Westminster housing: Hibernating for winter?

Posted on by Listify Me

The Westminster market for homes for sale appeared sleepy as winter approached.

Every two weeks, Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com publishes a study of the supply of local homes for sale. Here’s what the latest report — as of December 22 — details about Westminster …



  • 126 residences listed in brokers’ MLS system with 49 new deals opening in the past 30 days.
  • By Thomas’s math, this community has a “market time” (months in would take to sell all inventory at current pace of new escrows) of 2.57 months vs. 2.45 months found two weeks earlier vs. 3.39 months seen a year earlier. Countywide, latest market time was 3.41 months vs. 4.64 months a year ago.
  • So, homes in this community sell — in theory — in 25% less time than the countywide pace.
  • Of the homes listed for sale in this community, 43 were either foreclosures being resold or short sales, where sellers owe more than the home’s value. So distressed properties were 34.1% of supply of homes for sale vs. 37.9% countywide.
  • Homes for sale in Westminster represent 1.5% of Orange County inventory — and 1.4% of all the distressed homes listed for sale in Orange County. New escrows here are 2.0% of all Orange County’s new pending sales.
  • Compare Westminster to Orange County cities with highest level of distressed properties among their listings? Portola Hills was tops — 73.3% — followed by Ladera Ranch at 68.8% of listings and Rancho Santa Margarita at 64.9% of listings. (Fewest desiressed listings? Corona Del Mar was tops — 4.3% — followed by Seal Beach at 4.6% of listings and Laguna Woods at 8.7% of listings.)

DataQuick stats — based on closed sales — found similar lethargy. For the 22 business days ending December 8 — latest DataQuick stats …

  • 44 Westminster residences sold vs. 46 deals closed in the matching period a year ago — a 4.3% decline over the past 12 months.
  • Countywide sales declined 4% in the same period.
  • $385,000 was the Westminster median selling price. That is down 3% in the year.
  • Countywide median selling price of $400,000 was down 7.5% in the year.

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