I was laughed at today in Irvine’s Portola Springs

[irvinesinglemom]

I asked the sales guy at Bougainvilla ($789,000 and up, 1550 sq. feet and up, really lovely new homes but just not worth that much money not to mention $300 of HOAs and $500 mello roos each month!) what kind of incentives they were offering on Residence One and he actually laughed at me! He said they were all sold out until the next Phase Release.

Are there really that many incredibly wealthy people (mostly Asian immigrants probably) wanting a new house in Irvine that they have no problem paying that kind of money??? I just find it amazing that apparently Irvine is immune to the bubble popping going on all around us. Any comments?

[Bugs]

Different sections of the market move at different beats – for a while. It’s not a question of “if” but of “when”. This project competes with other product. When the competition starts discounting these guys will follow suit, assuming they haven’t already sold out and left town by then.

[SDbear]

I recently moved to Irvine from SD and I felt the same. People here think that Irvine is immune to the bubble. I have met people who were following the markets close enough to realise that SD RE market is slowing but truly felt Irvine wud do well. Actually the Irvine company (that owns all of Irvine) does a good job of managing new inventory to keep the demand up. I do see a lot of Open house notices around. So the resale market here might take a hit in some time. But the sentiment is not even close to what I felt in Caramel valley last week. I was driving through the streets of caramel valley and it felt like a carnival with all the flags, balloons and colourful signs.
It might take a few more months for Irvine to reach that frency, but it surely will. People here are just having some wishful thoughts.

[Chris Johnston]

Chris Johnston
iamafuturestrader.com

If you call the City they will tell you that a decent portion of Portola had the plug pulled by the builders that were going to build out bigger homes there. I have a client who was waiting on that and is fairly wealthy. When she called to get info she was told by a city planner by name, the developers that had pulled out. Further, they told her there was no future plans to build this other part out. They even told her it was due to lack of demand.

There may be demand for the entry level stuff there, but that project has already been scaled way down. Remember, we are about 6 months behind SD up here in the cycle. Last months housing numbers were awful, even as a bear they worried me a bit. I never expected condo sales to drop close to 50% and SFH close to 40% in July.

I for one do think you can feel the fall is upon us. Even bulls up here are acknowledging that things are deteriorating much faster than they ever thought they would.

[SD Realtor]

irvinesinglemom do not despair. 18 months ago developers would laugh at me when I would go by and ask if they would pay a coop fee to realtors who represented buyers. Now they beg us to bring people by thier developments. I would agree with the other posts that it is simply a matter of time. The only hitch may be that Irvine may have a master plan that severely limits new development. However even with that in place, you will have your pick of the litter once the people who just bought start to get shaky. I know a young couple who bought a huge new home up there and have spent over 900k. They financed 100% and it is sad to say but they are a foreclosure waiting to happen. I am sure they will not be the only ones.

Don’t despair, just try to hang in and be patient.

[PerryChase]

A 900k foreclosure!! Talk about living above your means.

[Author]

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