UCI

Real Estate Market

Although many Orange County residents say that housing costs pose a burden for them, confidence in the real estate market is overwhelmingly strong. The percentage of homeowners saying that buying a home in the county is an excellent or good investment has reached a new peak, at 86 percent. This is a
4-point rise in the past year, and a 36-point climb since this assessment’s low point in 1995. Only 2 percent of homeowners today think real estate in Orange County is a bad investment.

Among renters, 69 percent now believe that buying a home in the county is an excellent or good investment; 15 percent consider it a fair investment; and 13 percent think it would be a bad investment. While this remains a high level of confidence, it is four points lower than last year. Even with increasing costs, however, renters are, so far in this decade, much more positive about the value of buying a home than they were before 2001.

Regionally, confidence in home-buying today is as high among homeowners in the South as in the North County, with 86 percent in both areas saying it is an excellent/good or fair investment. This represents a 6-point rise in the North County since 2002 and may signal a new trend in the housing market. Previously, confidence in the real estate market was consistently lower in the North County than in the South. North County renters, however, are still less likely than those in the South to say that owning a home in Orange County would be an excellent or good investment (North, 67%; South, 75%). Despite their lower rates of homeownership, Latinos are nearly as likely as whites to say buying a home in Orange County is an excellent or good investment (76% to 82%).

“Do you think that buying a home in Orange County is an excellent, good, fair, or poor investment?”

Source for Orange County from 1993 to 2000 is the Orange County Annual Survey at UCI by Mark Baldassare and Cheryl Katz.