Eastwood Village - what's the consensus today?

[YellowFever]

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[pricedoutJay]

I'm not talking about chinese (Trump tone) buyers. Let me tell you this, many people got burned or shall I say kicked out of their homes because they bought during the peak last cycle. (Because they got arm loans, bought too many properties, price drop and walked away, took a loan on their house and paid for vacations or college tuition but couldn't pay it back)

I would wait in see who knows what will happen when he comes in office. If their is a US border tax (recent Trump tweet re border tax) good luck with car industry, apparel, electronics. People won't spend. Top it off with a trade war with China, and don't forget about North Korea.

I thought as you did back then but this time would be very different.  People got kicked out because they couldn't afford them mortgage when jobs went away, income went down, interest only reset, and folks lied on their loan app.  This time, even if you are very qualified, you have to go through so many steps to get approved.  Also if FOBs are putting down 50% or more cash, the monthly payment would be much less than what you think and may be significantly less than rent.

Yes, things can happen like it happened to Japanese in 90s so you never know but very unlikely...

 

[Tbharvey]

Cause and effect. China is the way it is because these very people who are moving to Irvine made it that way. For them, society is not something to be improved, it's something to be schemed. We all must be vigilant and expect higher standards here, and not let lawless places like the AJ shopping center proliferate.

 

[someguy]

Irvine developers seem to bend over backwards to attract these kinds of buyers.  These buyers have massive amounts of (ill gotten?) cash that developers salivate over.  I've heard the city of Irvine is heavily advertised and well known in Chinese cities.  Apparently there are tours/shuttles that run from John Wayne Airport to various new home communities.  Obviously we've all heard stores about birth tourism.  These multi generation homes that are so "in" right now are especially attractive to overseas buyers.

And to be clear, my beef isn't with race (my best friend is Chinese!).  It's with the behavior.

The roads are becoming a shit show.  Oblivious mini van drivers who cannot seem to follow general traffic safety rules.  The excessively aggressive $100k+ car driver (and even a few $1M+ cars around) whose time is just too valuable to consider the safety of others on the road.  The 16 year old driving his brand new BMW 70mph on surface streets to high school.

The new neighborhoods have never felt less neighborly.  Zero eye contact when passing by, even if they're greeted or wished well in passing.  Garbage left curbside after trash pickup.  Trash left around common areas.  Questionable curbside parking.  Plenty of unsafe driving in the neighborhoods.

Little to no apparent interest towards integrating with local culture or common courtesy in public areas.

Yet these buyers continue to flood in, pay (hide) cash for our real estate, and price out a significant amount of people who work locally.  (Or is work just for plebs?  Why work when cash can be replenished seemingly endlessly with a simple wire transfer?)

This trend needs more than vigilance to change.  It really comes down to money.  Developers want maximum profits.  Donald Bren wants to see his Irvine fully developed in his lifetime.  The path of least resistance appears to be foreign cash buyers.

I want to be wrong, but maybe this is the new Irvine that we all need to expect.

 

[YellowFever]

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[Happiness]

Cause and effect. China is the way it is because these very people who are moving to Irvine made it that way. For them, society is not something to be improved, it's something to be schemed. We all must be vigilant and expect higher standards here, and not let lawless places like the AJ shopping center proliferate.

You can't blame them for being schemers, in mainland China, consideration for others just provides an opening for someone else to stab you in the back. As they say, you can take a gangster out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the gangster.

I don't mean to single out mainlanders as there are many other deplorable cultures in the world (some in south asia and the middle east come to mind) but these other cultures are not flooding our neighborhoods.

 

[someguy]

Hey BB (and anyone else really), I'm curious, what are some of the cities people consider when leaving Irvine?  I love many things about Irvine.  Lived here over three decades.  What are some of the "Plan Bs" out there?

 

[YellowFever]

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[usctrojancpa]

Hey BB (and anyone else really), I'm curious, what are some of the cities people consider when leaving Irvine?  I love many things about Irvine.  Lived here over three decades.  What are some of the "Plan Bs" out there?

Some of my clients who sold their Irvine homes or didn't want to deal with what you are talking about moved to Tustin Ranch, North Tustin, Costa Mesa, Foothill Ranch/Baker Ranch, Aliso Viejo, and Laguna Niguel.

 

[B2FiNiTY]

Plan B for me is probably move outside a little bit but no too far. Aliso, Laguna, Newport, etc Definitely wouldn't mind a three to four car garage, front and back yards etc

 

[YellowFever]

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[lnc]

Personally, I think it's a waste money for a couple with no kids to live in Irvine (especially if they're also paying Mello Roos).  They're funding an infrastructure and school system that which they will never get any benefit back.  There are neighboring cities that will offer you better $/sq.ft. for the same thing.

Well, the Irvine home does appreciate or retain value better than most other cities and it provide better leverage to trade up in the future. 

Once you move out of Irvine it just makes a little harder to move back in. 

Also right now we are at the beganning of the end of new builds, especially for the TIC community with lower MR, which will be all gone within next 5-7 years.  Get one now when we still have a lot of selections before they are all gone.

 

[Bullsback]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine. 

 

[eyephone]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine.

Also, a lot of RE related jobs in or nearby. (Publicly traded and non publicly traded REITs, loan servicing, home builders, don't mention the company that got bought out)
Come to think of it, I'm surprised there are many companies here. Possibly due to workforce talent.

 

[nyc to oc]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine.

yeah, I agree. that's the big thing that's keeping me in Irvine. The central location and best commute compromise for two spouses. Also, the shopping and proximity to kids activities is very convenient.

Otherwise, I'd probably be down in coastal South County like San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel.

Before buying our current house, we looked a lot at older north OC neighborhoods like North Tustin, Villa Park, Orange Park Acres, etc for their beautiful non cookie cutter houses, but I was afraid that their property values will not hold as well in the long run.  I'd feel the need to budget for private schools if I lived there.

I also considered east side Costa Mesa, but the commute in and out of there on the 55 killed that.

I intend to downsize to a beach close community when I no longer need the big family house,  consider schools, or have to commute to work every day.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

If you don't have kids and are not worried about good schools but you want to live somewhere safe and affordable... where in the OC is that?

 

[Bullsback]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine.

yeah, I agree. that's the big thing that's keeping me in Irvine. The central location and best commute compromise for two spouses. Also, the shopping and proximity to kids activities is very convenient.

Otherwise, I'd probably be down in coastal South County like San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel.

Before buying our current house, we looked a lot at older north OC neighborhoods like North Tustin, Villa Park, Orange Park Acres, etc for their beautiful non cookie cutter houses, but I was afraid that their property values will not hold as well in the long run.  I'd feel the need to budget for private schools if I lived there.

I also considered east side Costa Mesa, but the commute in and out of there on the 55 killed that.

I intend to downsize to a beach close community when I no longer need the big family house,  consider schools, or have to commute to work every day.

Yep - If it weren't for the proximity to so many places (making it pretty central for myself and my wife), I'd have no problem going south (as in my view, schools are still really good so not a differentiator and there is still plenty of good shops/things to do, albeit Irvine offers plenty of it, but is also central to so many other places). I don't like North OC, so really anything North of Tustin Ranch isn't for me (don't like seeing power lines and all that stuff...albeit some of the stuff in North Tustin is pretty nice, but I presume also comes with a lot of maintenance, being older, etc). 

 

[eyephone]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine.

yeah, I agree. that's the big thing that's keeping me in Irvine. The central location and best commute compromise for two spouses. Also, the shopping and proximity to kids activities is very convenient.

Otherwise, I'd probably be down in coastal South County like San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel.

Before buying our current house, we looked a lot at older north OC neighborhoods like North Tustin, Villa Park, Orange Park Acres, etc for their beautiful non cookie cutter houses, but I was afraid that their property values will not hold as well in the long run.  I'd feel the need to budget for private schools if I lived there.

I also considered east side Costa Mesa, but the commute in and out of there on the 55 killed that.

I intend to downsize to a beach close community when I no longer need the big family house,  consider schools, or have to commute to work every day.

Yep - If it weren't for the proximity to so many places (making it pretty central for myself and my wife), I'd have no problem going south (as in my view, schools are still really good so not a differentiator and there is still plenty of good shops/things to do, albeit Irvine offers plenty of it, but is also central to so many other places). I don't like North OC, so really anything North of Tustin Ranch isn't for me (don't like seeing power lines and all that stuff...albeit some of the stuff in North Tustin is pretty nice, but I presume also comes with a lot of maintenance, being older, etc).

Just hope Irvine doesn't turn into GG or Westmininister. (But someone people might like that)

 

[nyc to oc]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine.

yeah, I agree. that's the big thing that's keeping me in Irvine. The central location and best commute compromise for two spouses. Also, the shopping and proximity to kids activities is very convenient.

Otherwise, I'd probably be down in coastal South County like San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel.

Before buying our current house, we looked a lot at older north OC neighborhoods like North Tustin, Villa Park, Orange Park Acres, etc for their beautiful non cookie cutter houses, but I was afraid that their property values will not hold as well in the long run.  I'd feel the need to budget for private schools if I lived there.

I also considered east side Costa Mesa, but the commute in and out of there on the 55 killed that.

I intend to downsize to a beach close community when I no longer need the big family house,  consider schools, or have to commute to work every day.

Yep - If it weren't for the proximity to so many places (making it pretty central for myself and my wife), I'd have no problem going south (as in my view, schools are still really good so not a differentiator and there is still plenty of good shops/things to do, albeit Irvine offers plenty of it, but is also central to so many other places). I don't like North OC, so really anything North of Tustin Ranch isn't for me (don't like seeing power lines and all that stuff...albeit some of the stuff in North Tustin is pretty nice, but I presume also comes with a lot of maintenance, being older, etc).

Just hope Irvine doesn't turn into GG or Westmininister. (But someone people might like that)

Irvine is never going to look like GG or Westminster, even if population did become 80% asian.  The HOAs are too strong here, the housing stock is way different from those boxy post war single story houses you see in north OC, and the utilities are buried. Even the shopping plazas are regulated to death in Irvine, down to the paint color and signage font. It all contributes to a much more manicured and unified look than those older postwar North OC suburbs that have much laxer zoning. Some people gonna hate on that uniformity, but it does keep the property values up.

 

[eyephone]

One big thing about Irvine, that can't be replaced is the location. Very centrally located to a lot of very good jobs.  That is what keeps me in Irvine.

yeah, I agree. that's the big thing that's keeping me in Irvine. The central location and best commute compromise for two spouses. Also, the shopping and proximity to kids activities is very convenient.

Otherwise, I'd probably be down in coastal South County like San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel.

Before buying our current house, we looked a lot at older north OC neighborhoods like North Tustin, Villa Park, Orange Park Acres, etc for their beautiful non cookie cutter houses, but I was afraid that their property values will not hold as well in the long run.  I'd feel the need to budget for private schools if I lived there.

I also considered east side Costa Mesa, but the commute in and out of there on the 55 killed that.

I intend to downsize to a beach close community when I no longer need the big family house,  consider schools, or have to commute to work every day.

Yep - If it weren't for the proximity to so many places (making it pretty central for myself and my wife), I'd have no problem going south (as in my view, schools are still really good so not a differentiator and there is still plenty of good shops/things to do, albeit Irvine offers plenty of it, but is also central to so many other places). I don't like North OC, so really anything North of Tustin Ranch isn't for me (don't like seeing power lines and all that stuff...albeit some of the stuff in North Tustin is pretty nice, but I presume also comes with a lot of maintenance, being older, etc).

Just hope Irvine doesn't turn into GG or Westmininister. (But someone people might like that)

Irvine is never going to look like GG or Westminster, even if population did become 80% asian.  The HOAs are too strong here, the housing stock is way different from those boxy post war single story houses you seen in north OC, and the utilities are buried. Even the shopping plazas are regulated to death in Irvine, down to the paint color and signage font. It all contributes to a much more manicured and unified look than those older postwar North OC suburbs that have much laxer zoning. Some people gonna hate on that uniformity, but it does keep the property values up.

These are just my opinions: traditional restraunts are leaving and Asian restaurants are coming in, clothes drying outside is accepted, driving, level of communication, American traditions

Just to add: there is nothing wrong with drying clothes outside, driving, communicating. But those are things I noticed.