Costa Mesa's Mesa Verde neighborhood is home to two golf clubs: the city-owned Costa Mesa Country Club, with its public Los Lagos and Mesa Linda courses, and the private, member-owned Mesa Verde Country Club. What sets Mesa Verde apart is the choice it gives you. You can play a public course for a posted green fee, or pursue membership at a club whose course opened in January 1959 and hosted a PGA Tour event through 1962. Owning a home near the golf courses in Costa Mesa doesn't bring club access with it, so membership, location, and association rules each need their own look.
Costa Mesa has a public golf club and a private one, and both sit in Mesa Verde. The City of Costa Mesa owns Costa Mesa Country Club on Golf Course Drive, where two 18-hole courses share one facility. Mesa Verde Country Club, on Clubhouse Road, is private and has a single 18-hole championship course, with the Mesa Verde neighborhood surrounding it.
Neighboring Santa Ana has another invitation-only club, Santa Ana Country Club on Newport Boulevard. Travel Costa Mesa's list of nearby courses goes wider still, naming Monarch Beach Golf Links, Pelican Hill Golf Club, Strawberry Farms Golf Course, and Tustin Ranch Golf Course.
The two courses at Costa Mesa Country Club differ mainly in length. Los Lagos is a par 72 that plays 6,567 yards from the blue tees, and the club calls it one of Orange County's best public golf courses. Mesa Linda, an 18-hole par 70, measures just over 5,400 yards from the blues. The club describes it as the shorter, more popular of the two and one of the most played courses in the county.
Walking rates change with the day of the week. At Los Lagos, 18 holes cost $45 Monday through Thursday, $49 on Friday, and $65 on weekends. Holidays are charged the weekend rate, and online demand-based pricing applies Friday through Sunday. Twilight rounds there are $31, $36, and $42 on the same schedule, and nine holes before 7:00 AM cost $25 Monday through Thursday, $28 on Friday, and $32 on weekends.
Mesa Linda charges $38, $44, and $55 for a walking 18, with twilight at $29, $32, and $35. Booking windows differ as well. Los Lagos opens online tee times 8 days out starting at 6am, and Mesa Linda takes reservations online or by phone 7 days ahead.
The practice facility has a night driving range with 30 tees, putting greens, a free public chipping green, and a pro shop. The club also hosts the Costa Mesa City Championship, an amateur event described as one of California's premier, and the 2026 tournament was the 53rd.
Membership at Mesa Verde Country Club is by invitation only. The club calls itself a private, member-owned golf and country club, and its facilities serve members and their guests. The PGA of America's listing notes that play is limited to members.
The club has a long tournament history. William F. Bell originally designed its 18-hole championship course, which opened in January 1959 and hosted the PGA Tour's Orange County Open Invitational from 1959 to 1962. Bob Dickson won the 1968 Haig Open Invitational there. Off the course, the 135-acre club has a tennis and pool complex with ten tennis courts, six of them lighted, and a clubhouse rebuilt in 2003.
Categories listed by the club include Full Golf Equity, Social Tennis, and a non-equity Junior Golf membership. Outside cost estimates vary. Go Private Golf lists Full Golf Equity at an $85,000 to $95,000 initiation fee and $18,360 in annual dues ($1,530 a month) and describes it as waitlist-only. Its Social Membership listing shows $10,000 to join and $5,760 a year, covering tennis, pickleball, and pool access with limited invited golf. Country Club Magazine's own estimate is a $50,000 to $75,000 initiation fee with $10,000 to $15,000 in annual dues.
Treat membership as its own process. A house near the course doesn't establish club access, so arrange membership directly with the club, whose Director of Membership handles those questions and can give current terms.
Mesa Verde stayed largely undeveloped until the 1960s and 1970s, and today it mixes single-family and multifamily homes with parks and schools, as Costa Mesa's General Plan describes it. Higher-density housing clusters along Mesa Verde Drive East and Adams Avenue, the road that divides the neighborhood. Homes nearer the Mesa Verde golf course are larger and sit at lower densities than those closer to Harbor Boulevard and I-405. Where a house falls relative to the course shapes what you'll see on a tour.
The neighborhood borders open space. Fairview Park, next to the Mesa Verde area, has 7 miles of trails for walking or bicycling and connects to the Santa Ana River Trail and Talbert Regional Park. It also has a model airplane strip. On the third full weekend of each month, Orange County Model Engineers gives free public train rides at Goat Hill Junction. Mesa Verde Park on Samar Drive, named for the original housing tract, was dedicated in 1959.
Around town, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, South Coast Repertory, and South Coast Plaza are all in Costa Mesa. SOCO & The OC Mix pairs home furnishings and decor stores with The OC MIX food hall and holds a weekend farmers' market.
The city sits about a mile from the Pacific, with Newport Beach 2 miles away and Huntington Beach 7. I-405, SR-55, and SR-73 all connect in Costa Mesa, and John Wayne Airport, about 4 miles off, is a 5 to 10 minute drive. Plan on 15 to 20 minutes to reach the Irvine Transportation Center, about 12 miles away. Downtown Los Angeles is about 41 miles, or 50 to 60 minutes with traffic.
Prices for homes in Costa Mesa vary widely by property type. Single-family homes sold at a median of $1,699,323 from July to September 2026, according to Redfin. Over the same months, the townhouse median was $825,010 and the condo median was $934,904.
Zillow's September 2026 estimates come in lower for single-family homes, partly because they cover every home in the city rather than only the ones that sold. Zillow puts a typical single-family home at $1,499,291, a typical condo at $874,896, and the typical Costa Mesa home overall at $1,419,109. For lower-priced homes its estimate that month was $1,014,854, and for higher-priced homes $1,966,118.
These figures cover the whole city, not Mesa Verde or the streets nearest the fairways. For a single address, a valuation of that specific Costa Mesa house gives a closer read.
Most of the homework near the courses involves associations, city rules, nearby land plans, and school assignment.
Mesa Verde Community, Inc. is a nonprofit neighborhood organization founded in 1965, and membership in it has always been voluntary. A California common interest development works differently, because buying a home there automatically makes you a member of its HOA. Costa Mesa has associations of that kind, among them Mesa Verde Villas Homeowners Association, a 140-unit association established in 1971, and Country Club Villas of Mesa Verde Homeowners Association, which has an on-site manager.
For an association property, the state Department of Real Estate advises reviewing the CC&Rs, rules, and architectural guidelines, finding out who maintains the interior and exterior, and asking about pending or contemplated litigation. The seller provides the governing documents, and the resale package includes the annual budget report and policy statement, current regular and special assessments, approved changes not yet payable, and a written statement of unpaid assessments and fines under Civil Code §4525. Since January 1, 2026, it also includes the most recent exterior elevated element inspection report. The association has 10 days to deliver the documents.
Costa Mesa generally requires building permits for additions and alterations. Permit records are available at the Building Division's second-floor counter in City Hall, which is a practical way to confirm past work on a house. Short-term rentals are prohibited apart from qualifying home-sharing, and accessory dwelling units can't be rented for less than 31 days.
The former Fairview Developmental Center, a 114-acre state-owned campus in Mesa Verde, sits next to the city's golf facility. On September 15, the City Council voted 7 to 0 to approve the specific plan for that property, with no emergency access road through Mesa Linda. A new city road through the municipal course would have to return to the council, and any future proposal affecting Mesa Linda would also go before a community advisory body the council created.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District serves Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, and assignment depends on the address. The district's Estancia Zone, for example, includes Estancia High (grades 9 to 12), TeWinkle Middle (grades 7 and 8), and elementary schools including Adams, California, Pomona, Rea, Victoria, and Wilson. Confirm the assigned schools for any home with the district's school locator map.
Yes, Costa Mesa Country Club is a public facility owned by the City of Costa Mesa. Both of its courses, Los Lagos and Mesa Linda, take tee times from the public, and the chipping green at the practice facility is free to use.
An 18-hole walking round at Mesa Linda is $38 Monday through Thursday, $44 on Friday, and $55 on weekends. Los Lagos runs $45, $49, and $65 on those days. Twilight rounds cost less on both courses, and rental sets are $25 to $40.
Yes. Mesa Verde Country Club, on Clubhouse Road in the Mesa Verde neighborhood, is private and member-owned, and play is limited to members. Membership is by invitation only.
No. A house near the course doesn't establish club access, and membership is handled directly with the club through its Director of Membership. Go Private Golf lists Full Golf Equity membership as waitlist-only, so it makes sense to start that conversation separately from the purchase.
Some do and some don't. Membership in Mesa Verde Community, Inc., the neighborhood's nonprofit organization, is voluntary, but buying in a California common interest development automatically makes you a member of its HOA. For those homes, the resale disclosures list current regular and special assessments.
During your contingency period on a home near Los Lagos, Mesa Linda, or Mesa Verde Country Club, ask for the association's resale package where there is one, check the permit history at City Hall, and get current membership terms from the club itself. The File Group brings appraisal experience to those comparisons and can help you weigh a house's position near the course, its lot, and any association costs against the asking price.