Costa Mesa utility bills are headed upward—with nobody expecting them to head in any other direction. Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that their Energy Index increased 32.9% for the year ending last month—and that was the good news, since June’s 12-month increase had been 41.6%! Costa Mesa utility bills didn’t need to match those pain-producing national averages for the writing on the wall to be evident: household utility bills are bound to become big news—with some predictable real estate repercussions.

There are also actions Costa Mesa homeowners can take—most of which are well-publicized (and common sense, anyway). But last Tuesday, an event took place that could rate refiguring the cost-benefit analysis in one…

528 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

As a rule, those who have Costa Mesa homes for sale generally welcome real estate headlines that include words like “soars” and “surge.” On the other hand, words like “slowdown” are less likely to be well received. Last week’s residential real estate dispatches featured all of the above—although not always in the most welcome contexts.

The ‘soars’ came into play in Bloomberg.com’s review of U.S. home inventory levels. These were said to have expanded at a record rate in July. The authors cited realtor.com®’s tally of active listings nationwide, which jumped 31% from a year earlier. Even more notable was that this marked the third straight month of record increases. Such soaring inventory levels were clearly “good news for shoppers still in the…

525 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Every once in a while, it’s interesting to check in on the progress of Costa Mesa’s real estate doppelganger, the real estate metaverse, to see if it is becoming more popular (hence, real). It has definitely been progressing, but not in a uniformly positive direction—certainly as opined by controversial billionaire investor Mark Cuban.

At the beginning of this month, real estate news purveyor therealdeal.com published a less-than-encouraging update on the technological phenomenon’s progress. Its “reality check” revisited how the year began, as the “both simple and surreal” digital environs of the metaverse greatly benefitted from Facebook’s rebranding as “Meta Platforms, Inc..”

Since everyone knows that Facebook is a real thing, by “leaning into…

608 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

By the end of last week, Costa Mesa real estate observers were finding confirmation from across the nation of what the NAR’s chief economist had just told Forbes. July data reflected buyers who were “tightening their budgets” and sellers “responding with price reductions.” The seller’s market conditions that had been ruling the market might have largely vanished, but buyers who “expected to find a bargain” were likely to be disappointed. Nonetheless, “home shoppers who kept searching saw more available options.”

All in all, local Costa Mesa real estate watchers were left without a clear way to characterize the late-summer market. Nor were the experts particularly helpful—nowhere were the words ‘buyer’s market’ to be found. One 38-year real estate…

440 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

For generations of Americans, owning their own family home has been the single most defining element of The American Dream. For obvious commercial reasons, the National Association of Realtors® must certainly be counted among the leading proponents of the validity of that ambition. The Sun rises in the east, also.

So it was startling to find last week’s NAR.com “Trends” section headed by a lead article with this headline:

Forget the Traditional ‘House’-Everybody Wants These Types of Homes Right Now

“Forget the traditional ‘House” ???? Realtors (of all people!) telling everybody to forget the traditional house? As single-family home prices continue to rise, it may be a fact that an increasing number of buyers are finding themselves all but…

579 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Throughout the sustained run-up in home prices, there’s been sporadic speculation that a reversal must be imminent—possibly driven by a natural urge to assume that too much good news is bound to invite a corresponding nosedive.

Throughout the run-up, the commonly accepted reason for U.S. home price increases has been the sustained supply and demand imbalance. For a number of well-documented reasons, the supply of homes for sale dropped below record levels at the same time that demand continued to mount. As competition for the available housing increased, so did the willingness of buyers to pay top dollar. Super-low mortgage rates helped make many high-priced Costa Mesa real estate buying decisions entirely reasonable.

Now, as the summer wears…

541 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

This month has brought news of buyers backing out of pending sales contracts at a record rate—which could also have many would-be buyers asking themselves if buying in Costa Mesa right now is the right move. The questions are reasonable: “Will I be overpaying if I buy today?” “Will prices drop tomorrow?” “Will I get a better deal if I hold off?” In many cases, the best answers actually depend less on the marketplace than on the personal circumstances of the person doing the asking.

If, for instance, you are currently considering buying a home in Costa Mesa but think there’s a chance you may outgrow the home within the next few years, buying could be inadvisable. If you think there is a chance you might need to relocate or change jobs or income…

449 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

For scads of Costa Mesa residents, 2022 will mark the first true summer vacation season in a long time. The U.S. Travel Association tells us that domestic leisure travel spending has already surpassed pre-pandemic levels (even adjusting for inflation).

For Costa Mesa vacationers, taking off for longer than a weekend will require thinking back to retrieve some of the smart traveling habits developed when yearly trips were routine—household security measures among them. For all the Costa Mesa vacationers whose homes will be left unattended, reinstituting a few precautionary measures will go far to prevent a miserable surprise from spoiling the return home. Here’s a refresher:

  • Secure seldom-used doors and windows that usually remain unlocked.
    • …

510 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

It may have seemed as if the springtime rise in the rates Costa Mesa home loan originators were quoting was overdue for a pause, and that's what local applicants found last week. The rate dips weren't gigantic, but they pointed in the right direction. Over the weekend, Yahoo! finance's "Moneywise" column was able to headline, "Homeownership just got 5% cheaper as mortgage rates fall off a cliff."

To applicants whose recent memories include interest rates that began with a "3," that cliff may seem to be a low one—but the NARs' senior economist was correct in asserting that purchasing a home was 5% more affordable at week's end than at its beginning. At week's end, Freddie Mac's calculation for the average 30-year mortgage rate was 5.3%—down from…

450 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

When the experts make a point of advising that you remove the family photos as part of preparing your house for sale, they don’t mean to criticize your family. Even if Aunt Agatha’s scowl seems to be in every group portrait, it’s not that. It’s also not about the art of photography in general, either.

It’s about YOU.

That may not seem to be a very client-friendly sentiment, but no offense should be taken. Costa Mesa homeowners shouldn’t take offense. The overall goal of depersonalizing your home—that is, making the house as ownerless-seeming as possible—is an important part of helping house-hunters envision your property as their own. Removing the objects that reveal your family’s personality—things like awards, family portraits, and vacation…

1052 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post