Laguna Altura in 2011

LA sales indicated it they are expecting to sell over the next couple of years.  no rush at all.  incentives will kick in at some point. 
 
akim997 said:
LA sales indicated it they are expecting to sell over the next couple of years.  no rush at all.  incentives will kick in at some point. 
The amount of time required to sell all of the homes will come down to how stubborn TIC wants to be.  And from my experience with them, I wouldn't hold my breathe thinking that they'll be flexible or think out of the box to sell these homes faster.  The problem is that TIC perceives this location/development is on par to Quail Hill when it reality Quail Hill is superior to Laguna Altura.  I think if they cut prices by 5-8% plus threw in some buyer incentives, these homes would sell a lot faster.  I guess we shall see what happens.  Time will be on the side of all perspective buyers.
 
akim997 said:
LA sales indicated it they are expecting to sell over the next couple of years.  no rush at all.  incentives will kick in at some point. 
At the pace they are going, it might be 2015 before they sell all of the homes.
 
I was there yesterday afternoon and saw an Asian (foreigners, Chinese most likely) group that came over in a bus tour organized by a realtor. I wonder what the racial makeup of the community will be like in the years from now or upon full buildout. Would it be another Chinatown?
 
socalquest said:
I was there yesterday afternoon and saw an Asian (foreigners, Chinese most likely) group that came over in a bus tour organized by a realtor. I wonder what the racial makeup of the community will be like in the years from now or upon full buildout. Would it be another Chinatown?

With no stores or restaurants nearby, and absolutely nothing within walking distance?
 
USCTrojanCPA said:
akim997 said:
LA sales indicated it they are expecting to sell over the next couple of years.  no rush at all.  incentives will kick in at some point. 
At the pace they are going, it might be 2015 before they sell all of the homes.

How long does the non-compete clause from the original purchasers stay in force?  pretty soon the original owners will have been there for a year, no?  when will their short sales and foreclosures start to compete with the new TIC builds?
 
More likely than not, anyone who bought there won't be shorting or foreclosing a year later. It's not the easy credit days anymore... buyers are either buying high-down/all-cash or are well financed.

The $800k-$1mil segment has been pretty resilient in Irvine as of late.
 
freedomcm said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
akim997 said:
LA sales indicated it they are expecting to sell over the next couple of years.  no rush at all.  incentives will kick in at some point. 
At the pace they are going, it might be 2015 before they sell all of the homes.

How long does the non-compete clause from the original purchasers stay in force?  pretty soon the original owners will have been there for a year, no?  when will their short sales and foreclosures start to compete with the new TIC builds?
I think it's typically 1 year that the owners have to wait to sell their homes.
 
We had a 12 month clause back when we purchased in 2003 and the reason given was to discourage speculation.
 
I actually have been thinking about the slow sales and lack of movement on the prices by TIC, and I think that since the closest comparable new homes are Stonegate and those are selling pretty well --- I think they are just going to wait until they finish selling in stonegate before having to re-evaluate pricing in LA. The main thing is, if they move the price down, they'd really only be competing with themselves, whereas if they wait until stonegate sells out (San Mateo sold 14 homes in Jan!), they can probably keep prices where they are, and lack of supply will allow them to sell at that price.

I went over there again this weekend, and Sienna really is a carbon copy of san mateo, but the location is way better. Being on the sW side of the 405 is considered the "better" side of irvine, but its hard to justify paying 650K for a detached condo. Even if its a really nice one. My wife and I are trying to be patient to see if prices will come down, but its looking more and more like we may have to lower our expectations and buy something older in woodbridge or one of the even older neighborhoods. I just cannot imagine buying in stonegate with how crowded that whole area is getting!
 
South of 405 is good...but not if it is right next to a major freeway. Siena's only purpose is being the noise buffer for the rest of LA homes; while San Mateo is the buffer between apartments and other SG homes. While SG is dense, the layout of LA is one of the worst ever. Sienna is so far away from the closest park which has no parking nor bathroom.....good luck with using it or enterain your friends. Uni is a trump card but not really justifes the insane cost. Quail hill is the more superior alternative while SG's alternative is the deserted Portla Springs (Woodbury not count because its schools are among the worst in Irvine)
 
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?

 
socalquest said:
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?
Not that hard considering the power and influence that TIC has over the City and political officials.
 
Because buyers are supposed to drive these:

533-Smart-Car-US.jpg
 
You'll have to do an Austin Powers maneuver every morning and night if you drive a big car and live in a motorcourt.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLKR9tCiwvA&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube]
 
USCTrojanCPA said:
socalquest said:
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?
Not that hard considering the power and influence that TIC has over the City and political officials.

I was going to start a topic on this, but if you read all the public documents in Irvine quick records, you will find there are a lot of "administrative reliefs" and "engineering deviations" submitted by the Motor Court Company and conveniently approved. Also most of the public hearings end like in 15 minutes I guess because no one showed up.
 
The Motor Court Company said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
socalquest said:
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?
Not that hard considering the power and influence that TIC has over the City and political officials.

I was going to start a topic on this, but if you read all the public documents in Irvine quick records, you will find there are a lot of "administrative reliefs" and "engineering deviations" submitted by the Motor Court Company. Also most of the public hearings end like in 15 minutes I guess because no one showed up.
Irvine does not have enough of those grumpy old people who have nothing better to do than go to those public hearings and be heard from.  The ones it does have live in Woodbridge, Turtle Rock, and old Northwood so they could give a crap less what is going on in the East/Northeast part of town.
 
I thought safety is more important than $$$. They should throw those officials in jail for corruption! I have lived in Shanghai apartments and I thought it was already bad over there, money trumps safety there all the time. Afterall, it's no different here in IRVINE USA too!


USCTrojanCPA said:
socalquest said:
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?
Not that hard considering the power and influence that TIC has over the City and political officials.
 
I am not a civil engineer, but some of the "engineering deviations" involve changes to curb height, reducing cross slope of the streets (if the streets are too flat, you'd get flooding during heavy rains). I guess we will have a 3rd lake in Irvine in the Stonegate area if there is some record rain. Maybe they should rename the village to Stonelake and it will sell even better.

One of the most common "administrative reliefs", well you probably can guess it, is to relax the parking requirements. There are X numbers of parking required for each residence type and they must be within Y feet. Each tract is different, but even Maricopa has some exceptions. I recall one of the worst cases is 250 feet for a Santa Maria residence but the parking is more than 500 feet away.

This list goes on and on....

socalquest said:
I thought safety is more important than $$$. They should throw those officials in jail for corruption! I have lived in Shanghai apartments and I thought it was already bad over there, money trumps safety there all the time. Afterall, it's no different here in IRVINE USA too!


USCTrojanCPA said:
socalquest said:
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?
Not that hard considering the power and influence that TIC has over the City and political officials.
 
The Motor Court Company said:
I am not a civil engineer, but some of the "engineering deviations" involve changes to curb height, reducing cross slope of the streets (if the streets are too flat, you'd get flooding during heavy rains). I guess we will have a 3rd lake in Irvine in the Stonegate area if there is some record rain. Maybe they should rename the village to Stonelake and it will sell even better.

One of the most common "administrative reliefs", well you probably can guess it, is to relax the parking requirements. There are X numbers of parking required for each residence type and they must be within Y feet. Each tract is different, but even Maricopa has some exceptions. I recall one of the worst cases is 250 feet for a Santa Maria residence but the parking is more than 500 feet away.

This list goes on and on....

socalquest said:
I thought safety is more important than $$$. They should throw those officials in jail for corruption! I have lived in Shanghai apartments and I thought it was already bad over there, money trumps safety there all the time. Afterall, it's no different here in IRVINE USA too!


USCTrojanCPA said:
socalquest said:
Those motor court homes at San Remo have VERY narrow and shared driveways. I was there last weekend and was trying to maneuver my midsized SUV in and out and it was a damn hassle!  Could you imaging if an owner had a Cadillac Escalade backing out of the garage? Opps I just banged into the wall of my neighbor's home! How can the City of Irvine approve such housing plans?
Not that hard considering the power and influence that TIC has over the City and political officials.
Not that I'm a big fan of additional government but maybe if these "exceptions" and/or "engineering deviations" had to be reviewed and approved by the county they would be less frequent.  TIC sure likes to push the envelope with these things.
 
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