The city of Anaheim and the adjacent community of Anaheim Hills were among the hardest hit by the decline of the United States economy in general and the sub prime mortgage crisis in particular. The Anaheim real estate market wasn't totally devastated by the bursting of the real estate bubble, although there were a number of problems spawned by the crisis that hit Anaheim a lot harder than the rest of Orange County. On the other hand, this means that there were more foreclosed and short sale properties on the Anaheim real estate market, making deals more readily available to interested buyers and investors, who have been out in force as of the last few months.
In fact, almost the entirety of the Anaheim section of the Orange County real estate blog is dedicated to so-called “short sales”, which are essentially rushed home sales that are designed to recoup sufficient funds to preempt a foreclosure. Some realtors, such as Marlene Prescott, even go so far as to say that the real estate market has equalized to the point where it is neither a buyers' or a sellers' market, and where home prices are expected to neither rise rapidly or plunge suddenly. Jonathan Lansner and Jeff Collins wrote in the Orange County Register on July 20th, 2009 that “To me, the best one can say about recent signals of modest housing improvement is that things don't look as bleak as they did in and around the dark days about when 2009 started.”
A table compiled by Dataquick found that, as of late June, all seven zip codes associated with Anaheim Hills and Anaheim decreased substantially in median price, although about half of the zip codes increased in sales rate as well. Anaheim real estate has some interesting case studies as well, with one in particular emphasizing the power of foreclosure to boost the market. According to a June 18, 2009 article in the Orange County Register, a rather plain and humble home that was put up for foreclosure received a whopping 63 offers from 53 different interested parties. It continued to say that “Agents have been talking for months about how low-cost foreclosures have been drawing multiple bids.”