Published November 1, 2026 in Market Update

Inventory is down across Coastal Orange County - Central

By Jason & Susan Zwolak

Real estate, Coastal Orange County - Central

I was looking at the numbers for our coastal communities this week, and one thing stood out right away. Choice is tighter here than it was a year ago. That affects both buyers and sellers, and I want to walk you through what the data actually shows.

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 403 homes for sale across Coastal Orange County - Central in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is down 17.9% from the same months of 2025. Nationally, Realtor.com reported active listings topped 1.16 million homes in September 2026. So the national supply picture is different from what is happening right here.

New listings did pick up a little. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 337 new listings across the market in the same period, up 5.3% from a year ago. More sellers are listing. But total available homes still fell. That tells you homes are moving off the market faster than new ones are replacing them.

Each ZIP tells its own story

The overall market number is useful, but every ZIP moved differently. Here is what the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted for each community in the three months ending August 31, 2026.

Corona Del Mar (92625): supply fell sharply, sales jumped

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 73 homes for sale in Corona Del Mar in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is down 22.3% from a year ago. At the same time, 69 homes sold, up 30.2%. More buyers found what they wanted even with fewer choices. The median sale price came in at $4,250,000, up 9.1% from the same period in 2025. Homes averaged 97.1% of list price. That is up 0.2 points from a year ago. Days on market rose 11 days to 65. Not every home sold fast, but the ones that did sold close to asking.

Newport Coast (92657): the biggest price move in the market

Newport Coast had the highest median sale price of any ZIP here. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put it at $8,800,000 for the three months ending August 31, 2026, up 100.3% from a year ago. That is a big swing. In a ZIP with only 27 homes sold, a handful of high-end closings can move the median a lot. Homes for sale fell 18.5% to 44. Days on market were 64, five days longer than a year ago. The sale-to-list ratio slipped 1.9 points to 94.4%. Buyers here had a little more room to negotiate than they did last year.

Laguna Beach (92651): homes sold faster, supply shrank

Laguna Beach had the most homes for sale of any ZIP, at 163, but that was still down 22% from a year ago. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 94 homes sold, up 10.6%. The median sale price was $3,375,000, up 14%. The biggest shift here was speed. Median days on market dropped 30 days to 69. That is a real change. The share of homes going under contract within two weeks jumped 12.7 points to 22.3%. New listings rose 19.2% to 124, so more sellers came to market here than in most other ZIPs.

Newport Beach 92661: the fastest-moving ZIP in the market

This is a small ZIP with only 14 homes sold in the three months ending August 31, 2026. But the numbers moved a lot. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price at $6,875,000, up 59% from a year ago. Again, small sample sizes can swing medians. Days on market fell 33 days to 47, the shortest of any ZIP here. A third of homes, 33.3%, went under contract within two weeks of listing, up 20 points from a year ago. Homes for sale dropped 25% to 30. Supply here is very tight.

Newport Beach 92663: the one ZIP where supply held steady

Newport Beach (92663) moved against the trend. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 93 homes for sale, down just 1.1% from a year ago. That is the smallest inventory drop of any ZIP here. But 66 homes sold, down 23.3%. Fewer buyers closed. The median sale price fell 18.7% to $2,685,000. Days on market were 68, just one day longer. The sale-to-list ratio slipped 0.7 points to 95.4%. Months of supply actually rose 0.9 months to 4.3. This ZIP gave buyers a bit more breathing room than the others.

What the wider market is doing

Nationally, inventory is growing. Realtor.com reported active listings topped 1.16 million homes in September 2026. But that national picture does not match what is happening in our five ZIPs, where the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted a 17.9% drop in homes for sale over the same period. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose 2.4% from August 2025 to August 2026. Locally, most ZIPs here outpaced that. Realtor.com also reported mortgage rates surged above 7% for the first time since January 2025. That adds to the cost of buying anywhere right now.

These are market-wide numbers. One street can read very differently from the ZIP it sits in. If you want to know what the inventory picture looks like for your specific block, reply and I will take a look.