California News Blog

An affluent suburban community in Orange County in Southern California, Yorba Linda is home to a population of about 70,000 and is about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The city is famed for once being home to former U.S. President Richard Nixon, and is home to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. It has a large population of horse lovers, with more than 30 horse trails in the community. Yorba Linda real estate leans toward the higher end in the county, as residents here, on the whole, are quite wealthy, with a median household income of almost $110,000 in 2007. The affluent community lends itself to higher home prices, and Yorba Linda suffered its share from the downturn in the real estate sector that occurred — and is still occurring — across much of the U.S., beginning in 2008.

Yorba Linda finished the year of 2009 with mixed notes. According to the Orange County Register‘s annual zip code sales chart, the median price for homes sold in the city was down nearly 10% in one zip code, coming in at $587,750, and down 6.5% in the other zip code to $579,500. The good news was that sales activity in the city was up — by more than 16% overall for the year in the first zip code, with a total of 587 homes sold, and by 20.5% in the latter zip code, with 253 homes sold.

Despite slumping prices in 2009, the new year shows some signs of promise for Yorba Linda homes for sale. According to the Orange County Register’s monthly sales chart, in March, the city’s first zip code saw home prices rise year-over-year by 3.5% to $634,500. However, the second and less populated zip code, saw its prices still continuing to struggle, down in March by nearly 17% to $375,000. March saw sales down annually in both zip codes, with 45 and 19 homes sold, respectively, declines by 25% and 30%.

Even more recently, these trends have continued. The city’s first zip code saw its median price at $650,000 in a three week period ended April 14, according to the Orange County Register’s Real Estate blog. That made for an 18% increase, besting the total Orange County average increase for the period, which was up 15%. The second zip code saw a median of $379,500, down 40% annually. Sales volume was up in both zip codes, with 55 and 24 sales, respectively, up 25% and 4%.