Balboa Island Real Estate

A neighborhood in Newport Beach, Balboa Island, California, is actually made up of three artificial islands in Newport Harbor. As such, the community has only a limited amount of space for homes and thus demand is quite high. Therefore the area has built up some very high real estate values over the years as home seekers crave to find a spot of their very own on this beautiful island. But, like so many other community in Orange County, the market has seen its share of calamity over the past couple of years brought on by the effects of the collapse of the U.S. real estate market and the ensuing recession.

Balboa Island ranks third in all of Orange County for price cuts, with a full one-third of homes for sale having seen a cut, according to the Orange County Register. These homes have seen average cut of 10% in the original price for a monetary value of nearly $300,000, offering what could be some great deals on Balboa island homes for sale for potential buyers, but what might also leave many homeowners underwater on their higher-priced mortgages.

Near the end of March, Balboa Island had an inventory of 43 homes on the market, enough to comprise an 11-month supply, according to the HOM real estate group. Four of the homes were in the lowest-priced market of $1 to $1.5 million, while two were in the highest bracket of more than $8 million. Most of the Balboa island real estate currently on the market, however, lies in the $1.5 million to $4 million range. Of those homes, none were short sales and none were bank-owned properties. But 22% of homes currently in escrow were short sales or bank-owned homes.

At the peak of the real estate bubble, the average sales price for a home on Balboa island was nearly $3.1 million, in 2006. In 2009, the community saw its median price for homes slip by more than 16% compared with a year previous, down to $1.8 million. Unlike many Orange County communities, most of which saw an increase in sales volume despite lower prices, Balboa Island saw a double negative, with a dip in sales activity as well over the year: 2009 accounted for just 14 sales in the area, a fall in volume by 30%.