I have heard that the first preference for FCB's in China is Irvine and especially the new construction homes and that they don't look in nearby cities in OC as they have only heard about Irvine back in China and how great the schools are here etc... through their friends and relatives!I actually know a young couple with a newborn that was looking for houses a few years back approaching this price range (they were FCBs originally, but bought in the Bay Area and were looking to move down here). It was important to them that they get a brand new construction, and high schools had to have 10/10 test scores – despite the child not even being in preschool yet. They considered Newport Coast but ultimately got something in Altair without any view at all. At the time, CDM High had lower test scores than Portola High, not sure if that's still true. Like the other poster mentioned, they seemed to like the "newer" parts of Irvine like Orchard Hills and Portola Springs. I could have seen them going for something like Olivewood. Go figure.
Those residing in Newport Coast mostly send their kids to private schools like Sage Hill and don't care about the assigned public schools as much.