This spring, the marketplace for first-time homebuyers is similar to last year’s, only (as the saying goes) ‘more so.’ Earlier in the month, CNBC broadcast a number of statistics that made the case. In their phrase, for first-timers, buying a home is “tougher than ever.” Even so, for Costa Mesa house-hunters, it’s a half-empty glass that is also half-full.

The CNBC report concentrated on a major segment of first-time buyers: those born between 1981 and 1996 (the millennials). Given that the typical first-time homebuyer household has an income in the $75,000 - $100,000 range (approximately what mortgage lenders require), it’s possible to determine how many such households there are. In 2019, there was one listing for every 24 of those households.…

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As a practical matter, being able to identify with pinpoint accuracy the single week that market conditions suggest will be the optimal time to list your Costa Mesa home isn’t really possible. For one thing, for a market the size of Costa Mesa’s, the numbers aren’t large enough. That’s why Realtor® Magazine’s annual “Best Time to Sell Report” calculations are based on the entire country’s data, which seldom duplicate our own.

So this year’s “Best Time” calculation is really no better than a hint for how things will turn out when the year is in the books. Even so, if you have been holding your own house off the market, waiting for an unambiguous signal that it’s time to list, that absolute perfect moment does look to be close at hand. Realtor’s…

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If ever there were a time to organize your Costa Mesa spring cleaning, Sunday was it. The March equinox happened at about a half-hour before noon EST: the official start for Costa Mesa’s spring. Online spring cleaning task lists started re-appearing well ahead of that inaugural moment, however—many began populating the web in early February. Rather than just revisiting any of those checklists, this year it might be more interesting to take a step back to consider a more holistic approach to preparing for the annual effort:

  • First – if the oven has a self-cleaning cycle, try using it, following the manufacturer’s directions. These may include removing the racks and catch-pans, and using a soapy cloth or scouring pad to reduce thick spills. Also,…

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The reasons commentators dispense so much advice to first-time homebuyers are clear: the process of finding and buying a house means making a huge financial commitment in an industry rife with customs and terms that are alien to most consumers. Once you have navigated the process, it’s all less intimidating—but you really have to do it once to feel at ease.

But what about selling your Costa Mesa house if you’ve never done that before? Since you’ve been through a successful sale from the buyer’s side, it may feel a good deal less daunting, but the considerations and choices do look different from the opposite side of the table. Again, selling your Costa Mesa house is a huge financial venture—and your lack of prior experience can make some…

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Given all the publicity given to supply chain disruptions, energy prices going bonkers, interest rates heading either slightly or not-so-slightly uphill, etc.—with all this going on—why are we also hearing that now is such a good time to sell? Especially if there is no pressing reason to compel a move, why would you choose now as a prime time to sell your Costa Mesa house? Wouldn’t it be more logical to hold off until things settle down?

The answer is based on one of the most rational of economic truisms—namely, that when there are more buyers than sellers, you’d rather be a seller. Assuming that waves of supply and demand inevitably ebb and flow, the next change would be a market with more sellers than buyers. In a buyer’s market, sellers compete…

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By bedtime on Saturday night, everyone in Costa Mesa will have been amply warned to set their clocks ahead an hour. That’s a good idea because, if we don’t get ahead of the game, when we open one eye on Sunday to see if it’s time to get up, we’ll either suddenly remember that the clock is lying to us, or else believe what it tells us—setting the stage for varying degrees of timekeeping disarray for the rest of the day. Either way, it will be less dismaying to take your medicine on Saturday. Just give up and surrender the hour ahead of time (literally).

There are those who feel that at 2 AM on Sunday, all Costa Mesa will actually be falling victim to what amounts to petty theft. It may be sanctioned, but once Daylight Saving Time is officially…

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For both sellers and the house-hunters they wish to attract, Costa Mesa mortgage interest rates have played a key role in enabling attractive real estate propositions. It is, however, an element that has been expected to weaken in the coming year as anticipation of rate hikes grows. With every notch up in Costa Mesa home loan rates, buyers will have to pencil in higher monthly payments. That would gradually remove one of the key elements that has energized the market.

But the story last week did not follow that script. By last Thursday, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was quoting U.S. average 30-year fixed loan rates at “3.76%. That not only remains in historically low territory—it’s even a drop from the previous week’s 3.89%.

Just ‘why’ was cause…

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The rationale behind U.S. housing’s rising prices has been nothing if not consistent. The tale has been all about the supply/demand imbalance—a textbook example that makes perfect sense for everyone with a smattering of free-market economics. For those who have been tracking the number of Costa Mesa listings, that’s why last Thursday’s release from the Census Bureau seemed to make no sense at all.

In housing markets from coast to coast, house hunters have consistently grumbled about the meager number of homes for sale. ‘Inventory shortage’ was the term that kept appearing, often preceded by modifiers like ‘growing’ and ‘acute.’ ‘Housing shortfall’ was another. Typical was the National Association of Realtors®’ January press conference, which…

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How to find and buy your first home is one subject that high schools decline to teach. An online canvass of theories why this is so yields two main lines of thought.

The first is that it is one result of a conspiracy to keep young people from making smart financial decisions. Not clear is who the masterminds behind this might be, nor how they would stand to benefit.

The second theory is more commonly cited by high school teachers. They say that instruction on the ins and outs of buying a house is ineffective “due to age-appropriate interests.” Buying a house is “too far off” to engage high schoolers. One teacher’s dismissal is typical: “Not useful for my students as teens”—an argument that’s hard to dispute.

A few weeks ago, the…

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It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue: this new real estate “first” reported on by the Wall Street Journal last Tuesday. It was the kind of ‘break-through’ that sounded like it belonged in a footnote to an investment banker’s annual report. Nonetheless, for one segment of Journal readers who also happen to be Costa Mesa real estate investors, the topic and the phenomenon it described confirmed the wisdom of their investment.

The “first-ever” topic was “the first vacation-rental mortgage securitization.” This is a debt-raising innovation just launched by a short-term rental operator (AvantStay Inc.). What could be of interest to Costa Mesa investors is that it serves as convincing proof that the short-term rental industry is becoming “a thing”—at…

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