Why Do the Chinese Love Irvine?

Liar Loan

Liar Loan

Well-known member
I was reading this IHB post by Cubic Zirconia:

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/blog/comments/premium-not-yet#86593

And this sentence caught my eye: 
I get at least two calls a week from Realtors representing foreign buyers who are willing to pay more than the market price for my detached condominium.
Click to expand...

This type of activity seems to be taken for granted by the readers here at Talk Irvine, yet I don't know if anybody has ever fully explained it.  (Maybe they have and I just missed it.) 

There are a lot of desirable features to Irvine, but that could be said for many OC cities.  What is it about Irvine that gets people that have never been here to plunk down $700k+ for a house?  Is there some cultural appeal to Irvine that I'm not aware of?  Is it all just marketing?  What makes Chinese people want buy houses here out of all the places in SoCal?  I've read that it's perceived to be a good investment, but why not buy houses in Laguna Beach, La Jolla, or any other coastal city then?

Sincerely,
Confused White Guy
 
I met a father (Chinese) who brought his family here last year.  He said that he sold his house in China, will close his business there, and buy some homes here to rent.  He said that because he can't speak English very well, he plans to earn a living by renting his properties here.  He also said that they buy homes with cash and he knows of a lady who bought 15 Irvine homes recently for $15 million. 

 
It's not just Irvine, there are other cities in SoCal that attracts Chinese buyers.

Why Irvine is desirable is the same reason why even non-Chinese like Irvine:

1. Good schools
2. Availability of ethnic foods (both groceries and restaurants)
3. Safe (well... usually)
4. Local university
5. Higher value retention of real estate (relative)

And my personal favorite:

6. High availability of pick-up basketball games any time of the week
 
Agree IHO.

1) Good Schools
2) Convenience and availability of foods (Chinese and Korean)
3) Clean... the roads are nice and everything seems so nicely manicured.  My relatives from the east coast came by during summer last year and complimented on how clean everything was in Irvine.  They said it almost looked like a fake city (movie set).
4) The value of the homes in irvine seem to hold pretty steady... err.. i think..
 
It's not just Irvine, but also other desirable areas such as Cerritos, Arcadia, Diamond Bar, etc. with good school districts.

I spent 3+ months to look at >100 houses in the Cerritos area and placed ~20 bids on homes.  We simply could not compete against all cash buyers in Cerritos.  Here's an example of a SFR in the only block of Norwalk that's in the ABC school district:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Norwalk/15507-Bechard-Ave-90650/home/7792561

You might say "wow only $379k", good luck getting it at that price.  The home will likely sell for $500K.

We were able to finally able to buy a smaller 4 bed SFR in Norwalk by cruising around the neighborhood to find contractors working on fixing up homes, inquiring about the status (is this a flip?), and making offers to the flipper directly before the property was even finished or listed on MLS.  The flipper that we worked with agreed to complete the refurbishment and sell the SFR to us with $120K premium over what they paid for the house.

Oh and, the Ranch 99 and Zion in Irvine sucks compared to the Ranch 99 on Pioneer in Artesia & Zion in Hawaiian Gardens on Carson.

As for rental/income properties, you'd get better cash flow for your money elsewhere along the I-15 and I-215.  Fannie Mae still offers 20% down for investment properties, though I'm not sure for how long.


 
i like irvine because compared to other areas asians like to congregate... like montery park or torrance, i always feel like i will be shot at or robbed... but in irvine i feel like i am bottom of the line and poor, so they will shoot at or rob everybody else before they even bother with me (appearance wise, other irvine chinese folks probably think i will shoot at or rob them heh)... and i am too poor for palos verdes... simple...
 
This is soooooo true...

but with that said, i think ive had enough of los angeles... ive been here for 10 years and the city is seriously deteriorating... thats one thing that stands out for irvine, it is well maintained... i drive the 405 down from LA all the time... and once u pass seal beach suddenly the roads and freeways become such a nice drive in comparison (my cars kinda low so i feel practically everything)... roads say a lot about an area and its infrastructure... they are the lifeline of commerce in a city


momopi said:
Oh and, the Ranch 99 and Zion in Irvine sucks compared to the Ranch 99 on Pioneer in Artesia & Zion in Hawaiian Gardens on Carson.
Click to expand...
 
Liar Loan said:
I was reading this IHB post by Cubic Zirconia:

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/blog/comments/premium-not-yet#86593

And this sentence caught my eye: 
I get at least two calls a week from Realtors representing foreign buyers who are willing to pay more than the market price for my detached condominium.
Click to expand...

This type of activity seems to be taken for granted by the readers here at Talk Irvine, yet I don't know if anybody has ever fully explained it.  (Maybe they have and I just missed it.) 

There are a lot of desirable features to Irvine, but that could be said for many OC cities.  What is it about Irvine that gets people that have never been here to plunk down $700k+ for a house?  Is there some cultural appeal to Irvine that I'm not aware of?  Is it all just marketing?  What makes Chinese people want buy houses here out of all the places in SoCal?  I've read that it's perceived to be a good investment, but why not buy houses in Laguna Beach, La Jolla, or any other coastal city then?

Sincerely,
Confused White Guy
Click to expand...

I think it is for the same reason people love to stay at high-end hotels where everything is neat, clean and maintained automagically. Chinese are shrewd (in a complimentary sense) and don't mind taking shortcuts when they can afford it. There is nothing wrong with that. But why are they attracted to Irvine only?  They are not. Property prices are being pushed up in other cities too by FCB's but we are just too self-obsessed (again, in a complimentary sense) here at TI to notice.

There is always this herd mentality in consumer sentiment and this is especially true among the Chinese immigrant population. Majority of the new immigrant population are facing language and cultural barriers themselves and do not want to venture into the unknown territories. Hence the congregation in east LA county cities. Once they have discovered a nice, open and welcoming city like Irvine (thanks to TIC and IP of course), the gold-rush follows.

This same mentality also defines the pattern of their investment activities - it is no surprising to hear so-and-so bought a number of homes for investment in Irvine. while ignoring other cities where investment returns could in fact be much higher.  This predictability comes with an inherent risk but who am I to say. I wish all new-comers well and and enjoy their sweet American dreams.










 
They send their kids to UCI and buy a house to go with the education and this diversifies their portfolio out of the Shanghai composite and their own real estate bubble.
 
its also kind of sad cause we have to print more money to sustain our debt... so irvines just gonna become more and more expensive for us americans, and cheaper and cheaper for foreigners... if ur tight on ur wallet already right now, its only a matter of time ur gonna be priced out... might as well move now...

see this is one of those major problems i have with our gov using its citizens as collateral for the USD... i mean ok its been this way since we introduced fiat currency, but theres gotta be a better way to sustain our debt man... oh well bleh...
 
IrvineRepublic said:
Liar Loan said:
I was reading this IHB post by Cubic Zirconia:

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/blog/comments/premium-not-yet#86593

And this sentence caught my eye: 
I get at least two calls a week from Realtors representing foreign buyers who are willing to pay more than the market price for my detached condominium.
Click to expand...

This type of activity seems to be taken for granted by the readers here at Talk Irvine, yet I don't know if anybody has ever fully explained it.  (Maybe they have and I just missed it.) 

There are a lot of desirable features to Irvine, but that could be said for many OC cities.  What is it about Irvine that gets people that have never been here to plunk down $700k+ for a house?  Is there some cultural appeal to Irvine that I'm not aware of?  Is it all just marketing?  What makes Chinese people want buy houses here out of all the places in SoCal?  I've read that it's perceived to be a good investment, but why not buy houses in Laguna Beach, La Jolla, or any other coastal city then?

Sincerely,
Confused White Guy
Click to expand...

I think it is for the same reason people love to stay at high-end hotels where everything is neat, clean and maintained automagically. Chinese are shrewd (in a complimentary sense) and don't mind taking shortcuts when they can afford it. There is nothing wrong with that. But why are they attracted to Irvine only?  They are not. Property prices are being pushed up in other cities too by FCB's but we are just too self-obsessed (again, in a complimentary sense) here at TI to notice.

There is always this herd mentality in consumer sentiment and this is especially true among the Chinese immigrant population. Majority of the new immigrant population are facing language and cultural barriers themselves and do not want to venture into the unknown territories. Hence the congregation in east LA county cities. Once they have discovered a nice, open and welcoming city like Irvine (thanks to TIC and IP of course), the gold-rush follows.

This same mentality also defines the pattern of their investment activities - it is no surprising to hear so-and-so bought a number of homes for investment in Irvine. while ignoring other cities where investment returns could in fact be much higher.  This predictability comes with an inherent risk but who am I to say. I wish all new-comers well and and enjoy their sweet American dreams.
Click to expand...

Thanks IrvineRepublic.  I think this explains what I was missing.
 
momopi said:
I spent 3+ months to look at >100 houses in the Cerritos area and placed ~20 bids on homes.  We simply could not compete against all cash buyers in Cerritos.  Here's an example of a SFR in the only block of Norwalk that's in the ABC school district:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Norwalk/15507-Bechard-Ave-90650/home/7792561

You might say "wow only $379k", good luck getting it at that price.  The home will likely sell for $500K.
Click to expand...

Not that safe of a neighborhood, especially when alot of thugs from adjacent neighborhoods come in here to do their business.  Hearing gun shots come from the neighborhood (known as the "one-ways") across Bloomfield is all but common especially during the summer months.  There's constant graffiti, which is sand blasted off the walls by the city once reported.

The one good thing about this neighborhood is that it is in the Whitney H.S. (ABC School District).  Whitney (my alma mater) is a prestigious magnet school.

 
world chaos said:
its also kind of sad cause we have to print more money to sustain our debt... so irvines just gonna become more and more expensive for us americans, and cheaper and cheaper for foreigners... if ur tight on ur wallet already right now, its only a matter of time ur gonna be priced out... might as well move now...

see this is one of those major problems i have with our gov using its citizens as collateral for the USD... i mean ok its been this way since we introduced fiat currency, but theres gotta be a better way to sustain our debt man... oh well bleh...
Click to expand...

I wish our federal or state government would institute some guidelines to protect taxpayers from situations like this. In the 90's Japanese investors flooded Australia's real estate market. The Australian government imposed restrictions on foreign investors and levied heavy tax on when such investors made profit. In the late 90's investors from Hong Kong did the same thing to western Canadian cities. I'm not sure if the Canadians did anything. It feels like foreign buyers are getting a free run here and we are selling every inch of available land to foreigners for a shortsighted quick buck. We should ask the county to double the property tax and MR for foreign buyers and give local residents a leg up? What's wrong with that? We are the ones contributed to this beloved city and it's only fair for ask for a small fee from late comers.

I'm just wondering, is it legally possible for a large foreign investment group (perhaps backed by, for instance, the Chinese government) to buy out all homes on the market in Irvine?  You and I will become the proud residents/citizens of the Red Irvine or People's Republic of Chirvine.

On a second thought, I'm not particular worried. The Chinese government imposes restrictions on the outflow of US currency - each person is allowed to wire 50k per year out of China. Yes there are lots of people and lots of loopholes. But the Chinese government will start plugging the holes as soon as their official's mistresses have settled down in Irvine and their kids enrolled in IUSD and IVC. Yep, coming to a neighborhood near you, the rich, the classy, the lonely, the misunderstood and the forever horny... mistresses of the Chinese ruling class. 





 
i agree with u for the most part... its ironic our gov is doing the opposite and handing out visas that imply a fast track to green card-dom with any investment of more than half a million for business or real estate...

but then on second though... red irvine might not be that bad... great park will be complete in a year... lol
 
actually i take it back... im against protectionism, it just delays the inevitable... as a native of los angeles, im getting priced out of the west side so fuck that... if i think irvine is cheap compared to the west side, then i can only imagine what rich foreigners think of irvine... but i understand the solution to this problem is to start working harder and/or decrease my expenses (ie move out of the city to the suburbs aka irvine)... the global economy will equalize eventually (our debt cant go on forever and the RMB cant appreciate forever either), but if i stay the same while the global economy moves, then i will be left behind... i refuse to be left behind and forced to join the other folks out there that expect the status quo to be maintained and dont want to work harder or cut down and bitch and whine all day about high HOAs...
 
I for one welcome our Chinese overlords, and their money.  Places like Jack in the box can't make enough revenue to support a corner strip mall spot, but a place like 85 deg bakery has a 30 min line everyday out the door.  Did you know I saw Jack In the Box selling rice bowls in Monterey Park 20 years ago.  I guess they had to figure out some way to survive when most of their community is !white.  Not that Jack in the Box is for Caucasians...but burger places in general.
 
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