PORTOLA HILLS LIVING by Kelly Turbeville

Happy February 1st..  Yes we are officially in the 2nd month of 2017.  The month of love... will love shine on the Portola Hills Real Estate Market in February? We will have to wait and see but currently with the low inventory overall and the high buyer traffic at our open houses I don't see why it wouldn't.   Let's take a look at how the market performed in the first month of 2017: Jan 2017 Portola Hills Real Estate Sales Report Looking at the numbers, do you see that negative 5%.. yes me too and I probably had the same reaction you are having here.  Wait how can the value go down when all I am hearing is pricing is up?  OK maybe it is the mix of homes.. nope that doesn't work in this scenario as the mix of homes was almost identical, 4 condo's and 1 single family attached home closed.  In 2016 exactly the same but the 8 homes sold.    In 2016 the median price of home was $457k and as you can see above, this last month it was $435k.  So why.. it&

I finally got a chance to pop in and see the new townhomes being built in the former Auto Center area in Foothill Ranch.   The community is part of what is being called The Village of Foothill Ranch, which currently includes the El Paseo and Camden Square  communities and is designed to be a walk-friendly neighborhood near the Foothill Ranch Towne Center. The El Paseo community is a gated mobile court townhome community with six floorplans ranging from a 1-Bedroom Carriage Units to a 3-Bedroom 1795 sq.ft townhomes.  Prices start today at $371,800 for the 1-Bedroom up to about $570,000 for the largest 3 Bedroom model.    What I liked about the floorplans is they are open, light and bright with nice finishes.. Of course always remember when you are looking at model homes some of those finishes you fall in love with are all upgrades.  But the overall standard finishes are nice and meet today's energy efficient needs and trends the millennial home buyer is searching for.   O