The market didn’t disappear. It changed. And right now, everyone is trying to figure out the new rules.
If real estate feels a little weird right now, you’re not imagining it.
Homes are sitting longer. Open houses aren’t always packed. Buyers are taking their time, asking more questions, and thinking twice before stretching their budgets. And sellers who watched their neighbors sell seemingly overnight a few years ago are discovering that putting a sign in the yard and waiting for multiple offers isn’t exactly the strategy it used to be.
Welcome to the awkward part of the market.
Not a crash. Not a crisis.
Just a market that requires a different playbook.
Buyers Have More Choices
One of the biggest changes is simple: buyers don’t feel the same urgency they once did.
In Costa Mesa, active listings reached 213 in September, up nearly 25% from the same time last year. Homes spent a median of 52 days on the market, about 15% longer year over year.
More inventory means more competition between sellers.
A buyer who likes your house may also like the one around the corner. And if that home has a better kitchen, a bigger yard, better presentation, or simply a more compelling price, buyers now have the ability to stop and compare.
That changes everything.
And Money Is Expensive
Then there’s the elephant in the room: interest rates.
As of October 1, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.28%, compared with 6.34% one year earlier.
At Orange County price points, that matters.
Buyers aren’t necessarily unwilling to spend money. They’re doing the math.
A purchase price that might have felt manageable with a lower mortgage rate can produce a very different monthly payment today. That has made buyers more price-conscious, more deliberate, and less willing to overlook things they may have ignored when competition was intense.
Price Still Matters. Maybe More Than Ever.
Here’s where sellers can get into trouble.
It’s tempting to price a home based on what the neighbor got, what Zillow says, what you put into the remodel, or what you need to walk away with.
Unfortunately, buyers don’t care about any of those things.
They care about what your home is worth compared with everything else they can buy today.
Costa Mesa’s median listing price was approximately $1.51 million in September, down 11.25% from a year earlier. Yet the median sold price was still about $1.51 million, up 2.89% year over year.
That distinction matters.
Prices haven’t fallen off a cliff. Homes are still selling, and good properties can still command strong numbers.
But aspirational pricing is getting harder to hide.
Start too high, and the market notices. The first few weeks pass. Showing activity slows. Then comes the price adjustment—and suddenly buyers start wondering what’s wrong with the house.
Sometimes nothing is wrong with it.
The price was just wrong.
Good Marketing Matters Again
For a while, real estate marketing got pretty easy.
Take some photos. Put the property online. Schedule an open house. Wait.
That worked when buyers were fighting over limited inventory.
Today, presentation matters again.
The photography matters. The staging matters. The first photo matters. The copy matters. The launch matters. The pricing matters. And yes, the way the house looks when someone walks through the front door absolutely matters.
You’re competing for attention before you’re competing for an offer.
A home should hit the market looking like something buyers don’t want to miss—not something they’ll circle back to later.
A Quiet Open House Doesn't Mean Nobody Is Buying
This one is important.
Open houses may feel quieter than they did during the frenzy, but foot traffic isn't the same thing as demand.
Ten serious buyers are more valuable than 50 people wandering through because they saw balloons on the corner.
Today's buyers tend to be more intentional. They’ve looked online. They know the neighborhood. They’ve probably looked at competing homes. And when the right property meets the right price, they’re still willing to act.
The difference is that fewer buyers feel like they have to.
That means sellers need to give them a reason to.
Buyers: This Market Has Opportunities
If you’re on the other side of the transaction, there’s some good news.
You may finally have something buyers haven’t had much of in recent years:
Breathing room.
Not on every house. Not in every neighborhood. And definitely not on every great listing.
But generally, buyers have more ability to evaluate their options, negotiate terms, ask for repairs, and walk away from a property that simply doesn’t make sense.
That doesn’t necessarily make homes cheap.
It makes the process more rational.
And after the last several years, rational feels pretty refreshing.
So... Is This a Bad Market?
We don't think that's the right question.
There is no single “real estate market.”
There’s your neighborhood. Your price range. Your house. Your competition. Your motivation. Your timeline.
Even the broader statistics tell a mixed story. Costa Mesa homes took longer to sell in September and buyers had considerably more inventory to choose from, yet the median sold price remained higher than it was a year ago.
That's not a dead market.
That's a selective one.
And selective markets reward good strategy.
For sellers, that means realistic pricing, strong presentation, great marketing, and being willing to adjust when the market gives you feedback.
For buyers, it means understanding where you actually have leverage—and recognizing the difference between an overpriced listing and a great property that's priced correctly.
The days of throwing a house on the market and watching buyers fight over it may be behind us for now.
That's okay.
Homes are still selling. Buyers are still buying. Deals are still getting done.
They're just not happening by accident anymore.
And frankly, that's where having the right strategy starts to matter.
The market changed. The opportunity didn't. You just need a better game plan.
That's where The L3 comes in. Check us out and lets get an updated game plan for your home.
Location. Luxury. Lifestyle. L3.
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