Ten years ago, median prices for homes in Orange County reached their peak at $645,000 before dramatically dropping to nearly half that. It wasn’t until last year when new median home prices in the area soared again, this time peaking at $695,000. 

After looking over data from CoreLogic, ReportsOnHousing, California Association of Realtors, National Association of Home Builders, Property Radar, and state employment records, the Orange County Register's Jonathan Lasner provides a current evaluation of the OC’s housing bubble and how you can’t compare then and now just based on prices.

Some of the findings include: 

  • A third of lower-income neighborhoods in Orange County still haven’t fully recovered including parts of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Dana Point, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Irvine, La Habra, La Palma, Lake Forest, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Orange/Villa Park, San Clemente, Santa Ana, and Seal Beach.
  • Larger homes have bounced back, but smaller homes have not fully recovered. Homes smaller than 1,000 square feet are still selling at a three percent lower median price than a decade ago.
  • There’s a shortage of lower-priced residences, which shows that lower-income homeowners have not fully recovered. Only 34 percent of homes now are selling below $600,000 compared to 41 percent a decade ago.
  • At the height of the recession, homeowners were paying about $170 more for their mortgage per month. Mortgage payments are cheaper now than a decade ago by five percent.
  • Banks are more hesitant to grant risky loans to homeowners with limited spending ability. The amount of adjustable-rate borrowing now is 36 percent lower than June 2007.
  • Housing affordability is still high, but it’s better than it was before. Twenty-one percent of households in the O.C. can afford to purchase a home now versus the 12 percent before the recession.
  • Home sales are up 44 percent compared to a decade ago, when the price of homes skyrocketed and the amount of buyers lowered by 50 percent.
  • It takes a shorter amount of time to sell a home now. According to ReportsOnHousing, it takes an average of two months for a home sale compared to nine months in June 2007.
  • The percentage of short sales and home foreclosures has dramatically dropped from 13 percent in June 2007 to seven percent now.
  • More jobs means more buyers. There is a higher rate of employment now compared to a decade ago, when jobs were either scarce or eliminated due to the recession.

The short answer is that even though the median price for new housing is $50,000 higher than its peak 10 years ago, the market isn’t nearly as crazy. That said, though the housing market is better now, data still shows that lower-income homeowners are slower to recover from the recession.