IT IS OFFICIALLY THE START OF THE WINTER MARKET WHEN BUYER DEMAND SURGES HIGHER, INVENTORY RISES AT A SLOWER PACE, AND THE MARKET SPEEDS UP NOTICEABLY.
THE WINTER MARKET
AFTER AN EXCEPTIONALLY CHILLY START TO THE YEAR, THE ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING MARKET IS ABOUT TO HEAT UP WITH SOARING BUYER DEMAND.
So many are anticipating the return of the summer Olympics to Los Angeles in 2028. The opening ceremonies, track and field, swimming, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, cycling, volleyball, and a variety of other sports are all converging on Southern California in 2½ years. Just about everyone has their favorite. For those who want to attend one of the events in person, the presale registration opened up on January 14 at 7 a.m. There were over 1.5 million ticket registrations in the first 24 hours, the most in Olympic history. There was so much interest that wait times exceeded an hour. Demand for tickets surged, and the LA28 Olympic Committee expects to sell 14 million tickets, breaking the record set at the Paris 2024 Games.
Now that housing has reached mid-January, it feels like tickets just went on sale for buyers to tour houses, write offers, and secure their next home. While the Orange County housing market is not going to set any sales records, housing demand will surge higher over the next several weeks. Housing is transitioning from the Holiday Market, which runs from mid-November through the first couple of weeks of the New Year, the slowest time of the year with very little buyer activity, to the Winter Market, running from mid-January through mid-March, when buyer demand explodes higher. The supply of available homes increases, but at a slower pace than demand, leading the market to accelerate noticeably.
Regardless of the year or economic conditions, the housing market always improves dramatically starting in mid-January. Buyer demand (a snapshot of the number of new pending sales over the prior month) rockets higher. It started the Winter Market last year with 988 pending sales, and by mid-March, demand had grown to 1,665, an increase of 677, or 69%. In 2023, it jumped by 67%, and in 2024, it grew by 52%. The 3-year average before COVID (2017-2019) was a 47% rise.
Joy Lee
949.290.4903
joy@heyjoylee.com
DRE# 02102122