Is Orange County housing in a new bubble? Here are 2 divergent views
Orange County’s recent history of ever-rising home prices, now amid a modest cooling of the local economy, brings out fears the local real estate market is getting overheated once again.
You know, “bubble” talk.
In some ways, an asset bubble is in the eye of the beholder. There is no formal definition of when any market reaches the bubble stage – but it’s typically when an asset’s value outstrips the underlying economic fundamentals behind ownership.
For local housing, the big question is when do obvious affordability challenges become a huge economic risk to the entire market? And what becomes of home values once the economic mismatch is exposed?