For readers tuned in to developments affecting Costa Mesa real estate, the month began with an Associated Press dispatch announcing federal plans to increase the stock of 2,000,000 “affordable” U.S. homes. The ambitious goal was set “in response to the volcanic rise in housing prices” over the past year. Details described federal initiatives to both build and restore the end product: homes more attainable by consumers currently priced out of the market.

According to the AP, the plan’s details were posted on the White House Council of Economic Advisers’ blog last Wednesday. Citing Freddie Mac’s research that estimates a current U.S. shortfall of 3.8 million homes, the plan outlines a variety of measures aimed at answering the affordability problems…

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Last week, Fortune Magazine’s headline may have seemed overblown, but it did its job of capturing the attention of any Costa Mesa readers who happened to come across it:

“There’s a big shift happening in the housing market.”

It’s the kind of headline that seems to beg for a couple of exclamation points. At any rate, Costa Mesa house-hunters would have found it hard to ignore. Any “big shift happening” in the Costa Mesa housing market would be sure to rivet any prospective buyers currently combing the Costa Mesa listings.

The article did indicate that there could well be the underpinnings of a sea change in many a local market—but that’s subject to a wider context. As Fortune established, this fall will mark a transition from a 2021 U.S.…

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The news from around the nation gave Costa Mesa real estate followers good reason to doubt a tendency in the national media. For most of the month, much of the reportage had seemed to project an undertone of vaguely inauspicious goings-on. “Buyer Frustration is Slowing Real Estate Demand,” said one. CNBC’s speculators talked of a price bubble (if the Fed continued “stoking” it).

So it was oddly discordant to read last week’s actual news—all of it indicating a strong market with hints that its underpinnings were moderating. Briefly, the high points covered by the NAR’s® Newsroom release:

  • Inventory. “We see inventory beginning to tick up…” according to NAR Chief Economist. July listings were up 7.3% from the previous month—a sign that pointed…

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If you’ve watched much TV lately, you’ve noticed that advertisers are bending over backward to somehow include dogs and cats in their commercials—even featuring dog families out for a Sunday drive without their owners. The growing fondness for pets has had a significant impact on U.S. landlords. One high-traffic landlord advice topic deals with the practical challenges of the tenants’ best friends: their dogs and cats. Among these are lists of the Best and Worst canine breeds—most of which seem to be based on the authors’ personal experiences rather than upon any actual data.

Some of the leading ‘best apartment dogs’ are definitely debatable. Take this one, whose named Top 5 Great Dog Breeds for Apartment Living are Boston Terriers, Bichon Frises,…

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With U.S. residential real estate prices at today’s levels, from a pure investment standpoint, some potential Costa Mesa home buyers might assume that a downturn in values might be more likely than not. That feeling would hardly be improved by the onslaught of troubling international headlines, inconsistent medical guidance, and any number of other unresolved public issues. You could hardly fault some qualified buyers for hesitating before making a major decision like buying a home—even when attractive mortgage interest rates continue to put desirable properties into their affordability range.

The details in last month’s Mansion Global Market Report might ease at least some of those worries. It documents recent activity among the most sophisticated…

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When most people first set out to buy or sell a home in Costa Mesa, one way to get started is to seek the best Costa Mesa Realtor® to assist from the get-go. That’s not a universal impulse, though. At first, doing some preliminary scouting of the Costa Mesa real estate landscape may seem a natural way to avoid any premature commitments—although later it turns out that the best Costa Mesa Realtors don’t require any commitment until you’re ready to make it.

What usually becomes evident is that you can make the most of your time and effort by teaming with a Realtor sooner rather than later. In today’s real estate market, 88% of buyers and 89% of sellers ultimately reach that conclusion. After considering the idea of going it alone, this level of…

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The National Association of Home Builders has been at it for decades: systematically conducting some of the most precise public opinion sampling that describes U.S. attitudes toward home purchases, construction trends, and all manner of residential real estate matters. Since they’ve been at it for so long, their reports can authoritatively trace the ups and downs of the shifts in opinion that can influence the Costa Mesa market.

Over the past few months, NAHB’s “Eye on Housing” site has made for interesting reading, allowing more focused details of trends that are only touched upon in national media. Some recent findings on a wide range of subjects:

  • Attitudes toward homeownership. Completed at the close of 2021’s second quarter, the most…

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The latest national polling of real estate professionals yields a convincing picture of a market that's stubbornly remaining in the sellers' corner. If so, this August's home hunters shouldn't be surprised to find competition for the Costa Mesa homes for sale—and reason to take the two most often-cited preparatory steps for maximizing chances of landing a property they've decided on.

The National Association of Realtors®' latest member survey reaffirms the continuation of buyer competition, in part due to the limited number of available listings. That may be good news for sellers: nationally, homes typically sold in 17 days—a full week faster than last year's average of 24 days. Buyers, on the other hand, often faced stiff buyer competition for the…

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Last week could have been misleading for busy Costa Mesa real estate investors who were too rushed. If they were pressed for time, skimmed headlines or only the first paragraph or two of reports and opinion pieces might have left them with false impressions. Some of last week’s news could have been somewhat dismaying—needlessly so.

Take last Monday. Realtor Magazine’s “Home Seller Profits Take Surprising Turn” was the lead story, opening with “Profit margins for home sellers took an unexpected dip in the second quarter…”. If a phone call had interrupted at that point, it would have been hard for any investor to feel good about the “surprising turn” and the “unexpected dip.

Similarly, Costa Mesa real estate holders whose smartphones or iPads…

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As Costa Mesa residents strive to resume life and career in anything like their pre-pandemic forms, one phrase that used to appear a lot less frequently keeps popping up: “the new normal.”

The American Enterprise Institute just invoked that phrase in a report that has implications for area house hunters and home sellers alike. The report from the AEI Housing Center takes a unique look at a home finance statistic they believe is a valid indicator for the direction of residential real estate activity as a whole: rate lock data.

Since mortgage interest rates can rise and fall from day to day, future Costa Mesa home buyers often secure “rate locks” from home loan providers. Locks guarantee that, when a mortgage is issued, its interest rate won’t…

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