Costa Mesa Real Estate Continues Quick Recovery

Colin Delaney May 27, 2013

National Recovery Behind Costa Mesa Real Estate Recovery

News out today via Reuters shows that the National real estate recovery is starting to catch the local real estate boom that we are enjoying here locally in Costa Mesa. The top 20 markets in the Case-Shiller index showed a 1.1% gain in March, beating economists' expectations and providing a 10% boost to prices in those large markets.

Costa Mesa real estate has shown higher gains in the last year, while most of the large run-up in our local market has been fueled by a lack of inventory and continued historically low interest rates. Nationally the 10% gain in prices is the highest since April 2006, which is just before prices fell off the cliff in the summer of 2006. Prices in three markets, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Las Vegas were all up over 20% in the most recent quarter, which is incredible when you look at a pricey market like San Francisco.

How’s That Perspective – Costa Mesa Real Estate Continues Quick Recovery

To put that in perspective, a 20% gain would be like having the opportunity to buy a Costa Mesa real estate property for $400,000, then be presented 3 months later with that same property for $500,000! Is that happening locally in Costa Mesa real estate? Unfortunately, yes. If you look at small micro markets in Costa Mesa real estate, you can see how quickly prices have changed:

Consider the Halecrest neighborhood:

Sold– 3034 Royce Lane, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home for $390,000 in October 2012. S714411

Sold – 3084 College Ave, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home for $425,000 in July 2012. U12001989

Recent Halecrest closings in Costa Mesa:

Sold– 1284 Belfast Ave, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home for $520,000

Sold– 3028 Warren Lave, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home for $550,550 ($25,000 over asking price!)

In a year, the prices in Halecrest have gone up more than 25%! Remarkable considering how slowly prices were recovering only a year ago. Our local Costa Mesa real estate market is almost completely free of short sales and REO listings, which represent less than 10% of the total inventory now.