Costa Mesa real estate activity may not echo U.S. results month-by-month, but since national media reports impact how individual Costa Mesa buyers and sellers gauge their own prospects, they are worth keeping an eye on. To date, this fall’s U.S. real estate picture can’t be summarized in a single word or phrase, but so far, what has leaked through from the national press has left a slightly negative impression.

Housingwire.com’s takeaway was typical. Last Monday’s “Homebuilders growing very concerned about affordability.” Likewise for CNBC’s Tuesday contribution. “Home prices in August hinted at possible cooling in the market.” ‘Possible’ ‘hints’ may not be strong language, but the direction they point to is clear. Given the actual activity…

606 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Apartment and condo dwellers who aren't personally responsible for yard maintenance get to remain blissfully unconcerned about the extent of their LCI (Leaf Consciousness Index). Their LCIs top out in the lower 2s and 3s—the scores for those whose leaf awareness is confined to occasions when they happen to notice the autumnal color exhibition that some Costa Mesa landscapes provide in years when conditions are just right.

Costa Mesa homeowners whose properties include more than minimal populations of leaf-bearing plants are (depending on the homeowner's disposition) either irritated by—or happily engaged in—fall's mass leaf swan dives. To some, what happens when the leaves take leave is an annual near-cataclysm requiring backbreaking toil. To the…

709 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

If you are currently offering a high-end Costa Mesa property for sale, you could safely ignore most of the otherwise incisive article that appeared in last week’s Realtor® Magazine. Top Costa Mesa properties are bought and sold by a select but tiny segment of the real estate market—a segment that conforms to its own rules. The rest of the market is different.

The article on RM—“How to Reinvigorate a Lingering Listing”—contained some strategic insights wisdom from experienced pros that bears repeating. Given the current brisk pact of the U.S. market (typical homes now take just 43 days to be sold), a listing that spends too long without attracting much activity is bound to stand out.

That’s not good.

Potential buyers often assume the lack of…

654 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

Given the latest unsettling reports about everything from supply chain disruptions to the price of gasoline and groceries, almost anyone might hesitate before moving ahead with plans to buy a house in Costa Mesa or anywhere else. Mightn’t it be more prudent to wait until more stable conditions return?

One counter to that cautious stratagem is the example of recent history. A few years ago, would-be buyers who decided to hold off until the return of a more stable environment missed out on what, in retrospect, turns out to have been an opportune time to buy a house.

The fact is that residential real estate prices have risen steadily despite the unsettled public sphere. Buying a house in Costa Mesa has continued to reward buyers who ignored…

639 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Throughout the U.S., the average value of a single-family residence has grown by double digits for more than two years. Area homeowners have been rightly pleased to see how rapidly their own home’s market values have continued to appreciate. With increases at those levels, it’s only to be expected that sellers are delighted—but buyers, less so.

One of the inevitable fallouts is that buyers seeking home loans this fall need mortgages that are greater than ‘conforming’ loan limits. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee to purchase loans from lenders when they qualify under the conforming loan guidelines. The quasi-federal behemoths enable loan originators to lower interest rates they offer Costa Mesa home buyers when they promise to purchase them,…

882 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

Last week, U.S. News & World Report brought up an issue that today’s Costa Mesa home buyers should be aware of: the possibility of an appraisal gap. It can be a sticking point, even when everything else about a given Costa Mesa home’s sale seems to be falling into place.

The article opens with an understatement about today’s buyers: “many people are financing their home purchases.” That’s a considerable understatement. The percentages vary depending on who’s doing the measuring, but the U.S. Census Bureau tells us that just shy of 66% of all homeowners are currently making monthly payments on active mortgage accounts. Even that hefty percentage somewhat minimizes the ubiquity of home loans in today’s market: Census says that 87% of recent buyers…

642 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

October may have just debuted, but for Costa Mesa mortgage interest rate watchers, Halloween-style chills were already in evidence last week. For Costa Mesa home buyers and sellers, the home loan outlook has been uniformly rosy for an unexpectedly long time. It's been a long, pleasant cruise. That was why, for many, the midweek news must have come as a shock. For those who have been long lulled into an uninterrupted expectation that area rates will remain mired in Low-LowLand territory, last Wednesday's headlines must have been jolting:

  • Current Mortgage Rates Jump – Money.com
  • Today's rising mortgage rates call buyers to action – Fox Business
  • Today's mortgage rates increase – c/net.com
  • Mortgage Rates Start to Climb – Forbes
  • Mortgage…

585 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Costa Mesa homeowners, real estate investors, and soon-to-be homeowners who keep an eye on the ups and downs of residential real estate do so at least partly to anticipate the future of our own residential market. This even though they are also aware that markets have a tendency to be stubbornly unpredictable. One example is currently demonstrated by a segment of the New York City real estate scene: the parking space segment.

Most Out-of-Towners would have thought that the problems that Gotham has been coping with would have rendered most of Manhattan real estate a disaster zone. After all, with neighborhood small business owners crying “foul!” because of COVID restrictions, labor shortages brought about by competition from extended government…

817 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

For much of the spring and summer, the real estate spotlight has been focused on the vexing situation landlords have experienced. The government-ordered rental relief measures designed to protect tenants made landlords scramble. So last week, single- and multi-family Costa Mesa landlords who happened across the Wall Street Journal headline, “It’s a Very Good Time to Own an Apartment Building,” would certainly have read further.

The author was Will Parker, a seasoned industry observer. It turned out that his opinion was backed up by last month’s nationwide statistics. If anything, they made the headline an understatement. The numbers showed national asking rents rising by 10.3% over a year earlier, making August a month that saw the first…

661 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

The often-quoted first principle of the physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, “first, do no harm,” constitutes a ‘safety first’ message meant to curb over-enthusiastic docs from prescribing a cure that’s worse than the disease.

For local homeowners who are preparing their Costa Mesa homes for sale, if there were a Homeowners’ Oath, the same proscription could apply. That was the essence of Ana Durrani’s essay on last week’s realtor.com’s ‘Home Improvement’ page: “Avoid These 6 Common Mistakes That Make a Room Feel Smaller.”
Durrani’s rules are worth quoting:

  1. Color. Painting walls a dark color. Too often, the impulse to create a ‘cozy’ space can be more claustrophobic than cozy.
  2. Furniture. Bulky pieces may look stylish but, in truth, can seem to…

666 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post