Where's Waldo, (I mean Gabi & me)? At the Marine Corps base of course!

Yesterday was a fun day at the Marine Corps base in Camp Pendleton for my daughter Gabi and me.

About 700 of us helped out at our second annual Operation Valentine by making thank-you cards and packing gift boxes for the Marines in Iraq.

We're proud members of a charity organization called National Charity League, (Irvine Chapter), which is a mother-daughter volunteer group that supports local nonprofits while developing leadership skills for the young 'uns!

It took me a minute to find Waldo, (I mean Gabi & me!), in the photo below, which appeared in the Orange County Register last night.

Here's a link to the story.

Holiday lights in the Landing II tract of Woodbridge, Irvine.

Feast your eyes on this short video I shot of the holiday lights in the Landing II tract of Woodbridge, Irvine.

Spectacular light displays on the Landing II homes are a hallmark of the holiday season in many areas of Woodbridge but none rival the displays on these "Landings II" homes.

The diplays are creative, with thousands and thousands of light bulbs creating amazing scenes, many of them animated, like a really cool moving snowman on a home on Laurelglen.

If you have some free time one of these evenings, take a drive through Landing II, and enjoy!

Ducks, seagulls & a rainbow in Woodbridge, Irvine today.

Finally, a break from the rain this afternoon!

I was driving alongside South Lake in Woodbridge, Irvine today and was amazed to
see so many seagulls in the water, grabbing the final hour of sunshine.

There was an amazing rainbow in the sky, but by the time I scurried across the
street and took my camera out of my bag, it had almost disappeared.



If you look closely, you'll see the bottom part of it just above the house in the center of the photo, just slightly above the pot of gold :)

Woodbridge inventory of homes for sale down again.

The number of Irvine homes for sale dropped for the third straight month in November, to 855. This includes both condos & single family homes.

This is 84% of the number of homes that were for sale in August, (1,014).

Well, it's clear that inventory has been dropping but what about sales? An average of 148 Irvine homes have sold each month since August, which is below the 12-month average of 168 homes selling each month.

Look at the Market Activity Index chart below. If the trend continues, this month's inventory will be even lower than last month's, and then it should rise again in January.

The average Days on Market for the active Irvine homes rose from 192 days in September, to 206 days in October, to 217 days in November, to 220 days this month! Going up!

All Woodbridge homes that sold last month were standard sales.

All 11 Woodbridge homes that sold last month were standard sales.

Compare that with the rest of Irvine where only 73% of November sales were standard sales.

The lowest-priced one was a 3 bedroom Somerset standard sale at $373,500 which was on the market for 69 days. The highest priced one was a Landing II home on Emerald, which sold for $1,100,000 after 144 days on the market.

Woodbridge home shoppers can choose from 98 homes for sale, ranging in size from 900 square feet to 4,600 square feet!

As usual, there is a huge price range too, from $249,000 for a 2 bedroom attached condo short sale on Rockwood, all the way up to $$1,149,000 for a 3 bedroom attached condo on Lakeview. Besides incredible lake views, as the street name suggests, the home has mountain views too.

It's interesting to note that although November sales in Woodbridge, Irvine is down from 16 in October, 35 homes are in Backup Offers or Pending status. As 15 of these are standard sales, December looks to be a high escrow-closing month!

Free 4 bedroom house!

I ran a full-color half-page newspaper ad yesterday with the heading "FREE IRVINE HOUSE".

Here's the actual ad.



I hope everyone has a chuckle, and that someone puts in an offer!

See the house at 2Glenoaks.com

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.