Orange County has No. 1 home-price gain in US for 4 consecutive months

“Swift swings” takes a quick peek at one economic trend.

The number: Orange County topped a ranking of home-price gains for 30 US cities for the fourth consecutive month.

The source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at June’s homebuying report from First American Data and Analytics.

Quick analysis

Orange County’s overall home values were up 10.2% in 12 months. Next came Miami, up 8.9%, and Pittsburgh, up 6.5%. The weakest markets of the 30 were Austin, Texas, with a 1.9% decline, then Alameda/Contra Costa counties, up 0.5%, and Sacramento, up 0.9%.

Orange County’s deep-pocketed house hunters have been willing to pay up for the limited supply of homes up for sale – especially at the market’s higher end.

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This report uniquely looks at key price segments, and Orange County had a wide gap between the bottom and the top. Starter homes, the cheapest homes sold, were up 6.1% in the year (No. 7 of the 30) vs. a 13% jump for luxury houses (No. 1).

Elsewhere in California

There’s little uniformity across the state …

San Diego County: 6.2% gain overall in the year (No. 5 of the 30) – 3% for starter homes (No. 22) vs. 8% for luxury houses (No. 3).

Inland Empire: 3.3% overall (No. 18) – 5.1% for starters (No. 13) vs. 4.3% for luxury (No. 12).

Los Angeles County: 2.9% overall (No. 20) – 3.9% for starters (No. 16) vs. 2% for luxury (No. 25).

Last-place Sparks stun first-place Liberty to end skid

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Sacramento: 0.9% overall (No. 28) – 0.1% for starters (No. 29) vs. 1.5% for luxury (No. 26).

Alameda/Contra Costa: 0.5% overall (No. 29) – 1.3% for starters (No. 28) vs. 1.4% for luxury (No. 27).

Highs and lows

The report shows buyers paying more across the pricing spectrum. Of the 30 cities tracked, 16 had luxury price gains larger than starter-home appreciation – including four of the six from California.

The big swings in the price slices …

Starters: Top gains are Pittsburgh at 12.2%, St. Louis at 12%, and New York at 8.2%. Lows are Austin, off 1.3%, Sacramento, up 0.1%, and Alameda/Contra Costa, up 1.3%.

Luxury: Top gains are Orange County at 13%, Miami at 8.8%, and Las Vegas at 8%. Smallest gains are Austin at 0.2%, New York at 0.7%, and Portland at 1.2%.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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