Halecrest

What Halecrest is

Halecrest is a post war single family tract at the north end of Costa Mesa, off the Baker and Bear corridor, north of Baker Street with Mesa del Mar directly across it and the 405 a few blocks further on. The MLS files it in South Coast Metro, which tells you what the neighborhood is near: South Coast Plaza, the Segerstrom performing arts campus, the 405 and the 55, and a straight run to John Wayne Airport. Killybrooke Elementary and the Halecrest Swim and Tennis Club both sit inside the tract on Killybrooke Lane, which is why so many of the people who buy here have a stroller or a tennis bag in the garage. The interior streets carry almost no through traffic, and that is the other half of why the tract holds people once they land in it.

It was built between 1955 and 1963, largely as single story ranch plans on quiet interior streets. Every home that has traded here recently carries the same tax tract number, 2341, the cleanest signal that this is one planned subdivision rather than a loose collection of streets that share a name. The homes are detached single family residences on real lots. There are no condominiums and no townhomes here.

The street names are the first thing people notice. Donnybrook, Killybrooke, Kerry, Cork, Sharon, Conway, Murray, Warren, Royce and Watson. The Irish naming runs through the core of the tract and is one of the few ways a buyer scrolling a portal can tell they have crossed from a neighboring Costa Mesa pocket into Halecrest proper. If the address ends in one of those names, you are looking at a Halecrest home, and the comparable set changes accordingly.

Homes run roughly 1,177 to 1,902 square feet. Lots run roughly 6,000 to 9,546 square feet, with a median close to 6,666. That lot to house ratio is the defining physical fact about this tract. A 1,300 square foot house on a 6,600 square foot lot means yard, side setback and, in a lot of cases, room to add on. Buyers who come from newer product in Irvine or Tustin are usually surprised by how much dirt comes with a house at this price. It is not a beach neighborhood; you are a fifteen minute drive from the sand, not a walk, and the price difference between Halecrest and the coastal tracts is largely the price of that drive.

Who buys here, and why

The first buyer is the commuter couple making the jump from an Irvine or Tustin apartment, or a South Coast Metro condominium, to a detached house. They work near the airport or along the 405, they want a yard and a garage without association dues, and they buy the smaller renovated plans, the 1,200 to 1,400 square foot ranch with the new kitchen, because they want to move in and start living. The second is the young family that has done the math on Killybrooke Elementary across the street and the swim and tennis club down the block. They buy the larger plans, 1,600 square feet and up, often in original condition, and they add on over time, which is what the lot sizes here were made for. The third is the renovator, who has noticed what the numbers below say: that Halecrest has been pricing square footage close to free, and that a larger original home can be bought for the same money as a small finished one and sold back into the first buyer's market once the work is done.

What separates Halecrest from Mesa del Mar across Baker is a decade and a product. Mesa del Mar is a 1960s tract with larger plans, a higher median and the fastest market in the city. Halecrest is 1950s ranch stock, smaller and lower priced, with a school and a club inside the boundary and a slower, more negotiable market. Against the attached product in the rest of South Coast Metro, Halecrest is the detached house on a 6,666 square foot lot with no HOA, which is a different carrying cost for the life of the loan. Against the Eastside and the Newport tracts, the difference is the drive to the water, and the price reflects it to the dollar.

There is no HOA, and no gate

This is the single most important structural fact about Halecrest. Every Halecrest sale on record carries an association fee of $0. There is no homeowners association, no monthly dues, no board, no architectural committee approving your paint color, and no association reserve study to review during your contingency period. There is also no land lease. Halecrest is fee simple; you own the ground.

There is no gate either. The streets have curbs, gutters and street lights, and the setting is suburban. Not gated. Not guard gated. No controlled access. If a gate is on your must have list, Halecrest is not the tract, and I would rather tell you that on a web page than in a car on a Saturday.

What the absence of an HOA actually means for your monthly number is more interesting than it sounds. In much of coastal Orange County a buyer at this price is carrying $300 to $900 a month in dues on top of principal, interest, taxes and insurance. At $600 a month, over a thirty year hold, that is a six figure line item that never builds equity. Halecrest buyers do not carry it. They carry their own roof, their own landscaping and their own fence repairs instead, which is a trade some people want and some people very much do not.

The swim and tennis club, and why it is not an HOA

Halecrest has a swim and tennis club, and this trips people up constantly, so let me be precise. No Halecrest home carries an association or any association amenities. The dues field is zero across the board. The club is not a mandatory homeowners association tied to your deed. It is a separate membership organization, and membership is voluntary and separately paid.

Practically, that means three things. Your offer price does not buy you a membership. A seller telling you they belong to the club is telling you about their own membership, not about something conveying with the house. And if the club matters to you, contact it directly and ask about current dues, initiation, the waitlist if there is one, and whether membership is open to your specific address, before you remove contingencies. A listing remark is not the authority on any of that; the club is.

What homes actually sell for

Across the recorded Halecrest closings I pulled, prices ran from $1,100,000 to $1,650,000, with a median of $1,300,000. The total spread is $550,000, which is roughly 42 percent of the median. That is a wide band for a single tract of similarly aged homes, and the reason is almost entirely condition and renovation level rather than location within the tract.

Price per square foot ran from about $674 to about $1,146, median near $912. Read those two ends carefully. The $674 number is not a bargain and the $1,146 number is not a ripoff. They are the same tract at different points on the remodel curve, and in a market where a full studs out renovation on a 1,300 square foot house can run well into six figures, the spread makes sense.

The finding: the bigger house costs the same money

Here is the finding that came out of running the numbers, and it is not on Zillow, Redfin or anywhere else I can find.

Split the Halecrest sales by size. The homes under 1,400 square feet have a median sale price of $1,300,000. The homes at 1,700 square feet and larger have a median sale price of $1,300,000. Identical. In this tract, buying materially more house has not cost materially more money.

The per foot math shows why that is remarkable. The small homes closed at a median of about $1,020 per square foot. The large homes closed at a median of about $731 per square foot. That is roughly a 28 percent per foot discount for buying the bigger house at the same total price.

The sample is small, as it is for any single tract, and the mechanism is clear: the small homes trading recently have been the beautifully renovated ones while the larger homes have been the ones needing work. That is not a loophole in the market. It is a description of what buyers here have been paying for, which is finish, not footage.

It is still actionable. If you are a buyer who is willing to renovate, Halecrest has been pricing square footage close to free. If you are a seller with a larger unrenovated home, you are competing against a 1,250 square foot house with a new kitchen at the same number, and you should price and prep accordingly. If you are a seller with a small renovated home, the market has been paying you a real premium for the work, and you should not discount yourself into the middle of the pack.

How fast homes move here

Days on market ran from 0 to 115, with a median of 24. That median is not the story. The distribution is. Five of the recorded sales closed in four days or fewer, and three of those went at zero days on market.

Zero days on market means the property was matched with a buyer before it ever accumulated a day of public exposure. Some of those are off market or pocket transactions. Some are listings that went live already in escrow. Either way, the practical translation for a buyer is blunt: in this tract, a meaningful share of the good inventory has not been available to someone who was only watching a portal. If you want Halecrest, you need someone working the tract, not an email alert.

The long tail matters too. A 115 day listing in the same set tells you that homes here do sit when they are priced against a renovation they do not have. Both ends of that range are real and neither one is the market.

What is available right now

As of November 1, 2026 there is one active listing and one home under contract in Halecrest. The active is 1371 Shannon, a 1,177 square foot 1955 home, at $1,325,000, seventeen days in. Under contract is 1288 Londonderry Street, the 1,606 square foot 1963 home that was coming soon in September: it came out at $1,295,000, cut to $1,249,000, and found a buyer at 45 days.

A near-empty active list in a tract of this size is normal rather than alarming, and it is exactly the condition in which the zero day sales above happen. If the tract is on your list, the useful move is to get set up on a direct feed for the specific subdivision code rather than a city wide search, and to have your financing and your inspector lined up before something appears, because the window between listing and offer deadline here has repeatedly been days rather than weeks.

Where Halecrest sits

Halecrest sits off the Baker and Bear corridor in Costa Mesa, in the MLS area the board labels South Coast Metro. That puts you close to South Coast Plaza, the Segerstrom performing arts campus, the 405 and the 55, and a straightforward run to John Wayne Airport. It is a genuinely convenient piece of Orange County for anyone who commutes or travels for work, and it is the practical reason a lot of buyers end up here rather than farther down the coast. The interior streets carry almost no through traffic.

It is not a beach neighborhood. You are a drive from the sand, not a walk. Buyers comparing Halecrest to Eastside Costa Mesa or the Newport tracts should weight that honestly, because the price difference between this tract and the coastal ones is largely the price of that drive.

Costa Mesa is served by Newport Mesa Unified School District. Killybrooke Elementary is inside the tract. Attendance boundaries are set by the district and get adjusted, so verify your specific address with the district directly if schools are driving the decision.

What I check before writing an offer here

• The roof, the panel and the sewer line. These homes are sixty to seventy years old. Original electrical panels, galvanized or cast iron drain lines and end of life roofs are the three items that most often turn into a real credit request.
• Permits on any addition. Larger square footage in a 1950s tract sometimes reflects an addition. Pull the permit history from the city and confirm the recorded square footage matches what was permitted, because an unpermitted addition affects both appraisal and resale.
• What the renovation actually is. Given the price spread, the difference between a cosmetic refresh and a systems level renovation is worth six figures here. Ask what was replaced behind the walls, not just what is visible.
• The club, in writing. If swim and tennis access is part of why you are buying, confirm terms with the club directly rather than assuming it conveys.
• Lot line and setbacks. On lots this size, buyers frequently plan a future addition or ADU. Confirm the buildable envelope with the city before you pay for the lot as if it is expandable.

Frequently asked questions about Halecrest

Does Halecrest have an HOA?
No. Every recorded sale carries an association fee of $0. There are no monthly dues and no association governing the tract.

How much are the HOA fees in Halecrest?
There are none. The dues field is zero on every sale in the record.

Is Halecrest a gated community?
No. The community is not gated and there is no controlled access or community security. It is a suburban tract with curbs, gutters and street lights.

What is the Halecrest Swim and Tennis Club, and is membership included?
It is a separate membership organization, not a homeowners association. No home here carries an association or association amenities, so membership is not attached to the home and does not convey with the sale. Contact the club directly for current dues, availability and eligibility.

When was Halecrest built?
Between 1955 and 1963.

What do homes in Halecrest sell for?
Recorded sales ranged from $1,100,000 to $1,650,000, with a median of $1,300,000.

What is the price per square foot in Halecrest?
Roughly $674 to $1,146 per square foot, with a median near $912. The spread reflects renovation level far more than location within the tract.

How big are the homes?
Roughly 1,177 to 1,902 square feet, with a median near 1,324.

How big are the lots?
Roughly 6,000 to 9,546 square feet, with a median near 6,666. Lot to house ratios here are generous by coastal Orange County standards.

Are there condos or townhomes in Halecrest?
No. Every recorded sale is a detached single family residence.

How long do homes take to sell in Halecrest?
Days on market ranged from 0 to 115 with a median of 24. Five of the recorded sales closed in four days or fewer and three had zero days on market, which means a real share of inventory never sat publicly available.

Is anything for sale in Halecrest right now?
As of November 1, 2026, one home is active, 1371 Shannon at $1,325,000, and one is under contract, 1288 Londonderry Street at $1,249,000 after a $46,000 cut. A single listing at a time is common in a tract this size and is exactly why buyers here benefit from a direct subdivision level alert rather than a citywide portal search.

Is Halecrest on a land lease?
No. Halecrest is fee simple. You own the land.

What city is Halecrest in?
Costa Mesa, off the Baker and Bear corridor, in the area the MLS labels South Coast Metro. South Coast Plaza, the Segerstrom arts campus, the 405 and the 55 are all a short drive.

Which school district serves Halecrest?
Newport Mesa Unified School District. Killybrooke Elementary is inside the tract. Attendance boundaries are set by the district and do change, so confirm your specific address with the district before relying on an assignment.

Is it better to buy a small renovated home or a larger fixer in Halecrest?
The recorded sales say the median price is the same either way, about $1,300,000, which means larger homes have been trading at roughly a 28 percent per foot discount. If you have the appetite and the budget for a renovation, the square footage has been close to free. If you want to move in and do nothing, you are paying for that, and the market has consistently rewarded sellers who did the work.

Where does the Halecrest data on this page come from?
The California Regional MLS, filtered to the Halecrest subdivision code across the Costa Mesa MLS areas, using the recorded closed sales rather than list prices or estimates. Figures are current as of the last update to this page and should be verified for any specific property.