Recent content by ThirtySomethingWEquity

Here's what you miss: Irvine prices are largely propped up by insane marketing spend on the mainlanders in China. It keeps Irvine very popular. Once Orchard Hills IV sells out though, do you think The Irvine Company is incentivized to keep up that marketing budget? Nah, and then the...

Irvine is going to appreciate more/hold value better than Lake Forest. However, that mello roos is going eat up your gains unless you're crazy leveraged and sell at the top IMO. If you want the Irvine name and have the money, Portola Springs has much more reasonable mello roos, and is probably...

Also, If I was single I'd buy a little more than I could afford, and rent a room out to a quiet studious UCI student for $1000 a month tax free.

That is such a weird take, of course things can go bad, so can starting a business with someone, or if you pick a shady accountant or lawyer or money manager. Also, plenty of people have it more like a business arrangement with a pre-nup. It's not rocket science.

Unless you really want the name, I'd also look at Tustin Ranch and Foothill Ranch. Both very close to Irvine, nice Irvine-esque feel, save a couple hundred grand.

All of the Baker Ranch single family homes have indoor/outdoor layouts very similar to the meadows. Extra large sliding glass doors for indoor/outdoor living, open floorplans, huge kitchens (mine is probably larger than any in the meadows!). and flexible living spaces. The one place the...

Compare that to Baker Ranch, here's my street. Baker Ranch has 3 pools, a huge park in the middle with a walking trail, and a bunch of other smallparks and playgrounds.

I live in Baker Ranch, and it's pretty great. It's very family friendly, tons of parks to walk to that have kids and families anytime between 9-7 pm. The cons of Baker Ranch are the older homes (compared to the other communities), and some of the houses are near warehouses etc. so be aware of...

Have you looked at Foothill Ranch? Sure the schools are a little less good but with the money you save, think how much you could spend on private tutors. Or send em to Sage Hill or something. The Meadows and Baker Ranch both have really great floorplans. Tustin Ranch is pretty great too.

My friend who lives up in Orchard Hills says the parks and pools are pretty empty (he lives on the Groves side). I'm happy that I can just walk 10 houses over to an enormous park and there are always a buncha kids for my sons to play with. If I had 6 million I'd be tempted to buy a bigger...

just come to Lake Forest, you get a huge discount for slightly less good schools and slightly sub optimal city planning.

But Liar Loan is a perpetual renter. He convinced his wife and kids to sell their house that it'd be "just for a little bit until the crash happens." But now they're priced out, stuck in a one bedroom apartment in santa ana, all the kids cramped in the loft, the kitchen appliances barely work...

Yup. Work for a FAANG with a 25 minute commute in OC. You'd have to give me like L+3 to even think about a job in NorCal. Netflix is still fully optionally remote. I believe Github hires remote. Block *was* huge on remote. (just laid off like a ton of their company). There are others...

It's a fair concern. For me the price difference (plus no mello roos) was so large that I'm able to hire a nanny to help mitigate some of this.

If you're dead set on Irvine, good luck. I moved ~7 minutes south to Baker Ranch (in Lake Forest), and it's pretty great! The schools aren't rated quite as high, but my kids are little still, so i'll just plan on a bigger tutoring budget. Tustin Ranch is a great neighborhood too and...