Price is right, but quantity isn’t

Alicia Robinson

Median home prices followed a statewide trend of strong gains through

the fourth quarter of 2003, but a lack of inventory left home sales

slow, local real estate experts said Thursday.

In California, the median price for existing single-family homes

increased 17.9% to $391,680 in the fourth quarter and showed the same

percentage increase for the year over 2002 sales, the California

Assn. of Realtors reported Thursday.

Compared with the last quarter of 2002, average home prices in

Costa Mesa rose more than 29% from about $457,000 to $592,000 in the

last three months of 2003, according to the Orange Coast Assn. of

Realtors.

In Newport Beach, the average sale price of a single-family home

in the fourth quarter of 2003 jumped 34%, to $1.6 million from $1.2

million, in the last part of 2002, Orange Coast Assn. of Realtors

figures showed.

In Costa Mesa, home prices climbed rapidly through late 2003 and

have continued their ascent this year, said Lori Robnett, a real

estate agent for First Team Real Estate.

“It has gone up so rapidly in this first quarter, we’re all

baffled with what’s going on right now,” she said. “We don’t know if

people are panic buying.”

Houses come on the market priced around $520,000 and sell within

days at $550,000 with eight or nine offers, she said.

People used to turn up their noses at Costa Mesa, she said, but

not now.

“Now it’s like the hot spot,” she said.

Those increases are expected to continue throughout 2004, perhaps

at the same pace. Another First Team real estate agent, Mary

Beveridge, said she’d heard that prices may increase another 24% in

Orange County this year.

“It’s really difficult to find a decent single-family home for

under $1 million in Newport Beach [and] Corona del Mar,” she said.

“There’s listings out there, but the good ones go immediately.”

The number of home sales, however, has been sluggish because so

few homes are available.

Across the state, home sales increased 12.1% in the fourth quarter

of 2003 compared with the same period in 2002. But local sales were

only up slightly -- about 3% -- in Newport Beach for in the fourth

quarter of 2003 over the fourth-quarter 2002 sales, and in Costa Mesa

sales were down 6% in late 2003 compared with the latter part of the

previous year.

“The inventory is extremely low” in Costa Mesa, Robnett said.

Many people are looking to move into larger, more upscale homes,

but they can’t put their houses on the market because there’s nothing

for them to buy, she said.

“You’re almost in this dead zone,” Robnett said. “Your sellers

don’t sell because they want a place to go.”