With U.S. home prices at record levels, it’s reasonable to speculate about the future of Costa Mesa real estate—particularly whether it’s such a good idea to buy right now. Most everyone recalls the last time real estate prices set records—and the drop-off that followed.

Once the U.S. market hit bottom, even though history teaches that it was an ideal time to buy, most regular consumers didn’t even want to think about anything connected with real estate. That, of course, was when the big corporate players (aka, the ‘smart money’) moved in to buy up distressed residential properties by the thousands. It’s a familiar story.

The future of Costa Mesa real estate prices is always a mystery, but lately there have been more than a few signs that…

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For a lot of families that are well-positioned to start serious house-hunting this summer, one question may give them pause: are Costa Mesa home prices just too high to be reasonable? The answer seems largely speculative, but there are objective benchmarks that point to an answer.

Back in the spring of 2018, author Aaron Terrazas compiled a thoroughgoing analysis of what seemed to be a serious threat to U.S. residential real estate’s immediate future. Impending mortgage rate hikes looked likely to “threaten housing affordability and inventory.”

As Terrazas wrote, then-current mortgage interest rates were “very low by historical standards.” His analysis described this rare circumstance which had kept monthly payments relatively affordable “even…

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It’s a saying that doesn’t make much literal sense, but everyone in Costa Mesa knows what it means:

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

Literal or not, the message is dead-on: some truisms are as valid in 2021 as they were in grandma’s day. For Costa Mesa real estate, one of those observations is about the undeniable importance that curb appeal has for selling your Costa Mesa home. Like “first impressions are lasting” and “you only get one chance to make a first impression,” it’s simply true that human beings seem to be hard-wired to tend to stick to initial reactions. Undoing them can require an inordinate degree of persuasive information and experience.

Without challenging the validity of the “the more things change,…

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This spring, Costa Mesa readers have grown accustomed to hyperbolic descriptions of what’s been going on in the nation’s housing market. In parts of the country, words like ‘boom’ and ‘frenzied’ have been appearing regularly in real estate commentaries—and many of them aren’t exaggerations. More often than any time in recent memory, it seems that some buyers are bent on owning a particular home no matter what!

CNN Business published a commentary last week with a headline that read like a not so funny answer to a late-night comic’s setup line:

“Just how hot is the housing market?”

“The housing market is so hot buyers are paying $1 million over the asking price.”

It was a headline that would no longer raise eyebrows in some regions where few…

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Regardless of folks’ wider views on climate change, there is universal agreement when it comes to one change in Costa Mesa’s climate: it’s going to get hotter. It’s one climate change that happens every summer.

For the moment, the experts who monitor patterns of energy usage aren’t making predictions about whether this summer will see local energy prices rising or falling (the Department of Energy will only venture that “prices change rapidly”). But the DoE is more enlightening about the cost of cooling. It’s bound to add significantly to most Costa Mesa homeowners’ utility bills. If prices do, in fact, “change rapidly” in the wrong direction, the DoE’s tips for simple ways to cut energy usage will be timely. Here are their Top Four:

  1. Deal…

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Last week, if you were among the Costa Mesa readers who happened across Mortgage News Daily’s banner headline, you could almost hear the writer’s yawn as he penned, “April’s Home Prices Grew by 13% and Broke More Records.” The implied ‘ho hum’ behind the words is understandable, but if it might lead Costa Mesa homeowners to accept such record-breaking as a new status quo, it could be misleading.

A close reading of the latest Gallup poll on how Americans expect residential prices to perform in the coming year leaves a more nuanced takeaway. “Americans Expect Home Prices to Rise…” was Gallup’s top line—but it added, “…Divided on Buying Now.” The poll confirmed that 71% of American adults predict that prices in their own neighborhoods will increase…

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Because of school year calendars and weather-related cycles, Costa Mesa real estate activity usually coincides with the historical spring-summer peak selling season in most of the U.S. Although it may come as a shock for local residents who subscribe to the “Memorial Day is the true first day of summer” notion, this week marks the end of Costa Mesa’s spring.

That’s right! Even if we feel as if spring just got going in earnest, by midnight at the end of this week’s three-day holiday, it will be over and out. Next Monday will mark the solemn observation of Memorial Day and the sacrifices our veterans have made throughout history—but the un-solemn observation of the Indianapolis 500 will already be in the books by Sunday evening.

For sticklers on…

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For local homeowners who plan on selling Costa Mesa homes in the near future, this is the time of year when the “peak real estate season” debate is most relevant. The question is whether to list now—when more buyers and sellers are usually active—or to wait until fewer competitors are selling their own Costa Mesa homes.

Homeowners who remain unpersuaded by either camp may look for other signs to help judge the current market prospects. Chief among the most relied-upon measures is quasi-governmental titan Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index—the composite measure of consumer attitudes and intentions for and about buying and selling a home. The latest findings from April have just been released:

  • Optimism reigns: respondents’ opinion that…

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Like all fashion trends, Costa Mesa home décor styles come and go—something that can prove troublesome when it comes time to sell your home. Dealing with the master bath’s wallpaper (the one with a motivational saying whose stylish font had such a modern feel 15 years ago) may be an easy fix—but abandoning a formerly trendy rolling barn door room separator can involve a good deal of architectural reengineering.

One recent piece by commentator Lauren Wellbank, a freelance writer with a decade’s experience in the mortgage industry, pointed out some emerging trends in buyers’ preferences when it comes to outdoor spaces. In the same way that interior designers can glance at a listing’s photos and immediately pinpoint when the property’s signature style…

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You can rightly say that Costa Mesa home bargains are still out there—but not without an asterisk. For local house-hunters who’ve been warned about a shortage of homes for sale, that should come as welcome news—but that does neglect to mention that the meaning of ‘bargain’ has stretched appreciably.

No matter how elastic your definition, Costa Mesa “bargain” homes in today’s market are certain to cost significantly more than they would have a couple of years ago (or even just last year). Yet— especially compared with historical norms—landing a home at today’s prices may actually turn out to fit the “bargain” definition—that is, ‘a good deal.’ The evidence is borne out by an indisputable measure: the dollars being laid down in the marketplace. If…

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