Home sale tops record

House in Costa Mesa’s east side nets best price yet for that area. Realtors say prices to go higher.The new record price for a home on the east side of Costa Mesa is $1.4 million. But how long until another deal surpasses that mark?

“You’re going to sell a lot more out there that are going to go for that,” predicted First Team Real Estate agent Bob Gottuso.

Gottuso and his wife Gayle sold the record-setting home, which is at 457 Costa Mesa St. Gottuso described the home as a 3,900-square-foot abode with six bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The record was confirmed by Patricia Moore of the Newport Beach Assn. of Realtors. So far this year, 26 homes on Costa Mesa’s east side have sold for $1 million or more, Moore said.

In Gottuso’s words, east side Costa Mesa is “kind of a quaint area,” where property values receive an upward push from the neighborhood’s proximity to Newport Beach.

“East Costa Mesa is a booming area,” Gottuso said. “The average house there is going for $900,000 to $1.2 million.”

As strong as Gottuso believes the east side market to be, he estimated the Costa Mesa Street home could have fetched a higher price if it was on the other side of Irvine Avenue.

“If I put into Newport Beach, I bet I would be able to sell it for another million dollars,” he said.

Steve Sutherlen, the manager at Coldwell Banker’s Newport Beach office, agreed with Gottuso that the home likely would have commanded a larger selling price if its new owners could have boasted a Newport Beach address.

However, Sutherlen does not think a Newport Beach address would have been worth an extra million for the Costa Mesa Street home. He estimated a Newport address could have boosted the selling price by 20 to 30%, “just on the name alone.”

For homes on the Costa Mesa side of Irvine Avenue, being near Newport Beach is a big plus, Sutherlen said.

“Eastside isn’t Newport Beach, but it considers itself to be,” he said. People living on the east side tend to do their shopping in Newport Beach, and their children are often classmates of young Newporters.

The east side is not Costa Mesa’s only million-dollar home market, Sutherlen said. Seven-figure deals are also part of Mesa Verde’s real estate business.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@latimes.com.