Inland Empire Enters Move-up Home Market

Riverside County’s Inland Empire area--one of the last parts of the Southland with new single-family houses selling in the $100,000 range--is rapidly developing a move-up market for larger houses in the $140,000 and up range.

This is the view of Steve Johnson of the Meyers Group, a Corona-based research organization specializing in residential construction. The move-up market for four- and five-bedroom houses with more than 2,500 square feet is “very much in evidence in Moreno Valley and is starting to appear in Rancho California and other (Inland Empire) areas of Riverside County,” he said.

This move-up housing is also attracting buyers who work in Los Angeles and Orange counties and are willing to make “the formidable commute,” Johnson added.

His firm’s Competitive Housing Market Report for the April-June period showed a much flatter market than in the first quarter, when housing sales were very active: There were 2,259 detached and attached housing units sold in the period, a drop of 33% from the 3,388 units sold in January, February and March.