House for sale: $200

There’s a really nice home for sale in Costa Mesa that costs $200. This is not a joke, but there’s a little catch.

First, some perspective. The median home price in Costa Mesa is now about a billion dollars. And despite what the media wants you to believe, sales are still strong, even with the recent upticks in interest rates.

It would seem to me, therefore, that if you had a chance, and better than a slim one, to buy a home for $200, you’d be all over it.

Here’s the skinny:

Taking a cue from the world-famous Irvine schools’ home raffles, the folks at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana are raffling off a Costa Mesa beauty for just 200 bucks.

The house is on Half Moon Lane, which is one of those fake streets that developers create for those new, smaller home developments.

I love those vest-pocket housing developments. They’re all so cute, and the street names never have anything to do with their location. Half Moon Lane. Tulip Circle. Meadow Court.

Sure beats the heck out of what we usually get around here: Adams Avenue, Baker Street, Harbor Boulevard.

Harbor Boulevard doesn’t even reach a harbor!

And the homes in these developments are all so cute too. Most of them look like they should be decorated with gingerbread, licorice vines and gum drops.

The Heckle residence, as it is affectionately known, is no exception. By the way, I asked my niece, Kellie Pendergest, about this Heckle thing.

Kellie is the director of admissions marketing and special events at Mater Dei and the one who turned me on to this great opportunity.

“It’s a brand new home,” Kellie said. “Heckle is just the name of the model.”

That’s a relief. When I saw the name of the home, I thought the winner was going to be the recipient of a lifetime of abuse about the purchase.

But there really is nothing to laugh about. Valued at about $1 million, the home is very nice. It’s about 2,540 square feet, complete with a formal living room, a large outdoor porch and a “casual elegant” kitchen, nook and family room.

The Raffle residence (I just renamed it) also has three or four bedrooms, depending on how you use the bonus room, and three-and-a-half baths.

But wait, there’s more! You can park both of your cars in the two-car garage or do what the Smiths do and leave your expensive automobiles to rot in the sun and acid rain while your junk stays snug in the garage.

The raffle is not a tough one: Buy a ticket and you’re entered to win. Tickets are just $200, but that’s not all. Only 20,000 tickets will be sold, so your chances are better than winning the California Lottery and better than winning $1 million in Vegas.

Kellie also told me some other good stuff. According to the rules, the house will be sold only if they have sold 11,000 raffle tickets. So put two and two together, and you may realize that your odds could be considerably better than 20,000 to one.

That’s because tickets are still on sale. So logic dictates that they have not sold 20,000 of them. And if the home gets raffled after the June 15 deadline, you may boost your odds considerably.

Yes, I tried to find out from Kellie how many tickets had been sold, but she is too smart to fall for that one.

As a consolation prize, however, she did tell me that there is a “buy three, get one free” offer on through June 1. Now, if that isn’t a huge hint, I don’t know what is.

By the way, a good chunk of the money raised is going to go to Mater Dei’s financial aid program so that bright, motivated kids who could not otherwise afford the tuition can have a shot at a first-rate education.

For more information, go to www.mdhomeraffle.org.

Go ahead, buy some tickets. It’s for a good cause ? yours and theirs.