AGENT MLS HOME FINDER

San Clemente, one of the larger cities in the Orange County region of Southern California, is an excellent microcosm of the situation facing real estate in the lower portion of the Golden State. The San Clemente real estate market has been heralded in recent months as a good example of a market where the effects of the nationwide recession have been largely shrugged off by a resilient local economy. Indeed, the real estate market in San Clemente and Orange County seemed to indicate an opposite trend to the overall economy, with the market declining before the national bubble burst and recovering during much of the duration of the recession. Recently, however, that trend has been challenged after the most recent statistics show San Clemente facing a new series of difficulties that threaten to send the real estate market into decline once again.

One of the strong points of real estate in San Clemente is a declining rate of foreclosures, which signals to some extent the possibility that the market is stabilizing. According to a September 15, 2009 article in the Mortgage Insider, foreclosures in Orange County at large declined for a second straight month in August 2009. The article, written by Mathew Padilla, states that “Banks foreclosed on 723 houses and condos last month, a 10 percent drop from July and half the year-ago total, reports MDA DataQuick. August marked the second straight month-to-month drop in foreclosures and the sixth month in a row they fell on a year-over-year basis.”

There is reason to mistrust the optimistic approach, according to Jonathan Lansner of the Orange County Register, who stated in a September 15, 2009 article that “However, August marked the smallest gain in the current winning streak that dates to July 2008. The buying binge seems to be narrowing. Just 40 of Orange County’s 83 ZIP codes had year-over-year sales gains in August vs. 51 in July…The jobs picture, for one, isn’t very favorable for house shoppers. Orange County unemployment ran at 9.5 percent in July, a modern-day high as bosses cut local payrolls to six-year lows.” In other words, there are fewer San Clemente homes for sale that are so far below market that they are inspiring massive rates of consumer interest.