The way Irvine was planned, there are residential properties very close to the freeways. How much of a discount would you require to live on the 5?
Asking Price: $650,000
Address: 28 Nebraska, Irvine, CA 92606
Keep On Movin’ — Five
Get on up when youre down
Baby, take a good look around
I know its not much, but its okay
Keep on moving anyway
Before you can answer the question of the day, you need to see just how close to the 5 this house really is. The wall in the picture and the street out front is the only thing separating this property from the freeway. Check out the images below:
I found an interesting website that discusses the effects of freeway pollution on health. I found the following on that site:
“The majority of studies show that health effects begin along roadways that carry 20,000 or more vehicles per day, and are strongest for persons who live, work or go to school within about 3 football fields from the edge of a freeway….
Why is freeway pollution bad?
More than 100 major studies have been published over the last decade documenting the relationship between freeway pollution and health. These are some of the findings:
* Children who lived within 200 meters of a high-traffic roadway were nearly two times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than similar children who lived further away from traffic (Lin et al., 2002).
* Cough during the first year of life correlated strongly with the level of vehicle-related air pollution measured in front of the child’s home (Gehring et al., 2002).
* Children exposed to higher levels of traffic-related pollution before the age of 3 were more than two times more likely to develop asthma than similar children exposed to lower levels of traffic pollution (Zmirou et al., 2004).
* Pregnant women who lived close to high-traffic roadways during pregnancy were more likely to give birth prematurely or have a low-weight baby, putting the child at risk for health problems in life (Wilhelm and Ritz, 2003)
* Increasing residential exposure to particulate pollution from roadway traffic was strongly associated with an increased risk of being admitted to a hospital for heart problems (Janssen et al., 2002).
* Adults who lived within 200 meters of a busy roadway were 7 percent more likely to die from a stroke than those who lived further from the roadway (Maheswaran and Elliott, 2003).”
It doesn’t make you want to live by a freeway, does it?
People do live by freeways, and they will continue to do so. The real question is “how much does a property need to be discounted for you to live by a freeway?”
Asking Price: $650,000
Income Requirement: $130,000
Downpayment Needed: $162,500
Monthly Equity Burn: $5,416
Purchase Price: $850,000
Purchase Date: 11/10/2005
Address: 28 Nebraska, Irvine, CA 92606
| Beds: | 5 |
| Baths: | 3 |
| Sq. Ft.: | 2,235 |
| $/Sq. Ft.: | $291 |
| Lot Size: | 4,500
Sq. Ft. |
| Property Type: | Single Family Residence |
| Style: | Contemporary/Modern |
| Year Built: | 1999 |
| Stories: | 2 |
| Area: | Walnut |
| County: | Orange |
| MLS#: | P683088 |
| Source: | SoCalMLS |
| Status: | Active |
| On Redfin: | 2 days |
Charming property in the Revere gated community. This turnkey home with
a popular open floor plan have one bedroom and bath downstairs and 3
bedroom 2 bath upstairs. Tile flooring in the living room, dining,
kitchen & carpets thru out the bedrooms. Custom two tone painting,
ceiling fans, wood shutters, dual pane windows and very light and
bright. Near freeways, shopping, entertainment and great schools.
Custom surround sound prewired, maple cabinets thru out and much much
more! This contemporary home will not last long!!
home will not last long!! Do you feel the sense of urgency to buy, buy! BUY!!!
thru out
As you can see, this description has two of my favorite realtorspeak expressions: Turnkey and light and bright.
This property was purchased on 11/10/2005 for $850,000–almost a million dollars to live on a freeway. The owner used a $650,000 first mortgage, a $200,000 HELOC, and a $0 downpayment. If the house sells for its current asking price, and if a 6% commission is paid, the total loss to the lender will be $239,000. This property is being offered for 24% off its 2005 purchase price.
{book6}
Get on up when youre down
Baby, take a good look around
I know its not much, but its okay
Keep on moving anyway
Feels like I should be screaming
Trying to get it through to my friends
Sometimes it feels that life has no meaning
But I know things will be alright in the end
Keep On Movin’ — Five
I think a knifecatcher would grab this today for $550,000. In a couple of years, the knifecatcher will be trying to sell it for $350,000.
.
http://www.crackthecode.us/images/starwars_deleted_scenes.jpg
You didn’t mention the brilliant and innovative use of realtor grammar: “…this turnkey home have one bedroom downstairs…” Not also that the house possesses a “living room”, but only a “dining” whatever that is. It is certainly accurate, though, to note that the house is near a freeway.
The low barriers to entry in the realtor ‘profession’ seem to ensure that no realtor will ever write a description without multiple grammatical or spelling errors, despite the fact that they are paid to write this stuff. Or, in Realtorspeak, “We don’t need no education.”
.
http://www.crackthecode.us/images/realtorspelling.jpg
Love the For Sale sign.
My favorite line in these descriptions is always “This house will not last long!!!!” Guess you better not get the 40 year mortgage. 😛
Could be they mean when they put in high speed rail, it’ll get knocked over for the right-of-way?
When looking at homes in another state last week, the great majority of the ads were well written. I didn’t notice any spelling errors, and there were no ALL CAPS ads. I have a feeling the local MLS enforces those policies.
I also noticed the photos were generally pretty good. There weren’t many which looked like they were taken with a cellphone from 2001.
I don’t think the realtor speaks english very well.
Or should I say englicks.
Per DataQuick — Irvine home sales year over year~
92602 down -44.4%
92603 down -7.4%
92604 down -13.0%
92606 down -33.3%
92612 down -5.6%
92614 UP +7.7% Cheapest Zip in Irvine ~ $383,500
92618 down -81.5%
92620 down -32.4%
Remember … last year at this time we were in the midst of the worst credit crunch since the Great Depression. Yet sales are still down on a YoY basis.
Is it a coincidence that the only Irvine zip code with positive sales YoY also happens to be the most affordable?
I live in 92614. The area is the South Lake area of Woodbridge and part of Westpark across Culver.
The kids go to Meadow Park Elementary, South Lake Middle, and Woodbridge High. All are within walking distance. This is why families like 92614.
I know that Sue … 92614 is fine place to live. I was being tongue-in-cheek, using a little sarcasm to make my point —> Sales are down in Irvine, not up.
Evidently there are/were more attainable properties on the MLS from that zip code.
No worries Lee. I understood your sarcasm. Our condo complex is right on S. Blue Lake near Meadow Park School and South Lake Middle. These condos sell very quickly, although the prices have definately come down. The 3 bedrooms were going for almost 500K and now are selling for 375K. Fortunately we bought back in 1993.
In stock market, if the price and volume moves opposite direction, that could be a sign of trend reversal. Is the same principal applid to housing market? If so, the price is still too expensive that not too many people want to jump in.
Near the freeway, and “Custom surround sound prewired” LOL!
There is no discount that would get me to live next to the freeway. If you have to live with the constant drone of the noise 24/7, keeping the double pane windows closed and not going outside, where is the compensating positive to do it? Not to mention the pollution-linked health effects. I would not own it and I would not rent it, at any price. Theoretically there must be some amount where I could be paid to live there for short time, I guess.
I read about one of these studies a couple of years ago and decided then, as a parent with two kids (ages 5 and 7), I wouldn’t live in such a property if it was given to me. This is probably why there seems to be a higher proportion of freeway-close homes on Redfin (e.g., vs. the general MLS site).
I feel sorry for people who purchased these homes before these studies were published. Now they’re common knowledge, so the only people willing to buy these places are either: 1) ignorant of the facts 2) undervalue their family’s health 3) don’t have kids or 4) just plain dumb.
It would be interesting to know what chemicals are most harmful. My hunch is tire particles. As tires wear down, small particles of rubber get shot into the air. It’s been known for sometime that for this reason, it’s a bad idea to jog along busy streets. Multiply that X 14 lanes at high speeds and you’ve got a sure-fire recipe for respiratory problems.
I came close to putting an offer on a house next to a freeway, but somebody else beat me to it (which surprised the heck out of me, since it had been on the market for quite awhile). It was architecturally nice (bay windows in the front of the house, for instance) and turnkey inside (new carpet, new dual pane windows, beautiful). I don’t have kids and am an “inside” person, so, after deliberating, I decided I could live with the noise and pollution. But I definitely was going to offer a lot less than I would have for the same property not next to the freeway.
Good for you. Some people are forced to live in places they would rather not for a majority of reasons. It is good that you have the ability to choose where it is you would like to live, but to call people names because they lack your resources is ignorant to say the least.
On a side note, growing up in the 70’s I imagine the smog in the beach cities was worse then the smog in a house next to a freeway in Irvine in 2009. Somehow our generation survived, imagine that.
Actually, I find it funny that many of the “never live by a freeway” families, had no problems wandering around amid all the ash from that fire a few years back, with nothing covering their mouths, not even a kleenex, that gave me the strangest looks when I wore a 3M duskmask.
dust mask I mean
I wasn’t intending to call people names. Just categorizing decision makers. People in category “1” didn’t do their homework. Another comment acknowledged category “2” by requiring to “hazard pay” to live in such a home. As you may notice, Geotpf above fit into category “3”. People in category “4” are probably not too bright.
Perhaps there’s a category “5” which has to do with financial constraints– e.g., wanting the good schools in Irvine but can only afford living near a freeway. Fair enough. But the nincompoop who paid $850K for the home IR flagged definitely wasn’t a category 5. My vote would be for category 4.
> I wouldn’t live in such a property if it was given to me. This is probably why there seems to be a higher proportion of freeway-close homes on Redfin (e.g., vs. the general MLS site).
I don’t understand your Redfin vs. general MLS point — could you elucidate?
My impression is Redfin is used to market properties that are either: 1) a bit less likely to sell through a general listing or 2) being more aggressively marketed by the listing agent.
If you look at Redfin, you’ll notice there seems to be a higher proportion of homes for sale that are freeway-close, compared to the general listings you may find on realtor.com. This is a qualitative observation that I haven’t quantified (confirmed).
In other words, properties that on average are somewhat less attractive to buyers are more likely to be listed on Redfin, and a prominent feature that detracts buyers is freeway proximity. I think the same principle applies to homes near train tracks and major roadways (e.g., “note to showing agent, home backups to Culver”)
Redfin just relists listings from the various MLS systems. They also include listings of foreclosures for sale from various bank websites and for sale by owners from a couple websites that specialize in those, but 90% of their listings are straight from the MLS.
I am the same. No house on freeway, period.
OK, on a related note…why on earth do we continue to see articles like the one on the front page of the LA Times that declare” “housing slump may be over” and “we may be at a bottom” then blame any potential bottom not happening on the unavailability of credit? Isn’t it an incredibly tired theory (not to mention untrue)? People with good credit and some money down CAN get loans. And really GOOD loans too. Check out Navy Federal’s rates (www.nfcu.org)- -they even have ARMs and interest-only rates for the Vegas types. And they aren’t just posted to tease. When will people stop blaming the lack of available credit for people not buying houses? If one follows fundamentals (good credit scores, 20 percent down) there is AMPLE loan money out there (for knife-catchers). There may not be tons of loans for less than credit-sound people, but isn’t that the right way to go so we can get housing back to being affordable? Lee, when will we see an article in the Times that truly reflects reality?
You know how it’s supposed to make the fortune cookie message more interesting and appropriate to add “in bed”? For example, “Your everlasting patience will be rewarded sooner or later” in bed.
When you see stupid economic headlines, try adding “Our advertisers hope” or “Our advertisers want you to believe” to the beginning. Thus, “Our advertisers hope the housing slump may be over” or “Our advertisers want you to believe we are at the bottom”.
Whenever media outlets supported by advertisers have one view, and the rest of the world seems to have a different view, take a guess at the reason.
Exactly, they want to make money.
I read this article and thought about all the people that will tell me my predictions are wrong and now is the time to buy.
Once December rolls along, I think we will see the correction back in full swing.
We all MAY actually be space aliens, too, and this life MAY be all a dream by a multi-headed Medusa (sorry if I offended any Scientologists.)
How much would the property have to be discount so I’d consider living that close to a freeway?
More like, how much would I have to be paid to live there? I might do it for 5K in my pocket – consider it hazardous duty pay – but I wouldn’t subject my family to living there for any amount!
Whenever I see houses like this I gotta ask, is this for REAL? But it is! I wouldn’t even live on a commuter street, much less the I-freakin-5. So I’m trying to imagine the thought process that went into buying this place, even with $0 down. About 60 houses sit against the freeway fence in this “community.” I guess I could understand it if it’s an older neighborhood that the freeway invaded and it’s low/no income residents who lived there their whole lives. But this place is 10 years old, and was almost $1 million! Sheer madness is the only term I can think of to describe what happened here. Madness brought on by greed.
Ditto that. I often wonder why somebody would ever buy a NEW home that close to a freeway. A freeway is referred to as an ‘Incurable Defect’ when it comes to real estate. The owner will always have difficulty selling the home no matter how nice the property is. There are some nice new homes off the 5 fwy in Santa Ana (near the Broadway exit) that are even CLOSER to the fwy than this one is. God help those owners.
Have you seen Jim The Realtor’s Youtube videos? He had a video of a house this close to the 5 freeway (in San Deigo County, where he operates). He called the freeway the “Detroit River”. Somebody paid a million dollars for the house during the madness, and he was certain that fraud was involved, cursing everybody involved with that transaction. The house was in pretty bad shape to boot, with mold under the kitchen sink that was probably there when it sold for a million.
I love Jim the Realtor’s videos! He is hysterical. Talk about an honest realtor.
Jim is getting his days under the sun lately with lots of national exposure – LA Times and ABC Nightline etc.
Didn’t the I-5 rebuild happen around 2000? The house builder must have known the final alignment when this place was slapped up, hence the $300k original price.
Freeways are bad, but busy streets are even worse! I lived in the Oak glen apartments for a year. My bedroom window overlooked Alton and faced the 405. The noise was horrible 24/7. If it wasn’t a screaming motorcycle or muscle car going by in the middle of the night, it was the constant noise of the 405 to keep me company. Being the engineer I am, I measured the sound level w/ my dB meter to be 68-71dB at 7am in the morning during rush hour (typical bedroom should be around 35dB for peace and quiet). It made me appreciate how precious a solid night sleep was when I moved. Besides the health effects, I’ll never live next to a busy street or freeway again. However, if I was forced I would choose freeway over a busy street like Alton. At least the noise is constant droning by a freeway versus spotaneous street noise that you can’t get use to.
Noise-wise, the worst is train tracks, especially if there are freights and not just Metrolink/Amtrak. Particularly the horn, plus houses really near the tracks can shake when the train goes by. Freeways in particular usually have a steady white noise type of thing going, especially if there are sound walls-less disturbing than an air horn being blown at 3 AM-train tracks are worse, noise-wise, than freeways or major streets. I also would say major streets are worse than freeways, because the noise comes and goes, with horns and people blasting car stereos and the like. But freeways have the worst pollution effects.
A study recently published in the online version of The Lancet reports that children who live near a highway experience lung impairments, which could result in life long health problems.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/podcast/transcript030907.html
Thank you very much IR and Marian, for the links to this important health info!
:coolsmile:
Larry, this is a great time to buy real estate.
And as far as financing is concerned, the only financing you should be thinking about is seller financing. If the seller won’t give you financing, don’t do it, because the banks are not doing their job. They’re not providing financing for deals.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/16/lkl.donald.trump/
Maybe Larry should have explained to The Donald, it’s not prudent to lever up 30 to 40 times, then hedge the entire mess with no collateral. LoL
That seems to be Trump’s pattern; he levers up, buys everything he can, then when things go bad, he crams down his lenders and bond holders. He emerges with the properties and little of the debt.
I wonder if he is trying to offload some of his commercial stuff before the implosion becomes front-page news. If he is pumping the market it is probably because he wants to sell something.
Beds: 5
Baths: 3
This turnkey home with a popular open floor plan have one bedroom and bath downstairs and 3 bedroom 2 bath upstairs.
So does it have 4 bedrooms (3 up 1 down), or 5? They can’t even get the listing to be internally consistant, let alone accurate to what the house is actually like.
I live in an IAC rental townhome even closer to the I405 – traffic directly outide my back windows. I have kids as do my immediate neigh ore on the right and left. Why does the IAC make their largest units in this complex back the freeway? Obviously the people who needs that space the most are going to be families with kids (there are 10 kids between myself and the two neighbors).
They use the townhomes and the connecting walls as sound barriers to shield the rest of the community. The townhome is the only design suited to this purpose. If you look carefully, between the townhomes and the connecting walls, it forms an unbroken barrier.
I used to live in Brittany at Oak Creek, and I remember being in one of the small play areas between the townhomes next to the soundwall. There is an access door leading to the outside. If you open that door, the sound level is much, much higher than if you are behind the wall. I imagine the townhome balconies facing the freeway cannot be very relaxing.
The balcony’s don’t face the freeway, they face away. Basically, only the bathroom and hall windows face the freeway. The main air vent where the air filter is, however, is on the freeway side – so I assume that’s where the air intake is for the air conditioner 🙁
The banking is returning to normal it seems, do you think housing will too?
Yes, lending is returning to 20% down, 28% DTIs and 30-year conventionally amortized mortgages based on verifiable incomes. This was normal before the bubble, and it will be normal again. Pricing will revert to levels sustainable under that financing environment. We will see inflation adjusted pricing relative to 1997 price levels, perhaps with some overshoot at the bottom due to all the foreclosures.
IR, I just talked to Navy Federal CU and they told me they were using up to a 45 percent debt-to-income total. They have 3/1 ARMs, interest-only loans. Seems as though the exotic crap is still available, as is a pretty high DTI ratio. Unless and until the lenders get to what you’re talking about (28 percent DTI etc.), can we expect to see the light of day on “affordability”?
If lenders still peddle those loans, it is going to delay affordability. With all the loan losses these products have caused, it amazes me that any lender still does them. I guess some just have to lose some more money until they figure it out. In the meantime, buyers will over-leverage and overpay for real estate.
Why would someone use a 3/1 ARM when interest rates on fixed are under 5%? Do borrowers seriously think rates will be even lower 3 years from now?
I suspect some of the high DTI programs also have very high equity requirements. IMO, these programs are akin to predatory borrowing. Put people into loans they cannot afford knowing that the LTV is so low that even a foreclosure at a lower price point will not imperil the lender. Setting up borrowers to fail doesn’t do anyone any favors.
NFCU on the 3-year fixed at 45 percent DTI said they’d need 20 percent down to avoid PMI (b/c it’s a jumbo). 20 percent isn’t that high…
No, it isn’t. That loan is a default waiting to happen. People cannot afford 45% DTIs. If they could, the loan mod programs from the government would be having some success. They aren’t.
Someone out there will use that loan and bid up the price of some property beyond reason. You can probably borrow 5-6 times income at that DTI. Add in a 20% downpayment, and you can “afford” to be a knife catcher. Crazy.
Wouldn’t 45% DTI also preclude anyone from saving for either a rainy day or for retirement/kids college? Seems to me that at 45% DTI that the buyer is gambling (again?) on future appreciation to them out.
Thanks IR for your perspective – I totally agree, hence my sitting on the sidelines for another year or two at least!
Thanks a lot for the perspective, I totally agree. Anyone with a brain wouldn’t get a ARM to start with.
I second the idea that NFCU doesn’t just lend to anyone. We wanted to join because of their great CD rates – we’re not eligible. You have to be military or family of military or military contractor or coast guard… ie someone who has massive incentive to repay whatever gets borrowed.
We’ve lived next to the train lines and next to a freeway. There is a huge difference between being next to – at the same level as the train, and next to, as on top of the mesa the line goes past.
Similarly there is a huge difference between being next to the freeway, and having other buildings act as a sound barrier. It is hard to get away from the air pollution. It doesn’t just sit over the freeway. I had to walk breathing the pollution from the wildfires – at the start of the fires for just under 3/4 hr – and the crap I breathed in had me ill for about 6 weeks. Air pollution is a big deal and is worth thinking about if you have to exert your breathing outside. I would consider buying next to a freeway, but I’d be loathe to buy right up against one – eg without any green belt barrier.
Military contractor suffices? Good to know. Thanks!
Inflation adjusted 1997 pricing takes you to nominal 2000 pricing. That’s 63% off peak.
For the high tier, it’s also 2000 pricing, but only 58% off peak.
Your predictions are drifting closer to mine.
Yes, it is hard to look at the data on the economy and the trend in pricing and not conclude it is going to go lower than most expect. Even the bears may be surprised.
I put together a spreadsheet of what it would take to ‘get back to normal’ based on the 3 different CS tiers and thats about the numbers I came up with.
Problem: that was to get ‘back to normal’. I’m not accounting for overshoot.
I personally think prices will get back to ~2001-02 levels, then interest rates will explode, and prices will drop to 98-99 nominal prices with interest >10%
Thoughts on the viability of that? I’m mostly pulling this out of my arse.
I would absolutely agree, IF I believed financing was returning to the rational standards you describe. Unfortunately I’m not so sure that’s the case.
I’ve had an ongoing conversation with a So Cal mortgage broker (who really drives me crazy by the way) and he sent me this just yesterday:
“Actually with good credit and reserves we can still get a 40% front ratio approved no problem.
I currently have a 20% down purchase in the pipeline that is approved with a 61% back ratio (30% front).
So, while many guidelines have been tightened up, some substantially, we can still approve good borrowers with high DTI.”
Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that lesson has been learned IMO.
Your “home” should be your sanctuary; a quiet, clean, serene location in which to rest and recharge from the bustling southern California world.
Air, noise, and sight pollution are almost never worth the discount. This property has all those negative attributes.
I would rather compromise on square footage than quality of life.
For those of you shopping, I strongly suggest an evening viewing, say 9pm, on any property you’re very interested in. Often times particular background noises or lights are not apparent during the day, drowned out in the light and white noise of a afternoon neighborhood.
For example, even a small residential road winding past your back fence may seem to have limited impacts. But if it has a noticable grade to it you’ll find that in the night silence every SUV powering past is a teeth grinding distraction.
One of the truly great things about living in coastal Southern California is the ability to blur the barrier between indoor and outdoor space, and create outdoor rooms that expand your living space. Any talented architect or landscape designer will start with this premise.
The largest single room in our house is actually outside. When I compare the modest 1800 square foot size of our home to larger homes in hostile climates, I start by using our effective living space, which includes over 500 square feet in outdoor rooms, and no useless space for mudrooms, foyers, parlors, stairwells, walk-in closets or unused formal dining rooms. Also no window coverings, since our location and landscaping gives us privacy at every window location, so we can bring the outdoors in.
Any home within a few hundred yards of a freeway, or backing to a major road surrenders its biggest single asset.
Why live here if you can’t appreciate what we have?
So in answer to the question posed, there’s really no amount of money that would make it acceptable to live next to a freeway.
My pet peeve is these postage sized yards so small that only a table may fit outside with two chairs. Why builders decided to squeeze everyone into these kinds of homes I will never understand.
The quality of life is lost considering we all live in the sun.
When I first moved to the Bay area I was looking for a normal sized lot because I had two dogs. The realtor asked me why I owned dogs.
At least in the OC you can have a dog just carry a lot of little bags with you for the walk you have to take–lol
Oh I know why. If they can sell three homes on a piece of property that should only fit two, and only take a 10% reduction on each for the smaller lot, of course they will do it. Or four on the same property for a 20% reduction.
I can testify to the air quality next to a freeway. I use to live next to the 5 and I always had allergies, but now I live about 5 miles from it, haven’t had one allergy outburst since. Oh, and I had to dust at least 3x a week, things were just covered in dust. My son also had asthma, but he lives near the beach now and is doing a lot better with it.
The dust is worse than the noise IMO. I rented a house off a busy street for two years. The house still had the old single pane windows, which added to the problem. After a few months I realized that the broom, duster and I were fighting a battle we could not win.
25 years ago, a realtor showed us a house that backed up to the freeway.
you couldn’t see it because it was obscured by a wall and landscaping. but you could hear it.
the realtor made no mention of it except to note that it was a little less expensive than nearby houses.
“Yes but you can hear the highway” my wife said
“yes” said the ever optimistic realtor, “It sounds just like a river doesn’t it!”
we immediately canceled the rest of our time with that realtor and moved on to someone else.
We lived 2 doors from the 405 in LB for several years. You do get used to the “howl” of the freeway after a few weeks. It becomes background noise. But the dirt and pollution are another issue. Also the accidents. They can be spectacular. All it takes is a downed tanker and the idea of living next to the freeway takes on a new meaning. We had several fatal accidents where the onramp merged with the freeway right above our house. And as fate would have it. The week we sold that home they started work on the higher sound wall. I would never live that close to a main highway again.
50% off the peak by 2011? does that mean we can buy homes in Irvine for 325K?
http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2009/04/13/calif-to-take-worst-fall/18773/
Now, that’s 50% off state-wide. Riverside is already more than 50% off peak, and the deserts to the east are doing even worse.
I surprised that the house isn’t marketed as easy access to the highway.
I lived half mile downwind from the harbor freeway in the 1970-1980. There was black dust every where. Air pollution those days were much worse than today. Smoke was haze was clearly visible at 200 yards on smoggy days in L.A.
By the way, I’ve also lived in the country and there is a gray to black dust there too. Large pollen and mold pollution — people has extremely bad allergies there. CA coastal allergies are nothing compared to the midwest allergies that lead to chronic infections.
This is one thing that has, and always will baffled me about Irvine. Irvine’s much-touted planning, and they put so many homes right along the freeway or backing up to busy 6-lane roads like Culver. Large earthen berms planted with trees and some green space between the homes and the freeways and roads could have done so much to make the neighborhoods more liveable, but I guess the Irvine Company had to squeeze out every last penny of profit.
Or else the freeway-adjacent homes were Irvine’s version of affordable housing?