Orange County home sales jump 10 Percent

Posted by Times Herald-Record

Local home sales continue to benefit greatly from the federal tax credit for first-time buyers, but time is running out.

Single-family home sales in Orange County jumped 10.8 percent in September, to 185 from 167 a year ago, according to the Orange County Association of Realtors. In Ulster County, 108 single-family homes sold in September, up 12.5 percent from the 96 sales in September 2008, according to the Ulster County Board of Realtors.

Home prices are stabilizing.

Posted by LA TIMES 9/30/09

The pace of U.S. home price declines slowed in July, suggesting the housing market is approaching its bottom, according to a widely followed index released Tuesday.

Prices of homes in 20 metropolitan areas dropped 13.3% in July compared with the same month a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. national home price index. In June, it had posted a 15.4% annual decline. The index’s year-over-year declines have been slowing since January, after falling at a record pace for 16 straight months.

Kitchen design promotes good food, conversati

Posted by NewsOK.com

The kitchen is the hub of a home. So when a homeowner remodels or buys a new house, the kitchen often gets the most attention. Even people who seldom cook may prefer a kitchen that has lots of cabinets and counter space and is big, open and multifunctional.

Sure, you can drool over kitchens on any HGTV decorating and remodeling show, but there’s nothing like being in a real kitchen to get ideas for making our own space more hospitable.

Irvine Home Prices Only Slightly Discounted

From the OCRegister:

Homes in Irvine California

According to  ZipRealty during the second quarter of 2009, every ZIP code’s average sales price was lower than the average list price.

Discounts ranged from 6.5% off in asking prices in 92612 to just 1.8% off in 92606.

To see how other Irvine ZIP codes fared, check out the table below:

ZIP	Avg. list price	Avg. sale price	List-to-sale ratio
92602	$674,988	$653,873	96.87%
92603	$1,120,786	$1,052,864	93.94%
92604	$565,377	$545,631	96.51%
92606	$591,644	$581,074	98.21%
92612	$601,935	$563,014	93.53%
92614	$554,717	$538,498	97.08%
92618	$512,026	$498,188	97.30%
92620	$646,487	$627,004	96.99%