Just Sold: Cardinal – What’s the Market Really Like?

So I had the unique pleasure recently of selling 2717 Cardinal Drive in Mesa Verde this spring. A lot of people ask me what the market is really like right now, and I think sharing the nuts and bolts of this sale helps illustrate what is going on right now.

 

In Costa Mesa, there is still not a lot of inventory. Over the past two months, there has consistently been less than 10 active listings in the Mesa Verde area, less than 15 in the Westside Costa Mesa area, less than 12 in the SouthCoast Metro area, less than 12 in the Central Costa Mesa area, and less than 25 active listings in Eastside Costa Mesa.

 

To give some perspective, in 2019, roughly just 5 years ago, we had 4 times that inventory across all of those Costa Mesa areas. Buyers had the opportunity to choose, or wait if they saw a home that did not fit what they were looking for at that time.

 

In the current spring market of 2024, buyers do not have the luxury of waiting for the right home to pop up. The majority of listings are selling in Costa Mesa within the first 2 weeks on the market and typically will have more than one offer for the sellers to choose from.

 

The case can be made with the home I sold at 2717 Cardinal. With a sufficient first-week push with a significant amount of marketing, we were able to produce three offers from qualified buyers. The home at 2717 Cardinal had been partially updated in certain areas, but could be argued that other areas like the kitchen, hall bath, or backyard could use some updating.

 

The three offers were mostly similar – they were all putting about 15-25% down, all using conventional financing, and all had lost opportunities on other homes recently. To say they “really wanted this house” would be accurate for all of these buyers.

 

What’s interesting is that this home was priced at $1,649,000 and wound up closing for $1,720,000. The competition from multiple parties pushed the price up. Mesa Verde entry-level pricing is currently around the $1.2M to $1.3M range, and the home at 2717 Cardinal sits in the Upper Bird Streets which has tended to be one of the nicer neighborhoods in Mesa Verde.

 

From other agents that I have spoken with this spring, what I experienced on Cardinal was consistent for homes in the price range below $2 Million.

 

Bidding wars are still happening on prices above $2 Million, but there are fewer buyers and fewer offers as the prices go up.

 

What is most remarkable about the activity that is happening is that the interest rates are currently floating around 7% right now.

 

This puts the Cardinal sale at $1,720,000 with 20% down with a monthly mortgage payment of $10,312!

 

Could you afford to buy your home right now? We’ll tackle that issue tomorrow.