Huntington beach market update feb 2012

Huntington Beach Real Estate Update for February 2012.  The local Huntington Beach real estate market remains soft with a high level of distressed properties including REO's and short sales.  For the 90 days ended January 31, 2012 the local MLS indicates there were 362 Huntington Beach Homes sold, for an average of 121 per month.   There are currently 475 active Huntington Beach Homes listed in the MLS, which equates to slightly less than four months of inventory.  This however does not take into effect the shadow inventory, those homes which are either bank owned or soon to be bank owned but have yet to hit the market. 

According to Dataquick, the median price for Huntington Beach homes declined 7.89% from the previous year.  This is for the month December 2011 compared to December 2010 which is the most recent data available from Dataquick.  Demand for Huntington Beach Real Estate remains strong, especially among first time home buyers looking to take advantage of the current low interest rates.  According to FreddieMac the average 30 year fixed interest rate is currently at 3.98% which is a close to a historical low.  The biggest drag on Huntington Beach homes sales is the long extracted process it takes to close on Huntington Beach short sales.  Currently the average time to close a Huntington Beach short sale is 5.5 months with some taking in excess of 18 months.