PORTOLA HILLS LIVING by Kelly Turbeville

As Portola Hills is a community within Lake Forest and our personal favorite 😍 it is important to understand how the overall real estate market is doing in the city of Lake Forest.  Check out the below graph of how both attached homes and single family homes are current selling.   As you can see from the above numbers, the real estate market in Lake Forest continues to remain strong.  But does that median list price of over $1.8 million dollars surprise you?   Keep in mind, right now there are number of new build homes available in the new neighborhood The Meadows.   New neighborhoods have certainly increased the value of Lake Forest homes. There currently are only 42 single family homes available and 10 attached homes available for home buyers. Low inventory is what continues to drive pricing up, so if you felt you missed out on selling for top dollar, you have an excellent chance today, it just might take a little longer than it did the last couple of years.   Homes priced right, p

As I was preparing for a Buyers Consultation with a new client who is looking for a home in Lake Forest, I noticed a huge percentage of homes with recent price decreases. Is that good news for homebuyers?  In both Single Family homes and Attached homes, which made me dig a little deeper as overall in the OC, inventory of available homes is very low and demand from home buyers is very strong... so again, why would sellers being see a price decrease? Take a look at the our Market Snapshot we just put together. As you can see on the Attached side of the market, 29% of the homes currently available have had a price decrease.  For the Single-Family side of the market, 39% of the homes currently available have a had a price decrease.  While only about 6% between both segments had a price increase.   When the inventory is low, and demand is high sellers should be able to expect  multiple offers at the full price or even above.  If this isn't happening, that generally indicates the home is

I wrote an article earlier in the week about the Highest Priced Homes sold Year-to-Date in Lake Forest and wanted to share with my Portola Hills peeps a bit of the details.. I pulled a pretty basic search out of the MLS, homes sold over $900k in Lake Forest.  I was actually pretty surprised by the results.. Where was Foothill Ranch?   What about the homes sold around the Lake??  All good questions if you are familiar with the area...  The biggest surprise was highest share of homes sold for over $1 million were in Baker Ranch with Portola Hills coming in 2nd. Below is a look at homes sold. Lake Forest YTD Most expensive homes sold Baker Ranch is a lovely new community.  NEW is the key!  We all love to look at new homes; when you walk in you feel refreshed, inspired, wowed, etc.  Does that feeling account for a 17% increase in the price per square foot?  Obviously as this report suggest 6 of the homes sold were in Baker Ranch.  As well, overall in Orange County we find 2

The Seranado tract in the Portola Hills community of Lake Forest is a great community of paired homes.  What's a paired home, you might ask?  A paired home is 2 single family attached homes on a lot, owned by 2 separate homeowners vs. a duplex where 1 homeowner owns the entire property.   The Serenado community is a fairly small community of 166 homes and part of the Portola Hills II homeowners association. There are 3 floorplans: Rhapsody: 3 bedroo, 2.5 bath, 1561 sq.ft. 2 car garage Concerto:  3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1771 sq.ft. 2 car garage Symphony: 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1891 sq. ft. 2 car garage These homes offer a wide range of amenities, depending on the floorplan, including fireplaces in the master bedrooms, open and bright structures with high ceilings. Depending on the location, many of the homes offer amazing views of either the Saddleback Mountains or Pacific Ocean with nice size yards. Serenado in Portola Hills In addition, as part of the Portola Hi