I may be faced with a couple of choices soon.  My spouse already commutes to and works in Huntington Beach from out of state.  I may have found a position with a company good enough to permanently move to CA myself.  Our jobs would be about five miles apart along PCH in HB.  We are already planning to stay in our apartment in OC for awhile if I move there.  (We keep an apartment in OC in addition to our out of state home.)

The question is to:

1) Rent in Irvine for 2+ years waiting for affordability to occur in Irvine.

2) Buy a nearly new house in Corona for ~$120/sq ft, ~$250-300k, with the understanding we would sell in a couple of years to move to our target area, like Irvine.  I am assuming a two year time horizon before moving out of Corona.

Issues I’m considering:

- We would take a ~$25k hit in buy/sell costs going with Corona.  This would be partially offset by tax benefits and apartment rental savings.  There are prop. taxes to pay.

- I am assuming I could buy close enough to “the bottom” in Corona within the next few months that my potential resale loses would be < $30k.  Bad assumption?  Some of Corona is already in the low $100s/sq ft range for newer construction.  How low will this eventually go?

- We are looking at an additional ~1.5 hr/day commute time round trip in Corona (I think).

- From a quality of life perspective, we are mostly home bodies.  I think our off-time would be spent in/around home whether in an apartment or a house.

Our budget for the home we actually want is $550-700k.  We financially could do this tomorrow, but I am not going to spend that much for what I’m seeing in that price range in Irvine and other desirable areas right now.  I do think the axe has yet to fall in Irvine.

Does Corona really suck that much?  Is the commute intolerable?  I would appreciate your thoughts.

Just rent in HB.

I lived in South Corona for about a year.  I commuted into L.A., which sucked.  All avenues on to the 91 fwy are packed by 5:30 a.m…..you will wait 10-15 minutes in a line of cars just to get onto the fwy.  No kidding.  All of the on ramps.  It took me 1 1/2 hrs to get home during rush hour, 1 1/4 if I used Fastrak.  It was a nice town though, a little slow, but nice.

Hey, seriously….I wouldn’t be buying there right now.  Sure, you can get a monster for cheap, but read this article about how bad it is in the IE.  I would imagine you would have a hard time selling in 3 years, half the town will be for sale.

Bad.  Did I say bad?  I mean horrible.

asianinvasian - 15 August 2008 09:02 PM

Just rent in HB.

Holy sh*t, that noise you just heard was confirmation that hell did indeed freeze over. I am going to agree with AI. Okay, that is what, 3 times now? What are these forums coming to?

Buying in Corona would be really really dumb. Rent in HB.

ROTF

Whoo boy, yes, skip Corona.  My hubs recently got together with a colleague out there in his big @ss home (that he was wise enough to rent).  The community also has an allegedly private golf course.  I say allegedly because half the homes are either in some state of foreclosure or unsold and the HOAs and usage of the course could not generate enough income to keep the course up, so it recently went public.  Another thing you may not know, but the PCH area of HB is nowhere near a freeway.  You might consider renting in Seal Beach, HB, or Newport (maybe Costa Mesa) so your commutes are shorter.

1.  I think you could see Corona as low as $80 a foot at the bottom.  Serious.

2.  You are underestimating your commute.  My wife and I used to leave Chino Hills at 6am so she could be in Irvine at 7am.  If she left at 7:15 she’d be in Irvine at like 8:30!  Moving to the OC got us 1.5-3 hours back every day for the rest of our life.  Plus, the fuel bill went way down.

3.  Do you really want to live in the valley of the dirt people?

Wow, thanks for the insight.  I sense there is a consensus of opinion here regarding Corona. 

Just part of doing my due diligence.  I haven’t spend enough time in SoCal to get a feel for all the different areas.  After sleeping on it, I think we will stay with the plan to just rent in Irvine for awhile.  That was my first choice to begin with.

I suspected the commute could be a deal breaker.

“valley of the dirt people”  haha, I had to Goggle that.  Enough said and point well taken.

CA -
Check for yourself - live DOT feeds from multiple cameras here.

Click on “Multiple cameras along highway 91” any weekday from 4 to 7pm (and on Fridays from 2:30pm)
and see the progress being made at Magnolia, County line, and at Green River for fun.

How valuable is your time?

Why not use this time to rent a beach front/close place in HB or SealB?  Rents are low, so you can get a nice house.  There is even some new construction of mid-sized townhouses that hasn’t been selling around goldenwest and the beach renting for $2500-3500.

And the commute from Irvine to north HB is going to be 30-40 minutes each way.  Personally, I would much rather have that extra hour a day not stressing.

use jesse’s (much improved) site to search for leases, or craigslist

http://mls.ocexclusives.com/703796w/index.php?main=listing&MLS_NUM=S530783&pt=LSE&num_list=7&searchres=ok&direct=down&id_from=Ea8bS01X56pGFyk36K5WA9j66CuR391I63fLeJ1k

(sorry IR2, i forgot to look at your site to see if it can search for leases too!)

EvaLSeraphim - 16 August 2008 07:44 AM

Whoo boy, yes, skip Corona.  My hubs recently got together with a colleague out there in his big @ss home (that he was wise enough to rent).  The community also has an allegedly private golf course.  I say allegedly because half the homes are either in some state of foreclosure or unsold and the HOAs and usage of the course could not generate enough income to keep the course up, so it recently went public.  Another thing you may not know, but the PCH area of HB is nowhere near a freeway.  You might consider renting in Seal Beach, HB, or Newport (maybe Costa Mesa) so your commutes are shorter.

Have you read the Blightwater thread lately? Looks like IndyCrap Federal Bank will be a landowner in Corona soon too.

I’m gonna be nice and bite my tongue, but this is a question I never saw coming.  Not even from Panda.

If work is in HB, DO NOT rent in Irvine or buy in Corona, your life will be the freeway, seriously.  There are fantastic rentals in HB, Costa Mesa and Newport.

24inIrvine - 16 August 2008 11:43 AM

I’m gonna be nice and bite my tongue, but this is a question I never saw coming.  Not even from Panda.

I certainly appreciate that.  At least I knew enough not to mention Compton as an option.

From 1500 miles away and doing an internet search of possible places within 40 miles of work in an area I know jack about, Corona doesn’t look so bad.

Part of my job at a pharmaceutical company outside Denver several years ago was to interview new tech staff from out of state.  I had several ask about Aurora, CO as a potential place to live, I think in part due to the luxury homes being built in some parts of Aurora (Toll Brothers didn’t do so well there).

I never could give Aurora the nod due to the city’s crime and commuting distance through Denver to where they would work, but I appreciated they took the initiative to do the research.

I kinda liked living in Chino Hills.  The weather was better there than in Orange.

Lansner just posed a similar analysis as I did.  I think the comments there paralleled the ones here, after all who wants to live amongst an Inbred turdpile.

Nevertheless, the point Lansner made was the killer commute being the real trade-off to the financial discount of Riverside.  I agree with the commute issues in my case.  However, if I were to work in Brea or Anaslime instead of HB, I would more seriously consider this option, at least for a couple of years as the Irvine-area carnage unfolds.

And our very own IR made an appearance!

And so did Thoughful/Pebbles/ROC/Truthiness!

I would consider VOC before Corona. I have been “banned” at VOC so I will not promote it. There are plenty of resales at older communities with way shorter commute to HB. Fountain Valley, Cypress, Los Alamito, Bellflower and Long Beach just to name a few you might be able to find a home similar to Corona prices.

ConsiderAgain - 21 August 2008 04:02 PM

Lansner just posed a similar analysis as I did.  I think the comments there paralleled the ones here, after all who wants to live amongst an Inbred turdpile.

Nevertheless, the point Lansner made was the killer commute being the real trade-off to the financial discount of Riverside.  I agree with the commute issues in my case.  However, if I were to work in Brea or Anaslime instead of HB, I would more seriously consider this option, at least for a couple of years as the Irvine-area carnage unfolds.

Read some information on the 91 freeway and I think you will understand.  Also google Orange County Traffic or Riverside County traffic and pull up some freeway traffic maps during peak hours.  It is brutal. I believe I saw the toll for the Fastrak Express was $9.25.  Sorry, I was hopping on the 55 south so can’t remember the exact number but it was pretty close to 10 bucks!

ConsiderAgain - 21 August 2008 04:02 PM

Lansner just posed a similar analysis as I did.  I think the comments there paralleled the ones here, after all who wants to live amongst an Inbred turdpile.

Nevertheless, the point Lansner made was the killer commute being the real trade-off to the financial discount of Riverside.  I agree with the commute issues in my case.  However, if I were to work in Brea or Anaslime instead of HB, I would more seriously consider this option, at least for a couple of years as the Irvine-area carnage unfolds.

Inbred turdpiles don’t result in very good schools…  Corona High is a 715 API.  That score is just as close to Compton High’s mark than it is to any of the Irvine schools.  Working in HB, picking up a place after a few years in north HB or Fountain Valley would be a good call.  If you have kids or will have kids, Fo Valley High and Edison are both decent high schools.

ipoplaya - 21 August 2008 09:10 PM

ConsiderAgain - 21 August 2008 04:02 PM

Lansner just posed a similar analysis as I did.  I think the comments there paralleled the ones here, after all who wants to live amongst an Inbred turdpile.

Nevertheless, the point Lansner made was the killer commute being the real trade-off to the financial discount of Riverside.  I agree with the commute issues in my case.  However, if I were to work in Brea or Anaslime instead of HB, I would more seriously consider this option, at least for a couple of years as the Irvine-area carnage unfolds.

Inbred turdpiles don’t result in very good schools…  Corona High is a 715 API.  That score is just as close to Compton High’s mark than it is to any of the Irvine schools.  Working in HB, picking up a place after a few years in north HB or Fountain Valley would be a good call.  If you have kids or will have kids, Fo Valley High and Edison are both decent high schools.

Like I mentioned before the cities I suggested are the best cities within your budget. Notice that I did not mention NB, CDM, Sunset and Seal Beach. Los Alamito, Fountain Valley and Cypress all have impressive school. Cypress has many electonic headquarters there such as Mishibishi, Yamaha, Panasonic, and Canon. Long Beach has character and night live just in case you do not have kids. Bellflower is by far is the better of the post war designed neighborhood (not great) but good value since it is closest to Cerrito. All these places have no mello roos and are kept up relatively well. Good Amenities such as services and retails are the indicators of a healthy city. Many have power centers, theatre, and Costco. 

Having a Costco in the city is a very good thing because Costco studied the demographic and income of the city. The tax revenue generated by Costco the city has more revenue to improve the city’s aesthetic and safety.

bkshopr - 22 August 2008 09:05 AM

Having a Costco in the city is a very good thing because Costco studied the demographic and income of the city. The tax revenue generated by Costco the city has more revenue to improve the city’s aesthetic and safety.

Good point BK, the problem nowadays is retail overkill.
One Costco in town is not enough.
Not long ago there was tremendous pride associated with having Starbucks open a store in the area.
Same with driving SUVs, car dealers can’t move them.
How quickly things change.

tenmagnet - 22 August 2008 10:06 AM

bkshopr - 22 August 2008 09:05 AM

Having a Costco in the city is a very good thing because Costco studied the demographic and income of the city. The tax revenue generated by Costco the city has more revenue to improve the city’s aesthetic and safety.

Good point BK, the problem nowadays is retail overkill.
One Costco in town is not enough.
Not long ago there was tremendous pride associated with having Starbucks open a store in the area.
Same with driving SUVs, car dealers can’t move them.
How quickly things change.

Ten, you are right for most retail. Actually Costco will wipe out all the retails along the strip adjacent to it. Costco is like a Pepper tree the poison release by its foliage kills weeds and grass directly below the canopy. Consumers on the average spent $180 per trip at a Costco so the buying remorse psychology right after Costco is not to spend any more money or find a really incredible bargain yet. This is why the $1.50 hot dog and drink or the $10 everything toppings on the pizza to feeding the entire family are there to offer a better deal back to the consumers so they don’t feel so bad for spending so much money. It is bad or other retail tenants because consumers after a Costco run are often in a crappy spending remorse mode.

Most anchor tenants in a strip mall help to generate traffic to feed the smaller in filled retailers but Costco is the only exception. Retailer developers learned the hard way like the Costco in Fountain Valley and the Irvine Spectrum. The Costco adjacent retailers go out of business often. The Spectrum is managed by The Irvine Company and even Bren has a tough time in keeping the big box brick and mortar retail tenants alive. There has already been numerous turn over’s. FV is much worse. This is the reason why Costco is always in its separate structure far away from other retailers. Other retailers certainly do not want to share the same parking lot with Costco because frustrated customers could not find parking would rather shop somewhere else.

Most cities welcome a Costco because of the tax revenue generated. The Fountain Valley Costco was at the Macarthur Home Depot space in Santa Ana/ Costa Mesa border before FV lured it away to the current location just down the street on Euclid for a $1/year rent.

The FV Costco generated more taxes than South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island and Marketplace combined with hardly any police and security burden to the city. No wonder every city wants a Costco. Due to the White labeling philosophy of Costco demographic target are the upper middle class families so in choosing a home location Costco is a good indicator of who your future neighbors are.

BK,
Great post!
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments on Costco and their impact on the retail environment.
Understanding that they’d be a detriment to surrounding retailers was hard to grasp at first, but after you laid it out, made total sense.

BK -

The allelopathy simile is a good one for Costco, and one I’d not thought of in that way before.  An excellent lesson.

Down a similar path - Why do you think Tustin’s development has opted for essentially making a “Marketplace West” in its District offerings?  They already have Target, Costco, Lowe’s, and more less than a mile up the Jamboree corridor.  Why would this make sense for any of the parties involved (landlords, tenants, consumers)?  Your insight is appreciated.