ThirtySomethingWEquity
Active member
just come to Lake Forest, you get a huge discount for slightly less good schools and slightly sub optimal city planning.
Is this a good time to buy?
- Thread starter EatatAnteaters
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I think this is why even resales are high priced because people want lived in hoods.
Personally I wouldn’t mind if my neighbors were empty houses.
Loco_local
Active member
If I had a $3 million budget and was thinking of starting a family, I would be looking for something under $2 million in a neighborhood with young families. I wouldn’t want to buy in a neighborhood with empty houses whose owners live overseas or a block with rentals that changes tenants every other year.
irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
I think this is why even resales are high priced because people want lived in hoods.
Personally I wouldn’t mind if my neighbors were empty houses.
If $3m is the budget, why not a $3 million neighborhood with young families?
GrowthStateofMind
Active member
Pretty much narrows it down to Great Park and Portola if looking in Irvine to be around higher density of new/young families. Just go to the Great Park playground or Portola Community Center on any given day and see for yourself @EatatAnteaters
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CalBears96
Well-known member
I wouldn't mind if some of my neighbors were empty houses either. More quiet neighborhood and not so many cars on the street. My street consists of 10 houses, so it would be nice if half of them were empty.I think this is why even resales are high priced because people want lived in hoods.
Personally I wouldn’t mind if my neighbors were empty houses.
ThirtySomethingWEquity
Active member
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 Toll Bros house in Hidden Canyon, but i'm not sure there are near as many families over there.
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 Toll Bros house in Hidden Canyon, but i'm not sure there are near as many families over there.
Personally love a neighborhood that’s walkable (retail, restaurants, coffee shops that’s a 10-20 min walk, a lot of young families live in these areas) and has a mix of housing- apartments (yes apartments), condos/townhomes, SFRs. You then get to see young families, kids, a nice mix of people in terms of ethnicity, income (to an extent, it’s Irvine after all and there are outliers but if most renters are paying $3k+ rent, they must have a decent income). Though for many being in a bubble is a feature and not a bug. Seen many comments on here that how a certain area even if it has plenty of SFR’s is “high density” housing (as if it’s Singapore or Hong Kong ha) because of the apartments or condos in the same area and there was a negative connotation in those comments where if you read between the lines it’s clear what’s being implied.
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momopi
Well-known member
One benefit of living in Irvine is local employment opportunities, and if you work elsewhere you might be commuting against traffic.
I commute from cerritos to irvine and it takes an hour on I-5. But if you are commuting from Irvine to cerritos in the morning it's 30 mins.
Homes in Cerritos/Artesia is cheaper and you can find single level cul de sac homes on good sized lots. For example:
Luther Burbank elementary is next door and if you don't like the school, you can get inter-district transfer to another in ABC district. The house is on 1/2 acre lot and has obviously been "rebuilt".
For about $1 mil you can buy a single level family home on 1/4 acre lot nearby in Artesia. This is the minimum needed to qualify for 50' setbacks from neighbors if you want to keep backyard chicken coop.
For Cerritos the lot size tend to be smaller around 5000 sq ft.
In Irvine $1.x mil will buy you an attached townhome. But there are far more & higher paying job opportunities in Irvine.
I commute from cerritos to irvine and it takes an hour on I-5. But if you are commuting from Irvine to cerritos in the morning it's 30 mins.
Homes in Cerritos/Artesia is cheaper and you can find single level cul de sac homes on good sized lots. For example:
Luther Burbank elementary is next door and if you don't like the school, you can get inter-district transfer to another in ABC district. The house is on 1/2 acre lot and has obviously been "rebuilt".
For about $1 mil you can buy a single level family home on 1/4 acre lot nearby in Artesia. This is the minimum needed to qualify for 50' setbacks from neighbors if you want to keep backyard chicken coop.
For Cerritos the lot size tend to be smaller around 5000 sq ft.
In Irvine $1.x mil will buy you an attached townhome. But there are far more & higher paying job opportunities in Irvine.
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momopi
Well-known member
$700k, 1/4 acre lot, 4 bed SFR, no HOA, walking distance to Cerritos Mall, Little India, 99 ranch and stater bros in Artesia. Probably needs some work, but $700k might buy a 1 bed condo in Irvine.
East west ice palace is also short walk, if your kids like to ice skate:
But fewer job opportunities and longer commute to LA or Irvine for work. No train station close by. And schools with decreasing enrollment. For ABC school district they will close 4 elementary schools, including the one that my daughter attends. The principal is quitting this summer.
In Irvine the schools are more likely to be full and not in danger of closing. And even if they face decline in student population down the road, they can open inter district transfer and keep schools open for years like Downey.
Irvine train station is also a major hub where you might find 5 trains in the morning and another 5 in evening to/from another major hub station.
East west ice palace is also short walk, if your kids like to ice skate:
But fewer job opportunities and longer commute to LA or Irvine for work. No train station close by. And schools with decreasing enrollment. For ABC school district they will close 4 elementary schools, including the one that my daughter attends. The principal is quitting this summer.
In Irvine the schools are more likely to be full and not in danger of closing. And even if they face decline in student population down the road, they can open inter district transfer and keep schools open for years like Downey.
Irvine train station is also a major hub where you might find 5 trains in the morning and another 5 in evening to/from another major hub station.
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