County Market Reported Growing for Townhouses and Condominiums : REAL ESTATE

While the big, lavish houses are still selling well in Orange County, the market for less expensive townhouses and condominiums is also growing.

New condos and townhouses outsold new detached houses during the first quarter of the year, by 1,390 units to 1,240 for the detached houses. That was a reversal of the last quarter of 1987, when townhouses and condos accounted for only 990 sales, and detached houses totaled 1,636.

The median price of new condos and townhouses was $133,000 during the first quarter of the year, and prices didn’t increase from the last quarter of 1987, said the Meyers Group, a Corona housing consultant.

New detached houses cost a median $224,000 by comparison, according to the company.

Price increases for new detached houses slowed during January, February and March, the company said. Last year the price of a single-family home jumped $10,000 each quarter, but during the first quarter of this year the median price rose only $6,000.

That breather might be only temporary, however, the company cautioned. The company said it expects a pending slow-growth initiative to curtail housing construction.

Compared to new homes, detached houses that were owned previously cost a median $183,791, up 5% from the last quarter of 1987. But that reflected the larger size of the homes being sold as much as the strong demand, the California Assn. of Realtors reported recently.

Resale houses were in the same short supply as new homes, according to the association.

So expensive are the county’s houses that “buyers are finding that if they want their ‘great American dream’ of home ownership to come true in Orange County, they had better explore the possibility of a condo,” said Steve Johnson, vice president of the Meyers Group.

The company said demand for new houses continues to far outstrip the supply in the county. At the end of the quarter only 1,000 new homes remained unsold, or about six week’s worth, assuming that the present rate of sales continues and no new homes are built.