Orange County housing market appears to be topping out

Orange County's robust housing market appears to be topping out. And much of Southern California may not be far behind. New figures out Wednesday show that both median home prices and sales volume climbed across the region in December. But the numbers were weakest in the priciest part of the six-county Southland: Orange County. The number of sales fell 6.8% compared with the previous year in Orange County, while rising 4.3% for Southern California as a whole, according to CoreLogic DataQuick. And while median prices rose 5.1% from December 2013 for the six-county region, to $415,000, they picked up just 3.7% in Orange County, to $591,000. The market there is softening thanks largely to its own success, said Esmael Adibi, an economics professor at Chapman University in Orange. Orange County powered out of the housing crash faster than the rest of the region, with prices there up 36% from their bottom. But those gains have priced many buyers out of the market once again, he notes. And that's putting a lid on sales.
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