Buyers Are Kicking the Proverbial Tire

As home sales picked up last year, so apparently did the fastidiousness of Orange County buyers. They looked at 18.8 homes on average before deciding, up from 12 in 1996, according to a survey of recent purchasers.

The survey by Chicago Title & Trust Co. also seemed to confirm the county’s reputation as a bastion of traditional, conservative, suburban life. Nearly 72% of the home buyers last year said they were married, compared with just 43% in San Francisco.

Speaking of San Francisco, buyers there reported the highest home prices of the 20 leading urban markets surveyed by Chicago Title (Honolulu, which often has the highest prices, wasn’t among them).

The median home price in the city by the bay was $289,700, compared with the national median of $159,700 and $213,500 in Orange County.

The average monthly mortgage payment for a first-time buyer in Orange County last year was $1,206, according to the survey. Repeat buyers were paying $1,498 on average.

The average down payment in 1997 was 19.4% of the sales price, with first-time buyers ponying up 12.6% and repeat buyers 26.2%.

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E. Scott Reckard covers real estate for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com