REAL ESTATE

Home Prices Dropping: As home prices keep falling, affordable housing may be a bit easier to find in Orange County.

Make no mistake--this is still the priciest market in the Southland and one of the most expensive in the nation. But with the recent bottoming out of interest rates and a continuing soft market, especially for resales, Orange County home prices are dropping in a big way.

In June, according to a new report by TRW-Redi Property Data in Riverside, the $254,204 average selling price of a new home in Orange County was down 10.4% from a $283,767 average in June, 1991. At the same time, new-home sales were down to 592 in June from 597 a year earlier.

In Orange County’s much larger resale housing market, sales of 2,429 units were down a substantial 23.5% from June, 1991, while the average price fell 0.9% to $249,144 from $251,394.