The Huntington Beach continues to be one of the most exclusive and expensive in the country despite the recent economic downturn. According to a May 20, 2010 article from the Orange County Register, “Orange County has the 7^th least affordable housing in the nation, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. According to first-quarter data, Orange County had…An Housing Opportunity Index that translates to 35.1% of the new and existing homes sold being affordable to Orange County shoppers earning the local median income vs. 48.2% a year earlier.” The piece continued to say that “One reason affordability’s down is that costs are up. Median home price in Orange County was, by this math, of $410,000 – that is 13.9% vs. a year earlier.”

The average price of a Huntington Beach real estate rose in the month of April, according to a May 18, 2010 article from the OC Metro. This piece noted that “Orange County saw gains in its median home price and sales activity in April, compared to the same time last year, according to a new report from MDA DataQuick. The county’s median home price hit $430,000 last month up 13 percent from $380,000 in April 2009. But, the price dipped slightly from March, when the median reached $432,000.” The article by Kristen Schott went on to note that “Sales rose 11.6 percent in Orange County in April, compared to 2009. Buyers snapped up 2,669 homes in the period, up from about 2,391 at the same time last year. The number also rose slightly from March. In the larger Southern California region, sales fell for the first time in about two years, according to DataQuick.”

This apparent strength in the Huntington Beach and Orange County housing markets seems to exceed that of neighboring counties, according to a May 18, 2010 article from OCLNN. The piece by Mike Reicher said that “Orange County saw stronger gains in home sales and price compared to all other Southern California counties during April. The median home price in Orange County jumped 13.2 percent since April 2009, to $430,000, according to DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate information service.”

A large city in northern Orange County in Southern California, Fullerton is home to a population of more than 125,000 and is just minutes from the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It has a relatively high measure of median household income, which stood at $75,700 in 2005. Like so many markets across the nation, especially those in Southern California, the Fullerton real estate market has seen its home prices fall from record highs recorded before the beginnings of what eventually became a full-blown recession in the U.S.

The year 2009 continued to be a year of struggles for the real estate in Fullerton, with each of its four zip codes seeing annual median prices fall year-over-year. However, because prices kept falling, many more buyers were able to jump into the market and purchase lower-priced Fullerton homes for sale, and as a result, each of the city’s four zip codes saw increases year-over-year in sales volume.

According to the Orange County Register‘s yearly data chart, prices in Fullerton for 2009 ranged from $296,000, a fall of 23%, in one zip code, to $536,000, an 8% decline, in the highest-priced zip code. The four zip codes saw sales volume of 268, 155, 588 and 232, respectively, increases of 30%, 5%, 30% and 13%.

Monthly statistics for 2010 show that the market in Fullerton seems to be showing some signs of improvement. March statistics show that median prices were up in three of the city’s four zip codes, with one up by more than 21% year-over-year. The median prices for March ranged from $478,000 (in the one market that saw a decline, which was 28%) to $315,000 (a 7% increase). Sales volume continued to be higher than last year in all markets, with 110 homes sold for the month. Sales by zip code was up from 8% to as much as 40% in one market, suggesting that the Fullerton market may have hit its bottom in 2009 and may begin to level out now this year.