Home Sales Up in Orange County. Mortgage Defaults Also Up.

Orange County median home prices rose 2.2% between February and March of 2009.

Meanwhile, Orange County home mortgage defaults increased 19% in Q1 of 2009 over Q1 2008.
So is it finally time to sing halleluja to an OC housing market recovery?

I don't know man. I've got a really bad feeling about this. And this.

I mean seriously, with all that we have experienced in the last 18 months within this state, do California residents now make the biggest procurement decisions of their lives when there is uncertainty about future employment?

In other news, if you live in OC, you're home is probably overvalued (overassessed) and you're probably paying more in property taxes than you should be. Many homedebtors in OC are now filing appeals with the county to adjust their home property tax bills. But less property tax revenues in OC is going to likely negate some drastic cuts in educational programs by OC school districts. These cuts included firing teachers, eliminating courses and closing down elementary schools.

Mr. Lawrence Yun of the N.A.R. Weighs In Again

Mr. David Lereah was the Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors (N.A.R.). Now that Lereah is pulling the ripcord and escaping the N.A.R. before the house literally burns down, Mr. Lawrence Yun, the Senior Economist of the N.A.R. steps up in his new flame-retardant suit.

He's not just a "senior economist". He's the freaking Managing Director of Quantititative Research for the National Association of Realtors.

OK, but who is this Mr. Yun really?

Does he have some fresh or even forthright comments about the state of the American housing market?

Will he come clean about the N.A.R. being a cartel driven by realtor sales commission earnings and sales strategies, not consumer education, market principles, business ethics, and operating as "trusted advisor"?

The answer is a resounding no.

Mr. Yun is a Lereah lacky. In February of 2007, he echoed Lereah's comments about the true state of the American market. If one were to follow this N.A.R. quantitative propeller head around all day, he'd have real estate consumers believing that the market bottom was hit 4 months ago and that everyone should get ready for a recovery later in the year:

"Sales will recover gradually over the second half of the year and prices will begin to edge up again"

Mr. Yun was wrong in February. He and the N.A.R. are wrong again now.

The U.S. economy is slowing down significantly, the U.S. dollar is approaching an all-time low in value versus the Euro and the British Pound, U.S. inflation remains completely unchecked by the United States Federal Reserve Commission, fuel prices in the United States are approaching unchartered territory at almost $4.00 per gallon in California, a jaw-dropping number of mortgage lenders have been completely or partially destroyed, surviving lenders have restricted their lending standards substantially, HELOC loans are down by 20% year to date and subprime and Alt-A loan foreclosures are rocking the entire industry - and we haven't even explored the probabilities that prime loans may also weigh in badly before the year is out.

To Mr. Yun and members of the National Association of Realtors: It's time for someone from your decrepit organization to step up to the plate and tell it like it is.