There are a few reasons why people would pay premium for Irvine.

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irvinebullhousing said:
IrvineCitizen said:
I always think it's so funny when people get all bent out of shape about the police and the stupid calls they have to respond to.

We lived in Venice Beach for three years and trust me, the police blotter looked the same there. Sure there were murders, gang activity, tourist rip-offs, etc. But there also were thousands of Homeless Woman peeing on Stop Sign, Father yelling at Kid, Cat in neighbor's yard, etc. These are PEOPLE. And there will always be PEOPLE problems.

So they caught a guy that invaded a home and threatened a woman with a knife. It cost 15K. What if it was your Mom. Your daughter. The Irvine PD shut down a neighborhood a couple weeks ago because a guy knocked on a door, when nobody answered he went in and started robbing it when he discovered a 10 year old kid petrified in a closet! The kid called 911 and the Irvine PD SHUT DOWN that damn neighborhood. Nobody in or out. And they nailed the dude.

What this does is make criminals talk. Screw that Irvine shit dude! They'll shut down the whole neighborhood and pull you in! Go into Riverside and they might send one unit 30 minutes later. You'll be having a drink at the bar instead of hiding in the trunk of a car for 10 hours.

I love it. I follow rules. Do I know there are meth houses in Irvine? Hell yeah! Prostitution? Hell yeah! Molesters? Drunk drivers? Crack addicts? Hell yes! They're all here, obviously. And they are in every city in America.

I'm just saying that our PD does a killer job of keeping out the worst of the worst and it's a city that I don't worry when my girlfriend goes out at 8pm to Target to get a bunch of household items.

If you love danger, little police response, no association rules, and a whole lotta "culture" well just buy yourself a nice little place in Baja. It's cheap, there are no rules, you can buy any drugs you want at a pharmacy without a prescription, you can drink at 16 and nobody will care, etc.

I like Irvine. And I'll pay a premium to live here.
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I agree with you completely on this. There is a reputation for Irvine. Sure I will have someone bash me about Irvine. But the fact of the matter is Irvine reputation does not happen by accident or over night. Schools in Irvine does not achieves blue ribbons in one years. It takes a community, its take dedicated citizens, it takes dedicated teacher and police to make a great place to live and Irvine is one of the very few that people often talk about admiringly.

When I travel to China even the merchants there know Irvine and how they would want to send their kids to school here. Especially with the bad rap that happening in California about the our state is going to BK I feel that I am even more fortunate to live in such a great community even during great down turn. Things is still humming along here in Irvine. And I might add that it feel just like another day in park. :-)
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If you think the State of California going down in flames won't effect the City of Irvine, you are sadly mistaken. Last time I check Irvine was not it's own FCB nation. haha
 
Irvine has plenty of crime. I just finished reading IRVINE CRIME on the Register website and there is some seriously hardcore crime happening in the city of Irvine.

for example:

Someone tried to steal a cart full of $228 worth of groceries from Albertson's. They fled the area in a Mercedes Benz.

Suspects were caught taking wine from Olive Garden.

Five men skipped out on a $24 bill from IHOP, leaving in a black Mercedes. (seriously, FIVE people only had a $24 bill?)

Chief Financial Officer of Union Bank has been making unauthorized withdrawals from the company and checking accounts.

Irvine, CA

Two men stole an 18 pack of Bud Light from a gas station.

Someone took five roses from the victim's yard.

Two men took two 30-packs of beer, bottles of rum and vodka and a pack of toilet paper from Albertson's.

Police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing $10 worth of produce from Albertson's. (it was probably one banana)
 
ABC123 said:
Irvine has plenty of crime. I just finished reading IRVINE CRIME on the Register website and there is some seriously hardcore crime happening in the city of Irvine.

for example:

Someone tried to steal a cart full of $228 worth of groceries from Albertson's. They fled the area in a Mercedes Benz.

Suspects were caught taking wine from Olive Garden.

Five men skipped out on a $24 bill from IHOP, leaving in a black Mercedes. (seriously, FIVE people only had a $24 bill?)

Chief Financial Officer of Union Bank has been making unauthorized withdrawals from the company and checking accounts.

Irvine, CA

Two men stole an 18 pack of Bud Light from a gas station.

Someone took five roses from the victim's yard.

Two men took two 30-packs of beer, bottles of rum and vodka and a pack of toilet paper from Albertson's.

Police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing $10 worth of produce from Albertson's. (it was probably one banana)
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Wow. I REALLY feel silly now. Those are some pretty tame crimes. I'm sure if we were to pull stats from REAL cities we'd see this:

Rape

Homicide

Double Homicide

Man kills mother with shovel

Machine gun school shooting

Pedophile ring discovered at camp

Beheading

Assault with hammer with intent to nail victim

Arson - church hate crime

Murder-suicide-Murder (this one is very odd)

So you're probably right. Just a bunch of groceries getting stolen wouldn't even make it into a real citiy's stats.

Wait, I think we were all discussing why people would pay a premium to live in Irvine. I think your blotter just corroborated everything about why we choose to live here. I should have just said, thanks!
 
ABC123 said:
Irvine has plenty of crime. I just finished reading IRVINE CRIME on the Register website and there is some seriously hardcore crime happening in the city of Irvine.

for example:

Someone tried to steal a cart full of $228 worth of groceries from Albertson's. They fled the area in a Mercedes Benz.

Suspects were caught taking wine from Olive Garden.

Five men skipped out on a $24 bill from IHOP, leaving in a black Mercedes. (seriously, FIVE people only had a $24 bill?)

Chief Financial Officer of Union Bank has been making unauthorized withdrawals from the company and checking accounts.

Irvine, CA

Two men stole an 18 pack of Bud Light from a gas station.

Someone took five roses from the victim's yard.

Two men took two 30-packs of beer, bottles of rum and vodka and a pack of toilet paper from Albertson's.

Police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing $10 worth of produce from Albertson's. (it was probably one banana)
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Wow. Albertson's is a hotbed of criminal activity. Good to know.
 
What are we comparing Irvine crime rates to? Are we talking about Irvine vs. Compton, or Irvine vs. Aliso Viejo? Because if you look at the crime rates, then Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Villa Park, and Yorba Linda all have similar or lower crime rates. Wouldn't they command the same premium as Irvine or more since some have lower crime rates? I can tell you that the sheriff responds very quickly in Villa Park, just as quickly as Irvine PD. Does that mean I should be bullish on Villa Park real estate? Because I am not, and I own here. I wish low crime made my house not lose value, but then I understand the rudimentary and very basics of the economics of real estate and micro econ overall.

Then if you go here, you will see that Irvine had 35 calls since 7/1/09. That is more than N. Tustin, Villa Park and Yorba Linda combined. Hell, that is twice as much than Orange had, and even when you adjust for population it is a lower crime rate. Even Huntington Beach (roughly the same population as Irvine) only had 7 more calls than Irvine, and everyone knows how rowdy HB gets during the 4th. Newport was lower too, and it gets really rowdy for the 4th. Ladera Ranch had nothing in that time frame, so wouldn't it command an even higher premium over Irvine?

When I lived in Tustin Ranch, a little girl went missing. Tustin PD was all over it, with their helicopter blaring "Angela, if you are out there do not be afraid, and go home. The police are here to help you." Irvine PD was bored, so they sent over some units too. After about an hour of hoping Angela would be found soon so that I could go to bed, they must of found her. I never witnessed anything like that. Does that mean that Tustin and Tustin Ranch command a similar premium to Irvine?

Or what the point really is, is that cities in low crime rate areas cost more because they are safe? Isn't that why most of Santa Ana (Floral Park, Park Santiago, and few other areas being an exception) has always been cheaper? Yeah, Irvine has low crime, so does Villa Park, N. Tustin, Yorba Linda, etc., but that doesn't make them immune from the bubble bursting. Just look at the ever increasing foreclosures in Irvine...

http://i30.tinypic.com/15yvqxz.jpg

BTW, Irvine hit the 800 mark today. Good job Irvine! For a good comparison, Huntington Beach has about the same population and the same amount of owner occupied housing stock as Irvine, and there they have 75 less in foreclosure. Seems that Irvine is less special than HB.
 
a visiting friends car got broken into at Watermarke; yeah, just to show you how safe a gate is.. well,, the IPD came within 15 minutes.. they actually dust the car for prints! that was very impressive,, LAPD would have just took a report and call it a day, if they showed up at all...
 
graphrix said:
What are we comparing Irvine crime rates to? Are we talking about Irvine vs. Compton, or Irvine vs. Aliso Viejo? Because if you look at the crime rates, then Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Villa Park, and Yorba Linda all have similar or lower crime rates. Wouldn't they command the same premium as Irvine or more since some have lower crime rates? I can tell you that the sheriff responds very quickly in Villa Park, just as quickly as Irvine PD. Does that mean I should be bullish on Villa Park real estate? Because I am not, and I own here. I wish low crime made my house not lose value, but then I understand the rudimentary and very basics of the economics of real estate and micro econ overall.

Then if you go here, you will see that Irvine had 35 calls since 7/1/09. That is more than N. Tustin, Villa Park and Yorba Linda combined. Hell, that is twice as much than Orange had, and even when you adjust for population it is a lower crime rate. Even Huntington Beach (roughly the same population as Irvine) only had 7 more calls than Irvine, and everyone knows how rowdy HB gets during the 4th. Newport was lower too, and it gets really rowdy for the 4th. Ladera Ranch had nothing in that time frame, so wouldn't it command an even higher premium over Irvine?

When I lived in Tustin Ranch, a little girl went missing. Tustin PD was all over it, with their helicopter blaring "Angela, if you are out there do not be afraid, and go home. The police are here to help you." Irvine PD was bored, so they sent over some units too. After about an hour of hoping Angela would be found soon so that I could go to bed, they must of found her. I never witnessed anything like that. Does that mean that Tustin and Tustin Ranch command a similar premium to Irvine?

Or what the point really is, is that cities in low crime rate areas cost more because they are safe? Isn't that why most of Santa Ana (Floral Park, Park Santiago, and few other areas being an exception) has always been cheaper? Yeah, Irvine has low crime, so does Villa Park, N. Tustin, Yorba Linda, etc., but that doesn't make them immune from the bubble bursting. Just look at the ever increasing foreclosures in Irvine...

http://i30.tinypic.com/15yvqxz.jpg

BTW, Irvine hit the 800 mark today. Good job Irvine! For a good comparison, Huntington Beach has about the same population and the same amount of owner occupied housing stock as Irvine, and there they have 75 less in foreclosure. Seems that Irvine is less special than HB.
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It also has a human emotion factor involve call preferences. I agree that all of the area that you listed does have low crimes. But people choose to extend themselves for Irvine for many reasons and one of them include low crimes. During the boom years people not only select Irvine because this is a great place to live but also thought that it was a safer investment. Some or in this case many who bought and abuse the HELOC system would eventually pay for their dirty deed, therefore the foreclosure rate sky rocket. As IR well written in one of his post, foreclosure is the cure. The foreclosure process is needed for those should not have bought in the first place. For those that own a home and raise a family here, and bought pre-bubble era or even in the bubble years but can afford it, this is indifference to us. It really does not matter to me if the price goes up or down 30 % more or less. What really matter to me is that the school systems, accessibility, a sense of well being in a particular environment, a feeling of safety when I take my kid to the playground and not fear that someone would harm him. This is the preference that I choose because Irvine offer all of this and more.

I am not advocating to buy now because Irvine is all that, I do believe prices will come down due to current forces in the market. Home price downward pressure has all factors working against it, Irvine is not immune. All I am saying is for those who bought here and choose to live here and living within their mean, Irvine has a lot to offer.
 
ABC123 said:
Irvine has plenty of crime. I just finished reading IRVINE CRIME on the Register website and there is some seriously hardcore crime happening in the city of Irvine.

for example:

Someone tried to steal a cart full of $228 worth of groceries from Albertson's. They fled the area in a Mercedes Benz.

Suspects were caught taking wine from Olive Garden.

Five men skipped out on a $24 bill from IHOP, leaving in a black Mercedes. (seriously, FIVE people only had a $24 bill?)

Chief Financial Officer of Union Bank has been making unauthorized withdrawals from the company and checking accounts.

Irvine, CA

Two men stole an 18 pack of Bud Light from a gas station.

Someone took five roses from the victim's yard.

Two men took two 30-packs of beer, bottles of rum and vodka and a pack of toilet paper from Albertson's.

Police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing $10 worth of produce from Albertson's. (it was probably one banana)
Click to expand...

from this i would deduce that ppl in irvine really need to drink at all costs... no costs i guess.
 
graphrix said:
What are we comparing Irvine crime rates to? Are we talking about Irvine vs. Compton, or Irvine vs. Aliso Viejo? Because if you look at the crime rates, then Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Villa Park, and Yorba Linda all have similar or lower crime rates. Wouldn't they command the same premium as Irvine or more since some have lower crime rates? I can tell you that the sheriff responds very quickly in Villa Park, just as quickly as Irvine PD.
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playing devils advocate, irvine is a really a mini-metropolis of its own while those other cities are primarily residential. you have the county's CBD, both of the southland's major freeways running through it, several large retail centers, and the county's only commercial airport at its edge - which means huge populations of non-residents moving in and out. statistically-speaking that's usually a recipe for above-average crime. maintaining crime at the level of a VP or RSM, which many OC residents probably couldn't find without a map, is quite impressive.

there might only be a handful of MSAs in the country where a family can find an affordable, yet desirable, suburban lifestyle within a few miles of major areas of commerce. of course OC really isn't comparable to other major metro areas, but even compared to LA, i'd probably be working downtown or in the wilshire/century city business district. one of them i'd have no desire to live anywhere near and the other i wouldn't be able to afford [a home].
 
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