Irvine Housing Blog

Relative to those featured on Dr. Housing Bubble’s Real Home of Genius, this Irvine 4/2 is indeed a deal and steal only from heaven.

And… it is located in the very heart (I5) of Irvine.

No pictures of the interior, just the messy patio which the realtor couldn’t be bothered to clean up. This kind of laziness on the part of listing agents makes me sick.  I am making notes on all the crummy listing descriptions and photos so that when it’s time to sell my house I don’t use one of these people.

Unless this amount has been bank-approved, why are we paying any attention to the teaser-pricings of a short sale?? I don’t understand.

Based on the exterior photos I think it safe to assume that the interior of this property is most likely extremely unappealing. Do you really think someone would be willing to pay $1900 a month to rent that place? I can’t imagine wanting to live in that unit at any price. I would much rather live in a nice 2 bedroom Irv Co. apt than this dump. I don’t think I would even want to own it as a rental as I would feel horible charging rent from someone found who found it neccessary to live in a place like this. Yuck.

I think IR’s prediction of $2k/month is way over the top.  A family making $80k wants to live here, next to the 5, rather than in a house in ok areas of Tustin or Orange or CM or even the better parts of SA?

More likely $350/room or so, so ~1400, less $250 HOA, times 100 for an investor (since it will be a pain to manage and there could easily be big HOA special assessments for this old condo), gives me a sale price to an investor of about $150k.

It will drop to $150,000 by 2012.  Don’t catch this knife.

SoCal78, my guess is the $300,200 is probably pretty close to what they’ll actually close for. Keep in mind the 4th bedroom is not permitted, so one doesn’t know the true condition of the upgrade.

(Most of the units in this tract don’t have central heat or air: they have in-wall heaters and are not ducted for AC. The description says they have central air, but I highly doubt it. Might make it over to see the unit in the next week so will update this post if it actually does have central AC.)

It’s a little close to the freeway for comfort.

What a dump and a stye this wretched little condo is.

This looks like 70s vintage rental housing, built to last a short depreciation schedule.

They probably didn’t post interior photos because the place is just too shabby. If the exterior photos provided are anything to judge by,the interior must be an absolute fright.

I note that the square footage is not posted on the listing sheet, so I’ll assume 1000 sq ft at the most, judging from the width. Is this little dump worth $300 a sq ft?

This is a deeply sub-median dwelling for Irvine. For the median Irvine income of $84K, I would expect to live quite a deal better- at least in a new condo with decent architecture and quality construction, even if small.

This place should go for $150 a sq ft at the outside. It will take tens of thousands in work to make this place livable. I’d take a 20s vintage place that hasn’t been touched since it was built, any time. $150K max for this little crapbox.

Pardon, please… I didn’t at first see the sq footage.

So it’s 1200 sq ft. OK, so $180K.

Honestly I was tempted by the price. Then I saw the proximity to the freeway.

I’m betting there is some extra-safe aluminum wiring in there too.

Creeping down to $140/sf I see.

This one’s not worth $100/sf.

I’m one of the despised here - a Realtor - and find this an immensely informative blog. With that disclosure, I so hope to not have too many curses thrown my way!

Most of the units in the Deerfield and Heritage Park townhomes have aluminum wiring (original construction was with aluminum wiring). This has not been a problem during any inspection as my understanding is that it comes down to proper termination of the connection. I haven’t heard of anyone at any of the above areas having any serious issues with the wiring, but that’s not to say that a few years down the road, there won’t be a systemic problem due to using aluminum.

1960’s vintage University Park has aluminum wiring too.

It will drop to $150,000 by 2012.  Don’t catch this knife.

You are making the serious mistake of assuming constant $. I think US $ is the sharpest knife at this moment. Look for at least 50% loss in value by purchasing power by 2012. Helicopter Ben will prove himself to be more than honest.

hi, marry xmas, can you tell me the link where i can find houses for rent in Irvine? the cheap ons will do fine, im thinking i will list or house for sale…

how much is a fair rent for 3 bedrooms?

Woody, here’s a link to a public version of the SoCal MLS: http://www.socalmls.com/.

The patio just needs a bit of tidying.  Remove the propane tank, and the one tree, add a tarp and voila - off street covered parking.

I know for a fact that anything next to the sound wall off I-5 or I-405 is horribly noisy.  During slow hours, it sounds like living near a raging river 24/7, punctuated by loud rambling sound of large buses and trucks.