As December began, at least one Washington Post report—the one from award-winning real estate reporter Michele Lerner—didn’t spare the superlatives. For Costa Mesa homeowners looking to add their home to the Costa Mesa listings, the details could scarcely have been more auspicious. According to the headline, buyer demand in the month just ended wasn’t just good. It was record-setting.

Lerner relied on two separate reports from Redfin for much of the data that validated the claim. One index which records buyer demand as reflected in requests for house tours and various other home-buying services eclipsed the previous record. By another measure, 45% of U.S. properties were sold within two weeks of being listed—during the four weeks ending November…

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The New York Times recently published an article under a headline that sounded like a do-it-yourselfers’ instruction manual. But instead of a hobbyist’s step-by-step for making macrame wall hangings or scrapbook assemblages, the How-to subject was the largest acquisition most families make in a lifetime: “How to Buy a House.”

The first step in the How-to was to determine “Rent vs. Buy?” That’s a reasonable starting point because if renting makes more sense than buying, time spent learning how the Times would go about buying a house would be better used in learning, say, how to keep your pets from damaging the rental.

There were three “basic questions” for determining whether to buy a house—the first two being:

  1. How long will you be staying…

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Last week, Costa Mesa residents couldn’t escape the new word, “Omicron”—the latest permutation of the COVID-19 virus. The Greek alphabet doesn’t usually work its way into daily conversations, but in Costa Mesa, “Omicron” was one Greek letter that made its way into discussions about everything from holiday parade gatherings to global travel plans. It hadn’t yet been invoked in connection with the gasoline price rises—but that may have been just a matter of time.

The topic of real estate was no exception. In fact, to the extent that it affected local mortgage interest rates, the new variant had indeed touched on Costa Mesa home sales. By midweek, the home loan industry’s Mortgage News Daily was dominated by two Omicron stories:

“Big Swings as…

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It’s a life-altering milestone if ever there was one: the decision to move away from the family home. There have always been a variety of reasons why retirees and near-retirees choose to make the leap—with today’s head-spinning social changes certainly doing nothing to pare down that list. Deciding to change your Costa Mesa housing situation often boils down to an intended (or already proceeding) lifestyle change. Since these are the very definitions of “personal” reasons, you might assume that since everyone’s situation differs, their motivations are all over the map—making them all but unclassifiable.

True enough—but it turns out that some generalizations are possible (and useful, if you are uncertain whether your own upcoming decision is an…

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One puzzle for homeowners deciding whether now is the time to put their Costa Mesa homes up for sale is whether rising mortgage rates will measurably slow the response. It’s far from certain that Costa Mesa home loan rates will continue to rise as we go forward—but it’s likely enough. The picture becomes even less predictable if you add in the notion that it’s far from certain that higher borrowing rates will necessarily dampen buyer activity.

The reason for the hemming and hawing on this point was laid out by realtor.com’s Sharon Lurye earlier this month. She points out that this has already been a “paradigm-breaking” real estate market—one with the promise of more common-sense-busting developments to come.

Granted, it’s a given that today’s…

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Once your Costa Mesa moving date has been determined, tackling the logistics of the upcoming move can cause even the most energetic among us to put off even thinking about getting started. As you look around at everything that’s going to have to be packed up for the move, the magnitude of the task is intimidating. But take heart: there’s a simple way to squelch the urge to procrastinate. You can start by simply sitting down with pencil and paper to organize one specific item—a gotta-have fixture that’s prominent in every moving day expert’s “how-to” planning list.

It's the “Open First” box (sometimes called an “overnight bag”).

Despite universal agreement on its indispensability, opinions differ widely on precisely what needs to go into the box.…

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If you are considering selling your own Costa Mesa home, one natural question you might be curious about is what specific features are currently boosting selling prices the most? A query to Google yields plenty of answers in the form of feature lists. Some popular lists put kitchen improvements first, bathroom improvements next, then features like lighting, energy efficiency upgrades, and so on. Other lists include “spruce up your landscaping” and “increase your finished square footage.”

HGTV lists “minor bathroom remodel” in first place (that returns 102% of the dollars invested), while moving.com finds “upscale garage door replacement” is currently adding the greatest value when keys change hands.

These are all valid ideas for increasing…

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A couple of years back, CPA and author Stacy Johnson published a sort of personal confessional under the attention-getting title, “Should I Sell My House While Prices are High?” Even if they have no other compelling reason to want to sell, that’s a question that may have crossed the minds of Costa Mesa homeowners who recall the rollercoaster housing markets of previous decades. Mightn’t the stock market’s “buy low, sell high” dictum be relevant today?

Johnson’s subject matter is finance rather than real estate—and it was a financial brainstorm he had in 2008. He had bought his Florida house for $400,000 in 2001, but seven years later, its value “was north of a million bucks.” His idea was to sell it for a hefty profit then rent a temporary…

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The median age of first-time buyers is 34. This is true even though many working adults come to the conclusion that the monthly cash outflow for owning their Costa Mesa residence would be nearly the same as what they pay in rent.

For some, it’s the tax breaks that finally prove decisive; for others (especially when home loan interest rates are as low as they are now), it’s the advantage of retaining the principal portion of their monthly mortgage payment. Regardless of when a first-time Costa Mesa home buyer concludes that homeownership is an achievable way to establish financial stability, making the right choice for their first Costa Mesa residence involves more than dollars and cents.

Failing to recognize the importance of the personal…

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Costa Mesa real estate activity may not echo U.S. results month-by-month, but since national media reports impact how individual Costa Mesa buyers and sellers gauge their own prospects, they are worth keeping an eye on. To date, this fall’s U.S. real estate picture can’t be summarized in a single word or phrase, but so far, what has leaked through from the national press has left a slightly negative impression.

Housingwire.com’s takeaway was typical. Last Monday’s “Homebuilders growing very concerned about affordability.” Likewise for CNBC’s Tuesday contribution. “Home prices in August hinted at possible cooling in the market.” ‘Possible’ ‘hints’ may not be strong language, but the direction they point to is clear. Given the actual activity…

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