Homebuyer poll!!

[winterblues]

Hi everyone! I've lurked here for a few months, this is my first post. I'm a mom in my late 30s, we have two young children. My husband and I owned a 2-bedroom condo in West Irvine and were looking to move up to a 3 bedroom to accommodate our growing family. Our budget was max 850k. We were offered a couple homes in Eastwood Village--Petaluma and Helena, but ultimately passed. A few months ago, we bought a detached condo in Woodbury and couldn't be happier. We love the amenities and the feel of our micro-neighborhood. It's very diverse and has lots of young families. I enjoyed browsing TI to get perspective on buying and selling in Irvine, and to get insight on the different villages.

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Congrats on your happy home.

 

[UnderContract]

Let's get back to UnderContract's conundrum because most of us who have already bought may have found ourselves in his/her position at some point.

Can you give us a Redfin sample of homes you have looked at but decided not to buy? You can even give us an example of homes you are currently looking at (since most of us have bought, I don't think you will find competition from us).

I would think you can find a driveway nice SFR from $1.25m in north OC but I'm not sure what cities you mean by that. Tustin? Orange? Anaheim? Yorba Linda?

Edit: Driveway confusion.

 

[winterblues]

@CompressedVillage--Thank you! I wish we could have afforded this budget a few years ago, this could have put us into a single family home. Now I feel like we will never be able to move up. But hopefully we'll be happy here for a while.

 

[bones]

Let's get back to UnderContract's conundrum because most of us who have already bought may have found ourselves in his/her position at some point.

Can you give us a Redfin sample of homes you have looked at but decided not to buy? You can even give us an example of homes you are currently looking at (since most of us have bought, I don't think you will find competition from us).

I would think you can find a driveway nice SFR from $1.25m in north OC but I'm not sure what cities you mean by that. Tustin? Orange? Anaheim? Yorba Linda?

Edit: Driveway confusion.

Outside of Irvine, we have mostly been looking in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.

We have also looked at a couple of houses in other neighboring cities. We have been house hunting for awhile but a bulk of that time has been spent narrowing down cities, figuring out commutes, school districts, etc. Not a quick process.

I can sympathize.  We did 6 months of research into Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills before figuring out it didn't work for us.  It takes a lot of time to figure out a new city, the lay of the land, etc.  Good luck!

 

[realEstatey]

Hello! Same here. millennial that just put down a deposit on an "entry" level town home in great park. My fiance and I considered a lot of opinions on TI before putting down the deposit. However, we quickly found out that a yard was a luxury we might have to forgo since we aren't quite in the 1 million + mortgage range yet.

You bought Muse, right? Isn't Deco a detached home in Cadence park with a lower starting price?

Yup, went with Muse.

The smallest Deco ~1600 sq/ft with 2 bdrm 2.5 baths was the only one in our price range. We got a ~1900 sq/ft 4 bdrm 3.5 bath for slightly more. I think Muse is the way to go if you're willing to deal with shared walls. My fiance and I are planning to start a family, so the 4 bedrooms will com in handy.

 

[kbinteriordesign]

Yup, went with Muse.

The smallest Deco ~1600 sq/ft with 2 bdrm 2.5 baths was the only one in our price range. We got a ~1900 sq/ft 4 bdrm 3.5 bath for slightly more. I think Muse is the way to go if you're willing to deal with shared walls. My fiance and I are planning to start a family, so the 4 bedrooms will com in handy.

Congratulations to you guys and good luck on starting a family! Buying a home and having a family are both very special!