Northwood, one of Irvine’s oldest neighborhoods, may be the area in Irvine that has the most diverse housing: The newer homes of Northwood II are located near Woodbury. The Northpoint homes, located in upper Irvine, tend to have a higher price tag than much of the rest of Northwood. The condos that are across from the Northwood Town Center shopping center (Irvine Boulevard and Yale Avenue) as well as the condos located near the Heritage Park library contain some of the least expensive homes in Irvine. And then there are the homes that come to mind when I think of Northwood. These are the single-family homes that were built in the 1970s and 1980s and many of which have no HOA fees. (If you would like to see which homes in Irvine are currently on the market, go to the real estate map.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Northwood Community Center has been getting an update. The new features were highlighted on September 7 at the reopening ceremonies.

“The new [community center] building will serve our multi-generational community and features a multipurpose, exercise and craft room, courtyard, patio and a Tai Chi court. The Center, within Northwood Community Park is adjacent to a playground, tennis courts, soccer and softball fields and the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial. Join the festivities and learn what Irvine Community Services has to offer.”—City of Irvine

Here is one more tidbit that, as a local history buff, I find interesting. In addition to being designed as a building with LEED* certification that can serve Irvine’s multigenerational community, the building was planned to emphasis Irvine’s agricultural past. The site of the Northwood Community Center was once the location of one of the packing houses that were part of Orange County’s agricultural history, and the new Northwood Community Center was built to resemble the old packing house.

So there you have it. If you attend the event, you can get a quick overview of Irvine and the Northwood community—past and present—all in an hour and a half.

*Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)—a certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for compliance with environmentally-responsible green building practices

A city is more than a collection of houses, condos, apartments and businesses. It is also a community in which the residents are connected in numerous ways. One of these connections is the activities that are available. And as shown by the fall edition of Inside Irvine, Irvine has many. Inside Irvine contains information on upcoming special events, a catalog of class that residents and non-residents can register for, and a message from the city manager.

Some of the upcoming events that help to connect Irvine residents are the Northwood Community Park reopening ceremonies, which will highlight the new LEED-certified features, updated amenities intended to serve multi-generations, the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial, and Irvine’s agricultural history; the Global Village Festival, the city’s annual festival which features numerous multicultural activities, foods, entertainment, crafts, and exhibits—and is attempting to become a zero waste event; the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, which will feature a display at the Orange County Great Park of energy-efficient homes built by teams from national and international colleges as well as an XPO highlighting visionary businesses, products, and educational opportunities.

Do you see a trend here? Yes, all these events have sustainability aspects. Perhaps I’ll write more on that in some future posts, but for now, on to a look at the classes that will be available in the fall.

To view the fall classes that are available for registration, see the online catalog of classes. And for an online look at all the information included in the fall issue of Inside Irvine including the city manager’s message, click on the links below. Note that you can also pick up a hardcopy of Inside Irvine at City of Irvine facilities such as city hall and Irvine libraries.

· Page 1: Table of Contents

· Page 2-20: Inside Irvine Editorial

· Page 21-52: Inside Irvine Activity Guide

· Page 53-91: Inside Irvine Map and Registration Information

· Page 92-96: Inside Irvine Map and Registration Information

· Entire Inside Irvine

According to Altos Research, the Market Action Index (MAI) for Irvine’s single-family housing market is 37.21. That is down from the 42.57 MAI that was recorded about this time last month. However, as defined by Altos, this still puts the Irvine single-family housing market in the seller’s market category. (Above 30 is defined as a seller’s market; below is defined as a buyer’s market.) Altos also states that the average single-family home in Irvine has been on the market for about 80 days as of August 16, 2013.

As pointed out last month, the Irvine MAI was making a steady climb upward since the beginning of the year. However, this is the second month in a row that the Irvine MAI is trending downward. Is this the beginning of the end of the boom in the Irvine housing market, or just a temporary downturn? Time will tell.

Note: In spite of the downturn in the MAI for single-family homes in Irvine, the month-over-month asking prices are continuing to increase and the year-over-year selling prices are still increasing.

Following is Irvine’s July 2013 housing market data as provided by Redfin

Type	List Price/# Homes Listed	Sold Price/# Homes Sold	List Per SF	Sold Per SF	% Chg Y-O-Y Sold Price/SF
Houses
13-Jul	$1,125K/210	$900K/122	$459	$435	16.90%
13-Jun	$1,112K/186	$855K/99	$462	$414	16%
13-May	$1,030/167	$890/113	$457	$411	21.60%
13-Apr	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
13-Mar	$1,020K/101	$904K/62	$443	$381	13.40%
13-Feb	na/109	na/272	$415	$354	n/a
13-Jan	na/113	na/274	$409	$357	n/a
Condos
13-Jul	$588K/295	$522K/135	$416	$394	28.80%
13-Jun	$585K/235	$540K/130	$418	$391	24.90%
13-May	$599K/177	$539K/144	$406	$386	30.40%
13-Apr	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
13-Mar	$570K/111	$476K/88	$375	$344	21.60%
13-Feb	na/100	na/301	$369	$325	n/a
13-Jan	na/106	na/324	$377	$327	n/a
All
13-Jul	$709K/545	$659K/283	$423	$401	24.10%
13-Jun	$734K/456	$638K/249	$422	$395	20.80%
13-May	$750K/371	$659K/274	$416	$393	26.80%
13-Apr	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
13-Mar	$703K/219	$588K/151	$392	$359	18.90%
13-Feb	na/209	na/573	$389	$334	n/a
13-Jan	na/219	na/598	$389	$338	n/a

For a snapshot of the Irvine housing numbers by neighborhood in 2012, see my previous post. And for a look at what is happening this year, see the following:

Area	List Price/# Homes Listed	Sold Price/# Homes Sold	List Per SF	Sold Per SF	% Chg Y-O-Y Sold Price/SF
Airport/IBC
13-Jul	$699K/71	$428K/24	$439	$428	32.90%
13-Apr	$713K/37	$460K/31	$410	$376	24.50%
13-Jan	$694K/40	$440K/13	$398	$333	8.10%
Columbus Grove	n/a
El Camino Real
13-Jul	$704K/20	$555K/11	$399	$349	-2.80%
13-Apr	$607K/10	$490K/11	$369	$393	36.50%
13-Jan	$535K/17	$555K/12	$366	$380	42.30%
Northpark
13-Jul	$649K/35	$592K/32	$391	$392	35.60%
13-Apr	$625K/25	$625K/31	$359	$341	20.50%
13-Jan	$722K/24	$466K/22	$351	$321	15.90%
Northwood
13-Jul	$674K/72	$826K/46	$411	$388	14.50%
13-Apr	$798K/33	$738K/34	$377	$362	16.80%
13-Jan	$750K/23	$750K/25	$373	$305	4.50%
Oak Creek
13-Jul	$612K/24	$430K/20	$408	$395	36.20%
13-Apr	$330K/13	$435K/25	$361	$359	14%
13-Jan	$362K/14	$362K/14	$362	$338	29.50%
Orange Tree
13-Jul	$340K/7	$369K/9	$396	$389	34.10%
13-Apr	$300K/9	$274K/8	$380	$326	60.60%
13-Jan	$278K/8	$328K/4	$345	$332	33.30%
Portola Springs
13-Jul	$700K/19	$640K/7	$400	$389	22.70%
13-Apr	$608K/4	$667K/11	$347	$385	28.80%
13-Jan	$1,024K/8	$614K/8	$375	$329	12.30%
Quail Hill
13-Jul	$599K/21	$829K/13	$439	$414	6.40%
13-Apr	$754K/14	$860K/14	$413	$431	15.20%
13-Jan	$790K/10	$600K/7	$414	$341	4.60%
Rancho San Joaquin
13-Jul	$679K/6	$648K/1	$383	$319	18.60%
13-Apr	na/0	$486K/4	n/a	$367	n/a
13-Jan	$564K/2	na/0	$333	n/a	n/a
Shady Canyon
13-Jul	$5,988K/26	$4,300K/3	$786	$717	22.40%
13-Apr	$5,995K/23	$4,538K/2	$776	$777	51.80%
13-Jan	$5,700K/15	$6,675K/1	$736	$668	25.10%
Turtle Ridge
13-Jul	$1,800K/27	$1,699K/12	$625	$628	23.10%
13-Apr	$1,414K/22	$940K/13	$594	$531	26.10%
13-Jan	$2,302K/10	$1,295K/6	$605	$532	49.90%
Turtle Rock
13-Jul	$1,245K/33	$1,150K/13	$519	$514	13%
13-Apr	$1,025K/21	$895K/12	$545	$462	0.20%
13-Jan	$949K/13	$946K/8	$434	$466	58%
University Park
13-Jul	$749K/14	$720K/15	$403	$420	0.70%
13-Apr	$625K/9	$661K/11	$406	$327	20.20%
13-Jan	$625K/7	$570K/10	$330	$351	26.70%
University Town Center
13-Jul	$505K/9	$716K/2	$422	$361	14.20%
13-Apr	$589K/2	$477K/2	$365	$393	19.50%
13-Jan	$551K/1	$575K/1	$407	$377	19.70%
Walnut
13-Jul	$740K/15	$666K/9	$390	$386	20.20%
13-Apr	$620K/6	$580K/11	$398	$395	29.10%
13-Jan	$430K/3	$657K/4	$350	$275	6.20%
West Irvine	n/a
Westpark
13-Jul	$650K/17	$615K/12	$408	$401	37.80%
13-Apr	$824K/6	$700K/6	$411	$414	33.10%
13-Jan	$589K/4	$745K/6	$486	$340	-4.50%
Woodbridge
13-Jul	$539K/60	$512K/40	$400	$401	23.40%
13-Apr	$585K/31	$659K/34	$409	$377	30.40%
13-Jan	$694K/22	$500K/22	$363	$357	30.80%
Woodbury
13-Jul	$697K/42	$711K/12	$436	$413	43.90%
13-Apr	$699K/19	$647K/28	$424	$404	38.80%
13-Jan	$635K/11	$645K/17	$382	$331	13.40%

One of the early renderings of how the Great Park Neighborhoods might look

A milestone will take place soon at the Orange County Great Park; the sale of the first FivePoint Community Great Park homes will go on sale in September.

“The very first of the Great Park Neighborhoods, Pavilion Park, is located at the northern edge of the Orange County Great Park. It will add a touch of relaxed nature to everyday life in Irvine. This neighborhood's main attraction will be a large, central park shaded by majestic heritage trees. And a choice of graceful, new home collections, each inspired by classic, American Heritage architecture but designed with great flexibility for today's multigenerational families.”—Great Park Neighborhoods

When the Pavilion Park homes go on sale in September, the following choices will be available:

Birch Trail Richmond by American Homes

• Approx 1,878 – 2,388 sq. ft.
• 3 – 5 Beds | Up to 3 Baths
• 2-Car Garage
• From the upper $700,000s

Roundtree by Lennar

• Approx 2,053 – 2,472 sq. ft.
• 4 Beds | 3 – 4.5 Baths
• 2-Car Garage
• From the $700,000s

Springhouse by Taylor Morrison

• Approx 2,161 – 2,481 sq. ft.
• 3 – 4 Beds | 2.5 – 3.5 Baths
• 2-Car Garage
• From the upper $700,000s

Beachwood by Lennar

• Approx 1,767 – 2,691 sq. ft.
• 3 – 4 Beds | 2 – 4 Baths
• 2-Car Garage
• From the $800,000s

Whistler William by Lyon Homes

• Approx 2,336 – 2,896 sq. ft.
• 4 – 5 Beds | 2.5 – 3.5 Baths
• 2-Car Garage
• From the $900,000s

Sagewood by Shea Homes

• Approx 2,515 – 2,960 sq. ft.
• 3 – 5 Beds | Up to 4.5 Baths
• 3-Car Garage
• From the $900,000s

Hawthorn by Pulte Homes

• Approx 2,488 – 3,486 sq. ft.
• 3 – 6 Beds | 2.5 – 5 Baths
• 2-Car Garage + Storage
• From the $1,000,000s

Rosemist by Lennar

• Approx 2,924 – 3,404 sq. ft.
• 4 – 5 Beds | 4 – 5.5 Baths
• 3-Car Garage
• From the low $1,000,000s

Harmony by K. Hovnanian Homes

• Approx 3,362 – 3,722 sq. ft.
• 4 – 5 Beds | Up to 6 Baths
• 3-Car Garage
• From the low $1,200,000s

Melrose by Ryland Homes

• Approx 3,900 – 4,223 sq. ft.
• 5 Beds | 5.5 Baths
• 3-Car Garage
• From the mid $1,000,000s

To receive information about Pavilion Park, including invitations to model home previews, special gatherings and events, fill in the registry form found on the right side of the Great Park Neighborhoods web page.