you don't really know what's going on behind the scenes. The very best friends can criticize each other and the irony is, Trump is not a dictator so he has to compromise and initiate a bill that can be passed by the Congress.
give it time. eventually the price drop will impact lower end homes. when higher end homes become more affordable, some lower end buyers will try to buy them.
Yes it is more common for foreign parents buying condos for their kids attending IUSD schools or UCI (like those in the Irvine Business district which do not feed into IUSD). SFR is rarer.
SFR is mostly for people who park money for many different reasons.
if you are buying a $6 million home, $360,000 in bank account is peanuts, as you should have N.W. at least 3X of that. If your N.W. is 20 million, do you really care about $360k?
also, the floor plans are more less the same for all the new houses for the last 10 years in Irvine. I don't think...
if you are a buyer, you don't like the FCBs as they help make the price high. but once you own, you appreciate them because they help your equity appreciate and if they are your neighbor and their houses sit empty, you would also appreciate that extra peace and quietness since the new houses are...
I read it somewhere Irvine is where Chinese exporters (merchants from Zhejiang for example) park their US dollars but there is some re-balancing of assets going on now so the demand is not as much as before.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/department-of-homeland-security-considering-citizen-competition-reality-show-1236219599/
Instead of letting them in for free and have to pay for their lodging and medical bills, proceeds would go to pay some of the government debts.
that's why I like where I am...I don't think developers are into our area...yet. On the weekends it is nice to have few or even zeros cars on the street, and driving with green rolling hills around is nice.