Steve Thomas might be jumping the gun a bit, but by his calculations there's been a 23 percent increase in existing OC homes and condos placed into escrow over the past 30 days. “Our agents in the trenches are unanimously reporting that there is a large wave of first-time home buyer activity," says Thomas, who is at Re/Max Real Estate Services in Aliso Viejo. He also notes that the amount of time it would take to sell all housing inventory - an important measure of real estate activity - has fallen. Throughout Socal there’s been a pickup in sales on the low-end, largely through foreclosures. The OC Register's Jon Lansner has the details. But also check out the comments - still plenty of questions on what the numbers really mean.