Irvine wannabe..?

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ivcwannabe_IHB

New member
<p>What should we look for in buying a home in Irvine? it seems there's alot of skepticism here and hopefully that's not the overall opinion of Irvine..or have things changed..</p>

<p>I've noticed many are the 3bd 2ba SFR's in our price range of $650K. I grew up in SoCal and know Irvine has always been a nice to live. We have a 4y/o and 2 y/o and obviously the schools are very important in the decision making. I've seen NUMEROUS listing for 3 and 4 br detached townhomes that seem very nice and possible within our range. We plan on being part and making Irvine our "nest" for quite some time and this move to Irvine maybe our last.</p>

<p>Now the HOA's and Mello Roos are new to me and I assume will add on somewhat/immensely to our monthly payment..but how much? (is there an expected average to expect?)</p>

<p>A friend of ours said that property tax in Irvine was 2%! GULP..but maybe with all the HOA's and Mello Roos that's not far fetched...or is it?</p>

<p>Any recommendations overall and where to look? Isn't all of Irvine great? </p>
 
Several neighborhoods approach a 2% tax rate when you add the 1% property tax and the mello roos. At least the mello roos will go away in time, so the proposition 13 limits will be in effect. The HOA is another matter. Most are high, and some are not.
 
<p>hmm..do HOA's cover anything besides community pools, parks, etc...? I've heard insurance is included?</p>

<p>What are the important questions to ask an Irvine realtor? How is the Northwood community? Are there "not so great" areas in Irvine? </p>

<p>Should I try to get a true "house" or a detached townhome? What things should I look for to sway our decision to one or the other?</p>
 
<p>ivcwannabe,</p>

<p>I helped many families with school age children into happy homes. Since your kids are approaching elementary, you want to stay with newer neighborhoods so there are plenty of childen who are going to neighborhood schools.</p>

<p>Take zip 92604, homes are 30+ years so most children have grown up, some elementary schools have been closed down.</p>

<p>Best to be as close to school as possible. Walking distance is best.</p>

<p>Popular zips are 92602 and 92620, minimum age 1997. Total tax with included mello-roos ranges from 1.2% - 1.6%. Most HOAs are around $0 - $140 for SFS, $170 - $320 for condos. Fire insurance, common wall, roofs, and outside maintenance are included in condo HOA.</p>

<p>I believe you get what you pay for; therefore, it is really a matter of preference, true "house" or detached townhome. The difference between the two types is the land size. Smaller land, smaller price.</p>
 
HOA fees pay some liability and disaster insurance, such as fire. Flood and earthquake insurance is optional. Some also include trash and water fees.





On detached home vs. town home or row-house, what's more important is how much you like living there and its surroundings. It could be the best quality house in the area, but if you hate living there, then it's not worth the money.





However, I would suggest that if you ever look at attached town-homes or condos, go for the new-ish ones built in 1990's or 2000's. Less termite and maintenance issues. Some old communities have a lot of things that need repaired but the HOA doesn't have the $$ to do it.





It's a lot easier to tent your "detached" property for termite fumigation, versus an attached condo where you have to get everyone in the structure to agree.
 
The great older areas that I would recommend are Turtle Rock(best schools in Irvine), Woodbridge and University park. Many of the original owners are downsizing or dieing and they are being replaced with young families like us. The older areas usually are less dense, have more parks, off street walking paths and have nice mature landscaping. Check out the fantastic neighborhood posts on the main blog page.





I have to disagree with Nirvinerealtor. I believe that these older areas of Irvine are the best of Irvine. There are plenty of kids here. Check out the woodbridge lagoons during a summer weekend and you'll see.





The tax rate for the older areas hovers just above 1% and they have no mello roos. The HOA's tend to be $50-70 for the master HOA and $300-$400 for condo HOAs.





The best bet would be to just walk all the neighborhoods.
 
<p>From a schools point of view - being that I graduated from UCI and taught at various Irvine high schools- there are some social differences in the communities. Although Irvine is physically nice, clean, and mostly homogenous; the demographics vary a bit around the different school sites.</p>

<p>Woodbridge High - The kids there are more physically active and are very involved in sports. Thus the area is renowned for its focus on recreational and outdoor activities.</p>

<p>Northwood High - The area, and especially the school, is relatively new. So the place is good for new families looking to start new relationships with new neighbors.</p>

<p>University High - This is perhaps one of the most prestigious/competitive high school in Orange County. The kids are very motivated, knowledgeable, and worldly. Very typical of parents to be doctors, lawyers, business owners, etc. Greatly influenced by Newport Beach due to its proximity.</p>

<p>Irvine High - Perhaps the only area that might be considered somewhat diverse. The kids/people are more similar to the OC demographic in general.</p>

<p>But overall, all the schools are great. The differences are primarily social. I guess some areas are older than others. But for me, people are always more important than places. So it's up to you to decide who your kids will play with and how your neighbors will be.</p>

<p> </p>
 
<p>It is really unfortunate that the inner city schools have a bad reputation. Family migrates to the suburb because of it. I found the initial immigrants to this country mostly started their lives in the inner-city. I fit into this demographic. Yes, schools were bad but the social climate taught the students to be street smart and motivated some student to study harder to get out of the slum. Although many failed to succeed some of the brightest mind and leaders in our master planned society came from such a background. </p>

<p>We live in a disposable society. When we are discontent with the schools and neighborhoods we simply move away and to a better place like Irvine. I did exactly that. For many years I thought everything is Irvine is much better than the rest of the world. I dined mostly at chained restaurants and shopped only at national retailers. Eating at Cheesecake factory and Claim Jumper really impressed my foreign relatives. They thought I was savvy. I had forgotten my identity. I wanted to forget my childhood in the ghettos where I ate at cheap mom and pop restaurants.</p>

<p>I thought the neighborhood that I grew up in was not pretty and not kept up well. The notion of a higher class highly communities should have manicured landscape, formulated bike path and sidewalk and uniformly spaced light poles with exactly a 1/2 foot-candles on any ground surfaces. It is a dream of every immigrant to show their relatives that “I’ve made it" Irvine is such a community that resonates highly in the immigrants' circle. This is one of the reason the population is 35 % Asian and another 25% for various ethnicities. </p>

<p>Many immigrants were a victim of crime. Burglary, robbery and discrimination are common. The psychological scars dictate future decision and selection of home location. At least in my experience as a victim I chose my home in a well lit neighborhood with many light poles and wider streets. If I am being attacked there is plenty of room on the street to run. The regimented setback for homes makes it difficult for intruders to hide and any one walking on the sidewalk is easily detected. </p>

<p>I have gone back to my root and realized that I have made mistakes in leaving my society behind. I felt ashamed of my immigrant upbringings and thought I could set myself apart by assimilating into the American population. My life became a sheep and lost my identity among the Joneses.</p>

<p>Psychological marketing is incredibly powerful in positioning house and neighborhood designs. I used my identity crisis to position products to target home buyers and especially to the Asian buyers. If you are not parking your car in your garage then you are my targeted consumers.</p>
 
Consider the Quail Hill area (south of the 405 at Sand Canyon exit). The prices there are close to your range and should drop even further. I currently rent there in an attached condo and love it. I had sold my 3/3 detached condo there last year but couldn't leave the area.





It is the cheapest(?) "hilly" part of Irvine (with the exception of a part of Portola Springs) and does feel distinctly different/better from the flat Northpark, Woodbury, Woodbrige, Oak Creek, Northwood, etc. The slopes with their landscaping give the Quail Hill community a more open feel even in the higher density parts. There could be a drawback in that there are coyotes here, which may be an issue if you have small dogs that you take out often.





bkshopr -- From a defensive standpoint, I would think that there would be fewer criminals lurking around the Quail Hill area as criminals are basically lazy and would not want to climb hills. Even if they did, they probably would not stay on the slopes long as there are a lot of bugs and spiders in the hillside landscaping. Anyone on the slopes also can't run down that fast as he would have to crash through the shrubs. A correlate to urban blight issues is the number of pitbulls that one can see in an area. So far I fhave not seen one pitbull--I have only seen one Rottweiller that is infrequently walked, and couple Boston terriers who don't appear that threatening. That's basically it from the "fighting dog" category.
 
<p>Alright, we got to drive around and kid of got a feel of the old vs. the new..I remember the the old and still had that quaint/charm appeal.. the newer areas were nice too. We were looking at:</p>

<p>30 Appomattox (MLS #S488817) and 8 Calandria (MLS #S472782)</p>

<p>neighborhood seemed really nice..</p>

<p>Any comments/reviews on these areas? </p>
 
IMO Fullerton has done a good job in revitalizing its downtown area (Harbor & Chapman/Commonwealth). I graduated from Fullerton JC & CSUF and like the city, so am going to give the city a cheer here. Come visit downtown Fullerton on New Year's eve, free admission & lots of fun with great firework show from the parking structure.





However I'd also note that Fullerton's success is probably due to its unique mix of old-timer & young college demographics. The city only suffered partial "white flight" to the south and gets an influx of new blood to the colleges every year, plus some Korean immigration from Buena Park to the west. The result is some rather unique places like Gallery Cafe Veronese (419 W. Commonwealth, @ Commonwealth & Richman) that you won't find in cookie-cutter Irvine. It's also a very good example of what can be done to an existing house in an existing neighborhood, without bulldozing everything to build yet another generic chain store.





Unfortunately, when it comes to "revitalization" plans, it usually means bulldozing older, affordable housing and driving out people from lower socio-economic status and replacing them with richer and more desirable demographics. It's like some weird white flight cycle where people run away from declining neighborhood, poor people move in, then developers come in to steamroll the whole neighborhood, then rebuild to bring the people who ran away back. Look east from Fullerton to a little city called Placentia, the socio-economic divide between north and south from Chapman ave. is bleak. Developers would love to move into the historic Santa Fe area of Southern Placentia and bulldoze the entire neighborhood to turn it into a shiny new rail station and commercial & residental complex, while residents dug their nails in on the last piece of affordable housing in the area.




 
<p> </p>

<p>Many other cities recognize the biggest asset in their towns is the fabric of historic architecture that is friendly from the sidewalk. These magnificent buildings were created during the time when vehicular consideration was voluntary. As a result the facade is much more engaging to the street instead of a huge setback to make room for a field of parking. </p>

<p>Visionary guidance must start at the City politicians. Old Town Pasadena, Historic State Street in Santa Barbara and the Third Street Promenade are three of the most successful revitalizations. All were in bad shape and neglected for many years until the mid 80's. Pimps, drug dealers and XXX rated Pussycat theaters were the problem of these urban blight. Fullerton also had a similar problem. </p>

<p>These places are places that attract people form far away. Parking is not convenient like Irvine but people adapt and live with it. Shoppers stay for at least half a day. The retail and parking structure density is extremely dense but the nearby home neighborhoods are extremely spacious and generous. Shoppers will walk if parking is limited. It is much healthier for all of us to do some walking instead of buying a treadmill and another extra room in a mcmansion to house it.</p>

<p>Here in Irvine we have the exact opposite. The home neighborhoods are extremely dense and tight while the retails are extremely spacious surrounded by multi acres of parking lot and access roads. Citizens' combining effort for change could make Irvine an even much better place. Many may disagree form my point of view. Some might even argue "that is what vacations are for" to travel to exotic places in Asia or Europe were I can experience this unique urban fabric. Would it be nice if this environment is in our backyard?</p>

<p>We are responsible for this culture. Our local building departments demand this from the developers to provide sea of parking for retails and extra wide roads for emergency vehicles in home neighborhoods. This extra land for our vehicular maneuvering is coming out from our backyard and the distance between neighbors. If we continue to drive from retail anchor to another we will never have a retail and business downtown that will sustain the viability of high-rise living.</p>

<p>Large chain stores and restaurants are in Irvine because of the Landlord. The best centers are owned by the same landlord. To lease a space retailers and restaurant owners must demonstrate a financial portfolio and track record to qualify. Most mom and pop operators in TIC’s point of view are considered risky and do not contribute success to the center. In addition all do not have a corporate and business financial portfolio. There are a few retail centers not owned by TIC that have some mom and pop operations and some ethnic restaurants.</p>

<p>Place making takes much more than from a home neighborhood level it extends out on to the neighborhood centers and beyond. Development standards set by the city IMO is the biggest setback for our urban landscape. I understand the issues for safety, vehicular convenience, and liability. Many of the older towns endured and are doing extremely well. Planners and architects are learning from these old places but the government bureaucracy is the biggest stumbling block for Irvine to grow out of the suburbia.</p>

<p> </p>
 
No. It means that the lender has to approve the amount that you are paying for the place. Can't lowball or even offer much below asking since the lender is already losing money on the sale.
 
ivc, the lender or bank that made the mortgage has to agree to the short sale amount. They eat the loss. You are not responsible.
 
schb - This is probably petty, but I am a tax nerd. I think that it is indeed a 1099 that is sent, but I think it is a "C" or different letter depending on the type of loan forgiven, and not a "misc" which is usually taxed at the marginal tax rate as income earned.
 
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