You may have read past references to the current economic situation (not here, mind you) as a “jobless recovery.” Some of us are still trying to figure out just what that means, but in the meantime we’ve settled on this: “The jobless rate you see is the new normal.”
That is a fair interpretation for even earlier this year, when the U.S. economy was showing some signs of life, the jobless needle was barely moving. Now, it is moving again, but in the wrong direction. Add to that the recent report from the Conference Board that consumer confidence fell in June to its lowest level in eight months and we have cause for concern.
In real estate, this means that the pool of potential buyers is shrinking and that the pool of qualified buyers is scared — so that pool is shrinking, too.
It is that pool of scared qualified buyers that is of most concern to anyone in real estate. When that buyer sits on the fence during what is an outstanding time to buy a home, there is trouble.
Buying real estate in today’s market does not seem to be a problem for Orange County resident Bill Gross (who has homes in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Corona del Mar and San Clemente, not to mention the out-of-town residences), who just picked up the
property listed by actress Jennifer Aniston for approximately $36 million. Aniston’s 10,000-square-foot Beverly Hills home listed the home for $42 million and it sold in three months. Now there is one really good qualified buyer.
For those of us whose acting careers have not made us household names and who don’t have a few million dollars to spread around can’t even relate to another big name — not quite a household one — who just bought here in Orange County.
Recently, escrow closed on an 11,000-square-foot home in the Bear Brand Ranch area of Laguna Niguel. The buyer of the one-acre ocean-view home was former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox.
Cox, who has Orange County roots dating back to his years as U.S. Congressman representing Newport Beach, reportedly paid $5,350,000.
That’s two homes selling for a total of about $47 million. Does that mean there is life out there? Probably not, which means that sellers and agents have to be smarter about how they are conducting their business these days. Most of the homes on the market are selling for a small fraction of Aniston’s and are not located in areas as nice as Cox’s (sorry, I spent a lot of time in Beverly Hills many years ago and outside of the excellent schools, the city holds no attraction), so cleverness is in order these days.
See SMITH, page C65
