Hello, Cerritos!

If you’ve been watching the real estate market and wondering whether now is the right time to buy, sell, or simply sit tight, November’s housing data offers some valuable insight. The Cerritos real estate market continues to show movement, but with clear signs that strategy, pricing, and condition matter more than ever.

Let’s break down what’s happening and what it means for homeowners and buyers alike.

Single-Family Homes: Still Moving, But With Intention

Single detached homes in Cerritos remain in demand, especially for properties that are well-maintained and priced appropriately. In November, the market recorded:

• 18 active listings

• 15 pending sales

• 4 homes on hold

• 9 homes sold

The average list price for active single-family homes was $1,342,685, while the average sold price came in at $1,286,667. This gap between list and sold prices signals a more balanced market, buyers are active, but they are negotiating.

Homes spent an average of 27 days on the market, which is still relatively fast and shows that desirable properties are not sitting long. Sellers who understand current buyer expectations are being rewarded, while those who overprice or skip necessary preparation may see longer market times.

Condos & Townhomes: Value-Focused Buyers Take Their Time

Attached homes, condos and townhouses tell a slightly different story. In November, Cerritos saw:

• 9 active listings

• 8 pending sales

• 4 sold homes

The average active list price in this category was $720,449, while the average sold price dropped to $604,750. That difference highlights a key trend: buyers in this segment are price-sensitive and highly selective.

Attached homes averaged 48 days on the market, nearly double the time of single-family homes. This doesn’t mean demand isn’t there, it simply means buyers are weighing options carefully, comparing condition, HOA fees, and long-term value before making a move.

For sellers, this underscores the importance of realistic pricing and presentation. For buyers, it may present opportunities to negotiate more favorable terms.

Why Cerritos Data Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

One of the most important things to understand about the Cerritos market is that not all homes perform the same. Two properties with similar square footage can sell at very different prices depending on:

• Condition and upgrades

• Lot size and layout

• Proximity to schools and amenities

• Overall neighborhood appeal

Market averages are helpful, but they don’t tell the full story. Your home’s value or the value of a home you’re considering depends on hyper-local factors that require a closer look.

That’s why a custom Equity Potential Insight Comparison is so important. It shows how your specific property stacks up against current competition and recent sales, giving you clarity instead of guesswork.

What This Means for Buyers and Sellers Right Now

The Cerritos housing market isn’t slowing, it’s normalizing. Buyers are informed. Sellers need to be prepared. And success depends on having a clear plan.

If you’re selling, the right pricing and strategy can help you maximize your equity without unnecessary time on market. If you’re buying, understanding market leverage can save you thousands and help you compete confidently.

Guidance Matters in a Shifting Market

With constant changes in interest rates, inventory levels, and buyer behavior, navigating real estate decisions requires more than online estimates or headlines. It requires local expertise and thoughtful strategy.

CHRISTINE ALMARINES

I’m Christine Almarines, Team Lead of the CA Real Estate Group, where we put care into every transaction. If you’d like a personalized review of your home’s equity potential or want to talk through your next move in Cerritos, I’d be happy to help. Smart decisions start with good information and the right guide.

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Christine Almarines
CA Real Estate Group | Caliber Real Estate
📱 714-476-4637
📧 christine@carealestategroup.com
DRE #01412944

Serving Buena Park, Cerritos, LA county, Orange County and all surrounding areas.

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Hello, Buena Park!

If you’ve been wondering what’s really happening in the local housing market, November delivered some pretty interesting data. Whether you’re a homeowner, a future buyer, or just keeping tabs on the market, these numbers give us a clear snapshot of what direction Buena Park is heading.

I’m Christine Almarines with the CA Real Estate Group, and here’s what you need to know.

Single-Family Homes: Buyers and Sellers Still Showing up Strong

As of this recording, Buena Park’s single detached homes continue to move at a steady and competitive pace. November closed with 25 active listings, 20 pending sales, 7 homes on hold, and 20 homes sold. That’s a healthy level of activity for this time of year and shows that serious buyers are still in the market despite seasonal slowdowns and shifting interest rates.

One surprising data point? The average list price for active single-family homes came in at $1,025,312, while the average sold price landed at $1,025,780, yes, slightly above list price. This tells us two things: well-priced homes are still drawing strong demand, and buyers are willing to compete for the right home, even in a market that’s adjusting.

These homes spent an average of 36 days on the market, which is longer than the lightning-fast sales we saw in previous years, but still solid. It indicates a market that’s stabilizing rather than slowing to a halt.

Attached Homes: Affordability Meets Patience​

Now let’s talk condos, townhomes, and attached properties, an important segment for buyers looking for affordability or a lower-maintenance lifestyle.

In November, Buena Park recorded 15 active attached home listings, 10 pending sales, 2 on hold, and 4 closed sales. The average active list price was $803,300, while the average sold price came in at $777,500. This shows a slight gap between asking and selling prices, which isn’t unusual in this category. Attached homes also averaged 48 days on the market, suggesting these properties may require a little more patience from both sellers and buyers.

Still, the demand is present. Pending sales remain strong, showing that buyers are shopping but they’re more selective, and pricing accuracy is crucial.

Different Zip Codes, Different Stories ​

Buena Park isn’t a one-size fits all market. With multiple zip codes, the numbers can vary significantly depending on the neighborhood, property condition, upgrades, lot size, and overall desirability of the area. A home that looks similar on paper may hold a very different value depending on its exact location.

That’s why data alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Your home’s true value can only be understood with a personalized comparison, one that considers real-time competition, micro market trends, and the unique features of your property.

Why It Matters Right Now​​

With constant shifts in interest rates, buyer demand, and inventory, navigating the market requires more than watching headlines. It takes a strategy. Whether you’re planning to sell and want to maximize your equity, or you’re looking to buy and want to avoid overpaying, experience matters.

CHRISTINE ALMARINES

I’m Christine Almarines, Team Lead of the CA Real Estate Group, where we put care into every transaction. If you’d like a specific Equity Potential Insight Comparison (Home Value Report) of your Buena Park home, message me anytime. Your next move should be intentional and I’d be honored to guide you through it.

View Christine's Info

Christine Almarines
CA Real Estate Group | Caliber Real Estate
📱 714-476-4637
📧 christine@carealestategroup.com
DRE #01412944

Serving Buena Park, Cerritos, LA county, Orange County and all surrounding areas.

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Zillow Writer:  Skylar Olsen

keepingcurrentmatters.com | May 25, 2023

If you’re trying to decide if now’s the time to sell your house, here’s what you should know. The limited number of homes available right now gives you a big advantage. That’s because there are more buyers out there than there are homes for sale. And, with so few homes on the market, buyers will have fewer options, so you set yourself up to get the most eyes possible on your house.

Here’s what industry experts are saying about why selling now has its benefits:

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR):

“Inventory levels are still at historic lows. Consequently, multiple offers are returning on a good number of properties.”

Selma Hepp, Chief Economist at CoreLogic:

“We have not seen the traditional uptick in new listings from existing homeowners, so undersupply of housing will continue to heighten market competition and put pressure on prices in most regions. Some markets are already heating up considerably, but price premiums that we saw last spring and summer are unlikely.”

Clare Trapasso, Executive News Editor at Realtor.com:

“Well-priced, move-in ready homes with curb appeal in desirable areas are still receiving multiple offers and selling for over the asking price in many parts of the country . . .”

Jeff Tucker, Senior Economist at Zillow:

“. . . sellers who price and market their home competitively shouldn’t have a problem finding a buyer.”

Bottom Line

If you’re thinking about selling your house, connect us at CA Real Estate Group and we can share the expert insights you need to make the best possible move today.  Call Christine Almarines at 714-476-4637.

June 14, 2023

HYPE VERSUS DATA

From YouTube to TikTok to the backyard barbecue, there are plenty of narratives regarding the pending doom for housing that the underlying data does not support.

SELLERS!!!

It’s a hot market that we’re advising all Sellers take advantage of! ACT SOON and contact us to get your home sold for a great price!

Orange County Housing Report:

Housing Insanity Returns

April 17, 2023

• The active listing inventory in the past couple of weeks decreased by 89 homes, down 4%, and now sits at 2,053, the second-lowest mid-March level since tracking began in 2004 behind last year. In March, 39% fewer homes came on the market compared to the 3-year average before COVID (2017 to 2019), 1,346 less. Last year, there were 1,732 homes on the market, 321 fewer homes, or 16% less. The 3-year average before COVID (2017 to 2019) was 5,780, or 182% more.
• Demand, the number of pending sales over the prior month, increased by 103 pending sales in the past two weeks, up 7%, and now totals 1,663. Last year, there were 2,241 pending sales, 35% more than today. The 3-year average before COVID (2017 to 2019) was 2,777, or 67% more.
• With the inventory falling and demand rising, the Expected Market Time, the number of days to sell all Orange County listings at the current buying pace, decreased from 41 to 37 days in the past couple of weeks, its lowest level since May of last year. It was 23 days last year, much stronger than today.
• For homes priced below $750,000, the Expected Market Time decreased from 32 to 27 days. This range represents 21% of the active inventory and 29% of demand.
• For homes priced between $750,000 and $1 million, the Expected Market Time decreased from 26 to 22 days. This range represents 16% of the active inventory and 26% of demand.
• For homes priced between $1 million to $1.25 million, the Expected Market Time decreased from 31 to 27 days. This range represents 10% of the active inventory and 13% of demand.
• For homes priced between $1.25 million to $1.5 million, the Expected Market Time decreased from 33 to 30 days. This range represents 9% of the active inventory and 11% of demand.
• For homes priced between $1.5 million to $2 million, the Expected Market Time decreased from 56 to 52 days. This range represents 13% of the active inventory and 9% of demand.
• For homes priced between $2 million and $4 million, the Expected Market Time in the past two weeks dropped from 76 to 72 days. For homes priced between $4 million and $6 million, the Expected Market Time increased from 210 to 212 days. For homes priced above $6 million, the Expected Market Time increased from 308 to 341 days.
• The luxury end, all homes above $2 million, account for 31% of the inventory and 11% of demand.
• Distressed homes, both short sales and foreclosures combined, comprised only 0.5% of all listings and 0.5% of demand. Only five foreclosures and five short sales are available today in Orange County, with ten total distressed homes on the active market, unchanged from two weeks ago. Last year there was one distressed home on the market, similar to today.
• There were 1,789 closed residential resales in March, 32% less than March 2022’s 2,645 closed sales. March marked a 41% increase compared to February 2023. The sales-to-list price ratio was 99.6% for all of Orange County. Foreclosures accounted for 0.1% of all closed sales, and there were no closed short sales. That means that 99.9% of all sales were good ol’ fashioned sellers with equity.

Copyright 2023- Steven Thomas, Reports On Housing – All Rights Reserved. This report may not be reproduced in whole or part without express written permission from the author.

Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening in the Real Estate Market.

Real Estate News in Brief

The NAR’s Pending Sales Index for October fell 4.6% in a month and 37% compared to October 2021. Pending sales in the West region were down 46%. [Source: NAR] Keep in mind that 30-yr mortgage rates were >7% for the entire month of October. They’re now around 6.3%.

The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for September fell 1% in a month. From their peak in June, national home prices have slid ~2.5%, while prices in SFO & SEA are now down more than 10%. [Source: CoreLogic]

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that “the time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting” during a speech at the Brookings Institution. In other words, no more +75 bps.

The day after Powell’s comments, the PCE inflation figure for October came in at an annualized rate of 6%, better (that is to say, lower) than expectations and a further deceleration from 6.3% in September and the peak of 7% in June. [Source: BEA]

Companies added only 127k jobs in November, vs. +239k in October. This was well below Street expectations. Job losses in manufacturing & biz services dragged the total lower. [Source: ADP]

The NAHB’s Chief Economist expects a mild recession from 4Q 2022–2Q 2023, but sees mortgage rates at or below 6% by end-2023/early 2024, either because the Fed has ‘beaten’ inflation, or because the recession turns out to be bigger than expected. [Source: NAHB]

Pending Sales for October

With 30-year mortgage rates above 7% for the entire month, we knew that October pending sales would be bad — and they were. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) dropped 4.6% in a month. That’s the 5th-straight monthly decline in the PHSI. Compared to October 2021, the PHSI was down 37% YoY.

The contraction was significantly worse in the West, with October pending sales dropping 11% MoM and down 46.2% YoY. That’s right, pending sales nearly halved in the West.

Pending sales are a forward indicator of existing home sales (leading by 1–2 months). So prepare yourself for some nasty November and December existing home sales figures.

But there’s a silver lining: mortgage rates are already 90–100bps (a full percentage point) lower. As NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun wrote, “October was a difficult month for buyers as they faced 20-year-high mortgage rates…[but] The upcoming months should see a return of buyers as mortgage rates appear to have already peaked and have been coming down since mid-November.”

In fact, there are signs that a recovery in activity (thanks to lower rates) is already happening. The MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) tracks new purchase loan applications on a weekly basis. This is the fourth week in a row that applications have risen week-on-week.

Case-Shiller for September

For the third consecutive month, home prices declined on a month-over-month basis. The national index was down 1.0% MoM, but the 20-city index was down 1.5% MoM. Don’t be fooled by the small numbers; these are big decreases. If this happened every month, prices would be down 12–18% in a year.

As in August, prices declined in each of the 20 big cities. However, for the cities experiencing the sharpest price drops (San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas etc.), the magnitude of price declines actually slowed a bit in September.

NAHB Webinar

Here’s how the National Association of Homebuilders’ Chief Economist, Robert Dietz, sees things:

2020–2021: Unsustainable, above-trend growth in home sales
2022–2023: Compensating below-trend growth in home sales
2024+: A return to trend growth in home sales (with >1 million in new home sales annually)

He expects a mild recession for the next three quarters, unemployment rates rising to near 6% (from 3% today) in 2024 and national home prices falling ~10%. At the same time, his message was essentially optimistic — lower inflation, interest rates and home prices will bring buyers (and builders) back relatively quickly.

A few anecdotes I found interesting:

• ~50% of the webinar attendees (most of whom were builders) said that they were responding to slowing demand with either price cuts OR enhanced incentives
• The construction industry needs ~750,000 new workers every year to keep pace with demand and replace retirees
• Right now, two cities in Texas (Houston and Dallas) are adding more new homes than the entire state of California

Note: In any given year, existing home sales are 7–15 times higher than new home sales. This isn’t because builders are lazy. It’s because there are around 145 million existing housing units. Even if builders were able to construct 2 million homes a year (something they’ve never achieved before), that would only raise the total housing stock by 1.3%.

Mortgage Market

After months of extreme volatility, 30-yr mortgage rates had flatlined at 6.6% for several weeks. But with another good (well, improving) inflation figure, and Powell sounding a bit less hawkish, the bond market was in party mode yesterday, rising 70–80 basis points.

Higher mortgage bond prices = lower mortgage bond yields = lower mortgage rates. Yesterday, the 30-yr mortgage rates moved sharply lower to 6.3% — that’s a full percentage point lower than the peak of 7.37% on October 20!

They Said It

“When home prices decline, it’s pretty rare for there to not be a recession.” — NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz

“To anyone with a sense of history, the home boom must be a source of wonder. Housing usually leads the economy into a recession. Mortgage rates rise, then housing construction and home sales fall.” — Robert J. Samuelson in a 2002 Newsweek article

Inspiration

There are many different approaches to measure ‘affordability.’ But they all depend on three factors: 1) household income, 2) home prices, and 3) mortgage rates.

Right now, all three factors are moving in buyers’ favor:

• Workers are getting paid more
• Home prices are starting to slide
• Mortgage rates have peaked

Plus, there are more homes available, and less competition than last year, and sellers are more willing to negotiate on things like repairs, covering some closing costs, paying for points etc.

The key is to stay in regular contact with CA Real Estate Group. Your agent will let you know about price cuts, point out stale listings, and will keep you informed about mortgage rates.  Also, waiting for the ‘perfect’ moment could be counterproductive. When (if!) conditions look perfect, they’ll look perfect to everybody else too.

For Wednesday, Nov 23

To keep the holiday dinner conversations peaceful, instead of talking politics and religion, talk about REAL ESTATE! Here are your talking points. (Although it could easily lead back to the aforementioned subjects so beware.)

October Existing Home Sales Plunge

Much higher mortgage rates have ensured that this will be the coldest 4Q in quite some time — at least as far as existing home sales go.

According to the NAR, October existing home sales fell 5.9% month-on-month (compared to September 2022) and plunged 28.4% year-on-year (compared to October 2021). This is the 9th-consecutive monthly drop. This is much more than just a seasonal slowdown.

Note: The 4.43 million figure you see in the chart below is a seasonally-adjusted, annualized figure. 4.43 million homes were not sold in October. Instead, it’s telling you that if the pace of sales seen in October (adjusted for seasonality) continued for the next 12 months, you’d sell 4.33 million homes. This figure is just 10% above the May 2020 low of 4.07 million.

In addition, there continues to be a big difference from region to region. Things were much worse in the West, where existing home sales were down 38% YoY and there was a dramatic contraction (41%-45%) in the sale of higher-end homes. On the other hand, the Northeast is performing the best (smallest contraction of 23% YoY). Also note that the big decline in homes priced between $100–250K across the US is at least partially due to fewer homes listed within that price range thanks to rapid home price increases.

October 2022 Existing Single Family Homes Sold
By Region and Sales Price

Mortgage Market

After the big decline two weeks ago, average 30-year mortgage rates have hovered around the 6.6% level. This means that monthly mortgage payments are $100–200/month lower than they would have been in mid-November when rates were at 7.25% (with no points purchased).