Irvine Housing Blog

Really, really pretty.

But NEVER feed any ducks.  They are horrible filthy animals, and once you feed them (like cats) they never go away. 

But maybe I besmirch the chararter of California ducks, and they are less obnoxious than Florida ducks.

No prices Irvine Renter?  We are just to be soothed by the pretty views.

There was, years ago, a mama duck and her ducklings at a small pond at the U of Miami.  The students liked watching them, until, right before their eyes (not my eyes, I must admit), an alligator ate ‘em.

Nature in action.
——-

Ah, sorry, missed the price.

I got a very interesting survey call Friday afternoon.  It was a survey about housing on the Irvine Ranch, so I decided to do it.  I will list a few of the questions.

Do you think that house prices will stay the same, increase or decrease over the next 5 years.  My answer: decrease.

Next question: How much do you think prices will decrease? 5-10%, 10-15%, 15-20% or more than 20%.  My answer: more than 20%

Where do you get your information about housing?  Newspaper, internet, magazines, other.  Hire a bodyguard, because I mentioned your blog!

Do you consider the slowdown of new development on the Irvine Ranch a sign of desperation by the developer, or a developer who is waiting for the market to stabilize and trying not to flood the market with new houses?  My answer: desperation

Would you consider buying a house on the Irine Ranch if the developer guaranteed the value of your house would stay the same for 5 years?  I asked how they could do that, and the surveyer said the developer would buy your property back at the price you paid if the value is not the same in 5 years.  My answer: that sounds great, but the root of the problem is that the starting prices are too high. The Irvine Company is obviously trying to keep their overinflated pricing model.  The base prices must come down, because they’re running out of people who can afford a million dollar tract house.  The taxes are outrageous.

Next question: Would you buy a house on the Irvine Ranch if the developer offered to pay the mellow roos for you?  I did not ask for specifics about this, but mentioned that mellow roos is just a small tax on top of the high property tax, and that wouldn’t influence my decision.

There were other questions, but I thought everyone here would find these the most interesting.  The survey took 17 minutes.  The surveyor demurred when I asked if the survey was being paid for by the Irvine Company, but it was so obvious.

TIC is being smart by doing market research, but I’m guessing that I told them stuff they didn’t want to hear.  Anybody else get this call?  I live in Northwood Pointe (yes Tonye, I’m some of that riff-raff!) so I’m wondering if they targeted my area as potential “move-up” customers.

“Custom carpet”?  That’s the stuff that costs several hundred per yard and is loomed with special patterns or textures.  “Custom flrs”?  Merely laying out the tile in a laddered pattern instead of square butted doesn’t make it custom.  “Matching wide-blade shtrs”? Plantation shutters are wide, aren’t they, plus, I hope they’re not mismatched.  “Cust. lr room fireplace”?  Placing 12” granite tiles around the builder box does not make it custom. 

I watch way too much HGTV.

I was surveyed on Thursday, and my answers matched yours!

I had to laugh when the surveyor listed the choices for my primary source of information about the housing market—a realtor!

They also asked when I thought the prices would stop decreasing (e.g. 1-2 years, 3-5 years), what premium I would expect to pay for a house in Irvine as opposed to surrounding cities (e.g. 1-4%, 5-10%), what would be a good tag line for Irvine Ranch properties (e.g. “Investing in your family’s future”).

Great place for the “empty nester” retired types.

It’s just way too expensive. Even an ocean view gets boring after a while.

A smarter retiree might do something like this with his 750k: Pay cash for a nice 250k townhome close to a major city. Spend your time and your 500k planning and taking luxury cruises in every part of the world.

That’s what I would do.

A friend of mine used to live on one the houses right on the water.  I don’t mean those condos across a grass hill.. no.. I mean one of those houses RIGHT ON THE WOODBRIDGE lake. 

The home proper was fine, 4 b/3ba, large enough, but he had a curb access to the lake.  He didn’t have a boat but he had a beautiful back patio, very large, with a BBQ.  We used to go there for the 4th of July, eat BBQ and watch the fireworks.  The rest of you had to go on the lawn by the gazebo, we, hoi polloi we were, drank wine in our private yard and enjoyed the show.

He also had a view of the TR hills..

Speaking of TR, yesterday I was in a house in TR Terrace.  The home is not large but the view from the backyard is awesome.  From TRidge, Fashion Island, UCI, Mt Wilson to just north of Saddleback.  We got there before sunset and the show was magnificent.

Very few homes in Irvine have a view like those and these homes in the Terrace are selling at a discount to TRidge. 

Lemme see… bigger lot, as good or better view, older but very well maintained homes, three car garage and half the price. 

If it weren’t for Prop 13 I’d dump my house and move up there.

Wah!  I wanna be surveyed.  Goodness knows I’ve never had an opinion that I’ve failed to express. 

Yes, I had forgotten those questions.  The slogan was too silly; and as if a slogan would influence my house purchase!  Crazy.

very funny, you gave the exact same answers you did, basically after they research and analyze my answers they will reach the conclusion of

PRICES ARE TOO DAMN HIGH IN IRVINE, NO MATTER WHAT YOU OFFER JUST LOWER THE PRICE.

one more thing, they kept pointing to good schools, safe neighborhoods. to which I answered—->dont care (private schools for my kids), alot of other safe neighborhoods.

very funny, you gave the exact same answers I did, basically after they research and analyze my answers they will reach the conclusion of

PRICES ARE TOO DAMN HIGH IN IRVINE, NO MATTER WHAT YOU OFFER JUST LOWER THE PRICE.

one more thing, they kept pointing to good schools, safe neighborhoods. to which I answered—->dont care (private schools for my kids), alot of other safe neighborhoods.

Hi IR, sorry to be off-topic but I am doing some research for a school project and wanted to know if you have any detailed info. about the Greentree community in Irvine.  Is Greentree a separate village or is it part of Deerfield/Walnut, etc?

Thanks!!

Kurt

Seriously, how dumb do you have to be, to dance around with surveys, when you could attract flocks of buyers by pricing things decently.

TIC is running the survey not the builders.

TIC doesn’t want flocks of buyers, TIC wants buyers for $1-$2 million dollar tract homes because then their land holdings are worth billions.  If they allow the builders to sell tract homes for $400-$600K, then their land holdings are worth a measely few hundred million.

Hence their survey is really geared towards setting your expectations taht prices won’t come down and what will convince you to buy at today’s prices.

IR Covered this back in Sept wth Land Value 101. http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/2007/07/16/land-value-101/

When I lived in Northwood we had a fair sized backyard that we turned into a bird sanctuary. We had woodpeckers, orioles and even a falcon.

A few ducks showed up one year and after the initial fascination wore off we could not get rid of them…a total poop-fest

I looked at leasing one of the properties on the lake a couple years ago, but a quick look at the sidewalk changed my mind :-(

Screw all the luxury cruises. I’d get a sailboat and cruise wherever I wanted to go. Nowhere to go and all the time to get there.

And I *did* go sailing today. :D

It’s a good location, but a VERY tight complex.  The units are really jammed in there, and it’s basically a “concrete jungle” in there.  There is no yard area at all, basically patio only for almost all of them.

But, many of the units do have very nice lake views, and the complex is right outside the S. Lake swim club/lagoon.

I’m not that familiar with the historical pricing, but $750K for a 2000sq. unit on the water with great lake views seems significantly lower than during the peak.

Are you saying that they were push-polling? If that is the case I wonder how many people where actually called.

Sorry, I don’t know.

What is “mello roos?” All of this terminology reminds me of the Pentagon.

>>… bigger lot, as good or better view, older but very well maintained homes, three car garage and half the price.

Could you, perhaps, provide links to one or two listings? Thanks.