Not many homes, not many on the way

Alicia Robinson

After a frustrating search that lasted several months, Amanda Knox

found what she was looking for.

Knox and her husband, Clint, found a house in Costa Mesa just last

week, but it took time.

“We’ve looked at many, many houses and put in a few offers and had

all of our offers rejected,” she said. “It’s been a roller coaster.”

The Knox family’s experience is not unique. The search for homes

in Newport-Mesa is an exercise in patience for most because few

existing homes are for sale and the number of homes being built is

also slim.

In Costa Mesa, as of Friday, only 31 single-family homes and five

condominiums were on the market, said Valerie Torelli of Torelli

Realty.

“I can tell you that, unequivocally, this is way below a normal

market,” she said. “This isn’t enough inventory to last but a few

weeks.”

More than 200 homes are on the market in Newport Beach, Torelli

said. But with the cheapest of those at $690,000 and the most

expensive at $19.9 million, they are out of many would-be buyers’

financial league.

The shortage of supply has resulted in incredibly short

turn-around times for home sales as well, Torelli said. A normal time

on the market is between 30 and 60 days, but lately, it’s been a

matter of days, she said.

“If they’re priced well, they will sell, guaranteed, within the

first week,” she said.

And bidding can become quite competitive. Knox said that in one

case, her offer on a house was beat out by a buyer who had $200,000

in cash to put down.

A supply of new homes to ease the shortage isn’t expected any time

soon, city planners said.

Fewer than five developments are going through the planning

process in Costa Mesa, associate city planner Mel Lee said. Those

developments would contribute roughly 30 new dwelling units to what’s

available in the city.

The number of projects is small because there isn’t anywhere to

put new residential developments. Of the 212 acres of undeveloped

land in Costa Mesa, 70 acres are zoned for residential development,

Lee said.

“Basically, everything is infill,” he said. “You tear down

whatever’s on the land currently, [and] you build something new on

it.”

Newport Beach is in a similar situation, city Planning Director

Patricia Temple said.

“The city doesn’t have any vacant land left,” she said. “We are

really built out.”

Most of what’s coming through the Planning Department now is

replacing old homes with new ones, she said. The main project now in

development includes about 30 new condominiums.

“It’s becoming more of just a replacement of our existing housing

supply and not an increase,” she said.

Even without land, cities can increase the number of available

units by rezoning land for higher density, but that’s sometimes

easier said than done.

Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner Katrina Foley said she’d like to

see more efficient uses for some properties in the city, which means

encouraging property owners to take advantage of multi-family zonings

that already exist.

“There’s lots of creative ways to increase housing, but you have

to have a plan in place as a city to do it, and I don’t really see

that we have a clear plan in place,” she said.

Some areas of the city would benefit from higher density

developments, while in other areas they are clearly not suitable,

Foley said. The challenge is finding a balance between housing needs

and keeping the smaller, neighborhood feel of the city, she said.

Convincing the neighbors and the Planning Commission to approve a

higher density project can often be a hard sell.

“It’s very difficult because most people tend to disfavor higher

density, and I understand why, because higher density often brings

more traffic, more trash, more pressure on services that are

municipal services,” Foley said.

Because of the lack of land and because of zoning issues, new

homes in Newport-Mesa might be a long time in coming. But for Amanda

Knox, the waiting is over, and she’s ecstatic. Now she just has to

close the deal.

“We finally found something [that’s] really exactly what we were

looking for and right in our price range,” she said. “We’re just

hoping this is it and we’re going to be finished with the roller

coaster.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.