2011 has been a stability year for Orange County real estate, helping balance our home prices and locate some stronger sellers along the way.  A lot of the purchasing power has picked up for many buyers in the Southern California region, better loan offers and rising credit amounts is helping buyers get a steady foundation to make their first home purchase.  Many of the homes that are selling are either on the high end or the foreclosure type, buyers are looking for great deals in such a poor economy as we are currently witnessing.  Does that contribute directly to good turn-around times for home sellers? No, it doesn’t, unless you are offering an amazing deal for your high grade home.

But still, many brokers and big names are saying this is our recovery en route, that we are on track to see a positive upturn in housing for the next few years.  Home prices for June 11′ were a bit below those numbers from last year, how does that scream recovery?  What we are sure of is that the financial backing and loan systems currently in place have gotten slightly stronger with more offers for the average home buyer.  That will help give ground for recovery over the next few years, if we do not see the bottom fall out again on us.  Right now, places like Irvine and Newport Beach are helping support the O.C. economy with quality property sales prices and good home turnovers, but other sectors of Orange County are struggling to turn around a lot of foreclosures and other shadow inventory sitting with the banks.  Many of these homes need to be sold, remodeled, renovated, and have an owner that can contribute to our rebound.  If not, we’ll struggle to escape the flat-line stability we are now seeing and may lag to move out of this lull.

So is this the recovery we’ve all been looking for? Can’t say quite yet, but we can be sure that we are heading in a positive direction and gaining some traction for purchasing power in the market.  Let’s cross our fingers for a rebound in 2012 and that 2011 just holds us steady and picking up pace for the future.