Well, it’s official – I have found the house (well, technically it’s a detached condo) that I am going to purchase. After strolling through hundreds of ugly old Brady Bunch houses, and plenty more brand new but awkwardly-designed, cheaply thrown together new construction in Irvine, all in the pursuit of feeding my addiction to watching the housing bubble explode like a Mentos in a bottle of Coke, I have fallen in love with a house. So I’m going to buy it.
In 2008.
Okay, let me back up a little. First of all, sorry for my long absence. Our brilliant and generous Irvine Housing Blog host Zovall kindly invited me to write posts on his blog whenever I wanted to do so, in order to provide a different voice and perspective on the local housing market. I have neither the access nor the smarts that my colleague possesses, to be able to find and post about the fascinating listing situations that he has been able to find. However he has assured me that my “out and about” commentaries provide a good balance to his blog, and I hope that you, our friends in the Irvine bubble-watching community, agree. So my intent was, and still is, to write a witty, interesting post every couple of days to spark discussion on this blog. However, life kind of gets in the way sometimes. And so all I’m going to say in summary is, look at my name. That’s my excuse!
So, getting on with my story about Paloma by Brookfield Homes in Portola Springs. Today I actually did my hair and put make-up on (an unusual occurrence for me on a Saturday; usually it’s ponytail or hat and sweatpants!) to attend an Open House that the nice folks at Paloma had invited me to attend, complete with a snail-mailed invitation that had requested my RSVP. I had actually called the 800 number on the card in a moment of weakness this week when I felt the need to be sucked up to. Sure enough, the greeting I received on the phone, as well as today at the Paloma office, made me feel quite special indeed. None of that soooooooo-2005 sales office attitude, no indeed, ma’am! How wonderful of you to come visit our community on this lovely fall day today! Would you like some cider and cookies? Can I explain our new community to you? Please feel free to take a look at our models and let me know if you have any questions! Big, wide, sincere smile.
Gee, I guess I didn’t even have to get all dressed up to be treated with a modicum of respect this time! Again, a complete 180 from the not-so-distant past.
I was given a list of 10 available homes, already built and ready to move into, of which one was marked “SOLD.” That was Residence 2C, 2,235 sq feet, 3/2.5/2. $863,000. Plus Paloma HOAs of $185 a month, Portola Springs HOAs of $175 a month, and an effective tax rate (including Mello Roos) of 1.8%.
Yikes.
So I go into the first model, and I fall in love. This is a one-story, 1723 sq foot, detached home. I generally don’t like one-stories. (I’m more of a two-story, bedrooms upstairs kind of a gal). Anyway, this place just really sucked me in. First of all, Brookfield Homes, in my humble opinion, gets it right when it comes to design of floor plans and materials of construction. No strange room angles, no squashed or truncated rooms, etc. Just lots of bright, airy, roomy space. Plus, the kitchen opens up (as does the master bedroom) into a central courtyard that could be bigger, but is not cramped. It is beautifully decked out with an outdoor fireplace and furniture that made me want to open a bottle of wine and invite friends and family over for dinner. The kitchen works, the laundry room works, the bedrooms (all two of them) just WORK for me. Granted, I could use one more bedroom, but at 1723 sq feet, it’s plenty big enough for me and my little guy.
The community is a semi-circle around the lovely Lomas Valley park, complete with a huge grassy area, basketball court, beautiful beckoning playground, and a gorgeous pool. So what that my son wouldn’t have a back yard, with this great common area so close?
I could just LIVE here!
The only hitch is the price tag. It was not possible to tell from the pricing sheet what the exact starting price was for the Residence 1 model since there are four Residence 1’s to choose from (1A, 1BR, 1C, and 1ARX) and 1BR is the model but is not listed on the price sheet. I could get enough of an idea, however, based on the pricing that was provided. The cheapest Residence 1 was listed for $774,300, and the most expensive was $824,070. Mind you, that’s for the 2BR model. The other models were beautiful as well, and were all 2-story and 3 or 4 bedroom. Prices went up to $987,500 to start.
The community of Portola Springs was hosting a Fall Festival while I was there, at Lomas Valley Park. I had also received a lovely snail-mail invitation for this event as well. There were several pretty fancy food booths including funnel cake, a harvest area with lots of pumpkins and hay bales, and it looked like they were prepared to do some games and activities for the kids. Festive music was playing over loudspeakers and there were balloons and happy, smiling people set up at information tables. It was not empty – there were some families there, perhaps 50-75 people as a rough guess? However, they appeared to be set up to have handled many, many times that many people. If the host of this party had been a 16-year-old girl having a birthday party, there’d have been some tears involved as the hours went by.
This is a beautiful community, well-designed, family-friendly, and less than 10 minutes away from my job on local roads. It feeds into Northwood High School and will have its own, brand-new elementary school opening in 2008. It is just up the road from the brand new Woodbury Town Center which will have tons of shops and restaurant including, importantly, a Trader Joe’s! And it will have its own, smaller retail center within walking or biking distance. In short, this is EXACTLY what I want for me and my son. I just don’t want to cash in my 401k and lay awake at night worrying about my finances in order to be able to live this dream!
I went into one more “open house” at Paloma today in addition to the models. It was an unfinished home (no flooring, no landscaping, lots of finishing work yet to occur) that was having a “one-day financing special” according to the sales agent camped out in the future kitchen. Brookfield Homes would pay down the interest rate, he said to me with a big, wide smile. “Oh, really? For the duration of the mortgage?” “No, for the first five years. You save more than $98,000 over that time through this exciting program!”
So I responded, “Yeah, and then after five years, you’re screwed.”
He just looked at me. Guess he didn’t like my attitude very much. I guess he figured that I must be one of those bitter renters, holding out for a bargain. I need to change my psychology! Realize it’s a buyer’s market! Jump off the fence and just go for it!
Helllooooooo????!!! I only earn $120k; i only have $130k in a CD to use as a downpayment. I am among the working poor trash of Irvine!
But seriously, the only way I could afford an $800,000 house is to either find a rich man to marry (no, thanks, I like being on my own!) or to take out a toxic mortgage.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
Hence, my decision to purchase. In 2008. When prices are several hundred thousand dollars lower.
Thanks for reading. Have a great day!
We drove by there after the party was over. From what I recall of Paloma when it first opened up, I think the prices have come down some. We really liked them too (albeit, the Plan 2), but $900K for an attached place is just out of the question. It looks like KB dropped their prices on Bougenvellia (please ignore the spelling error) by about $25K.
We then went to Woodbury. Lennar is still pricing La Casella the same and – shockingly – Liang has *raised* their prices on Stonetree. We *really* like the Stonetree Plan 2, but for $900K, we could go to Northpark Square (Campanile) and get a larger SF home for the same price, with one HOA instead of two and the lower tax basis.
When we first looked at Campanile, we didn’t like them at all. However, after looking at other models, and after Cal Pacific has lowered their prices to Phase I or below pricing, it’s looking *much* better.
Thanks for your commentary. I really like it.
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Irvinesinglemom, Thanks for the excellent write-up and change-up to the usual but great flipper reports. It would be awesome if you could add some pictures for people like me who are interested in Irvine market but do not live in that area. Keep up the good work and dont be tempted by the petty $25K reductions. I am still amazed at the strength of this market considering that SD is falling a lot. I could find 3000 SqFt recently built homes in good neighborhoods for $600-$650K in SD but in Irvine you will still find 2000 SqFt homes for $750K or more.
There is a lot of correction needed in Irvine. Be patient. It will be rewarded.
Hi rerip, thanks for the feedback. yeahhhhhhh, that’s part of my problem. I can’t figure out how to make the drag-n-drop photo thing work on my iBook to add pics to my posts. I need to get myself to the Apple store to see if they can help me.
You are tormenting yourself by looking now. Just stop looking for a year or two! These prices are rediculous. 1.8% tax AND two hefty HOA fees? That is just nuts and will devour anyone. In two years neighborhoods like that will become forclosure city. Not the kind of neighborhood I want to live in.
The prices right now are just plain silly. Even though we make enough to buy a place like that easily, it simply does not make financial sense. Why overpay when renting gets you so much more for so much less?
I’m with Irvine_native on this one. I don’t go anywhere near open houses. I get excited when I see a rental pop-up for under $2k with an oversized garage. I get excited when there’s talk of interest rates rising (love those 28-day T-bills). I get excited when I see $271/sq ft in Laguna Niguel. I get excited when another housing bull drops-off of Lansner’s Blog.
Open houses don’t do it for me. Not yet.
As for me, I’m far from making a commitment on what year I will purchase a home. Frankly, I don’t know how long this housing bubble dynamic is going to play out. I’ll be looking when prices make sense, or I’ll move to a place where they do. It could be quite a few years before the bubble frenzy has petered out. Irvine is freaking crazy, as are other areas. Yeah, it’s a nice city – I used to live there for several years, but not 800 to 900 thousand nice!
Dear IrvineSingleMom,
I am sure that you can afford this house……you may have to make a few adjustments in your lifestyle. Here are some suggestions:
a) Sell you car and start using the public transportation. I am sure that there is a bus route going throught the Portola neighborhood. You know, the bus that brings in the “help”.
b) You can save money by eating less and paying less for what you eat. I’ve seen at the local albertsons that they have “budget gormet” frozen dinners for $1.00 each. Also, there is a surplus of oatmeal. If you and your son eat oatmeal for breafast and budget gormet for dinner…you can eat for about $20.00 per week. Just skip eating lunch, its a waste of time anyway.
c) I’ve noticed a lot of free furniture on Craig’s List. No need to decorate your new place with fancy furniture from a store. If you or your son need clothes, there is always the thrift store option. Some of the stuff at the Goodwill store in Anaheim is looking pretty good these days.
d) Is your son old enough to work….maybe he could take the bus to the Home Depot in Costa Mesa and do some day labor. It would help him develop a work ethic so someday he could be a home owner too.
e) Is the back yard of the poperty you want large enough to grow some vegitables. Better yet, you could probably grow some marijuana and sell it to the kids at the local high school. I’ve heard that the high school kids in Irvine have lots of money to buy drugs.
I am sure that these modest changes are worth it considering that you will be a “homeowner”. Besides the guy that developed the new neighborhood just got a new boat and it has a 600 gallon gas tank(cost about $2,400 to fill) If you don’t buy the house and he dosn’t get a profit, how will he get gas for his boat? So do the right thing…..go buy now…..you can make this happen.
you make $120k/yr?…er…will you marry me?
j/k LOL! 😀
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Nano,
She doesn’t need to do any of that stuff. She just needs to go back to school and study harder. Clearly anyone making under 200k is a member of the Orange County serf class because they didn’t apply themselves in college. Don’t you read the commenters on Lansner’s blog? OC is undergoing a paradigm shift where only VP and C-level jobs are to be created. Ordinary staff and lower management is now a permanent renter class, and the sooner they leave, the better. The VP’s don’t appreciate gaggles of low-end BMWs and Acuras clogging their Jamboree commute. The sooner the serfs move to Corona, the better!
OC
PS. ISM, I submit a backup marriage offer with no inspection contingencies. 🙂
What does…….
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Mean?
I love this blog. Lots of fun. I make $120 and I cannot buy a house. It is just unreal. But, OC_fliptrack may have a point. I need to apply myself and work harder.
ROTHLMAO=rolling on the floor laughing my a$$ off.
Rolling on the floor laughing my a** off.
Portola Sprind price and taxes are just … way over the
top. The city of Irvine is making of like a bandit charging .5+ for mello-roos with current housing price.
So are the property tax people.
Thank you irvinesinglemom for the kind words regarding the Paloma homes and the wonderful sales team working there. They are turley nice people and believe or not even in 2005 you would have received the same hospitality. I am the smiling guy in the open house and I am also lucky to be their sales director. It’s true you did catch me off guard with your response to the financing package I was presenting. It really was of great value to the party who returned to purchase that home. I would be happy to help you find a fit at one of our locations. Based on your stated needs and income, I am sure we can. I do have 1 very attractive, national award winning home in Irvine that may be the one. Brigitte or Andrea at Paloma can give you the details.
PS that sales team consistantly receives scores of 100% in customer satisfaction at various communities they have been assigned to. As you can see, I am proud of them. Thanks again!
Thanks Rocky. Not to be rude or anything, but you don’t seem to “get it.” I’m sure that you could creatively figure out a way to get me into one of your houses. And I’d love to – your houses are beautiful and I would love, love, love to own one. But I really, truly only gross about 10k a month, and after taxes, 401k, 529 college savings, daycare, food, car, you name it, I don’t have anywhere near the $5,000 I’d need each month to pay on a 650 or 700k mortgage plus taxes and HOA.
I appreciate your earnest desire to get me into one of your beautiful homes. We’ll talk in a couple years, honest!
San Clemente has great beaches, better climate and offers a lot more for less money than Irvine. You can find a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath townhome in Talega for the low $500’s and they have a brand new K-8 school parks and nice people.
I know – I love Talega! I wish I could live down there because I would do so in a heartbeat. However, one of my “must-haves” in my quality of living is a short commute to my office in Irvine, because of my single-mom status. I want to be away from my boy as little as possible and commuting time is absolute dead time that I’m not productive in my career, at the gym, or with my boy.
I have vowed to myself never to do a freeway commute again. Six plus years of Fullerton to Irvine and back again really did it for me.
We saw a post from Oct 21 by Anon, talking about how Liang *raised* the pricing on the Stonetree homes… can anyone tell me what the prices were originally? Or raised by what amount??
We’d hate to be looking in the very same area and get taken advantage of….
Thanks!