AGENT MLS HOME FINDER

Real estate in Mission Viejo is almost exclusively residential, although it does have a smattering of commercial sites which are mostly strip malls and shopping centers. This seeming lack of diversity in building type is largely due to the origins and continuing legacy of Mission Viejo as one of the largest master-planned communities in Orange County, California. Mission Viejo was also part of one of the hot spots for so-called “sub-prime mortgages”, which are almost universally accepted as one  of the primary causes of the burst of the local and national real estate market as well as the decline of the national economy. It is not entirely clear what direction Mission Viejo real estate is headed, due to a number of conflicting statistics and numbers.

According to a September 14, 2009 article in the Mercury News, home sales for a broader region – Southern California – dropped substantially in the month of August. The article, which was originally reported in the Associated Press, noted that “Home sales in the six-county Southern California region declined 10.8 percent in August compared with July, while the median price rose slightly, a real estate information service said Tuesday. San Diego-based MDA DataQuick attributed the sales dip to thinning inventory of foreclosure properties and financial uncertainty among potential buyers.” Jonathan Lansner of the Orange County Register took the news a step further, saying in a September 15, 2009 article that “Local housing’s recovery may have wilted a bit in the summer heat.”

Mission Viejo homes for sale declined slightly in terms of median home price, according to a September 25, 2009 article in the Orange County Business Journal. The article, written by Mark Mueller, stated that “The price of an existing Orange County home inched back below the $500,000 mark in August, the California Association of Realtors said on Friday. The median price for an existing stand-alone OC home sold in August was $499,440, about an $800 drop from July and a 2.3% decline from a year earlier. Last month’s modest decline reversed a rally that had seen the county’s median price increase by more than $60,000 since April.”