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So a 2003 price rollback?
Yes, after nearly eight years of ownership, this owner can’t sell for enough to cover the sales commissions. When you factor in the additional costs for paying a premium over renting on a monthly basis, and this was not a good purchase.
The key to that was hidden in the description. The words “alphalt shingles” should strike terror in the hearts of anyone who treasures the architecture of the Arts & Crafts era. 2003 price rollback? More likely a 1970 price rollback.
“In short, the previous owner put nothing in to the property and got to take more than $100,000 out. It makes me feel pretty stupid for renting while this was going on”
sigh….so true.
“Instead, FivePoint is embracing Craftsman, Folk Victorian, Traditional Monterey, American Classic and Cottage styles in its residences”
This really doesn’t sound like a huge departure. This is pretty much the approach that was employed in Ladera Ranch
I forgot, even the Villages of Columbus has a similar mix, but it still looks like Irvine
Ladera Ranch goes beyond the architectural elevations….it was perceived as “neo-classical” in the sense of being able to walk through the community easily, street layout that discouraged rapidly moving traffic, nearby parks even if they were small, front porches to encourage resident interaction….and everything connected by a central community internet site so you could find a babysitter, gardner, literary group.
Look at some of the older areas of Irvine….old Northwood, Deerfield, El Camino Real, Woodbridge, Turtle Rock, University Park. Not so much beige there, nor red tile roofs. The first such project in Irvine like that was Turtle Rock Pointe, then followed by Westpark I, II, etc. That was when TIC fell in love with the Mediterranean and sent teams of folks armed with paint color chips to Europe to climb all over Spain, Italy. Roof tile companies learned to replicate red tile stained with bird poop to look old. Street names followed suit.
It’s because Donald Bren decided that he wanted Irvine to be Tuscany of California. Just look at Pelican Hill and you see can this influence come into the sharpest focus.
I’m no expert but I would bet money that this community will still follow the Irvine formula:
Walmart-style beige stucco boxes on postage stamp size lots with lots of curved streets to make sure any drivers-by won’t look to closely at the bland architectures.
Irvine: If you could find your House - You’d be home by now.
Real estate agent squatted in Laguna Beach home, client alleges
http://mobile.latimes.com/p.p?m=b&a=rp&id=945086&postId=945086&postUserId=7&sessionToken;=&catId=5224&curAbsIndex=0&resultsUrl=DID=6&DFCL=1000&DSB=rank#desc&DBFQ=userId:7&DL;.w=&DL;.d=10&DQ=sectionId:5224&DPS=0&DPL=3
Yup, typical behavior of a real estate agent.
Swiped from someone else’s OCRegister post on a different article, but too funny not to repeat:
Irvine: Where my violin playing nerd learns to become your kids boss.
More like -
Irvine: Where my violin playing nerd learns to become a middle level bureaucratic manager because they have been sheltered all there life and never learned how to take risks or think outside the box because of Irvine’s soul crushing conformity.
I always wonder how Will Ferrell came out of Irvine ...
Or the lead singer of hard rock band Rage Against the Machine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zack_de_la_Rocha
Didn’t Will Ferrell live in the village of El Camino? I heard Bren is assembling a brigade to invade and restore order and conformity to El Camino.
Irvine: Where everybody goes to be the same.
I can’t stand the boringness of Irvine and really pray I never end up there.(However this blog is a wealth of information regarding greater OC real estate).
It just seems so soulless and uninspiring. Kind of the epitome of mindless middle America. I do respect the family oriented, school centric and relative safety. However I think you can find that elsewhere in Orange County with at least a little more flavor or edge to it.
If you were going to rent your house, you would paint all the walls in the house in neutral colors like beige and other earth tones. So why would Irvine want to be eclectic when that costs money? After all, money is why the Irvine Co. exists.
> I can’t stand the boringness of Irvine and really pray I never end up there.(However this blog is a wealth of information regarding greater OC real estate).
Me too. I never understood the Cult of Bren.
Silicon Valley is also expensive, but at least there’s a reason for that - tech stock options.
To me, Irvine is flyover country between San Jose and LA.
I live in Orange County and work in Silicon Valley (I basically commute and home-office, like dozens of other tech professionals I know and see on various Southwest flights every week).
Personally I HATE Silicon Valley. I mean seriously loathe it. It is way overpriced, even by SoCal/Irvine standards. It is ugly outside a few select areas (Atherton, Los Gatos and other cities which makes Irvine look cheap and diverse), it is miles and miles from either beach or oceans, the weather is bad, and anywhere you want to live is a *long* commute from work. Every time I go up there I am amazed how anyone in their right mind would WANT to live there if they didn’t do it just to have a job. I mean, let’s be honest: no one retires to Silicon Valley - they move away when they hit the stock option lottery and quit working. They retire to The OC.
I have been offered several opportunities to re-locate up there and turn them down each time. I tell them I live in OC and they can set me up down here or find someone else. Everyone has said yes for the last decade.
And, like I said, I am not alone. There are lots of us doing the NoCal-SoCal commute.
Ideally the tech community will expand here beyond BRCM and the view Conexant spin-offs, and there are a variety of tech companies getting off the ground, especially in the areas of software, social networking and a few other areas (some being driven by a joint effort of UCI and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce). Of course the medical tech community here is huge and growing. So maybe one day I will stop commuting and become a local worker again.
You must have family in the OC to actually like it.
Santa Cruz and SF have beaches, if that’s your thing.
Mountain View and Campbell are charming, walkable towns, Palo Alto less so.
Professionally the biggest mistake I made was trying to remain in OC too long. I will admit I miss taking a 5 lane freeway to the beach, but down 17 I’m 45 mins door to sand to great Santa Cruz beaches, and wine taste at one of my numerous wine clubs in the Santa Cruz mountains on the way home. Drive into SF? Sure - 45 mins as there is no traffic on the weekend.
Jobs? Yeah, tons. That’s why you commute here. Hopefully you don’t have a family - that would suck for them. ALL of the talent is here, especially software. Given the macro environment (talk to your HR director) being the smug remote guy isn’t a great spot to be in. Good luck.
Also, you gloss over a lot of really nice towns. Saratoga, Los Altos, Monte Sereno, Belmont, Burlingame, Hillsborough, Menlo Park - are you f’ing kidding me????? Very little in OC to compare. Atherton? compared to Irvine? Really???
BTW, everyone I know that hit the option lottery big still lives here and can’t quit the game. It is an addiction for these types of folks.
Re: Cult of Bren An atmosphere of extreme anxiety, waiting to see who gets left with the bag of doo doo. No one wants to make a decision that they don’t think The Chairman will object to. An extreme micro-manager who patrols every model in a complex regardless of who the builder is, and measures the height of the flame in the gas logs in the fireplaces (must be 3”, no more, no less). Not a place that inspires creativity.
You nailed it right on in terms of what it was like to work there. Thankfully I got out before I had to shoot myself.
Uh, I hate to bring up the obvious, but Irvine is south of both San Jose and L.A.
If Irvine’s a fly-over point between those two cities, you’re in for a very, very long flight indeed…
—Ron
Irvine might be boring, but much better than the excitment of home invasions. I can leave my door or windows open without worries except a note from IPD to lock my car door or close the windows. The traffic on the street flows. That’s much more than I can say about the many other “in” cities that I’ve lived. Minorities are not forced in little ghettos or neighorhoods or in fear that their house will be vandalized for moving to the neighborhood where ___ are not welcomed. The quality of the construction is much lower than expected for the price, but good construction goes not mean clean streets, good schools, etc.
So then your motto would be:
“Irvine: There’s no safe like home.”
While 5 Points can make the homes look different, if you’ve seen the neighborhood plans… they are just as, if not more dense than TIC neighborhoods.
With that, my mottos would be:
“Irvine: Where your square footage is bigger than your lot size.”
“Irvine: Motorcourts R Us.”
“Irvine: Backyards and driveways not allowed”
Irvine: “All your HOA fees are belong to us”
Somebody set up us the bomb.
No one seems to have commented on the obvious. These developers are planning to bring houses to the market in 2013. What about that shadow inventory we are hearing so much about and the fact that housing prices continue to fall? doesn’t this sound like a very poor business decision.
I think they are hoping to time the bottom. They will start with a very small production run, and in following years, they will increase their production runs and try to build positive sales and pricing momentum. If they time it right, it will work well.
The shadow inventory will weigh on their sales, but their alternative is to let the property sit fallow for several more years, and their investors make lower returns if they do that because so much of their money is already spent.
“People such as Charles Wible, 39, ... says he didn’t expect a turnaround in his lifetime, so he’s banking on his four sons.”
Housing’s Job Engine Falters
Now that’s capitulation.
These overhead photos remind me of industrial poultry farms. Afterall, these bland developments are, in large part, baby incubators.
Irvine, because people you don’t want you or your kids to associate with can’t afford it.
Irvine, the banality of good schools, high down payments, and
people who share your values.
Irvine, my daddy got a higher math SAT score than yours.
Irvine, if you build it they will come.
I’m looking at the photo with the aerial view of Woodbury, and I’m astounded at the lack of yard space. How big are the lots—4,000 sq ft? With 2800 sq ft homes? Yuck. I wouldn’t call that good planning—perhaps for the developers who profit, but not for the people who live there.
And for an established neighborhood, where are the trees and greenery? All I see is a sea of beige rooftops, and tiny spaces in between each house. Do Woodburians hear their neighbors’ alarm clocks in the morning?
Very weird.
I thought that was part of the master plan. Shrink the lot with each new neighborhood that gets rolled out. Bren needs the money to research how to live forever.
Irvine - Where thier teeth are whiter than the people that live there.
Irvine - Look at the Mercedes my house bought me!