substitute city

[villiagepeople]

I searched (with 2 agents) for over 2 years... probably looked at 60+ houses, put in over a dozen offers... trying to find a home "outside" of irvine... irvine just seemed out of my reach (detached newer < 417k) and found nothing at that time.

as some of you may know i eventually bought new in irvine.  the "substitution" effect is talked a lot but for me it never got to that point where the substitute city was a good enough value over irvine.  just wondering what your top three areas (the list above are all the cities where i searched and/or made offers on).  these are substitute areas so they are "close to" irvine and the schools are decent (not santa ana, anahiem or tustin proper) and home prices are less than irvine (not cdm, newport, laguna beach)... the list is also skewed towards south county.

if you pick other please say where...

 

[irvinehomeowner]

I went with Tustin Ranch, Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo (all on my Redfin search alerts).

I would also pick Foothill Ranch and Las Flores as my #4 and #5... their biggest knocks being distance away from the freeway.

If our lives centered around South County... Aliso, Mission and Laguna Niguel would be the primary suspects.

 

[25inirvine]

Tustin Ranch would be the highest for me except their prices aren't really that much different from Irvine.

I wouldn't mind Mission Viejo since I sort of grew up there (parents divorced).  That city is so huge so you get a wide range of choices. I lived both by the lake side of town where it takes 15-20 minutes to get to the freeway, but on the other hand you are very close to the huge shopping centers of Foothill Ranch and RSM.  Also, never even take the freeway to get to irvine, just take Trabuco Road/Irvine Blvd all the way down.  And I have also lived 2 miles from the freeway near La Paz and Marguerite which makes getting to other towns a lot quicker.

But my top 3 would be between Lake Forest, Foothill Ranch, and Aliso Viejo.  It would be choosing between the older Lake Forest, which has a better location/easier commute to work or smoething newer in Aliso Viejo and Foothill Ranch.  I never really go to the airport side/UCI side of Irvine since my work and everything else is on the other side of the 5, so I'm sure my commute thoughts are different than most.  Ladera Ranch is actually on the list too but we'd have to get a lot for our money for that, like less than $175/sq ft.

 

[rkp]

Not to increase my competition but Tustin Fields has become our laser focused neighborhood.  It is Tustin but feeds into IUSD without the higher prices.  Its almost as cheap as neighboring cities that dont feed into IUSD and arent as central.  Being close to 405 and 5 make it easy to get anywhere and its close to IBC and SNA.  With all the shopping nearby and Tustin Legacy being built out, it seems like a slamdunk.  I love walking to restaurants and stores and within half mile, you have so much there.  The downsides are that its right off of Jamboree where Jamboree is really a freeway and it has high voltage power lines.  If they just put a ton of tall trees like they do in other Irvine neighborhoods....

We seriously considered these neighborhoods before ruling them out - all had similar positives and negatives.  Big houses, big lots, many with views, but many are far or feel remote with nothing that is walking distance and the pricing wasnt that much better than Tustin Fields.

Serrano Heights / Anaheim Hills
Mission Viejo
Ladera Ranch
Laguna Niguel

 

[villiagepeople]

Tustin fields, I knew I would forget an area... That, and voc should have been in the poll. Is there a way to append to the poll?  I forgot those areas because although they were in my redfin searches nothing ever came up in those areas (same with Tustin ranch... Not much of a discount to those areas.

 

[test]

In the MLS the TF region includes both TF and VoC which makes sense since they are both part of TL.  However TF and part of VoC are zoned for different schools so if you want to break it down by school it would be TF and CG otherwise just TF or you'd have to break it down even further TF, CG, CS.  Regardless, TF is separate from TR.

 

[freedomcm]

I would add/consider HB, SJC, San Clemente, DP.

But that is because work is near the airport, so the commute from each of those is not too bad (albeit using the 73 tollroad)

 

[villiagepeople]

i'm surprised at how little love foothill ranch is getting (at the time of post <10%)... foothill ranch was just a notch cheaper if not just as expensive as tustin field, tustin ranch, [tustin] voc.

i would like to but can't change lake forest to say (north/west of trabuco, not just northwest)

 

[rkp]

We looked at Foothill Ranch but it didnt make sense to be that far inland for us.  Its a really nice community and has pretty much most stores you need for day to day in the shopping center but proximity to jobs and that its just a tad less expensive than TF didnt make it a strong choice for us.

 

[rimrattler6]

Can't forget about Yorba Linda.

 

[madhuri]

I think I would also put Placentia and Yorba Linda on the list.