The Costa Mesa Market,
Beyond the Headlines
MLS-backed market insight for buyers, sellers, and homeowners navigating Costa Mesa — the fastest-moving market on the coastal Orange County map, updated monthly, read locally.
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Who this market update is for
This page is for:
- Costa Mesa homeowners who want a straight answer on what their home is worth in this month's market, not last spring's
- Buyers competing for Eastside, Mesa Verde, and Mesa del Mar homes that move in days, not months
- Newport Beach and Corona del Mar owners, 55 and older, weighing a right-size into Costa Mesa with their Proposition 19 tax base intact
- Sellers deciding between listing now and waiting, who want the decision made on data
- The estate-planning attorneys and CPAs who advise all of the above
This page is not:
- A national headline recycled with a local zip code on it
- An automated valuation widget with a boundary problem
- A sales pitch dressed up as a statistic
- Legal or tax advice — I coordinate the real estate; your CPA and attorney own the rest
One email a month on what actually closed in Costa Mesa, what sat, and what it means for the decision in front of you. No listing dumps, no pressure.
Costa Mesa is the market that didn't get the memo
While the county builds inventory and luxury learns patience, Costa Mesa keeps closing. Fifty-two homes closed in August — the busiest month of the summer — though the typical sale took about four weeks rather than two. Here is the detail worth pausing on: the sold median eased to about $1.51 million, just under the $1.6 million asking median of what is sitting now, and condos and townhomes made up a third of the closings. When what sells no longer clears above what sits, buyers are getting selective — and supply this thin still rewards the prepared seller.
Comparing markets? All three current updates live on the market update hub →
The numbers, for those who want depth
| Metric | Costa Mesa · August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Homes for sale (as of August 31) | 115 |
| Closed sales (August) | 52 |
| Median sold price | $1,513,500 |
| Median asking price (actives) | $1,595,000 |
| Median price per sq ft (sold) | $751 |
| Median price per sq ft (asking) | $835 |
| Median days to sell (closed) | 27 |
| Median days on market (current listings) | 33 |
| Under contract — offer accepted, not yet closed (as of August 31) | 46 |
| Newly listed, still active (30 days) | 43 |
| Months of supply | ~2.2 |
| Top August sale | $4,175,000 |
Source: CRMLS, pulled August 31, 2026. Coverage: the CRMLS city area of Costa Mesa. Medians shown. Single-family homes led August's sales — 34 of 52 closings — with condos and townhomes making up the balance. Months of supply is how long today's inventory would take to sell at the current sales pace; under about four months generally favors sellers. This page is rebuilt each month when the new CRMLS data posts.
Under contract activity — 46 homes as of month-end — is running just short of a full month of closings, which means September's sold column is already largely written. Inventory at 2.2 months of supply still favors prepared sellers, but the sold-versus-asking gap has flipped: buyers are negotiating on condition and price, not disappearing.
The monthly snapshot above is the current read. This section is the pattern underneath it: three years of Zillow Research data for the city of Costa Mesa, averaged by calendar month. Costa Mesa is the one coastal city where the typical home still closes at or above its asking price for most of the year, and its calendar starts earlier than the county's.
Costa Mesa buyers compete hardest in April, when nearly half of homes close above asking. The dip in winter is real but shallow; even February, the softest month, sees more than a third of homes sell above list.
Share of Costa Mesa homes that closed above their list price, three-year average by month of closing. Source: Zillow Research. Darkest bar is the seasonal high; the outlined bar is the low.
| The question | The month | What the data shows |
|---|---|---|
| Best month to sell for top dollar | April and July | Sale-to-list peaks near one percent over asking in both; median prices peak in July, about 7% above the January trough. |
| Best month to buy with the least competition | February | About 37% of homes close above list, versus 47% in April. Selection is thinnest in January and February. |
| Best month for a buyer to negotiate | January | The average home closes about half a percent under its final list price. It is the only time of year that happens. |
| Best month to list for the fastest sale | Late February | March pendings take about 12 days at the median, the fastest of any coastal city in any month. |
| Most price cuts on the market | August and September | Close to one in four active listings has been reduced, up from about one in six in December. |
| Most new listings | May | New listings run about double the January level. Inventory peaks in July at roughly 1.5 times the February low. |
Costa Mesa is the market Newport Beach sellers move into, and its calendar runs about six weeks ahead of the county's. The spring rush starts in late February, peaks in April, and by June the price-cut share is already climbing. If you are selling a Newport home and buying in Costa Mesa, that timing gap is the whole strategy.
Over the past three years Costa Mesa has softened less than any other market on this site. Inventory has grown, but the share of homes selling above asking has slipped only modestly, and the average sale still closes within a few tenths of a percent of list. It is a small market with a deep bench of move-up and right-size buyers, and that shows in every month of the data.
For buyers, the honest read is that there is no soft month in Costa Mesa, only a less competitive one. January and February are when the average home closes under asking and when the fewest offers are on the table. The trade is selection: the year's thinnest inventory is on the market in those same two months.
Want to know where your Costa Mesa home sits in this calendar? Request a private home value review, or read why Costa Mesa's real season starts when the fair packs up.
Because the years before them do not describe a normal calendar. Between February 2020 and the end of 2023, Zillow's home value index for Costa Mesa rose about 51% after two nearly flat years, mortgage rates went from under three percent to over seven, and in the spring of 2022 82% of homes here closed above their asking price with the typical sale going under contract in about 8 days. Fold those months into a seasonal average and every spring reads like a frenzy and every winter like a collapse. Neither describes the market you are in now.
The averages on this page start in January 2024, the first year after that window, and gain a year each time a normal one is added. The full series from 2018 onward, with every chart, is here for anyone who wants to check the reasoning.
What is the best month to sell a house in Costa Mesa?
Based on three years of Zillow Research data for Costa Mesa, April and July are the strongest months to close: the sale-to-list ratio runs close to one percent over asking in both, and in April nearly half of homes close above list. Homes going under contract in March move fastest of all, so late February is the listing window. Current-month figures on this page come from CRMLS.
Do homes in Costa Mesa sell above asking price?
Most of the year, yes. Zillow Research data shows the average Costa Mesa home closing at or slightly above its list price in every month except January and February, when the average dips about half a percent under. In April nearly half of all homes close above asking.
What is the best time to buy a house in Costa Mesa?
January and February. They are the only months when the average sale closes below asking, and the share of homes selling above list is at its annual low. The trade-off is that inventory is also at its thinnest in those two months.
How fast do homes sell in Costa Mesa?
Faster than anywhere else on the coast. Zillow's median days to pending for Costa Mesa averages under two weeks for homes going under contract in March and about three weeks in October, the slowest month. Costa Mesa's calendar runs roughly six weeks ahead of the county's.
Is Costa Mesa a buyer's or seller's market?
Costa Mesa has stayed closer to a seller's market than any other city tracked on this site. Inventory has grown over the past three years, but the average home still closes within a few tenths of a percent of its asking price. The current month's supply figure is in the CRMLS table above.
Seasonal figures on this section are three-year averages by calendar month, calculated from Zillow Research's published monthly series for the city of Costa Mesa (city series): median sale price, mean sale-to-list ratio, share of homes sold above list price, median days to pending, share of active listings with a price cut, new listings, and active inventory. Zillow's monthly series are smoothed three-month averages, which is why they are used here for pattern rather than for any single month's headline. You can chart the same series yourself in Zillow's Market Explorer.
Averaging window: January 2024 through June 2026. Costa Mesa is a small market, so single months are noisier than in the county series; three-year averages are the reliable read. The section is refreshed once a year when a full new calendar year of Zillow data is available; the monthly snapshot elsewhere on this page comes from CRMLS and is rebuilt every month. Zillow is an independent source and is not affiliated with Jade Larney or Anvil Real Estate.
What the numbers actually say
Three things stand out this month. First, tempo: the median August sale took 27 days — still quick, but the two-week sprints of early summer have eased into a market with room to think. Second, the sold median slipped about $80,000 under the asking median — mix did some of that, with condos and townhomes a third of the closings, but it also says buyers stopped chasing aspirational asks. Third, the move-up band is the new engine: twenty-one of August's fifty-two closings landed between $1.5 and $2 million against just 28 active listings — barely six weeks of supply. What's scarce in Costa Mesa right now is a well-priced move-up home, not buyers.
One caution for sellers reading 2.2 months of supply as a blank check: August's sold-under-asking flip says buyers paid for condition and walked from hope pricing. The market is still fast for the right home at the right price. It is patient — and negotiable — everywhere else.
Want this read for your street and price band? Request a private home value review →
Costa Mesa is several markets wearing one zip code
Twenty-one homes for sale, ten August closings, about two months of supply — tighter than it has been all summer. Rate-sensitive buyers live here, and they negotiate hardest on condition. Sharp pricing still wins the band.
Fifteen of August's 52 sales closed here against 33 actives — about 2.2 months of supply. This is the band where prepared listings draw multiple offers fastest, and where most first-time detached buyers are competing.
Twenty-one closings, 28 homes for sale — 1.3 months of supply, the tightest band in the city. The natural landing zone for a Newport Beach downsizer: single-story Mesa Verde and Mesa del Mar homes at equal-or-lesser value to a coastal sale.
Six August closings above $2 million against 33 actives — the one band where patience returned this month. Above $3 million: two sales, five active listings.
Every link opens the live MLS feed right here on jadelarney.com. Tap Save Search on any band and you'll know the day something new hits the market.
What this means for you
"Do I have to overbid to win here?"
Not everywhere. The fastest-moving homes are priced at the last comparable and show well; those can still take an over-ask offer. But August's median sale closed under its asking median, and listings sitting past the 33-day active median negotiate. We read the days-on-market and price history before we write anything.
The signal to watchDays on market on the specific home — under three weeks means compete; over six weeks means talk.
Buyer strategy →Browse every Costa Mesa listing →"Is this the window to sell?"
For a prepared, correctly priced home, yes — August was the busiest closing month of the summer, on just 2.2 months of supply. The change: buyers negotiated, and the sold median landed under asking. The risk is entering the market overpriced and joining the listings aging past the 33-day median. Price to the last real comparable and let the depth of demand work for you.
The signal to watchThe sold-vs-asking medians — August flipped below asking, which says buyers are pricing the flaws you don't fix.
Seller strategy →"I'm 55+, selling coastal, landing here."
Costa Mesa is the most common landing spot I see for Newport-area right-sizers, and this month shows why: real inventory, fast execution, and single-level neighborhoods at a fraction of a coastal sale price. Under Proposition 19, an eligible owner 55 or older can carry their property-tax base to the new home — and buying at equal or lesser value keeps that math clean. The two-year window between your sale and your purchase makes timing part of the strategy, not an afterthought. General education, not tax or legal advice — we plan this with your CPA or attorney.
The signal to watchThe $1.5M–$2M band — your landing zone is down to about six weeks of supply, so be ready when the right one lists.
The Prop 19 downsizing plan →Selling on the Newport side first? The Newport Beach update →Every Costa Mesa closing, examined
Below is the whole distribution behind this month's headline: 52 closed sales in Costa Mesa in the 30 days through August 31, broken out by price, structure type and days on market. Computed from the raw CRMLS export. Method and limits are documented at the bottom.
Median home sold: 1,752 square feet, built 1965.
What price range is actually selling in Costa Mesa?
The market here concentrates hard in the middle. Nearly seventy percent of everything that closed landed in a single price band, which is unusual for a city this varied.
| Price band | Closings | Share | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | 10 | 19.2% | $820,000 |
| $1M to $2M | 36 | 69.2% | $1,559,500 |
| $2M and up | 6 | 11.5% | $2,735,000 |
The $2M and up band recorded six sales and should be read as directional.
Seven in ten Costa Mesa sales landed in one band. Whether your home sits inside it, above it, or below it changes the entire strategy. Get a read on your specific home →
How long do Costa Mesa homes take to sell?
| Days on market | Closings | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 14 days | 24 | 46.2% | |
| 15 to 30 days | 9 | 17.3% | |
| 31 to 60 days | 6 | 11.5% | |
| 61 days or more | 13 | 25.0% |
Nearly half of everything that sold went under contract within two weeks.
Do Costa Mesa listings come back to market?
A listing carries two clocks. One counts days on the current listing, which is what the portals show. The other counts every day the property has spent on the market across all of its listing periods. When the second number is much larger, the home had been trying to sell before.
In Costa Mesa, 2 of 52 August closings carried a prior listing period. Countywide the figure was 115 of 1,712, and above $5 million it was nearly one sale in five.
This is the same story the rest of this page tells, arriving from a different direction. Costa Mesa homes are not sitting, retreating, and coming back with a fresh number. They are pricing and selling. The county's second-chance listings are concentrated in the price bands above this market, which is a useful thing to know if you are weighing Costa Mesa against Newport.
A prior listing period means the property was on the market before under a separate listing. It can follow an expired or withdrawn listing, an escrow that fell apart, or a change of agent.
Do condos and townhomes sell differently than houses here?
| Type | Closings | Share | Median price | Median $/sq ft | Median sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | 34 | 65.4% | $1,749,500 | $867 | 1,918 |
| Attached | 18 | 34.6% | $967,000 | $661 | 1,578 |
What kinds of homes are selling in Costa Mesa?
| Sub-type | Closings | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single family, detached | 33 | 63.5% | |
| Townhome, attached | 9 | 17.3% | |
| Condominium, attached | 5 | 9.6% | |
| Single family, attached | 4 | 7.7% | |
| Duplex, detached | 1 | 1.9% |
What do these numbers actually mean?
Months of supply. How long it would take to sell every home currently for sale, at the pace homes are actually selling. Under four months favors sellers. Four to six months is balanced. Above six favors buyers.
Median, not average. The median is the middle sale: half sold for more, half for less. An average is pulled upward by a handful of very expensive sales, which is why published Costa Mesa figures can differ meaningfully depending on which one a source used.
Days on market. The days between a home coming to market and going under contract. Sources differ on how they count it, which is why the same city can be quoted at wildly different figures in the same month.
Attached and detached. Detached means a standalone house. Attached means it shares at least one wall: townhomes, condominiums, co-operatives, and attached single-family homes.
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DAYS ON MARKET Days on market is the cumulative figure, which carries forward across relisting of the same property. It is the more conservative of the two measures the MLS reports and it is used throughout this page.
SAMPLE SIZE Fifty-two closings is a small sample, because this is one city in one month. Any row with fewer than eight sales is marked and should be read as directional. Medians are unweighted and move with the mix of what happened to sell.
DEFINITIONS Attached covers townhomes, condominiums, co-operatives and attached single-family homes. Detached covers detached single-family and detached multi-unit structures. Price per square foot uses recorded living area and excludes records with no square footage. This data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed.
Questions I hear every week
Is Costa Mesa a buyer's market or a seller's market right now?
At about 2.2 months of supply, the leverage still sits with well-prepared sellers — balanced markets are usually called at four to six months. But the leverage is conditional: homes priced past the last comparable are sitting well beyond the 27-day median and negotiating like it's a buyer's market. The band you're in matters more than the citywide label.
How fast are Costa Mesa homes actually selling?
The median August sale closed in about 27 days. The median home still sitting on the market has been listed 33 days. Those two numbers describe the same city in the same month — the difference between them is almost entirely pricing and preparation.
Why did the sold median slip below the asking median this month?
Because what closes and what sits are different pools. August's buyers paid for the well-priced, well-presented listings and negotiated on the rest, while condos and townhomes — a third of the month's closings — pulled the sold median down. Read the two medians together: when sold runs above asking, buyers are chasing; when it slips below, buyers are pricing the flaws.
Can I really move from Newport Beach to Costa Mesa and keep my property taxes?
If you are 55 or older and the move qualifies under Proposition 19, you can generally transfer your existing taxable value to a replacement primary residence anywhere in California — and buying at equal or lesser value than your sale keeps the transferred base intact. The rules on timing, value tests, and filing are specific, so we plan the sale and purchase together with your CPA or attorney before anything is listed. This is general education, not tax or legal advice.
Which Costa Mesa neighborhoods move fastest?
Demand concentrates where turnkey meets location: Eastside, Mesa Verde, and Mesa del Mar remain the competitive core, especially for single-story and recently updated homes. The citywide medians blend those with slower pockets, which is why I read your street's comparables, not just the city line, before we set a price or write an offer.
Should I wait for rates to drop before buying here?
The 30-year fixed sits near 6.66% (Freddie Mac, week of August 27). Waiting for a meaningfully lower rate means betting that when it comes, you'll be the only one who noticed — in a city where well-priced homes still clear in weeks, not months. The better plan is usually to buy the right home at a defensible price and refinance if rates meaningfully improve.
What is my Costa Mesa home actually worth right now?
More than a portal estimate knows and less than the neighbor's asking price, usually. The number that holds up comes from the last 90 days of true comparables for your specific street, condition, and lot — which is exactly what a private home value review covers. Request one here.
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Costa Mesa moves quickly, and quick markets reward preparation more than luck. Whether you're buying into it, selling within it, or landing here from a coastal sale with a Proposition 19 clock running, I'll put the numbers on the table and build the plan around your timeline.