[quote author="bkshopr" date=1258339306]The New Home Collection is not leaps and bound from products from a few years ago. Other than the covered patio Oops California Room which can installed for about $5k the products IMO have not been improved from the previous generation of housing.
Buying a resale has more negotiating room vs buying new from a builder.
Here are some ideas that would be leaps and bound: bigger yard and smaller efficient houses, 3 car wide garage, solar roofs, single story house, dual masters one up and one down, no HOA, 8' Virginia Room across the front, symmetry with door at the center, mixing in wood and shingle cottages in the neighborhoods, curvilinear streets, and dedicated guests parking stalls like the model homes. These are simple solutions not requiring sophisticated design skills.</blockquote>
all ideal desirable things; however i think that most of those things (big footprint single levels or first floor masters, 3 car garages, porches, balanced architecture, landscaped streetscapes, etc) would require the icdc to give out more generous homesites to the homebuyer and that won't happen without a big premium price point adequate enough (in their eyes) to compensate the irvine company for the extra land.
even if you take a look at the land lyon bought from the school district they paid 2mm per acre which will work out to around 270k per raw lot add to this like 100k per lot for demo/engg/improvements/fees/etc. all said and done after you build the home and add a reasonable profit in the finished homes will start in the 800s minimum if not 900s-1mm+ on small lots. those will be infill sites and the mello roos may not be that high.