Any place with good school district near Irvine to buy home?

alchemist2718

New member
We have been searching for home for a while in Irvine now and fed up of the crazy prices and mello roos tax in new communities, can anyone suggest good areas near Irvine to buy home. 9+ rated public school district is our main requirement. We are looking for a decent 3-4 bedroom home with small backyard in $600-$700K range. Thanks
 
Does it have to be a detached single family home?

At that price point, it's going to be really difficult to find something in the nicer cities surrounding Irvine. With inventory levels being so low, anything decent in that price point is getting multiple offers right now. How far away from Irvine are you willing to go?

You can try Anaheim Hills (fantastic school district), but the lower-priced homes single family homes are going to run in the $750-$800k range (unless you are directly adjacent to the 91 freeway, in which case you might be able to get close to the $700k range). The 91 freeway (pre-covid) is notorious for insane traffic, so if pollution is a concern to you, you may not want to live right next to it. You might also be able to get an older, smaller home in Yorba Linda in the $700k range. Great school district there too.

Lake forest doesn't have quite as good a school district as Anaheim Hills (although still a pretty good district), but you can more reasonably find a home in the $700 - $750k range there.

Garden Grove Unified has a really good school district, but some areas of that city aren't the greatest (west garden grove is pretty nice). Pretty much all of the homes will be mid-century homes with older floorplans that will probably require renovations.

Finally, you can try Aliso Viejo. Very good school district. Newer city. However, it is a little detached from the rest of the county as there's no real direct freeway access to it (other than the 73 toll road). Most of the homes under $700k will be small, courtyard, detached condo-style homes with very small side/back yards.

Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any other questions. Before buying our townhome in Irvine, my wife and I were pretty much in the exact same position as you.


 
I?d suggest Foothill HS (Tustin USD) or Trabuco Hills HS (Saddleback Valley USD). Both are consistently high achieving schools outside of IUSD, but not far.
 
alchemist2718 said:
We have been searching for home for a while in Irvine now and fed up of the crazy prices and mello roos tax in new communities, can anyone suggest good areas near Irvine to buy home. 9+ rated public school district is our main requirement. We are looking for a decent 3-4 bedroom home with small backyard in $600-$700K range. Thanks

This was our budget and wish list as well. It was frustrating because $600k-$700k is not a small amount of money to spend on a home, but we were consistently unhappy with the quality/size of homes we saw in this price range (until we saw some new construction options).

We looked at parts of Tustin, Foothill Ranch, Baker Ranch, Aliso Viejo. We briefly expanded our search to parts of Orange and Ladera Ranch. Ultimately we bought an attached new construction home in Irvine (3 bedrooms) and compromised on having a yard - patio only for us.

We felt like it was worth being in Irvine because both my husband and I work in Irvine and would have >15 minutes commute. Although we weren't thrilled with paying mello roos, when we factored in the cost of renovations to bring an existing home in that price range up to a decent condition, the length of additional commute time every day, and the quality of schools in the area, we just didn't find anything that made sense. The prices were lower than Irvine when we looked in other communities, but not so much lower that it counteracted all those other factors.

Now that we've been stuck at home since March the commute benefit is lost - and I wish we had a yard. But, under the "normal life" conditions we made our decision on it felt like the right one at the time.

Good luck!
 
paperboyNC said:
My advice differs from other posters. When you look at long-term appreciation, land is the key. Get yourself a large lot in a good school district:https://www.redfin.com/CA/Yorba-Linda/4522-Mimosa-Dr-92886/home/4170048

I agree, there's a lot of value in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills when compared to Irvine. Schools are fantastic there and you get larger homes and lots.

I think Cerritos is a good choice but homes are older.

Both of these aren't near Irvine though.
 
paperboyNC said:
My advice differs from other posters. When you look at long-term appreciation, land is the key. Get yourself a large lot in a good school district:https://www.redfin.com/CA/Yorba-Linda/4522-Mimosa-Dr-92886/home/4170048

This is a great example - this home is $40k over what was our max budget (700k). The kitchen is in good shape (maybe needs one or two appliances) but ideally the bathrooms could use some updates, and I'm always in favor of replacing carpet. Plus, this home would be about a 40 minute drive to work for me.

So, if this were us last year we would have to get re approved for a higher loan amount, stretch our budget, would want to do some renos, and we would have to spend more time commuting. But, as paperboy points out, maybe it would have been worth it for longer term appreciation. It's all about the trade offs.
 
moc said:
paperboyNC said:
My advice differs from other posters. When you look at long-term appreciation, land is the key. Get yourself a large lot in a good school district:https://www.redfin.com/CA/Yorba-Linda/4522-Mimosa-Dr-92886/home/4170048

This is a great example - this home is $40k over what was our max budget (700k). The kitchen is in good shape (maybe needs one or two appliances) but ideally the bathrooms could use some updates, and I'm always in favor of replacing carpet. Plus, this home would be about a 40 minute drive to work for me.

So, if this were us last year we would have to get re approved for a higher loan amount, stretch our budget, would want to do some renos, and we would have to spend more time commuting. But, as paperboy points out, maybe it would have been worth it for longer term appreciation. It's all about the trade offs.

I wouldn't do it with a 40min drive to work. OP never stated (s)he worked in Irvine. In fact I know a lot of families that move to Irvine knowing they will commute to the LA area.

Long term appreciation doesn't matter to most families since I think the on average Americans live in a home for only 8-13 years. Long term is more like 60+ years when buyers started thinking complete tear down. Once you get to that point, only the land value matters. But of course, real estate is still all about location, location, location.

This place was sold last year for $2.2million and then torn downhttps://www.redfin.com/CA/Venice/1251-Palms-Blvd-90291/home/6745869
 
Baker Ranch in Lake Forest might be the closest thing to Irvine while not having mello roos.

Here are some in your budget. https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood.../Baker-Ranch/filter/max-price=700k,min-beds=3
You can try to go $750k and adjust the setting there to see a little more homes since you can always negotiate the price down.

I think they have a pretty good elementary school and other schools although their grades seem lower than last years'.

Also I would try El Camino Real if you were to buy older SFRs (bigger land) instead of looking other areas like Yorba Linda. While I hear good things about YL, that's pretty far from Irvine while El Camino Real is in Irvine. I personally would choose that if I were to stay in Irvine or nearby. Here are some El Camino and University Park houses in Irivne under $750k.https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood...type=house,max-price=750k,min-beds=3,mr=1:869

 
They do exist, but you have to be ready to move and to compromise somewhat.

Here's an Irvine Resale. It's older, but modernized. It's attached, but still has a reasonable yard.
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/10-Skipper-92604/home/4675738

Here's an AV property, not far from the Toll Roads or the 133. It's in the Laguna Beach School District. There is also a quality private school (K-6) a mile from where this house is.
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Laguna-Beach/5-Encinitas-Ct-92651/home/4850699

Sure, it's not $700k. It's also not attached, nor does it have Mello Roos. Remember, a $700k home with MR is close to an $800k home without. Also, given current rates you can make an $800k home feel like a $700k home monthly payment.


These first homes should be considers a ladder rather than permanent. Compromise now, then ladder up into something else in a bit.

My .02c
 
That's a nice property and great location, and would be perfect for the OC vacation pad I want to buy.
 
The LB one is better than the Irvine one... that Irvine one is sandwiched and right next to the 5.

Is that LB on in Laguna Audobon?
 
It's across from Laguna Audubon (LA)  KB Homes I believe had that land at the time and had it annexed into the City of Laguna Beach as a condition of building there. LA I believe is annexed to Aliso Viejo.

My .02c
 
irvinehomeowner said:
The LB one is better than the Irvine one... that Irvine one is sandwiched and right next to the 5.

Is that LB on in Laguna Audobon?

Living in the Irvine one will shave years off your life. Too close to the 5

I think the development is called California Cove for the LB one. Laguna Audubon is actually in Aliso Viejo, next to Laguna Woods, across the street from California Cove.
 
Mety said:
Baker Ranch in Lake Forest might be the closest thing to Irvine while not having mello roos.

Here are some in your budget. https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood.../Baker-Ranch/filter/max-price=700k,min-beds=3
You can try to go $750k and adjust the setting there to see a little more homes since you can always negotiate the price down.

I think they have a pretty good elementary school and other schools although their grades seem lower than last years'.

Also I would try El Camino Real if you were to buy older SFRs (bigger land) instead of looking other areas like Yorba Linda. While I hear good things about YL, that's pretty far from Irvine while El Camino Real is in Irvine. I personally would choose that if I were to stay in Irvine or nearby. Here are some El Camino and University Park houses in Irivne under $750k.https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood...type=house,max-price=750k,min-beds=3,mr=1:869

This is zoned for El Toro HS, which is seeing significant improvement again. There is also word of the Nakase Nursery being developed into residential with plans for an elementary school, which will serve Baker Ranch.
 
Toll Brothers bought the nursery. They are in the planning stages right now.

My. 02c
 
Someone should put up the Toll Brothers website and video. The 1st part was supposed to be selling in 2 years, but that announcement was made before coronavirus. And it's across the street from Baker Ranch (on the Bake side). I think it's going to be a really nice master planned community.
 
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