The Costa Mesa house situation is frustrating at best. I've been looking for well over a year, and the vast majority of affordable homes are piles of sticks waiting to collapse, in terrible neighborhoods dominated by landlords who let renters shove multiple families in small SFRs, or short sales/REOs that are terribly difficult to buy. A recent phenomenon has been the listing agent stunt of listing a nice house low in order to prompt bidding wars. Look at 3100 Van Buren or 3099 Warren Lane for examples. I went to look at 2054 National, listed at $320,000, and had to literally wait in line with 20 other people to look at the house during the showing. It was completey as is - nothing had been done since it was built in 1953, the kitchen was so small that they knocked out the wall between the garage and kitchen and built an enclosure for the refrigerator - rendering the garage unusable as a garage - but the demand was insane. We also looked at 2060 President, which allegedly sold recently, and the place was an absolute pile. We entered escrow on a place that will remain unidentified, but has major unpermitted work which makes obtaining a loan impossible, so we will walk away - good luck to the sellers, they're nice folks.
I'm waiting for the "wave" of foreclosures to finally correct the Westside CM market - that 640 Surf property is awful, and that street does not justify that price, IMHO.
