Irvine Housing Blog

Everyday I drive by and look at these “things”, I wonder what has happened to the american psyche? This type of living I only pictured for myself when I was old and feeble, where you are dependant on others, and cannot take care of your own property. These units are the sister to the NKT just down the street. On a good day with wind conditions, you get to be blessed by the sewage treatment plant that lies a few hundred yards away….yummy! However, it *IS* Irvine excrement being treated so it doesn’t really stink.

For $1,000 a month in HOA, they should have staff readily available to pleasure me once a week.

What would a unit like this rent for?  There has been a lot of press on the benefits of renting vs. buying and that has been a strength of this blog too.

Realtors push buying.  Think about the commissions if this property changed hands 3 times in 3 years, vs having 3 different renters?  It’s nearly $150k difference to the realtors.

The 6% off the top is much easier to handle in an inflationary environment, when even 2%/yr appreciation makes up for the commission after 3 years.  I think you’d necessarily see sales slowing with lower levels of price appreciation solely due to the transaction costs being a bigger portion of the selling price - buying price margin.

“What would a unit like this rent for?”

At Essex Skyline (just one exit up the 405) in what is arguably a nicer hi-rise (2bdrm/2bath, similar size, granite/wood floors/Viking, walls of glass, killer views, etc.), one can rent for $2700.

Essex Skyline is a failed condo tower that was turned into successful rentals after sitting empty for 2 years.

Why would one pay $5500/mo to buy, when you can rent for awhile (saving $30k/yr) and then move on?

For those who can take care of themselves, they should not be allowed to live in “assisted living” area such as these retirement towers.

Santa Ana Renter has a point.  The area he speaks about is far more walkable.  The point of living in these types of high rises is to park your car when you get home from work and leave it in the parking garage until you have to work again.  You should be able to walk to the store, to entertainment and to shopping.  None of the Irvine condos have this luxury.  Trying to walk to mothers from the North Korea Towers amounts to taking your life in your hands through that parking lot.

This is the Plaza. There are 2 buildings. Its in the same boat as its Big Brother up the Street the Marquee. $ 1100.00 Dollar HOA Fees. I have seen the 2 bedroom units at the Marquee rent for as low as $ 2500.00 a month. Only issue is you got to hope and pray the owner is keeping up on the Mortgage so you dont get booted out when it sells at the Court Steps. The High Rise experiment in Irvine has been a total disaster since the Collapse that started in 2006/7.
The original Buyers got creamed unless they flipped them quick back in the day.

We call the Marquee the North Korea Towers locally. Maybe we need a new name for the Plaza too.

Supply is rising and rental parity is now well established for SFR’s inside the Woodbridge loop. Well, at least for the cottage SFR’s, and I expect that we’ll see some overshoot on those before the bottom is in. We can expect to see rental parity, at the

Brand new listing today, 6 Silkleaf: http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/6-Silkleaf-92614/home/4691467. It’s a short sale listed for $495K.

This makes 4 listings, 3 of them model matches, on the same block. There is already a recent model-match sale comp on this block at $480K. All of this should be enough to scare the pants off of all of these owners, but it should especially frighten the owners of the open house at 24 Wayfarer that I looked at today: http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/24-Wayfarer-92614/home/4692458. Since that property first listed back in March, they have reduced their price by $95,000, but they are still way above these nearby comps and potential comps. Wayfarer is a beautifully upgraded property, but those improvements still aren’t going to get them anywhere near their current asking price of $600K. Basically, this is a race to the bottom, and 24 Wayfarer is currently running dead last.

I am seeing nothing but price reductions, increasing supply, and desperation across the board in Woodbridge. I don’t watch the other neighborhoods as closely, but I suspect the same is true throughout most of Irvine.

-Darth

Hmm, looks like I forgot to complete one of my sentences. Or it got chopped somehow.

In any case, for the last sentence in the first paragraph above, I meant to say: “We can expect to see rental parity, at the very least, for the non-cottage SFR’s.”

-Darth

Falling house prices mean more hardships for owners

Centerville, Virginia (CNN)—The fallen value of Nancy Logan’s home is making her chances of keeping it seem next to impossible. So the single mom sought an audience with the president of the United States.

Logan, who raised her plight with President Barack Obama last week during a CBS News town hall forum, is being laid off from her job with a government contractor. In January, her monthly mortgage payment will rise by $1,000 because her temporary loan modification—made the last time she needed a break three years ago—will expire.

Like millions of Americans, thanks to falling U.S. home prices, she is “underwater,” owing more than the house is worth. This means she can’t clear her debt by selling, and another loan modification—which she says she needs to keep the house—appears unlikely.

“My question to you, Mr. President, is do you have any plans to help improve the housing market so hardworking Americans like myself don’t lose their homes?” Logan, of Centerville, asked Obama during Wednesday’s taping in Washington.