Irvine is definitely in a Buyer's Market now

Irvine is definitely in a Buyer's Market now, with 961 homes for sale at the end of September, and only 159 sales. Of course this doesn't mean that some Irvine areas & tracts aren't in a Neutral or Seller's Market.

The number of homes for sale dropped slightly from end-August's number of 992.

If 159 homes are sold again this month, it will take over six months to sell all the inventory, assuming no other homes come on the market, and none of the homes offered for sale expire or are cancelled or withdrawn.

Here is a snapshot of the activity in Irvine during the past year.

See how sales have been dropping every month since May, and the number of homes for sale has increased every single month since December.... until now.

Is the decrease in the number of homes for sale in September the start of a downward trend?

I believe that the end-October inventory number will be lower than last month's, and I believe that the end November number will be even lower still.

Is this wishful thinking?

Well, with the holidays and elections just around the corner, I don't think so.

While I don't see a dramatic increase in the number of homes that will be sold in the next few months, especially as only 66% of our inventory are "standard sale" listings.