North Tustin?

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newbie27_IHB

New member
We're moving to Orange County and were looking online at homes in Tustin Ranch and Irvine, but most lots in the 1 to 1.2 million range are SMALL. Not what we're used to. We noticed that there's an area next to Tustin Ranch in the 92705 (Santa Ana/North Tustin) zip code with LARGE lots. Most listed homes were built in the 50s/60s. There seems to be no mello roos and a low tax rate base.

Can anyone tell us about this area? Is it less desirable? How are the schools?

Thank you.
 
Hello Newbie27,

By North Tustin are you referring to the north part of Tustin (City), or North Tustin community in the unincorporated area of Tustin Foothills (i.e. Lemon Heights, Red Hill, etc)?

Generally speaking the communities in Tustin Foothills are wealtheir than those in Tustin, but I think they're all part of the Tustin Unified School District.

If you're new to Tustin, I recommend dining at Zovs (www.zovs.com). Restaurant in front, bakery in back...
 
newbie27,

You are smart to consider how good school is as it is a very important consideration for most people. Check out the school district and then look them up here: http://www.bestschool.com
 
Hello.

I'm referring to the Tustin foothills.

The MLS says the schools are Arroyo, Hewes, and Foothill. I'll check out the bestschool website.
 
newbie27, In addtion, you also must check the school website for current and future assignment. As the demographic changes, the school boundaries change as well to accommodate students of all ages.
 
I like North Tustin quite a bit, and we were looking around there ourselves until the wheels came off the wagon price-wise. You can find both good and bad there. I know someone that lives in the neighborhood who complained about expansive soils, so I would recommend having your inspector do a really good check of the foundation and structure. From word of mouth, the schools you mentioned are among the best in the district. The only other thing I would mention is that most of those homes were built in an era when electricity was cheap, and are not very energy efficient. But the average lot size .... Oh, the average lot size!
 
I know the 92705 area fairly well as I used to work in an office right in that area. I personally love the houses in that area. You are right, most of the lots there are 7500 sq ft and larger with some being even 15,000 sq ft!

As far as the neighborhood, it gets really nice east of Newport away from the main streets. Also, the hills are extremely nice and you get some great views up there - panorama heights, cowan heights, lemon heights.

I would stay away from anything south of 17th or west of Hewes - nothing bad but too close to the businesses and main streets.
 
I'm North Tustin for the last 20 years and attended Arroryo/Hewes/Foothill. Awesome schools, but because they're TUSD, they all have to pull from the poor areas in the name of "equality." Message me newbie and I'd be glad to give you the low-down. It's great, and it's secluded. The drawback is having to drive far to stores, etc. But living on 20,000sqft beats the hell out some of the postage stamps in Irvine. . .
 
Two other things that may or may not be important to you: sidewalks and open trenches for gutters. Some portions of N. Tustin don't have sidewalks. Thus, if you want to go for a walk in the evening, you have to walk in the street. I saw a three person family out for a walk once, and they had flashlights tethered to their waistbands to let traffic know that they were there.

The gutters in some areas are open trenches whose tops start at sidewalk and street level and whose bottoms are about 2.5 - 3 feet below. I'm not sure it's that big a deal, and I think the County is slowly converting them due to run-off issues.
 
newbie27 - what size lots are you looking for? If you want 5000-7500 sq lots and newer homes, you can go a little more into the hills past N. Tustin and there are a bunch of communities built in the 90's up there. The city is technically Orange. Look up the area around Santiago Canyon College.

I love that area cause it feels like Irvine but less flat and more hilly. Also, it doesn't have the same taxes and its easy to get to places like the Marketplace.
 
Thanks all for your insights. This forum is great to get to get this tyye of info.

I'm considering properties off of Skyline and in the Hyde Park area which is east of Newport. I prefer something in the 12,000 to 18,000 SF range. I'm not too concerned about the condition of the house, it just needs to have "good bones" to accomodate a remodel. I'm just not into getting a 3000 SF house on a 4500 SF lot and paying a 1.8% property tax and a monthly association fee on top of that. Doesn't appeal to us. We like to have plenty of room for our kids to play and our dog without having to play in the streets and be near to keep an eye on.

I hear the N. Tustin area gets great service from the County because the "voices" in the community.
 
It is a great area. I share your same thoughts on big lot, low taxes and no HOAs. What is funny is that many share the same opinion. I am a housing bear but this area just hasn't seen the price drops and places are still selling. My best friend lives on La Colina and we always talk about the market and he always has an example of high priced sale. He wants to find a bigger place so he keeps up with the market on a weekly basis. There is one REO closer to Red Hill but it is a dump. I wish you luck on finding a place there. You would think that there would be must sell inventory there just like everywhere else. Maybe this summer.
 
This is kind of off topic but if you're ever near Old Town Tustin and have a hankering for authentic Japanese food, Honda-Ya has to be one of the most authentic Japanese restaurants in Orange County. It's a pub (izakaya) environment and the food is great. There was a time I went there at least twice a week.

Honda-Ya
 
Irvine_grad,

That place rocks! cheap too

But i don't know i have the courage to eat half of the items they have on the skewered menu
 
Honda-Ya is great. The Italian Restaurant across the street also has good food at reasonable prices. Just discovered Noodle Avenue in the large strip shopping center on the NE corner of El Camino Real and Red Hill. I think the North Tustin area is extremely over-priced. Most of what you get are very old, outdated and smaller (less than 2,000 square foot) homes for around 1 mil. I don't care about the large lot. Just more grass to cut. Not much else to do with it.
 
waiting2buylater,

Actually, there are some decent deals like the ones below if you looked hard enough:

MLS: S464130

http://www.ziprealty.com/buy_a_home/logged_in/search/home_detail.jsp?listing_num=S464130&page=1&property_type=SFR&mls=mls_so_cal&cKey=pg7x362w&source=SOCALMLS

MLS: P563842

http://www.homeseekers.com/Scripts/detail.asp?_org_id=oc&_cstm=0&mls_property_id=P563842&_lid=0&_ver=5

The second one is an REO that just went into escrow,.
 
If you're looking for a big-lot home near Irvine, I think North Tustin is one of few affordable possibilities. However those resale homes tend to be quite old. Some people are okay with big yards and older homes that are kidna dark inside. Others prefer new homes with lots of windows to make it shiny and bright.

Honda-Ya is a neat yakitori place, I prefer shinsengumi but these places take a long time to get your food, so I wouldn't recommend taking any "fast food nation" friends who start popping veins if they don't get their food in 5 min. Also, IMO Japanese restaurants in Costa Mesa is better, try South Coast Plaza area, Ango Tei at 675 Paularino for sush (ask for the "shrimp boat" sushi), the Japanese BBQ place at 891 Baker (at Baker & Bear), and desert at Cafe Blanc (www.cafeblanc.us). To get even better stuff, you'd have to drive to Torrance/Lomita to places like Tamaen ($$). Itadakimasu!
 
Thanks terago. I actually drove by the 2nd one a few weeks ago. Circular Panorama is kinda isolated. I think if I live there and have a party, most of my friends would get lost .

The first one looks pretty nice but I think if I wait another year or 2, I can pick and choose. Thanks!
 
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