Riding the sales wave up-market in Costa Mesa plus a few NPB sales this month!
Case-Schiller for Costa Mesa
all SFR , and PUDs (condo/detached)
Month.......Sales.......Price.......SE..........CS=.........SEM....................................equivalent date
JFM:............15.........479.........22.......182............8.........(limited dataset).............Feb 2004
April:...........10.........491.........14.......188............7.........(limited dataset).............Mar 2004
May:............27.........532.........15.......184............5..............................................Mar 2004
June:...........26.........548.........21.......181............5..............................................Feb 2004
July:............37.........516.........17.......184 ...........5..............................................Mar 2004
Aug:............47.........548.........15.......191............5..............................................Apr 2004
Sept:...........37.........548.........23.......177............4..............................................Jan 2004
Oct:.............39.........538.........20.......180............4..............................................Feb 2004
Nov..............29.........518.........25.......180............6..............................................Feb 2004
Dec...............40........460.........16.......162............3..............................................Aug 2003
Jan...............20.........516.........27.......161............4.............................................Aug 2003
Feb..............28.........553..........33.......167............4.............................................Sept 2003
Mar..............43.........510.........43........179............5.............................................Jan 2004
Apr..............45.........520.........19.........172...........4..............................................Dec 2003
May..............47.........535.........28........176...........4..............................................Dec 2003
June.............59.........550.........17........176...........3..............................................Dec 2003
July?.?.?..?.58?.?.525?.?..22???176??..??3?.?.?.?.?.??.?..???.?.?..Dec 2003
Aug..?.? ..60?.?.560?.?.30??170?.??4?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?..Nov 2003
Wow, the sales continue to pour in at the end of the summer in CM!
August sales continued at peak levels (60 total sales) does $8k really mean that much when you are paying $600k for the house?), and the
median ($613k) matched the mean ($560k) so far as hitting peak values for the year, this month not so much due to a few high priced outliers, but due to the disappearance of the lower end of the market. While there were again some mega prices (3 sales over $1M), the surprising thing is that the previously
constipated east-side sales have broken loose, and comprise almost half of all sales this month. Despite this onslaught of sales of the "better half" of the inventory, the CS=170, the
CS values have dropped slightly.
The bottom of the market for SFRs in CM has moved from being the highly "ethnic" west-side to the more monochromatic Mesa North and state street areas. The surge of sales of condos/PUDs on the east side has basically ended, dropping from 33% to 12% of all sales (7). The other variety of sales that is starting to trickle in is the R2/R3 sales (4 sales).
Higher priced SFRs on the "good" part of the eastside (below 22nd street and adjacent NPB) are really picking up (12 sales versus 4 last month), but the CS values on the best of these are hard to place on these, as they have apparently been significantly expanded since the last sales. A few lower priced (smaller/older) prime east side sales occurred ($500s to $700s, CS 175-200). Continuing strong sales in Mesa Verde and the college park areas (CS=160-210) have trickled in, as well as more in the SouthCoast district in the same CS range.
On a more personal note, one of my "if I win the lottery" houses on Aviemore (great ocean views, 1/4 ac, 3000sf just renovated) sold for $1.6M (<!-- m -->
http://www.flaney.com/CA/Costa-Mesa/116 ... a/S555796/<!-- m -->)
Signs of capitulation from both the banks continue, short sales are back up (9 sales) as they look to move the potential FCs, and 5 of the 14 REO sales were failed short sale attempts, suggesting the banks are getting slightly more aggressive taking back from deadbeats. In addition, there were two new house sales and one obvious FLIP that sold, in addition to one "normal" estate sale. Overall, at 26 of the 60 sales,
must-sell products continue to represent almost half of the market.
Long time owners getting out picked back up this month. Eight of the sales were clearly "in the money" (all >10x tax basis), 14/60 were probably in the money (200% to 500% of previous sale, and yet of the remaining "non-distressed sales (22/60), many of the sellers may be escaping by the skin of their teeth from early 2000s purchases (80% to 200% of their previous sale price). Once again, for most of this class of apparent "equity sellers", and even most of the 200% to 500% class, the listing describe upgrades (and how many of those were paid from earnings versus HELOCs?).
Finally, I've been tracking listings and sales in 92663 and 92660 when they drop under $1M or so. There haven't really been more than a few sales, but this month there were 4 sales in
west newport (three in newport shores). Not surprisingly, the median price was high and wobbly due to the small sample $845k (+/-$113k). Much more surprisingly,
the CS=173 (+/-3), was not high, nor wobbly!
Soo...another month, is this the breakthrough into the "good inventory?
What's next?....Time will tell...