Address: 25 Rainbow Falls, Irvine, CA 92603 (Turtle Rock)
Plan: 1572 sq ft – 3/2
MLS: S472630 DOM: 101
Sale History: 5/20/2005: $725,000
1/8/2003: $490,000
Price Reduced: 03/13/07 — $798,000 to $789,000
Price Reduced: 03/14/07 — $789,000 to $778,000
Price Reduced: 03/22/07 — $778,000 to $760,000
Current Price: $760,000
It looks like this is the first property in the village of Turtle Rock to be featured on our blog. Turtle Rock is the original hilly village of Irvine and in the future, we may do a Community Profile on it. This Plan E in the Glen Garden Homes tract was purchased in May of 2005 and then listed on the market early this year for $798k. After a month and a half, the seller started reducing the price. 3 reductions later brings us to the current asking price of $760,000.
If sold at the current asking price and assuming 6% in selling costs, the owner will lose about $10,000. When this home was listed on 1/22/07, there were about 900 properties for sale in Irvine; now there are close to 1200!
{adsense}
There is only one other property that I see for sale in this tract:
-
12 Cool Brook (MLS #P572667) – 3bd/2ba 1628 sq ft – $629,000
Here’s the description for 12 Cool Brook: “Want a ‘Hot Deal’? This is it! This is a Turtle Rock estate sale that has been a rental. Seller priced it $120,000 below our competition for a fast sale. Most buyers will want to update paint, carpet, and flooring. The low price and unbeatable location far outweighs the need for TLC. Cul-de-sac location, backing to a greenbelt hillside. Move fast, going going gone.”
And the private remarks for 12 Cool Brook: “Seller will provide a termite clearance, otherwise the home is being sold as-is. Seller has not lived in the property and acquired the property by inheritance.”
Sure enough, it was priced well and the status in MLS is now ‘Accepting Backup Offers’. 12 Cool Brook has been on the market for 15 days (compare that to the 101 DOM for 25 Rainbow Falls).
As some of you may know, I’m a big fan of the Turtle Rock area. Did anyone have a chance to check out 12 Cool Brook? Once this property closes escrow, I imagine it’ll be harder for 25 Rainbow Falls to sell at the $760k price.
On 25 Rainbow Falls, anybody else catch the HOA gotcha?
“Community has just finished renovation, $12K assessment already paid in full. ”
It’s good that it is paid, but ouch, $398/month in HOA fees and you just get hammered for a $12,000 special assessment.
—–
This place looks like a dump from the outside
Why would I buy a condo if I could get an SFR in Turtle Rock for $718K? MLS # S470964
Ouch, that comp has gotta hurt the other sellers!
Inside is not much better for 725k…
Across the street, 13 Cool Brook was on the market last month for $860k. The owner (who inherited it) got one offer for $800k and turned it down. He took it off the market to spend $3k scraping and painting the ceilings and will relist at $860k. 13 Cool Brook is 600 feet bigger than 12 Cool Brook, but still I bet he wishes he took that offer for $800k now. The 12 Cool Brook sale killed the comps for that tract.
That isn’t an SFH. It is attached duplex just like the Glen Garden homes and only has a 1 car garage. The location is also poor in comparison. The Glen homes are a much better buy.
That’s merely the tip of the iceberg for the pain of this collapsing house of cards.
The smart right now are cutting more than anyone would have thought people were willing to stomach in order to sell. A major drop in price right now gets them out in time to avoid the painful and far deeper price attrition that will come for those who try to drag it out over time.
12 Cool Brook will be the anchor point. With very few sales in the track… it is going to be tougher (not impossible) to get inflated appraisals through the system.
I expect a few more billion to be lost by the Sub-primes… that’s going to really slow the market from the buying standpoint and create quite a few desperate sellers…
Got popcorn?
Neil
There’s still optimism in Turtle Rock. This 1500 sq ft house at 6141 Sierra Bravo Rd was a long time rental and in bad shape when the owner sold it to a flipper on 04/12/2006 for $770,000. The Flipper cleaned it up and sold it for $910,000 on 09/14/2006. The new buyer, a contractor, bulldozed it and looks to be putting up a 3,000 square foot house. He’s probably hoping to sell it for $1.8 million within a year.
If the housing market tanks, what’s the chances of this contractor walking away from leaving behind an unfinished half built house?
Ah, Southern California, home of the million dollar tear-down. Cripes, it’s not even coastal with a view.
I wouldn’t be too optimistic about housing prices falling anytime soon. There have recently been several $1,000,000+ sales for old houses that have had little to no updating in the Turtle Rock Highlands area.
Housing markets generally collapse from the bottom up. Look for weakness in the starter homes properties first because nobody really wants to live in these long term. Since these sales are the foundation of the move up market, a collapse in these prices signals the fall of the whole house of cards. The million dollar plus buyers are the last to figure it out.
They flipper who actually make $140K on a 2006 flip has got to be happy. I am finding properties all over town from 2005 that are selling for less than purchase price.
Another Irvine starter home that belongs at its 2003 pricing. 490k or less sounds about right!
Can someone tell me what is going on here? Will the bank allow this to happen?
http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=600760
$1.365M for 3000sq ft in Laguna Niguel? Wow, I didn’t even that neighborhood was there.
I wouldn’t see a short sale for $850 getting approved, there’s a half dozen homes roughly same size or slightly larger ranging from $1.189 to $1.6M
Personally, I think they’re all smoking crack. But, it appears to be the little corner pinched between Laguna and Dana Point about 2 miles off the coast.
I’m not sure if TR is a good example of a crashing market. Not yet at least. Houses between 900K and $1.2 million seem to still move there pretty quickly. Below are 4 houses in TR in that category that sold within the past month, all within 2-3 weeks of listing.
S483130
S482723
S481907
S480852
The first 3 haven’t closed, so I don’t know the sales price.
The last one is a 2000 sq. foot ranch. It was listed at $1,136,800 (odd number). Anyone know what it sold for? It closed on April 26.