Observations from the front lines of the Irvine housing market?

USCTrojanCPA said:
Dodgerinoc said:
Hey guys. I?m completely new to this forum. But I?m not from Irvine but am looking to move here and buy a home here (first time buyer btw). I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on when would be a good time to buy? A friend of mine told me to wait until the end of the year and even into next year. I know no one here can see the future but I?d appreciate any advice you guys have. Thanks. And please bear with me this is also my very first post. Thanks guys

Welcome to TI, there's a lot of great information on here for you to help you research more on your home purchase. I've predicted that this year will probably be flat but I think we might get a soft patch in the middle of the year as we head into the election as some buyers may pull back to wait and see who will be elected (the same thing happened in 2016).  After the 2016 election, both the stock market and the housing market increased well into 2018.  I would recommend that you start going around some open houses to check out floor plans and neighbors that you may be interested in to start narrowing down the type of home/s and location/s that you'll be most interested in buying. As you get closer to purchasing a home, start working with a lender to find out what your buying power is.  That being said, I would only buy if you plan on owning the property for at least 5+ years as no one knows where the market will go but beyond that it's safe to assume that prices will be higher than they are today.  If you would like any other input on the market or copies of floor plans that have sold, feel free to email or PM me. 

Btw, are you a Dodgers fan?

First off thanks for the input. I appreciate it. And yes I?m a life long Dodgers fan.
 
Soylent Green Is People said:
@DodgerinOC - Welcome on-board.

Although I can't stand the realtor phrase "it's always a good time to buy".... sometimes it is. If you're looking for a solid neighborhood, good schools, and an easier commute, price and ROI aren't really major issue, right? Yes, everyone wants to see some return on capital, but by waiting for the right ROI you may miss the right property. If you've got ROI as a trigger point to buy, rest assured there are hundreds of other buyers at that same point in the purchase process. Should the absolute perfect home come up at a low price, will your bid be the winning one? Not always when dozens of other buyers leap in at the same time. 

If a solid 85-90 percent of your "must have's" can be found in a property the time to buy is now. I subscribe to the "Ecclesiastes 11:4" view of home buying: To paraphrase "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done."

Still not sure about leaping in? At minimum getting a rental home in Irvine may be a wise first step. Sometimes planned communities are not for everyone, even though they might seem like it at the time. A sense of place helps narrow down where exactly you might want to convert cash into equity. If you rent for a year, you can still buy 6-8 months into your lease. In many ways it's nice to have a few months between properties, giving enough time for you to patch, upgrade, and improve your new home while still renting. Ask anyone who bought then remodeled while still living in the home. (blegh is an oft heard descriptor from those who stay in their home during a big fix up)

Engaging a solid Realtor is important. Getting your financing squared away is another. So many purchases collapse not because of the property, but because the strength of the Realtor and ability to get financing were put into play well after deposit money has been laid out. Don't be that buyer.

It's for all intents and purposes a giant leap of faith to make an investment of this size. There are an equal number of cheerleaders and naysayers trying to bend your ear on the subject. Read up - as you've done here - and be ready to make an informed decision, The right property will come to you within that period of preparation. Good luck with your home finding!

My .02c

Thanks I appreciate  the help. I do have some neighborhoods that I prefer but am looking and open to just about anywhere in Irvine. I appreciate this forum for all the great information available here and will definitely read up and try to get as much information anywhere I can.
 
Mety said:
Dodgerinoc said:
Hey guys. I?m completely new to this forum. But I?m not from Irvine but am looking to move here and buy a home here (first time buyer btw). I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on when would be a good time to buy? A friend of mine told me to wait until the end of the year and even into next year. I know no one here can see the future but I?d appreciate any advice you guys have. Thanks. And please bear with me this is also my very first post. Thanks guys

TalkIrvine's very own genius member, eyephone suggests you wait along with financial experts, Liar Loan and Panda. But also at the same time, Irvine's trustful resident, irvinehomewowner says you should buy if you're going to stay a long time there (more than 5-10 years) and so does Irvine's expert realtor USCTrojanCPA say the same. I would suggest if you're going to buy here in OC, you should definitely buy in Irvine. If you want to rent a year or so, that would also be a very nice experience of how you like this city.

I suggest you buy/rent in newer areas like Eastwood, Orchard Hills, Stonegate, Portola Springs, etc. Please note though, those newer areas have Mello-Roos taxes which your realtor should explain to you about. If you don't want to deal with those, there are villages like Northwood, Westpark, and University Park. Woodbury, Northpark, and Quail Hill are also somewhat new, not too old, but floor plans here are not as modern. The villages themselves are very nice though. If you want to explore original Irvine, Woodbridge and Turtle Rock are the places to be. They're built in 70s though so you might have to deal with some maintenance of the home. If you hate HOAs and Mello-Roos or that Irvine feel, El Camino Real is for real. If you're into super trendy stuff, check out Great Park. There are like 7 parks villages they're still building out. There are also some hazardous history about this city which your realtor also should warn you about if you ask. If they don't know what you're talking about when you ask, find another realtor.

If you're super rich, look no further than Shady Canyon, Hidden Canyon, or Turtle Ridge. You'll be satisfied.

Thanks for the reply. I do have certain areas which I prefer.  I personally am trying to stay away from the places with higher hoa?s and mella rooses. Also thanks to the forum I did read up on the landfill and the communities adjacent to it.  I think my realtor is awesome. She?s very well informed and very patient with me.  My realtor did tell me about the landfill when I was looking at places in portola springs. That?s actually what brought me to this forum, while searching for more information about it I stumbled across the forum and glad I did.
 
Dodgerinoc said:
Mety said:
Dodgerinoc said:
Hey guys. I?m completely new to this forum. But I?m not from Irvine but am looking to move here and buy a home here (first time buyer btw). I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on when would be a good time to buy? A friend of mine told me to wait until the end of the year and even into next year. I know no one here can see the future but I?d appreciate any advice you guys have. Thanks. And please bear with me this is also my very first post. Thanks guys

TalkIrvine's very own genius member, eyephone suggests you wait along with financial experts, Liar Loan and Panda. But also at the same time, Irvine's trustful resident, irvinehomewowner says you should buy if you're going to stay a long time there (more than 5-10 years) and so does Irvine's expert realtor USCTrojanCPA say the same. I would suggest if you're going to buy here in OC, you should definitely buy in Irvine. If you want to rent a year or so, that would also be a very nice experience of how you like this city.

I suggest you buy/rent in newer areas like Eastwood, Orchard Hills, Stonegate, Portola Springs, etc. Please note though, those newer areas have Mello-Roos taxes which your realtor should explain to you about. If you don't want to deal with those, there are villages like Northwood, Westpark, and University Park. Woodbury, Northpark, and Quail Hill are also somewhat new, not too old, but floor plans here are not as modern. The villages themselves are very nice though. If you want to explore original Irvine, Woodbridge and Turtle Rock are the places to be. They're built in 70s though so you might have to deal with some maintenance of the home. If you hate HOAs and Mello-Roos or that Irvine feel, El Camino Real is for real. If you're into super trendy stuff, check out Great Park. There are like 7 parks villages they're still building out. There are also some hazardous history about this city which your realtor also should warn you about if you ask. If they don't know what you're talking about when you ask, find another realtor.

If you're super rich, look no further than Shady Canyon, Hidden Canyon, or Turtle Ridge. You'll be satisfied.

Thanks for the reply. I do have certain areas which I prefer.  I personally am trying to stay away from the places with higher hoa?s and mella rooses. Also thanks to the forum I did read up on the landfill and the communities adjacent to it.  I think my realtor is awesome. She?s very well informed and very patient with me.  My realtor did tell me about the landfill when I was looking at places in portola springs. That?s actually what brought me to this forum, while searching for more information about it I stumbled across the forum and glad I did.

No problem. Just sharing my thoughts and opinions with some facts which others might disagree with.

For newer homes, anywhere from $100 to $350 are usual HOA fees. Detached homes will carry less fees but you'll have to maintain the exterior paint, roof, rain gutters, etc. by yourself whenever the HOAs enforces you to do so whereas the attached are all covered by them. Mello Roos taxes are usually from $1,700 to $4,500. The cheapest are Cypress Village East, Eastwood Village and Stonegate. Portola Springs has slightly higher, but home prices are usually a little bit lower there. As far as I know, older villages like some Northwood and El Camino homes don't have any HOA nor MR. Westpark SFRs have like $45 HOA with $900 MR which will expire soon. The Great Park villages have higher HOA and MR, but they do offer super nice amenities.

I personally wouldn't worry about the landfill. There are other hazardous stuff you should know about, but Irvine is a good place to buy overall.
 
Checking Zillow Preforeclosure / Auction listing for all of Irvine is 66 totals units. This is about less than 1% of all the listing for Irvine. Getting one for a substantial discount required lots of patients and hard work. Banks still control the inventory very rigid.
 
Mety said:
I personally wouldn't worry about the landfill. There are other hazardous stuff you should know about, but Irvine is a good place to buy overall.

I'm a bit reticent to ask because this seems like a sensitive topic around these parts but what hazardous stuff are you alluding to? We're moving from out of state and, while I've tried to research this from afar, it can be difficult separating fact from fiction. Any guidance from those on the ground would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
 
check your disclosures for not eating fruit planted in your own back yard.  I don't know how many communites have them, but columbus grove in Tustin is one.
 
peregrine said:
I'm a bit reticent to ask because this seems like a sensitive topic around these parts but what hazardous stuff are you alluding to? We're moving from out of state and, while I've tried to research this from afar, it can be difficult separating fact from fiction. Any guidance from those on the ground would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Probably referring to the areas with TCE contamination thats going to take a while to clean up-
https://www.irwd.com/construction/tce-el-toro-facts
https://www.irwd.com/images/pdf/construction/el_toro_remediation_map_2018.pdf
 
mads said:
peregrine said:
I'm a bit reticent to ask because this seems like a sensitive topic around these parts but what hazardous stuff are you alluding to? We're moving from out of state and, while I've tried to research this from afar, it can be difficult separating fact from fiction. Any guidance from those on the ground would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Probably referring to the areas with TCE contamination thats going to take a while to clean up-
https://www.irwd.com/construction/tce-el-toro-facts
https://www.irwd.com/images/pdf/construction/el_toro_remediation_map_2018.pdf

Yes. The history with Marine Corps Air Station El Toro with toxic chemical waste which resulted Superfund NPL sites. Ground water contamination had to be remediated. I didn't know they now have provided the progress status image. Looks like it got a lot better by 2018. Also Portola High showed contaminated soil when they were building it. So anywhere that used to be Marine base are potential to be hazardous. However, they say those residential areas now are cleaned before they started building new constructions. Hope it helps.
 
February 2020 continued with strong sales and low levels of inventory (see the attached schedule below). There were 207 sales in the month or an increase of approx. 48% (140 homes) from February 2019 and the month ended up with 593 actively listed homes for sale or a 21% decline (749 homes) from the end of February 2019. The average sales prices essentially remained flat at around $477/sf from last month but up about 2% from February 2019. My theory is that the lower priced homes (sub $1m) are moving at a much faster rate which is most likely keeping the average price per SF flat to slightly down month over month. The market continues to have less 3-month average of inventory and remains a seller's market, especially in the lower and middle part of the market. New inventory is coming to market but not quite as much as last year at this time. Even Tustin Ranch has a serious lack of resale inventory up to $1.2m as I've been looking there with a few buyers over the past 2 months.

The lower end of the market (sub $800k) continues to sell very well with many properties going to escrow within 1-2 weeks with multiple offers. The middle of the market ($800k to $1.2m) is a bit slower but homes that are priced somewhat reasonably and that show well also go into escrow very fast. The middle part of the market also has a low level of resale inventory. To give a real world example, both Celeste and Montara had several unsold quicker move-in homes in January but when I visited the sales offices in the past few weeks I discovered that all of those homes were sold. My thought is that the declines in interest rates continue to inspire buyers to get off of the sidelines as rates approach 3% for a 30-year fixed loan. In the past 2-3 weeks, I'd had 5 new buyers contact me to begin the search for a home. I would think that the corona virus would slow things down a bit but I think that was more than countered by interest rates continuing to flat. My open house traffic continues to be strong and many open houses that I've seen with buyers also had many buyers come out. It'll be interesting to see how the next few months play out as there are some reported cases of people being infected with the corona virus in the US.
 

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Here are the 5-year charts for active listings, closed sales, average per SF, and Days On Market for February 2020.
 

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USCTrojanCPA said:
Here are the 5-year charts for active listings, closed sales, average per SF, and Days On Market for February 2020.

What month was the peak average per SF?  And how much have prices come down percentage-wise since then?  Asking for a friend (IHO)...
 
How is the overally job market sentiment at this time in the OC? Is the job market still strong?
 
Talking to a customer back in OCT, he said he couldn't find enough workers for his warehouse.
 
Liar Loan said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
Here are the 5-year charts for active listings, closed sales, average per SF, and Days On Market for February 2020.

What month was the peak average per SF?  And how much have prices come down percentage-wise since then?  Asking for a friend (IHO)...

On an average price per SF basis, the high was $507/sf in May 2018 vs. $477/sf in Feb 2020.  On a median price per SF basis, the high was $496/sf in May 2018 vs. $469/sf in Feb 2020.  I believe that the higher end homes ($1.5m+) have had the biggest impact on the price per SF declines.
 
The leading indicator for the housing correction in the OC will be unemployment numbers. You have to watch this chart very carefully. The key unemployment bench mark from prior are 5,7, & 10%. The unemployment chart will first reverse before we enter into the gray zone. Oil dropped by 25% and 10 year dropped by 29%. This doesn't look like a temporary correction that MoreKaos seems to suggest this is. This sort of reminds me of giving a severe heroin addict more heroin to consume until the heroin addict drops to the floor from overdose.

unemployment.jpg
 
Does employers cut jobs right after a huge market correction? Likely not right away, it will be some months of excessive build up of inventories before employer shedding work force. The second part is once an employees looses his job, there will be severance and unemployment benefit kick in. Third assume that most recent purchases banks required reserve to be able to acquire homes then he have to burn through that before delinquent of mortgage take affect. Once preforeclosure files, how long will bank push this borrower until house is taken back.

From start to finish it could be a couple of years before a person giving up his house. Could be longer or could be shorter depends on reserve and how much he want he want to throw in the towel.
 
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