Costa Mesa Real Estate Market Update April 2012

Don’t Believe the Hype

OK data geeks, this update in Costa Mesa is for you! I’ve got all the local Costa Mesa real estate numbers here as to what is going on with the market as well as what is going on California-wide.

Seen national numbers saying things aren’t looking good? Don’t believe it. Locally the market is as close to on fire as it can get.

Costa Mesa real estate only has 103 Costa Mesa homes for sale, of which 75 are standard sales – that’s a great number. That means just over 25% are short sales or REO listings, a marked improvement from a year or so ago. What should our active Costa Mesa listings be, however? At least twice that number. Our current Costa Mesa real estate inventory is very, very low. There are bidding wars for homes now, especially the nicest ones and the ones priced most appropriately for the market.

Interest rates continue to be low (4%) for any loans under $625,000. They look to be in that place for most of the remainder of the year, which will further fuel buying this summer. Costa Mesa Real Estate Market Update April 2012

California Update

Here are the statewide numbers – remember all real estate is local, and Costa Mesa real estate is quite different- the California Association of Realtors (CAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* rose from a revised 126.5 in February to 143.7 in March, based on signed contracts. The March 2012 index was the highest since April 2009, when the PHSI was 146.9. The index also was up from the 128.9 index recorded in March 2011, marking the eleventh consecutive month that pending sales were higher than the previous year. Pending homes are forward-looking indicators of future activity, providing information on the future direction of the market.

The share of equity sales – or non-distressed property sales – compared with total transactions increased in March to 55.4, up from 51.1 percent in February. Equity transactions made up 50.2 percent of all sales in March 2011.
Meanwhile, the total share of all distressed property types sold statewide decreased in March to 44.6 percent, down from February’s 48.9 percent and from 49.8 percent in March 2011.
The share of short sales was down again in March. Of the distressed properties sold statewide in March, 21.1 percent were short sales, down from February’s share of 23 percent but up from last March’s share of 20.1 percent.
The share of REO offerings also declined in March to 23.1 percent, down from February’s 25.2 percent and down from the 29.4 percent recorded in March 2011.