If you think you’ll never find an “affordable” local home, this may depress you further: One-in-three Orange County homes listed for sale are priced at $1 million or more.

Yes, part of that eye-catching number is due to inflation – a huge run-up in home prices in recent years that created more million-dollar homes. But some of it is attributable to intriguing trends this summer that are driving the upper crust of Orange County real estate.

According to Steve Thomas’s ReportsOnHousing, there were 2,372 homes listed for sale in the official brokers system at $1 million-plus on Aug. 27, up 13 percent from a year ago. The rest of the market is shrinking, with 4,853 homes priced at less than $1 million on Aug. 27 – down 16 percent from a year ago.

Active listing of higher-priced housing means that the market share of seven-figures residences was 33 percent of all homes for sale on Aug. 27 vs. 27 percent a year ago.

Buyers are opening escrows for the pricier homes at a quick rate, too, with 390 new escrows for million-dollar homes in the 30 days ended Aug. 27, up 16 percent from a year earlier. There were 2,332 new escrows opened for cheaper homes in the period, up 8 percent from a year earlier.

Thomas also calculates a “market time” benchmark that tracks how much time it theoretically takes to sell all the inventory in local brokers’ for-sale listing network at the current pace of dealmaking. The top of the market looks a tad pokey in this calculation.

By Thomas’ math, as of last Thursday it would have taken 182 days to sell all the listed million-dollar inventory at the current pace of new escrows – little changed from 187 days a year ago. Buying of cheaper homes, by contrast, has picked up. Market time was 62 days on Aug. 27 vs. 80 a year ago.

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com