Orange County Benchmarking and Target Industry Analysis: Spotlight

Housing
Eighty‐six percent of Orange County’s 9,176 housing units were occupied in 2010. Both the number of
housing units and the share of vacant homes have increased (9.9 percent and 79.4 percent, respectively)
since 2000, with Orange County’s vacant‐home growth rate far above the state rate of 49.7 percent.
Three‐fourths of the occupied homes were owner‐occupied in 2010, housing 76 percent of the
population. Of the vacant homes, most are for seasonal/recreational use (33 percent), 30 percent are for
sale or rent, and the remainder are vacant for other reasons. As noted by a local real estate agent, the
number of seasonal and vacation homes has increased in the past several years; in 2000, only 18.4 percent
of vacant homes were for this use. Where the increase in vacant homes has led to blight, some
communities have initiated efforts to purchase and tear down abandoned homes in an effort to clean‐up
the aesthetic appeal of the area.
Of the 7,872 households in Orange County, 68.8 percent are family households. The majority (53.5
percent) of all households are headed by married couples, and 20 percent of married couples in the
county have children under 18 living in them. Nearly 9 percent of the homes with children under 18 are
headed by a single parent. Roughly 27 percent of households have residents living alone, with 43 percent
of those individuals age 65 or older (70 percent of which are women). As the population continues to age
in Orange County, there is a need for retirement communities to provide options for the elderly seeking
to downsize or needing assisted living.
The national housing crash that began in late 2007 did not impact Orange County like it did other
regions in the United States. In fact, the county seemed relatively sheltered from the crash, save for
reductions in sale prices, until 2009 when homes sales began to drop. Between 2005 and 2010, 185 homes
sold for an average price of $74,700. Statewide, homes sold at an average of $109,800. Despite the
significantly lower home sales price in Orange County than statewide, local community leaders noted
the need for more single‐family housing as well as for subsidized housing, and steps have been taken to
address this issue through future housing development plans.
Foreclosures are also impacting Orange County’s housing market. Figure 20 shows that Orange County
had 3.5 percent of its prime mortgages in foreclosure as of November 2010, a rate only slightly higher
than the state (3.4 percent) and nation (3.1 percent). Of Orange County’s prime mortgages in foreclosure,
most are delinquent by 30 to 59 days, followed by more than90 days (5.3 and 4.6 percent, respectively).
All of Orange County’s delinquency rates exceed the state and national figures, which could indicate a
potential for increased foreclosure rates in the county relative to the state and nation in the near future.
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