WHAT ARE THE ACTUAL NUMBERS?

The last full month of numbers available is December.  The total number of sales was 3,070.  That number is up 19.4% from December of 2011.  The median price of homes rose in Orange County 9.2%, which outpaced the country's uptick of 5.5%.  There were 2,010 total single-family resale transactions, 796 condominiums and 264 new homes that closed escrow in December.  The rise in new homes was 31% from the same period a year ago, and watch for that number to expand rapidly over the next 5 years.  The total number of Notices of Default for all of So Cal for the fourth quarter was 20,879.  Compare that to the same quarter of 2011 and that number jumps to 34,013.  Orange County's number plummeted 49.5% from 4,297(fourth quarter 2011) to 2,169 for 2012.  A point of interest: million dollar home buying reached a 5 year high in 2012.