Based on feedback from last week, it sounded like this was a helpful post so I'll continue. The sales listed here are those that have closed in the 7 days between 1/5/2012 and 1/11/2012.
Read the rest of this entry »You’re ready to buy a house. You have $800,000 in your pocket (give or take), and you’re looking to purchase a place in either University Park or Turtle Rock in Irvine. Since the housing market took a dive, you figure $800K is going to get you into something decent. It’s a large chunk of change and a relatively big commitment, so you want to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck. So what exactly will $800K get you in Turtle Rock? The answer is: not much. University Park however, comes with a less expensive price tag—around a couple hundred thousand dollars cheaper. So what’s the difference and can I get a Turtle Rock house on a University Park budget? Well, let’s take a look.
Read the rest of this entry »Located off of Irvine Blvd and Groveland, the Village of Stonegate (Stonegate Overview PDF) offers 5 housing tracts: Santa Clara, Santa Maria, San Mateo, San Marcos and Maricopa. Their tagline is “intimate yet connected” and I think that’s an accurate portrayal of the area. It seems to be nestled in its own corner but has close access to Woodbury Town Center, Orchard Hills Village Center and is about 15 minutes from the Irvine Spectrum. The housing development is walking distance to Stonegate Elementary School and not far from Sierra Vista Middle School and Northwood High School. Much like the rest of Irvine, the Village of Stonegate is marked by convenience.
Since Santa Clara (Santa Clara Community Overview PDF) is the smallest of the 5 tracts, it’s ideal for singles and couples. The Santa Clara floor plans are referred to as “flats” which in my opinion is a euphemism for small. However, after viewing the models I think “flats” is an appropriate description and they did a nice job working with the space. The smallest of the 3 floor plans (All floor plans available here) is Residence 1, which is 1,129 square feet. In retrospect it’s not a lot of space, but somehow it feels roomy. I think it can be attributed to the idea of the “great room” which is heavily prominent throughout all three residences. The great room gives you the freedom to define your living space. I can appreciate the benefit of unrestricted design, and I think it’s a selling point.
30 Danbury Lane is a 3bd/2.5ba 1,357 sq. ft. detached condo in the Cobblestone tract in the village of Oak Creek. Cobblestone is located at the corner of Jeffrey and Alton. There is one main street that forms a loop inside the tract and depending on where the home is in the loop, the street could be named Danbury, Cherrybrook, or Lantern Lane.
Cobblestone has 3 main floorplans:
Note by zovall: This post is written by my wife, Nilam. She took some pictures around Turtle Ridge and provided some thoughts on the area. We'd love to hear your comments on Turtle Ridge as well as her first post.
Located on the southernmost border of Irvine, Turtle Ridge is one of the city's few hillside villages. Unlike most areas of Irvine, Turtle Ridge does not have a commercial shopping center, nor does it have any office or industrial buildings. It is almost exclusively residential, with a few exceptions. Turtle Ridge's borders are Bonita Canyon Dr. and Shady Canyon to the north, the 73 Freeway to the south, and Bommer Canyon to the east. It neighbors University Hills, Turtle Rock, and Newport Coast, which means it has close access to UCI, Fashion Island and the beach.
Today, I'd like to post a list of all closed sales in Irvine from 12/29/2011 to 1/4/2012. As a kid, I remember reading the newspaper to see what homes in town sold recently - yes, I've been interested in RE for far too long. Over the past few years, I've seen some sites that have posted weekly sales and I think I recall Erika Chavez's blog at the OC Register also doing so a while back. When reading these lists of addresses and prices of sold homes, I'm always wondering what neighborhood the home belongs to or how many bedrooms it has or how many square feet it has. All the data is out there but it is a challenge presenting it in a helpful way. I have some grand ideas on how I want to address that in the future.
But for now, I've compiled the list with a few columns I find helpful. The list is ordered by Area (MLS term that kinda sorta is like a village but not really) and then by the Date Sold. I've tried to clean up some data such as incorrect tract or area names. Redfin offers an awesome feature where they let you view the listing information for homes that have sold - most other sites do not provide this. So, I've added Redfin links to the sold properties so you can easily get even more detailed data on one of these sold homes. Instead of reading 123 Main St sold for $450,000 on 12/12/2011, you'll get a few columns of more info and a link to the actual listing on Redfin. Hope you think it is helpful - it sure was tedious! 
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Note by zovall: This post is written by an IHB regular, Cubic Zirconia. Her writing has been featured on IHB in the past. She has put together some information regarding what school districts (there are multiple!) serve the city of Irvine and some helpful links. We'd love to hear your comments on the schools as well as her post.
Hello IHB readers,
This is Cubic Zirconia.
I was introduced to IHB in 2008 during my house hunting days. The market was going through a major correction, and nobody knew where the bottom was. MLS listings for short sales would generate interest with a teaser price that wouldn’t be approved by the bank and equity sales would list at an exorbitant price, still in denial that the market was under correction. That was not all, MLS listings would be full of misinformation, like an incorrect school district, the wrong amount of HOA dues, and very vague contact information if it was a short sale. Living outside Irvine and finding a house in Irvine wouldn’t have been easy for us, if not for IHB posts, then written by Irvine Renter. From someone who would religiously read Irvine Renter’s posts every morning to writing a post on IHB, it’s been a huge transition!
The great California sun shines on all of Orange County, but many prefer to buy in Irvine more than other places for two reasons - safety and schools. The public school system is one of the best in Irvine, with test scores higher than the state average, and almost every school with a perfect ten API ranking and Great school rating based on performance (www.greatschools.org).
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