San Clemente has great beaches, better climate and offers a lot more for less money than Irvine. You can find a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath townhome in Talega for the low $500’s and they have a brand new K-8 school parks and nice people.
Posted by Anon on 10/21/06 at 06:30 PM
We drove by there after the party was over. From what I recall of Paloma when it first opened up, I think the prices have come down some. We really liked them too (albeit, the Plan 2), but $900K for an attached place is just out of the question. It looks like KB dropped their prices on Bougenvellia (please ignore the spelling error) by about $25K.
We then went to Woodbury. Lennar is still pricing La Casella the same and - shockingly - Liang has *raised* their prices on Stonetree. We *really* like the Stonetree Plan 2, but for $900K, we could go to Northpark Square (Campanile) and get a larger SF home for the same price, with one HOA instead of two and the lower tax basis.
When we first looked at Campanile, we didn’t like them at all. However, after looking at other models, and after Cal Pacific has lowered their prices to Phase I or below pricing, it’s looking *much* better.
Thanks for your commentary. I really like it. ——-
Posted by rerip2007 on 10/21/06 at 07:37 PM
Irvinesinglemom, Thanks for the excellent write-up and change-up to the usual but great flipper reports. It would be awesome if you could add some pictures for people like me who are interested in Irvine market but do not live in that area. Keep up the good work and dont be tempted by the petty $25K reductions. I am still amazed at the strength of this market considering that SD is falling a lot. I could find 3000 SqFt recently built homes in good neighborhoods for $600-$650K in SD but in Irvine you will still find 2000 SqFt homes for $750K or more.
There is a lot of correction needed in Irvine. Be patient. It will be rewarded.
Hi rerip, thanks for the feedback. yeahhhhhhh, that’s part of my problem. I can’t figure out how to make the drag-n-drop photo thing work on my iBook to add pics to my posts. I need to get myself to the Apple store to see if they can help me.
Posted by Irvine_native on 10/21/06 at 08:53 PM
You are tormenting yourself by looking now. Just stop looking for a year or two! These prices are rediculous. 1.8% tax AND two hefty HOA fees? That is just nuts and will devour anyone. In two years neighborhoods like that will become forclosure city. Not the kind of neighborhood I want to live in.
The prices right now are just plain silly. Even though we make enough to buy a place like that easily, it simply does not make financial sense. Why overpay when renting gets you so much more for so much less?
I’m with Irvine_native on this one. I don’t go anywhere near open houses. I get excited when I see a rental pop-up for under $2k with an oversized garage. I get excited when there’s talk of interest rates rising (love those 28-day T-bills). I get excited when I see $271/sq ft in Laguna Niguel. I get excited when another housing bull drops-off of Lansner’s Blog.
Open houses don’t do it for me. Not yet.
Posted by anonymouse on 10/22/06 at 08:13 AM
As for me, I’m far from making a commitment on what year I will purchase a home. Frankly, I don’t know how long this housing bubble dynamic is going to play out. I’ll be looking when prices make sense, or I’ll move to a place where they do. It could be quite a few years before the bubble frenzy has petered out. Irvine is freaking crazy, as are other areas. Yeah, it’s a nice city - I used to live there for several years, but not 800 to 900 thousand nice!
Posted by NanoWest on 10/22/06 at 11:22 AM
Dear IrvineSingleMom,
I am sure that you can afford this house…...you may have to make a few adjustments in your lifestyle. Here are some suggestions:
a) Sell you car and start using the public transportation. I am sure that there is a bus route going throught the Portola neighborhood. You know, the bus that brings in the “help”.
b) You can save money by eating less and paying less for what you eat. I’ve seen at the local albertsons that they have “budget gormet” frozen dinners for $1.00 each. Also, there is a surplus of oatmeal. If you and your son eat oatmeal for breafast and budget gormet for dinner…you can eat for about $20.00 per week. Just skip eating lunch, its a waste of time anyway.
c) I’ve noticed a lot of free furniture on Craig’s List. No need to decorate your new place with fancy furniture from a store. If you or your son need clothes, there is always the thrift store option. Some of the stuff at the Goodwill store in Anaheim is looking pretty good these days.
d) Is your son old enough to work….maybe he could take the bus to the Home Depot in Costa Mesa and do some day labor. It would help him develop a work ethic so someday he could be a home owner too.
e) Is the back yard of the poperty you want large enough to grow some vegitables. Better yet, you could probably grow some marijuana and sell it to the kids at the local high school. I’ve heard that the high school kids in Irvine have lots of money to buy drugs.
I am sure that these modest changes are worth it considering that you will be a “homeowner”. Besides the guy that developed the new neighborhood just got a new boat and it has a 600 gallon gas tank(cost about $2,400 to fill) If you don’t buy the house and he dosn’t get a profit, how will he get gas for his boat? So do the right thing…..go buy now…..you can make this happen.
Posted by sidelined_buyer on 10/22/06 at 11:42 AM
you make $120k/yr?...er…will you marry me?
j/k LOL! :D
She doesn’t need to do any of that stuff. She just needs to go back to school and study harder. Clearly anyone making under 200k is a member of the Orange County serf class because they didn’t apply themselves in college. Don’t you read the commenters on Lansner’s blog? OC is undergoing a paradigm shift where only VP and C-level jobs are to be created. Ordinary staff and lower management is now a permanent renter class, and the sooner they leave, the better. The VP’s don’t appreciate gaggles of low-end BMWs and Acuras clogging their Jamboree commute. The sooner the serfs move to Corona, the better!
OC
PS. ISM, I submit a backup marriage offer with no inspection contingencies.
Posted by NanoWest on 10/23/06 at 09:53 AM
What does…....
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Mean?
Posted by waitinginoc on 10/23/06 at 11:09 AM
I love this blog. Lots of fun. I make $120 and I cannot buy a house. It is just unreal. But, OC_fliptrack may have a point. I need to apply myself and work harder.
ROTHLMAO=rolling on the floor laughing my a$$ off.
Portola Sprind price and taxes are just ... way over the
top. The city of Irvine is making of like a bandit charging .5+ for mello-roos with current housing price.
So are the property tax people.
Posted by Rocky on 10/27/06 at 01:36 PM
Thank you irvinesinglemom for the kind words regarding the Paloma homes and the wonderful sales team working there. They are turley nice people and believe or not even in 2005 you would have received the same hospitality. I am the smiling guy in the open house and I am also lucky to be their sales director. It’s true you did catch me off guard with your response to the financing package I was presenting. It really was of great value to the party who returned to purchase that home. I would be happy to help you find a fit at one of our locations. Based on your stated needs and income, I am sure we can. I do have 1 very attractive, national award winning home in Irvine that may be the one. Brigitte or Andrea at Paloma can give you the details.
PS that sales team consistantly receives scores of 100% in customer satisfaction at various communities they have been assigned to. As you can see, I am proud of them. Thanks again!
Thanks Rocky. Not to be rude or anything, but you don’t seem to “get it.” I’m sure that you could creatively figure out a way to get me into one of your houses. And I’d love to - your houses are beautiful and I would love, love, love to own one. But I really, truly only gross about 10k a month, and after taxes, 401k, 529 college savings, daycare, food, car, you name it, I don’t have anywhere near the $5,000 I’d need each month to pay on a 650 or 700k mortgage plus taxes and HOA.
I appreciate your earnest desire to get me into one of your beautiful homes. We’ll talk in a couple years, honest!
I know - I love Talega! I wish I could live down there because I would do so in a heartbeat. However, one of my “must-haves” in my quality of living is a short commute to my office in Irvine, because of my single-mom status. I want to be away from my boy as little as possible and commuting time is absolute dead time that I’m not productive in my career, at the gym, or with my boy.
I have vowed to myself never to do a freeway commute again. Six plus years of Fullerton to Irvine and back again really did it for me.
We saw a post from Oct 21 by Anon, talking about how Liang *raised* the pricing on the Stonetree homes… can anyone tell me what the prices were originally? Or raised by what amount??
We’d hate to be looking in the very same area and get taken advantage of….
Posted by Rita on 10/27/06 at 02:40 PM
San Clemente has great beaches, better climate and offers a lot more for less money than Irvine. You can find a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath townhome in Talega for the low $500’s and they have a brand new K-8 school parks and nice people.
Posted by Anon on 10/21/06 at 06:30 PM
We drove by there after the party was over. From what I recall of Paloma when it first opened up, I think the prices have come down some. We really liked them too (albeit, the Plan 2), but $900K for an attached place is just out of the question. It looks like KB dropped their prices on Bougenvellia (please ignore the spelling error) by about $25K.
We then went to Woodbury. Lennar is still pricing La Casella the same and - shockingly - Liang has *raised* their prices on Stonetree. We *really* like the Stonetree Plan 2, but for $900K, we could go to Northpark Square (Campanile) and get a larger SF home for the same price, with one HOA instead of two and the lower tax basis.
When we first looked at Campanile, we didn’t like them at all. However, after looking at other models, and after Cal Pacific has lowered their prices to Phase I or below pricing, it’s looking *much* better.
Thanks for your commentary. I really like it.
——-
Posted by rerip2007 on 10/21/06 at 07:37 PM
Irvinesinglemom, Thanks for the excellent write-up and change-up to the usual but great flipper reports. It would be awesome if you could add some pictures for people like me who are interested in Irvine market but do not live in that area. Keep up the good work and dont be tempted by the petty $25K reductions. I am still amazed at the strength of this market considering that SD is falling a lot. I could find 3000 SqFt recently built homes in good neighborhoods for $600-$650K in SD but in Irvine you will still find 2000 SqFt homes for $750K or more.
There is a lot of correction needed in Irvine. Be patient. It will be rewarded.
Posted by irvinesinglemom on 10/21/06 at 07:47 PM
Hi rerip, thanks for the feedback. yeahhhhhhh, that’s part of my problem. I can’t figure out how to make the drag-n-drop photo thing work on my iBook to add pics to my posts. I need to get myself to the Apple store to see if they can help me.
Posted by Irvine_native on 10/21/06 at 08:53 PM
You are tormenting yourself by looking now. Just stop looking for a year or two! These prices are rediculous. 1.8% tax AND two hefty HOA fees? That is just nuts and will devour anyone. In two years neighborhoods like that will become forclosure city. Not the kind of neighborhood I want to live in.
The prices right now are just plain silly. Even though we make enough to buy a place like that easily, it simply does not make financial sense. Why overpay when renting gets you so much more for so much less?
Posted by oc_fliptrack on 10/22/06 at 12:23 AM
I’m with Irvine_native on this one. I don’t go anywhere near open houses. I get excited when I see a rental pop-up for under $2k with an oversized garage. I get excited when there’s talk of interest rates rising (love those 28-day T-bills). I get excited when I see $271/sq ft in Laguna Niguel. I get excited when another housing bull drops-off of Lansner’s Blog.
Open houses don’t do it for me. Not yet.
Posted by anonymouse on 10/22/06 at 08:13 AM
As for me, I’m far from making a commitment on what year I will purchase a home. Frankly, I don’t know how long this housing bubble dynamic is going to play out. I’ll be looking when prices make sense, or I’ll move to a place where they do. It could be quite a few years before the bubble frenzy has petered out. Irvine is freaking crazy, as are other areas. Yeah, it’s a nice city - I used to live there for several years, but not 800 to 900 thousand nice!
Posted by NanoWest on 10/22/06 at 11:22 AM
Dear IrvineSingleMom,
I am sure that you can afford this house…...you may have to make a few adjustments in your lifestyle. Here are some suggestions:
a) Sell you car and start using the public transportation. I am sure that there is a bus route going throught the Portola neighborhood. You know, the bus that brings in the “help”.
b) You can save money by eating less and paying less for what you eat. I’ve seen at the local albertsons that they have “budget gormet” frozen dinners for $1.00 each. Also, there is a surplus of oatmeal. If you and your son eat oatmeal for breafast and budget gormet for dinner…you can eat for about $20.00 per week. Just skip eating lunch, its a waste of time anyway.
c) I’ve noticed a lot of free furniture on Craig’s List. No need to decorate your new place with fancy furniture from a store. If you or your son need clothes, there is always the thrift store option. Some of the stuff at the Goodwill store in Anaheim is looking pretty good these days.
d) Is your son old enough to work….maybe he could take the bus to the Home Depot in Costa Mesa and do some day labor. It would help him develop a work ethic so someday he could be a home owner too.
e) Is the back yard of the poperty you want large enough to grow some vegitables. Better yet, you could probably grow some marijuana and sell it to the kids at the local high school. I’ve heard that the high school kids in Irvine have lots of money to buy drugs.
I am sure that these modest changes are worth it considering that you will be a “homeowner”. Besides the guy that developed the new neighborhood just got a new boat and it has a 600 gallon gas tank(cost about $2,400 to fill) If you don’t buy the house and he dosn’t get a profit, how will he get gas for his boat? So do the right thing…..go buy now…..you can make this happen.
Posted by sidelined_buyer on 10/22/06 at 11:42 AM
you make $120k/yr?...er…will you marry me?
j/k LOL! :D
Posted by irvinesinglemom on 10/22/06 at 12:18 PM
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Posted by oc_fliptrack on 10/22/06 at 01:34 PM
Nano,
She doesn’t need to do any of that stuff. She just needs to go back to school and study harder. Clearly anyone making under 200k is a member of the Orange County serf class because they didn’t apply themselves in college. Don’t you read the commenters on Lansner’s blog? OC is undergoing a paradigm shift where only VP and C-level jobs are to be created. Ordinary staff and lower management is now a permanent renter class, and the sooner they leave, the better. The VP’s don’t appreciate gaggles of low-end BMWs and Acuras clogging their Jamboree commute. The sooner the serfs move to Corona, the better!
OC
PS. ISM, I submit a backup marriage offer with no inspection contingencies.
Posted by NanoWest on 10/23/06 at 09:53 AM
What does…....
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Mean?
Posted by waitinginoc on 10/23/06 at 11:09 AM
I love this blog. Lots of fun. I make $120 and I cannot buy a house. It is just unreal. But, OC_fliptrack may have a point. I need to apply myself and work harder.
ROTHLMAO=rolling on the floor laughing my a$$ off.
Posted by fred on 10/23/06 at 01:26 PM
Rolling on the floor laughing my a** off.
Posted by mct68 on 10/25/06 at 01:00 PM
Portola Sprind price and taxes are just ... way over the
top. The city of Irvine is making of like a bandit charging .5+ for mello-roos with current housing price.
So are the property tax people.
Posted by Rocky on 10/27/06 at 01:36 PM
Thank you irvinesinglemom for the kind words regarding the Paloma homes and the wonderful sales team working there. They are turley nice people and believe or not even in 2005 you would have received the same hospitality. I am the smiling guy in the open house and I am also lucky to be their sales director. It’s true you did catch me off guard with your response to the financing package I was presenting. It really was of great value to the party who returned to purchase that home. I would be happy to help you find a fit at one of our locations. Based on your stated needs and income, I am sure we can. I do have 1 very attractive, national award winning home in Irvine that may be the one. Brigitte or Andrea at Paloma can give you the details.
PS that sales team consistantly receives scores of 100% in customer satisfaction at various communities they have been assigned to. As you can see, I am proud of them. Thanks again!
Posted by irvinesinglemom on 10/27/06 at 02:01 PM
Thanks Rocky. Not to be rude or anything, but you don’t seem to “get it.” I’m sure that you could creatively figure out a way to get me into one of your houses. And I’d love to - your houses are beautiful and I would love, love, love to own one. But I really, truly only gross about 10k a month, and after taxes, 401k, 529 college savings, daycare, food, car, you name it, I don’t have anywhere near the $5,000 I’d need each month to pay on a 650 or 700k mortgage plus taxes and HOA.
I appreciate your earnest desire to get me into one of your beautiful homes. We’ll talk in a couple years, honest!
Posted by irvinesinglemom on 10/27/06 at 06:25 PM
I know - I love Talega! I wish I could live down there because I would do so in a heartbeat. However, one of my “must-haves” in my quality of living is a short commute to my office in Irvine, because of my single-mom status. I want to be away from my boy as little as possible and commuting time is absolute dead time that I’m not productive in my career, at the gym, or with my boy.
I have vowed to myself never to do a freeway commute again. Six plus years of Fullerton to Irvine and back again really did it for me.
Posted by NewParents on 11/01/06 at 09:16 PM
We saw a post from Oct 21 by Anon, talking about how Liang *raised* the pricing on the Stonetree homes… can anyone tell me what the prices were originally? Or raised by what amount??
We’d hate to be looking in the very same area and get taken advantage of….
Thanks!