My wife and I looked at a home there that was on Weeping Willow (I believe) and the upside was that the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) was outside my front door (I'm a cyclist), while the downside was that the Santa Ana River trail was right outside my front door.
I was always on the SART when I rode, and I can tell you it is a highway for "labor" and "others" to move between cities from Anaheim Hills all the way to Huntington Beach on foot and bicycle without ever going onto the streets. It's a very "private" trail next to the Santa Ana River drainage. Makes it great for cyclists, but not so sure I would want a house next to such a thief-oriented and advantageous route of access and escape.
The house we looked at was about 90% complete, and had almost everything we were looking for. It faced a bridge that started on the sidewalk across the street and crossed the Santa Ana River to the Trail. I was very tempted. My wife really liked it...and it was inside our range. But ultimately the view of the large concrete factory past the end of the street that Test was talking about, and the thief highway across the river, AND that I felt prices were going to continue to fall, which they did, (this was about 3 years ago) convinced me to look elsewhere.
I have to say though, that the condos there had, IMO, incredible layouts. We had looked at a hundred or more open houses of new construction and old, mostly in Irvine and South County, and the plans they had here were futuristic, extremely open, and just....beautiful. We were very impressed. I believe the builder was Centex. There was one we fell in love with. The condo was three levels plus an entry level (I believe), and every level was open to the level below it across the entire width of the condo. It was like a waterfall of floors with the front edge of each floor only being as high as a railing (but solid). At the center right was a stairway that went up all the way from bottom to top, so you sort of "exited" the stairway at the level you wanted. We thought it was very forward thinking but alas, for the same reason we did not buy the house, we did not buy the condo.
Interestingly, you might all remember how the government forced banks to meet certain minimum loan volumes for low income (i.e. high risk) buyers that helped get the bubble started. Those days were over when we went to look at this house, but the agent for the developer did a calculation for us to see what the mortgage would be and included in that was a "fee" for "Low Income Buyer Housing Assistance" of about $250. I was not happy about that. I felt like I was being forced by the developer to help them acquiesce the government by showing how they "assist" low-income buyers...but with MY MONEY. I am assuming that was what it was for, but I have never seen such a thing since.
