...I look forward to hearing what you find out at your respective meetings. Thanks again.

Also RealtyTrac includes some Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills data in their Laguna Brach report.

Great question. I know that realtytrac is frustrating.

I'm not sure that SCMLS will have any info on it, but would be interesting to hear if they do. I would talk to Trulia directly. I'm sure they have a business/advertising arrangement of some kind.

I'm on the MLS/Business Technology committee for CAR, and currently in Monterey for the business meetings. I'll bring it up in our meeting on Friday as well and see if there is any additional input.

Jeremy Lehman
Century 21 Beachside

Cynthia -

How right you are ! I just searched Tempo for all variations of pre-foreclosure status REO, Short Sale, etc.; A, B, P, etc, and only came up with 32 properties but RealtyTrac is showing 116. I also couldn't find even one property where the MLS listed price (or any prior listed price) was the same as RealtyTrac.

Very odd..... I'll ask the folks at SoCal MLS at our next BOD meeting what the general consensus is.

Cheers,

Thom Colby
Broker & Realtor
Orange County, CA
1-800-SELL-NOW http://www.1800sellnow.com
949-887-5500