OC Most-Improved Western Housing Market

ORANGE COUNTY, CA-Metro areas in the West saw a huge year-over-year increase in the number of homes selling in seven days or fewer, according to ZipRealty Inc., a national real estate brokerage and provider of proprietary technology and online marketing tools for the residential real estate brokerage industry. The top five fastest-moving housing markets were Orange County, San Diego, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Orange County took the lead as most-improved in terms of number of days houses spent on the market before selling. Median days on the market for OC declined 71% from 52 to 15 days on a year-over-year bases as of March 31. In addition, 29% of Orange County housing sold in seven days or less, a 17 percentage-point increase from the previous year, and median home prices increased 27% to $495,000 on a year-over-year basis, ZipRealty reports.

According to Lanny Baker, CEO of ZipRealty, “The strong momentum we've seen in California and parts of Florida for several months now looks like it might spread to areas that have been a bit slower to rebound. Specifically, in Raleigh, Long Island and Chicago, where median sales prices rose 5% or less in March 2013 versus a year earlier, we also spotted big increases in pending sales volumes.”

Baker added in a prepared statement that with “warmer weather approaching and all the good news about prices and selling activity, the number of newly listed homes for sale has started to increase, and in most cities new listings outpaced pending sales in March. However, in Las Vegas, Sacramento, San Diego and Orlando, new listings are barely keeping up with demand, and serious home buyers still face significant challenges.”

As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, locally based supplier of real estate data RealtyTrac Inc. has released the top 20 markets throughout the country for flipping homes. The firm's research ranked Orlando, Las Vegas and Phoenix on the top of the list, with Vallejo, CA; Denver; and Detroit rounding out the bottom. Also included in the top 25 were several Western markets including Tucson; San Diego; San Jose; Sacramento; San Francisco; Ventura County, CA; Inland Empire; Modesto, CA; Santa Rosa, CA; Bakersfield, CA; Seattle; and Stockton, CA.