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Laguna Beach Homes - How the South Coast city is faring against the rest of the state

Laguna Real Estate has started showing signs of improvement with median sales price climbing up while at the same time houses are selling faster.There are some of the useful tips that you need to keep in mind while pursuing the purchase decision.

Author: Andy Williams
Date: Nov 17, 2010 - 6:24:02 AM

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California got one of the heaviest blows in the real estate crisis, with home prices dropping as low as 50% in some areas. And as affluent cities felt much of the crunch, Laguna Beach and other beach towns braced themselves earlier this year for a hard run and another foreclosure wave. How do Laguna Beach homes for sale rate as the third quarter reaches its peak? Here’s a look at how the South Coast city is faring against the rest of the state.

Home Prices Steady

Not surprisingly, Laguna Beach homes for sale are still on the higher end of the California market. As of this week, the median price was $1.27 million, compared to the state-wide median of $268,000. But the figures have gone down over the year—this time in 2009, Laguna Beach homes for sale were going for $1.42 million, a 10% drop overall. This may have been a result of increased foreclosures and short sales, which have driven down home values elsewhere.

Foreclosures Unchanged

The number of Laguna Beach homes for sale as foreclosures or short sales has remained the same within the last week. There are currently 109 foreclosures listed in the city, while regular Laguna Beach homes for sale were last counted at 590. Meanwhile, foreclosures have been on the rise throughout California, with over 70,000 notices of default issued from April to June. The trend is slowly moving down, however; in the same period last year, more than 130,000 such notices were issued.

More Defaults In High-End Areas

Like most affluent cities—those with median prices over $800,000—Laguna Beach is seeing more defaults than middle- to low-end California. More Laguna Beach homes for sale are listed as short sales, and that doesn’t include REOs and foreclosures. In the state’s 15 most expensive counties, including Orange County where Laguna Beach is located, pricey homes make up a higher percentage of the total homes where a notice of default was issued.

Mortgage Rates Down

California mortgage rates have been steadily dropping and reaching historic lows for much of 2010. This has encouraged more buyers to take the plunge and reconsider Laguna Beach homes for sale, which would have been out of their budget any other time. The biggest drop is in 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, which fell 0.22% last week from 4.192% to 4.170%, followed by a 0.12% drop in 30-year fixed-rate mortgages from 4.637% to 4.623%.For more articles visit Author’s Blog on Laguna Beach Homes for sale: http://www.lagunaoc.com/http://www.lagunaoc.com/

The author is a laguna beach real estate agent, provides expert advice and tips for investing in Laguna Beach Properties. In this article, he provides information and tips on laguna beach MLS so as to attract the best buyers.For more articles visit Author’s Blog on Laguna Beach Homes for sale: http://lagunarealty.blogspot.com

View all articles by Andy Williams

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