This is one is even more insane. Excuse me, $3m for 2k sqft, with no view of any kind at all and small lots? I now really think Irvine is very affordable compared to Palisades.
Orchard Hills 4 - "The Summit" Updates
- Thread starter ratchet_resident
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NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
This is one is even more insane. Excuse me, $3m for 2k sqft, with no view of any kind at all and small lots? I now really think Irvine is very affordable compared to Palisades.
The prices are crazy… But we’ve all been saying that since 2006!
We're both super happy with our house purchases, and really, a five bedroom plus office would be ideal, but even those are hard to find for 4M or less in OC these days.
So yeah, I'm guessing going from a 5M house to a 7M house is almost no lifestyle change. Maybe if you could get one of those huge mansions in Shady Canyon then it's worth it.
ScubaSteve, are you in the medical field or tech? Or something else?
HOA is ~$385/mo; this has gone up from $289 when we first moved in but thankfully not $1000 like the Summit!
Yard maintenance: $90/mo
Pool maintenance: $100/mo
Insurance: $2k/yr; probably going up this year due to LA fires
Property tax+MR: $40k/yr (hoping for some improvements to SALT deductions happen next year)
Total ~49k/yr (eeks!)
Super happy with our floorplan (5bed + office + close off conservatory); end unit so only one neighbor and no one behind us. Doesn't make sense for us to move/upgrade to something double the price. Just wished we had a 3CG (or 4 like the TB homes in the Vistas!).
Property taxes are ~$1100 a month, no mello roos since it's Baker Ranch, HOA is less than $300, insurance is cheaper than that, and landscape is ~$100.
I don't have a pool, my lot size is only ~4500 sq ft, but that's still a nice sized yard considering the houses I was looking at in Irvine for this price range.
Wow, 5bed + office, that is the dream. Did you pay a lot premium to be able to fit a pool?
I did... the lot premium was $300k for ~just under 8k sqft.
I don't think I agree at all when it comes to a mortgage. People need a place to live. If you're going to spend 4k on housing your family, it doesn't really become 'bad' if it's in the form of a mortgage and negligible to your financial health if it's renting.
Plus, I'd rather have 10M and be 5M in debt than have 2M and have 0 debt...
This is one is even more insane. Excuse me, $3m for 2k sqft, with no view of any kind at all and small lots? I now really think Irvine is very affordable compared to Palisades.
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scubasteve
Active member
I'll probably get flamed for this but here's another way of thinking. I used to save all my $ and one day my boss asked me, "What are you doing saving all this? Will you spend it when you are 70 and an old P.O.S. (no offense to any 70 year olds out there!)"
We stretched ourselves to get into OH in 2021 during COVID. $3m new home + 500k for a dream backyard/pool; 4.25% interest, $10k mortgage. Fortunate to keep our old house w/ a low mortgage on 2.5% interest ($2k). Renting it out for $6k to help offset new mortgage. Yes, we owe tons of HOA and property tax ($55k for both houses per year).
Kids were in elementary and oldest was heading into middle school so it was move now or never since I didn't want to move them in H.S.
Both houses have nearly doubled in value and worst case if anything happened we could always sell and take a profit so it's not like our money is gone. Sure I could've had a better return if I threw it all in NVDA but I have a home that my family can enjoy for years to come.
With that being said, $5-10m is on a whole different level! But I've been on this forum since 2006 and got sh*t when I bought my first home in 2010 for 650k, 2nd home in 2015 for 1.1m and 3rd home in 2021 for 3m! Only you know what you are comfortable with paying.
Good luck to everyone out there!
We stretched ourselves to get into OH in 2021 during COVID. $3m new home + 500k for a dream backyard/pool; 4.25% interest, $10k mortgage. Fortunate to keep our old house w/ a low mortgage on 2.5% interest ($2k). Renting it out for $6k to help offset new mortgage. Yes, we owe tons of HOA and property tax ($55k for both houses per year).
Kids were in elementary and oldest was heading into middle school so it was move now or never since I didn't want to move them in H.S.
Both houses have nearly doubled in value and worst case if anything happened we could always sell and take a profit so it's not like our money is gone. Sure I could've had a better return if I threw it all in NVDA but I have a home that my family can enjoy for years to come.
With that being said, $5-10m is on a whole different level! But I've been on this forum since 2006 and got sh*t when I bought my first home in 2010 for 650k, 2nd home in 2015 for 1.1m and 3rd home in 2021 for 3m! Only you know what you are comfortable with paying.
Good luck to everyone out there!
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Imnotmoving
Member
Here is how I feel about all these homes. Live below your means. It’s way less stressful. If 5 m is that number for you, that’s great. But there is no house worth working yourself to death or worrying about paying for to me. And if you can retire early, family time is irreplaceable.
scubasteve
Active member
Agree on the family time for sure. They say you will have spent 50% of your time with your kids when they start H.S. And 90% of the time with them when they finish. Of course this is different for everyone but based on my own experience I moved to Irvine for college and never moved back home. I still remember my mom crying when she moved me into the dorms as if she knew what I know now. Don’t get me wrong we still see each other for the holidays and I wish they were closer but this goes back to the question my boss asked me years ago. This was a big factor for us to make the leap in 2021!
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You must have over $5m equity in your houses now! Congrats!
Would you consider buying those +$7m new homes that will be built by TB at OH? I think you can totally afford it!
scubasteve
Active member
Lol no I can’t. Plus, they don’t offer anything new in terms of functionality to our current house.
The prices are crazy… But we’ve all been saying that since 2006!
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ThirtySomethingWEquity
Active member
yeah that's a good point, my friend has a ~5M house in orchard hills, and compared to my ~2M house in Lake Forest, what he has is huge bedrooms and a super awesome backyard and pool. But house wise, it's not a huge step up. It's nice that the kids rooms are gigantic, but he doesn't have more bedrooms. We both have a big loft. We both have a huge kitchen (though mine is even larger). We both have a big enough living room.
We're both super happy with our house purchases, and really, a five bedroom plus office would be ideal, but even those are hard to find for 4M or less in OC these days.
So yeah, I'm guessing going from a 5M house to a 7M house is almost no lifestyle change. Maybe if you could get one of those huge mansions in Shady Canyon then it's worth it.
ScubaSteve, are you in the medical field or tech? Or something else?
ThirtySomethingWEquity
Active member
I don't think I ever figured it out. AMZN? Broadcom?
panda
Well-known member
ThirtySomething, Scuba Steve, Calbears97, and ThirtySomething's friend who owns a $5M home. Would guys care to share the size of your mortgage on your primary residences valued between $2M to $5M.
I ask out of genuine curiousity to see what the equity vs loan looks like for luxury homes at this value in Irvine/Lake Forest. Also if you didnt have a mortgage on your home and owned your home free and clear, what is your annual carrying cost to live in type of home valued between $2M - $5M ( Taxes, HOA, Insurance, Landscaping, etc.)
I ask out of genuine curiousity to see what the equity vs loan looks like for luxury homes at this value in Irvine/Lake Forest. Also if you didnt have a mortgage on your home and owned your home free and clear, what is your annual carrying cost to live in type of home valued between $2M - $5M ( Taxes, HOA, Insurance, Landscaping, etc.)
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CalBears96
Well-known member
I thought you figured it out. Maybe it was MCC that figured it out. I did mention that my drive to work is less than 15 minutes.
scubasteve
Active member
My mortgage is $2M on my primary; put $1M down.
HOA is ~$385/mo; this has gone up from $289 when we first moved in but thankfully not $1000 like the Summit!
Yard maintenance: $90/mo
Pool maintenance: $100/mo
Insurance: $2k/yr; probably going up this year due to LA fires
Property tax+MR: $40k/yr (hoping for some improvements to SALT deductions happen next year)
Total ~49k/yr (eeks!)
In tech but won't disclose more for privacy reasons.
Super happy with our floorplan (5bed + office + close off conservatory); end unit so only one neighbor and no one behind us. Doesn't make sense for us to move/upgrade to something double the price. Just wished we had a 3CG (or 4 like the TB homes in the Vistas!).
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ThirtySomethingWEquity
Active member
I owe about 700k on my mortgage, the rate is about as low as it gets too.
Property taxes are ~$1100 a month, no mello roos since it's Baker Ranch, HOA is less than $300, insurance is cheaper than that, and landscape is ~$100.
I don't have a pool, my lot size is only ~4500 sq ft, but that's still a nice sized yard considering the houses I was looking at in Irvine for this price range.
NP, i'm in tech too, at one of the big ones down here in the local OC office.
Wow, 5bed + office, that is the dream. Did you pay a lot premium to be able to fit a pool?
scubasteve
Active member
I did... the lot premium was $300k for ~just under 8k sqft.
panda
Well-known member
Thanks for replying. $700k mortgage on a $2M house is a 35% debt to house value ratio. Think of your Personal Finance like your Physical Fitness. If debt is fat, 35% is not super fit, nor are you obese. I am not going to ask you for your networth because that could be a bit sensitive to ask. Let's assume you are a very successful Tech entrepeneur and you have a net worth of $4.5M. Assuming you have no other debts ( school loans, credit card debt, car loans, medical loans etc, a $700,000 debt his roughly 15% debt / networth ratio which is very healthy financial picture. A Professional tennis player has about 15% body fat, whereas a Professional Swimmer has a body fat of 12%.
You are in much healthier financially vs the guy who owns a $3M house in OH with a $2M mortgage on it, who may be Income Statement rich, but Balance Sheet poor. So the older you get, the more financially fit you should be.
You are in much healthier financially vs the guy who owns a $3M house in OH with a $2M mortgage on it, who may be Income Statement rich, but Balance Sheet poor. So the older you get, the more financially fit you should be.
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ThirtySomethingWEquity
Active member
I don't think I agree at all when it comes to a mortgage. People need a place to live. If you're going to spend 4k on housing your family, it doesn't really become 'bad' if it's in the form of a mortgage and negligible to your financial health if it's renting.
Plus, I'd rather have 10M and be 5M in debt than have 2M and have 0 debt...
scubasteve
Active member
I won’t get into too much here but this goes back to my original comment of only you knowing what you are comfortable paying.
Leveraging debt can be a good thing; 4.25% interest wrt to my risk profile is still low vs. the opportunity costs to invest elsewhere.
Panda’s been on the forum for a long time so I’m familiar with his risk profile. If I had listened to him 15 years ago then I’d probably be posting to you all in Georgia to give advice on TalkIrvine…
With that being said, wow, 15 years (more like 20 years if you were here with us when we were all on the Irvine Housing Blog in 2006) is a heck of a long time and it’s really cool to go back in time and revisit all our posts/concerns about the Irvine housing market and to see where it is today!
Leveraging debt can be a good thing; 4.25% interest wrt to my risk profile is still low vs. the opportunity costs to invest elsewhere.
Panda’s been on the forum for a long time so I’m familiar with his risk profile. If I had listened to him 15 years ago then I’d probably be posting to you all in Georgia to give advice on TalkIrvine…
With that being said, wow, 15 years (more like 20 years if you were here with us when we were all on the Irvine Housing Blog in 2006) is a heck of a long time and it’s really cool to go back in time and revisit all our posts/concerns about the Irvine housing market and to see where it is today!
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scubasteve
Active member
I am not sure where you are at in life and home ownership but I will say life is short but there's always time to make the change you want to see. Want to work for a tech company and get RSUs but no engineering background? Get a project management certification (< 1 year) and be a PM to get your foot in the door (PMs also get RSUs at many tech companies). Contribute via time management/administrative work to make others around you better. Learn about the products and product dev cycle so you can make (data driven) decisions in the face of uncertainty. Learn how to communicate effectively. Network and build relationships. Lots of opportunities left out there!
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