“If mortgage rates weren’t enough,” began last week’s CNBC.com commentary, “it was even harder to qualify for a mortgage in July…” That dour introduction was followed by a series of Eeyore-worthy observations. Lest Costa Mesa house hunters—many of whom will soon be among home loan seekers—take the discouraging news as catastrophic, it’s only fair to point out that the national outlets like CNBC are describing U.S. markets as a whole rather than Costa Mesa itself. Still, the generalizations are such that many American markets do face strong fiscal headwinds.

Some of the noteworthy details:

  • The Mortgage Bankers Association gauged that in July, it was “harder…to qualify for a mortgage…than it has been in a decade.”
  • “Credit availability”…

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“If you’re thinking about buying or selling a house right now, you’re not alone.”

That was the opening declaration in last Tuesday’s essay from the New York Times best-selling author and host of “The Rachel Cruze Show.” Her insights into personal finance and “fun, practical ways to take control of your money” reach millions of listeners who tune in weekly.

Although she prefaced last week’s market prognostication with the welcome caveat that it’s never a good idea to let a market prediction control housing decisions, checking out the experts can be useful for providing an idea of what U.S. and Costa Mesa “sellers and buyers might expect” in the coming months.

Ms. Cruze directly addressed 18 questions: here are some that Costa Mesa sellers and…

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For past generations, the magic summoned up by the phrase “Million-Dollar!” would be hard to exaggerate—so the idea of Costa Mesa million-dollar homes would have represented gawk-worthy artifacts of success. Even though today, “million-dollar” this and that are attached to everyday news items, last week’s announcement from Redfin’s Economic Research unit may have come as something of a surprise. The news was short and sweet:

“Nearly one in 10 U.S. homes are worth $1,000,000 or more.”

The rising proportion of million-dollar properties may be due in part to a weakening U.S. dollar, but by no means is that the whole (or most interesting) story. Some details:

  • 55 of the 99 most populous metros have seen a rise in million-dollar and…

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Last Thursday, under the headline “The Housing Recession is Over…,” Costa Mesa real estate observers found a MarketWatch report laden with positive indicators. All of them were, however, less than earth-shaking in scale. The optimism-tinged phrases like ‘ticked up,’ ‘inched up,’ and ‘small positive increase’ were balanced by negative results that were equally minuscule—‘falling only slightly,’ was one of those.

Even so, it was hard not to applaud the overall message—a fairly convincing gathering of June month-end numbers that look as if real estate industry momentum is stirring. The springtime doldrums seem to be over—but only ‘just.'

Here are MW’s particulars:

  • Pending home sales advanced a bit on a month-to-month basis—the first…

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Costa Mesa homeowners have ample reason to expect to attract bids that reflect the recent run-up in U.S. real estate prices, but that alone shouldn’t lull them into complacency as they prepare their property for entry into the Costa Mesa listings. That’s a real estate truism—even in a well-defined seller’s market. For area homeowners who see tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands!) of dollars more in market value indicated by recent comparable sales, it’s tempting to then assume that little preparation will be needed to achieve similar results. Not true.

The value of thorough preparation to show off any property continues to make a substantial difference at the signing table. Since the word “thorough” may be too vague to be of much value, here…

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For Costa Mesa parents who have yet to experience the wonders of Disneyland or Disney World, despite the expense and the line waits, there’s a good chance you will come to agree with the majority takeaway: the memories are worth it. Even so, the corporate powers-that-be at the Walt Disney Co. have never relied on word of mouth to keep the crowds coming—and now they have come up with an amusing promotion that includes a real estate twist.

As World Real Estate News wrote last week, this attention-getting gambit sounds like it came “from the leave-no-stone-unturned school of marketing.” Disney decided the moment had arrived to add their landmark Haunted Mansion to real estate site Zillow’s national listings. For veterans of the eternally popular ride,…

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If you have ever tuned into “Today’s Homeowner,” you’ll be familiar with Danny Lipford, the friendly, drawling host of one of TV’s longest-running home improvement shows. Lipford is a contractor who demonstrates practical tips on how Costa Mesa do-it-yourselfers might remodel outdated or rundown areas in their homes with little more than ambition, energy, and a few bucks. He makes it look fun and easy, which is undoubtedly why the program has been syndicated for a quarter of a century.

The show has a website, too, which last week published a valuable safety tip: “20 Ways to Reduce the Effects of Indoor Air Pollution in Your Home.” It covered the topic from top to bottom: everything from what it is and what its health effects can be to what to…

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If there’s one question about Costa Mesa residential real estate that is posed more often than others it’s the one that’s hardest to answer: “What do you think? Are prices heading up or down?” Usually, that question is an easy one to answer without really answering: “Short term, anyone’s guess. Long-term, history says, ‘almost certainly, up’!” It has a lot of history to back it up, so it sounds authoritative.

At this moment in Costa Mesa’s history, the long-term portion of that answer still holds, but increasingly, the ‘anyone’s guess’ part seems unsatisfactory. Despite an abundance of published data on how markets have performed from the West Coast to the East, the trend lines seem more scrambled than usual. Last week, Fortune magazine…

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It’s always a good idea for local homeowners who are in the planning stages for some serious property updating to check into some of the new Costa Mesa home design trends that have recently surfaced. It’s not that they are likely to mindlessly follow the newest and greatest trends—few homeowners actually make expensive decisions based on those. It’s more likely that one of the newer creative ideas could spark a direction that hadn’t been considered before. After all, to qualify as one of the “most popular” trends it must have captured more imaginations than others.

Identifying design trends that are more than just promos for their creators is easier said than done, though—but home improvement site houzz.com came up with what looks like a valid…

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Among life’s problems most people wish they could have is a challenge faced by sellers of Costa Mesa’s luxury properties: the task of developing an asking price that attracts the sophisticated, value-conscious buyers who qualify as legitimate prospects while still taking advantage of the “favorable market currents” reported in this month’s North American Luxury Review. As described, this is now a U.S. market that has “resulted in a consistent increase in the demand for luxury properties during the first five months of 2023.”

Taking advantage of any market often depends on developing a market-conscious asking price. In that connection, here are three widely agreed-upon pointers:

  • For starters, if the nature of the property includes substantial…

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