Costa Mesa’s holiday season is well underway now that we’ve passed the commercial post-Thanksgiving kickoff days: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. If you are one who is debating whether or not to sell your home during the holidays, there are plenty of both pros and cons. One good reason is the relative lack of competition; another is the attitude of most house hunters in December: they tend to be an earnest crew.

As to whether this particular holiday season looks like a good one to sell your own Costa Mesa home, last week offered what might be a relevant hint. Although it’s true that measuring consumer “moods” can be an iffy proposition, last week delivered at least one piece of hard evidence. Since Costa Mesa home buyers are by definition the…

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 Last week Costa Mesa homeowners’ peace of mind would have been strengthened by some words that received wide circulation throughout the financial press. Their author was a gentleman whose opinions are as close to bankable as anyone currently on the scene. If there were such a thing as a Nobel Prize in real estate, this guy would own one—come to think of it, he DOES have a Nobel prize (for economics), but his work largely centers on the U.S. real estate market.

We’re talking about Robert Shiller, the Yale professor who co-invented the Case-Shiller Index. It’s the most economically respected measure of U.S home prices. Costa Mesa homeowners who measure their own financial wherewithal usually consider the market price of their Costa Mesa home as a…

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Last week Costa Mesa homeowners’ peace of mind would have been strengthened by some words that received wide circulation throughout the financial press. Their author was a gentleman whose opinions are as close to bankable as anyone currently on the scene. If there were such a thing as a Nobel Prize in real estate, this guy would own one—come to think of it, he DOES have a Nobel prize (for economics), but his work largely centers on the U.S. real estate market.

We’re talking about Robert Shiller, the Yale professor who co-invented the Case-Shiller Index. It’s the most economically respected measure of U.S home prices. Costa Mesa homeowners who measure their own financial wherewithal usually consider the market price of their Costa Mesa home as…

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When it comes to Costa Mesa home loans, Ellie Mae has the inside scoop.

“Ellie” is a tech company that provides automation software to a large chunk of the mortgage finance industry, including Costa Mesa lenders. Since more than a third of all U.S. home loans flow through its systems, Ellie Mae gets a first-hand look at what’s going on in residential home sales and financing. Up there from its perch on the electronic balcony, it gets a very accurate picture of the action in real time.

Ellie issued a news release last Wednesday that contained some interesting tidbits that might benefit Costa Mesa homeowners or about-to-be homeowners. These releases are timely glimpses of the tides of U.S. home loan trends and specifics of what’s being…

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 Last Wednesday and Thursday’s stock market nosedive had analysts debating whether the Fed’s hike in interest rates was to blame. Since Costa Mesa mortgage rates are likely to also be affected, local selling-minded homeowners might well have begun to wonder whether we are headed into a less-than-favorable selling environment.

If so, would listing your home now make sense? Would holding out until lower Costa Mesa mortgage rates reappear be worth the wait? The benefit to potential buyers would be immediate: more affordable monthly payments for the same asking price.

Ultimately, the answer to that timing question will always be uncertain, but one clue can be found in the history of mortgage rates in recent decades. According to the Freddie…

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By last Friday, anyone planning Costa Mesa real estate dealings would have been following the week’s developments on the mortgage interest rate front. Since Costa Mesa’s mortgage interest rates are the most volatile factor influencing affordability, changes can have large consequences.

The key information source in that arena is the Mortgage News Daily, a must-read for industry insiders. As soon as Wednesday’s big news broke—the Federal Reserve’s decision to hike its benchmark interest rate—it made for interesting reading.

If the Fed’s morning announcement had most everyone expecting a quick move to higher Costa Mesa mortgage rates, by noon MND readers would have been less certain. By Wednesday afternoon its lead headline was “Mortgage…

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Throughout the country, spring and summer are when the most serious house hunting takes place. Springtime is, after all, the season when it just feels right to undertake major initiatives—and buying Costa Mesa homes certainly falls into that category.  

But if your own school or work calendar doesn’t dictate the timing, there are some good reasons why putting it off until next year may not be in your best interest. Here are four worth considering:

  1.       Wealth-building. If you are now renting, the sooner a portion of your monthly housing spend begins to go toward building equity for your own account, the better. All those TV commercials about starting early to save for retirement are reminders of the same immutable truth.
  2.       Home…

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