Here’s a new real estate riddle:

In any Costa Mesa house sale, what is the least expensive element that can also be the costliest?

There are many possible answers to the first part of the riddle. If the roof is openly deteriorating, the Costa Mesa house’s sale will usually depend on attending to that—a 5-figure expense in many instances. If the kitchen appliances are failing, they might need replacing. If the curb appeal is significantly lower than the neighborhood average, it might mean an expensive exterior paint update or correcting the long-neglected landscape.

There can be any number of costly elements that could be a part of a Costa Mesa home’s sale—but that fails to satisfy the riddle’s second half: that of being the least expensive.…

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Most people know the answer to a question like, “Will home sales suffer if mortgage rates go up?” The answer is, “DUH! Of course—it’s sure to cut down on sales.” Even though that’s hard to argue with, the obvious cause-and-effect connection can be seriously misleading. It can even lead to an expensive mistake.

Everyone acknowledges that the effect of rising Costa Mesa mortgage rates will be to discourage potential buyers—especially for the 42% of U.S. buyers who depend on a home loan. When that payment goes up a lot, it happens that much more. Duh.

Yet for homeowners mulling over the idea of adding their own property to the Costa Mesa listings, that particular ‘duh’ can lead to a secondary conclusion that could be misplaced—namely, “If fewer…

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When a real estate novice makes an initial foray into the world of buying their first Costa Mesa house, the first task is pinpointing how much they can afford. First-time buyers are especially prone to one beginner’s mistake: it’s easy to overlook the bagful of ancillary costs that are part of any home purchase. These peripheral charges carry percentages that may look minor—but taken together, are anything but.

Whether you call them “closing costs” or “settlement fees,” including them in preliminary budgeting is mandatory. That’s why government-sponsored Freddie Mac makes the list of included elements part of its “Understanding Costs” web educational site. Nine are named—and although they include some that apply only when outside financing is…

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When those who deal in area real estate study Costa Mesa home design trends, they usually point to the ebb and flow of interior décor choices—like the recent ascension of mixed textural elements or the growing preference for warming neutral colors. But when Homes and Gardens published their list of the “10 interior design trends” that will shape home spaces in 2023, no such minor fine-tuning was at the head of its list. This year, a more consequential shift was declared.

At first blush, their first place choice sounds like some pop philosophical notion—but H&G nixed any such thought, deeming their Number One trend “anything but a fashionable fad.”

The new leading trend is “The Influence of The Natural World.”

This might seem to be a…

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When a reliable real estate monitor like HousingWire.com proclaims a turn toward “more normal market conditions,” you’d think that simplifies the task of determining rational asking prices for homes in Costa Mesa. Last week’s headline (“The savagely unhealthy housing market is over”) implied as much: a U.S. market heading for a more predictable course for real estate’s fast-approaching active season.

HousingWire’s optimism was based on an increase in January’s national average Days on Market, which exceeded 30 days for the first time in a good while. The National Association of Realtors® pegged the national average at 33 days. That was a little less than a week’s increase over the previous month’s average, marking a noteworthy increase from the…

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This month, Money magazine offered advice for house hunters eager to get a jump on “the most active homebuying season of the year.” The busy season may still be weeks away, but it’s widely expected that landing a ‘good deal’ on one of the Costa Mesa houses that meet all requirements may take some doing. “How to Spot a Good Deal When Shopping for a Home” offered five pointers. Briefly summarizing (in reverse order):

The fifth one, “Buy during the offseason,” is the most timely. In addition to arming buyers with a valuable grounding in the local market in this less active period, it can lead to valuable offerings when it’s combined with the fourth pointer, “Look at homes that have been listed for a while.” Costa Mesa houses that are long unclaimed…

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Ask just about any Costa Mesa kid if they’d like to have a swimming pool in the backyard and you know what the answer will be. Costa Mesa swimming pools are neighborhood plusses when the weather is right, no doubt about it. But when it comes to the value Costa Mesa swimming pools add to a home’s resale bottom line, the calculation is complicated by a whole slew of associated factors.

Without rendering a universal verdict, for house hunters preparing their ‘gotta have’ features list, and for Costa Mesa homeowners deciding whether to contract to have one installed on their property, there are at least five issues worth taking into account:

  1. Maintenance. Costa Mesa swimming pools require regular upkeep that’s both time-consuming and expensive. In…

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The Costa Mesa real estate lexicon rarely expands to include new terms—but as in so many other areas, exceptions were made during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them was the recognition of “zoom towns,” a term coined to designate smaller towns and rural areas that experienced an influx of remote workers and residents. Costa Mesa needn’t be considered a zoom town to market a possible “zoom room.” That’s a feature that remains appealing to many due to fallout from the pandemic—¬¬developments that include:

  • The rise of remote work. Powerful home computers and lightning-fast web speeds had already made remote work possible, but it took the pandemic-related health mandates to change ingrained workplace practices—by both workers and their employers.…

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Much of the media spent last week exploring the topic of Artificial Intelligence—with mixed opinions about whether it will turn out to be a boon or a curse to Mankind. Much of the discussion focused on AI-generated writing, which some students were already trying to pass off as the product of their own research.

One example was a robotic essay answering the question, “What are the chances that residential real estate will collapse?” The speedily-generated answer was an almost human-sounding regurgitation of what most experts thought: not likely. Local homeowners who were actually concerned about the future of Costa Mesa home values wouldn’t have been enlightened, since more convincing points had already been made by real financial analysts.…

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Even though the Costa Mesa housing market doesn’t precisely echo wider national moves, a connection between the two is only natural. There’s a psychological tendency to respect what authoritative sources avow—and most of the information about real estate that comes to our attention is national, not local. If the morning’s headlines include mention of the latest housing market leap or stumble, it registers. We may be perfectly aware that Costa Mesa’s residential results are apt to be their own thing, but we also know that our expectations (and our neighbors’) will tend to be colored by the zeitgeist as presented.

That’s why, despite its national nature, last week’s news about the U.S. housing market was positive for the Costa Mesa residential…

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