PORTOLA HILLS LIVING by Kelly Turbeville

What would you say if I told you pricing right now is right on track! You would probably say, pricing is crazy!  I recently attended Keller Williams Economic Recap and Forecast and a couple of details really hit me.  Because I too, even being in the business, was thinking this pricing is crazy! Then I saw this graph.  Home Prices This above graph shows the average home prices over the last 20 years has averaged about 4%. That is below the historical average of 6-8% before the downturn in 2008-2011.  Portola Hills saw appreciation of over 20% last year, so while that is great, it really was just the market making up for downturn.  Four percent appreciation is a very healthy real estate market.  Annual Home Appreciation The biggest hurdle to the market right now is inventory of homes.  There simply has not been enough building to keep up with demand since the downturn.  How we catch up is going to be a challenge certainly for the near future.  Below is a look at the inventory of homes an

Yep you did read that right!  Each month we do a deep dive into the previous month of real estate sales in the community and we noticed a trend a while back as the market started to get a bit crazy that no one is talking about.  In our March review we noted sellers who sold in March received an estimated $366,000 in extra equity/profit.  In April that figure almost doubled!  Homeowners who sold in April received over $766,000 in extra equity/profit. The number is the total profit received for the area.  The average equity per seller was about $65,000. Historically April and May are the two busiest months of the year for real estate sales, so it will be interesting to see how much of gain Seller's will receive in May.  Below is a snapshot of the Portola Hills real estate market performed overall in April.  There are two details in the above report that give us the biggest clue as to why sellers received so much equity.  First there is currently less than a half of month of inventory

We are sure you have heard, the OC real estate market is hot, hot, hot!  In this months monthly market report we went a bit further to understand exactly how hot and we thought this was important for our clients to know.  In March, sellers who sold their Portola Hills homes, received an additional $365,000 in profit.   What does this mean? This is the profit sellers received above their listing price!  Example: A Live Oak Canyon Home Pool Home Listed for $1,099,000 Sold for: $1,150,000 Extra Profit: $51,000 It is accumulative, but looking at what $$ sellers received they averaged about $30,000 over list price.  It's also important to note; not all sellers received this, some homes sold at list price or sold just slightly over list price. This is one of the reasons we say be careful who you list with.  In order to achieve higher profit results, we highly recommend working with an experienced agent who has navigated this type of market before.  Below is a look at the overall Portol

The real estate market overall in January is generally very, very quiet!  Not this year!  In Orange County there has been an insatiable demand from buyers and  record-low supply of homes available to purchase, which makes the OC real estate market extremely hot!! Portola Hills was no exception in January! Actually the area remains very popular with the buyers coming up the hill to check out the new developments in IronRidge and the Oaks.  Take a quick peek at the numbers below along with what communities in the Portola Hills were the hottest, it might surprise you. If you are thinking of a move, seller's will need to be cautious on pricing their home correctly.  Though it is a very strong seller's market, homes that are priced above market will sit.  A strong pricing strategy done correctly can bring you more then you expect.  As well in this hot market, other factors such as contingencies, rent backs, etc. all part of the negotiations package that we can put in your favor.  Ma

How does the saying go, "that's it folks"!  2019 is over, as is the last decade, or is it? We took a look at the real estate market in Portola Hills for the year and below you will find a quick recap of how the market performed.  Overall the market was very strong with record breaking pricing.  The highest priced home sold in The Oaks community at just over $1.8 million. Below is a look at the overall market. Pricing and sales volume were up overall. While this price will help drive pricing up in the community, we are now competing with communities such as Baker Ranch, Irvine and Coto. Resale homes have a bit of a harder task when competing against new builds.  As buyers like pretty new homes.  So when they are up on the hill and looking at both, your home needs to be priced right, presented well and marketing to the right buyer to capture those buyers.  Certainly IronRidge and The Oaks brings buyers up the hill, so homes on the market should be getting very

Every month we take a look at the local market and compare it against what happened at the same time last year vs. this year.  We also take a look at what is happening in the surrounding area to see if the community is on trend with the rest of the area.  In September Portola Hills had 15 homes sell, 11 Single Family Homes and 4 Townhomes/Condo's, which shows the sales volume is up slightly from 2018.  The difference being this past month, we had about 50/50 mix of new homes and resales, where as in 2018, 80% of the homes that closed escrow in September were all new homes.   When comparing the two years, values is is going to be significantly different as the mix was so different between the two years.  Below is a snapshot of how the Portola Hills real estate market performed in September 2019!   As you can see the above values show there was about a 12% decline in values from September 2018.   But when looking at the overall year to date numbers

When I am working with home buyers they are often surprised that Portola Hills currently has over 15 different neighborhoods.  The mix of the these neighborhoods include both single family homes detached and attached homes.  Below is a breakdown of the individual tracts: Tract Name # of Units Details Antigua 192 SFR neighborhood with 4 floorplans, featuring 3-4 bedrooms, sized from 1930-2494 sq.ft.  2-3 attached garages Alderwood 185 SFR neighborhood with 5 floorplans featuring 2-4 bedrooms, sized from 1138-2050 sq.ft. 2 car attached garages Canyon Rim 108 Townhome complex features 4 floorplans with 2-3 bedrooms sized from 969-1378 sq.ft. 2 Car attached garages Canyon View 225 Townhome complex featuring 2 floorplans, 2 bedrooms, sized from 873-1038sq.ft. 1 car garage attached/detached Canyon View West 84 Townhome complex featuring 2 floorplans, 2 bedrooms, size