O.C. buyers grab 56% more new homes

June 2nd, 2010, 10:29 am
by Jeff Collins

Apparently, shoppers want new Orange County homes.

The Irvine Co.’s sales success at its Woodbury projects in Irvine helped push Orange County’s total for new homes going into escrow to the highest level in two years, according to figures from Costa Mesa-based Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

Sales contracts signed in the first three months of the year were up 56% vs. a year ago, Hanley Wood’s figures show.

Specifically, Hanley Wood says:

Type Q1 2009 Q1 2010 % ch
SF 164 344 +109.8%
Condo 62 69 +11.3%
TH/Plex 95 110 +15.8%
Total 335 523 +56.1%

•Buyers signed contracts to purchase 523 new homes in Orange County during this year’s winter quarter. That’s the highest number of sales contracts for any quarter since the spring of 2008. (Click on charts to enlarge).
•That includes more than 300 homes sold at Woodbury since the Irvine Co. launched its 2010 New Home Collection in late January.
•But other projects also did well, since January’s contracts, which don’t include the Irvine Co.’s New Home Collection, were up 100%.
•Sales contracts saw the highest quarterly percentage gain in records dating back to 2007. New home contracts declined on a year-over-year basis in 10 of the past 13 quarters. They only increases were: Spring 2007, up 5.7%; fall 2009, up 6.2%; winter 2010, up 56.1%.
•Sales contracts increased steadily from January’s 146 units to March’s 212. But January had the greatest year-over-year gain of 100%, vs. 72% in February and 28% in March.
•Single-family homes contracts increased the most, up 110% in the first quarter. Buyers signed 344 single-family contracts this year, vs. 164 the year before.
•Contracts to buy new townhomes or buildings with 2 to 4 units increased 15.8% to 110 units.
•Contracts to buy new condos increased 11.3% to 69.

http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2010 ... mes/67325/