The unsettling events of the first half of 2020 have prompted some Costa Mesa residents to adopt a wait-and-see attitude—especially major decisions concerning Costa Mesa real estate. For most of the spring, it had looked as if June would be the month when more clarity would surface, starting with how soon Covid-19 restrictions would be relaxed. To some extent, that’s been the case—but many other momentous headline-grabbing events have intervened. Clarity about the future has been limited. Even so, throughout 2020’s roller-coaster ride, one key element of Costa Mesa’s real estate component has remained steadfast and encouraging: mortgage interest rates.   

Last week, CNBC headlined, “Mortgage demand from homebuyers amazes again.” The “amazement”…

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When the objective is selling your Costa Mesa home for the highest price (which it always is), establishing the asking price is the second of the two most crucial decisions you will make. Many homeowners reason that setting the original asking price “at the max” makes the most sense. They see that strategy as a way of controlling the process since it provides room for negotiations. Because this early decision is made before the Costa Mesa home has even entered the market, it doesn’t yet feel like there is any time pressure. If the high figure doesn’t attract buyers, lowering the asking price will solve the problem.

That may sound logical, but it’s highly inadvisable. When a seller decides to price above comparable properties, the predictable result…

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Last Friday morning, Costa Mesa residents who had braced themselves for the dismal details of an unprecedented surge in national unemployment heard some astounding news instead. The greatest surge in hiring for a single month left the commentators scrambling to explain how it was possible that all of them could be so far off (some by as much as 10 million jobs). For homeowners who had been watching from the sidelines, delaying the decision about whether the months-long cloud over U.S. businesses would hamper their own Costa Mesa real estate prospects, the news provided a totally unexpected burst of sunlight.

The ramifications for Costa Mesa’s real estate prospects weren’t hard to guess. Realtor.com immediately posted a news article headlining the…

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One consequence of the pandemic was the on-again/off-again nature of this year’s Costa Mesa real estate busy season. The restrictions resulted in what you’d expect: pent-up demand. The promise of loosening restrictions is widely expected to bolster the number of “For Sale” signs that we’ll soon be seeing—in any case, we should know before long.

For house hunters who will be looking to land their first starter home, most are prepared to be satisfied with a property that falls short of a “dream home” designation. That’s to be expected: since homeownership is by far the most important component for building family wealth, it’s encouraging to watch how the equity being built from a first home is fueling the progression into the next, superior one.…

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For Costa Mesa real estate buyers and sellers who occasionally track national trends and predictions, last week was a good one…to take the week off! In a week crammed with news that ranged from tragic (Minnesota) to triumphant (America’s superbly art-directed return to space), real estate received scant attention. It mattered little: with so many economic factors bouncing from all-time this to all-time that, expecting stable guidance would have been overly optimistic in any case. A snapshot:

On Friday, Realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu offered his analysis of the buying public’s mood, yielding the headline, “Economic Indicators Are Down, but Consumer Confidence is Up.” If that seems to lack consistency, it might be because the…

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The other day, it was interesting to read a featured commentary on the MoneyCrashers.com website. It promised to pinpoint the “6 Factors” to consider when deciding whether you “should buy a home now— or wait?” No dateline was visible, but you’d have to deduce that it had first been published a while ago. The absence of any mention of today’s changed circumstances and the uncertainties ahead made it pretty clear that it had been written in pre-pandemic days (remember those)? Even so, the “6 Factors” do hold their validity. They may not cover all the key considerations—but they do set the stage for that very weighty decision.

The first factors dealt with financial viability. Realistically, those first three are basic qualifiers for buying any home in…

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About the last thing area homeowners need now is to spend time worrying about the effect the pandemic will have on their Costa Mesa home values. Given that memories of the Great Recession have yet to fade, a replay of that decline in home values might seem logical.

So, it was reassuring to read Claire Trapasso’s calming analysis pointing out the multiple reasons why a housing crash is viewed as highly unlikely in today’s circumstances. Professor Trapasso’s analysis highlighted a number of points, including these five:

  •          Mortgage Stability. Housing market fundamentals “couldn’t be more different” than those that prevailed in the 2007-2009 meltdown when “just about anyone could get a mortgage.” Today, stricter borrower qualification…

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For Costa Mesa mortgage interest rate chroniclers, this month began with the culmination of a trend that’s been playing out for quite some time. It’s “the other shoe” that finally dropped. The headlines confirmed the numbers that government-owned mortgage backer Freddie Mac posted: 

“Mortgage Rates Dip to New Record Low.”

The 3.23% national average on the 30-year fixed-rate hit was, literally, an all-time low. It represented a drop of a tenth of a percent below the previous week’s mark (and nearly a full percentage point below what had been posted a year earlier). 

In other words, the come-hither phrase advertisers have been long spouting—"home loans near historic lows”—was suddenly passé: rates were now surpassing historic lows! There were,…

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The “Real Estate News” tab in Realtor.com is a reliable source for information that real estate followers—especially active Costa Mesa home buyers and sellers—can turn to for the latest takes on real estate market activity. Since it comes from the National Association of Realtors®, it’s not where you’d turn to for a completely impartial view—nonetheless, the underlying information it dispenses is dependably accurate.

Since that’s the case, the leading article from a couple of weeks back had been discomfiting. “Gallup: Only 50% of Americans Believe It’s a Good Time to Buy a Home” isn’t exactly supportive for anyone who’s been weighing the pros and cons of a real estate purchase right now. The basis for the piece was, indeed, slightly unnerving. A…

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