Selling in Orange County: How to Win the Buyer's Market This Fall

The newest report from Steven Thomas at Reports on Housing leans toward buyers, but the fundamentals still favor prepared sellers. Inventory is 4,939 homes, well below the pre COVID average of 6,520 from 2017 to 2019, so buyers have about 32 percent fewer choices than they would in a normal fall. You are not facing a flood of competition.

The market is moving, not stalled. The Expected Market Time is 101 days, up from 90 a year ago, yet well presented homes are still going pending on a steady basis. August produced 1,755 closed sales across the county.

Pricing is everything this fall. Buyers have choices and they will not overpay. In August, 52 percent of sales closed below asking while 30 percent still sold above it, and the difference was almost always condition and price. The homes that sold above asking did it in about 9 days, while the ones that sold below sat closer to a month. Precise pricing out of the gate protects your equity far better than testing a high number and then chasing the market down.

Presentation is the close partner to pricing. Clean, bright, turnkey homes photograph better and show better, and in a patient market the home that looks move in ready is the one that stands out and sells.

Know your segment. Detached homes are the quicker segment at 92 days, and detached values are up about 2.6 percent over the past seven months. Condos and townhomes are slower at 115 days, so attached sellers need especially sharp pricing. In luxury, homes from $2.5 million to $4 million are near 106 days, so both presentation and patience matter at the high end.

Timing works in your favor too. The busiest listing months are behind us, and fewer new homes are coming to market through the fall. Getting ahead of the holiday slowdown means less competition for the serious buyers who are still shopping. With the sales to list ratio at 99.5 percent and distress almost invisible, this is a stable market to sell into.

If you would like a precise, data driven look at what your home would bring in today's market, I am glad to put that together for you. Let's price it right, present it beautifully, and get you the strongest result this fall.