Irvine, California
SperlingViews

Wonderful place to lie, work, play....safe and sec - 5/12/2008

Lived in Irvine for 11 years, we have three boys and love every minute of the convinence of being here....close to EVERYTHING...great shopping, quick to the beach, mountians and deserts. The police are GREAT...not lazy, in fact we joke that we live here because of the "over zellus" police, they keep Irvine very quiet, clean and safe...no LIQUOR stores on every corner, no BILLBOARDS or POWERLINES to pollute your visual sense. Great education options, higher ed included. Yes, very expensive, but so are many other great cities. Why then do we still keep looking for our "forver" neighborhood? Quite simply, Irvine lacks a life long neighborhood feel. We have found it very difficult to find other families to socialize with and still feel like we are living on an island, be it a safe one. It takes several years to find a network of neighbors because so many here keep to themselves. [more...]

The "OC" - 3/14/2008

THE GOOD Excellent climate, lots to do, good schools, outstanding urban planning and development, excellent medical care. THE WEIRD It is like living in Disneyland. No trash anywhere, everyone flosses their teeth and have nice smiles. Everyone drives the same cars BMW Audi, or Mercedes Benz (Silver with black leather). Many overacheivers, in my son's graduating high school class (Northwood, Class of 2004) three kids made a perfect SAT score of 1800. A materialistic and status concious culture, and it reflects in all aspects of life. Another weird fact, they drained and cleaned the artificial lake in our local regional park (Heritage). The lake is filled with recycled sewege water. Biologists took some of the dead fish and had their tissues tested for toxins. They found high levels of antidepressents (Zoloft and Prozac) THE BAD If you don't fit in and play the game, you are ostracized and looked down on. My daughter had an extremely bad time with mean girls in middle school. The public school system was helpless and quite frankly the administration was unsympathetic to our situation. We ended up sending her to a bording school in northern California. Lisa (daughter) is doing fine now and living in San Luis Obispo, where everything is more down to earth and people are diversified and real.[more...]

Irvine, CA - 3/7/2008

Great climate, great schools - real estate is way too $$$, and it is becoming too crowded but so glad it is a planned community sothat the growth (although it seems too fast) is really much slower than the rest of so cal.[more...]

Virtures of living in Irvine, CA - 3/2/2008

Irvine, CA is a wonderful place to live. It is a family-oriented city with activities and services for all ages. Initialy, people may choose Irvine for its excellent educational system, but find it has so much more to offer. We have a diverse cultural population and city wide events to spotlight the various ethnic groups in our city. Irvine is also a safe community to live in. Our police force is a highly educated proactive group of officers who provide our citizens with outstanding service. Medical Services in our community are outstanding from UCI medical school to private practice medical doctors providing choices for all. Irvine has it all.[more...]

Orange County cost of living - 2/11/2008

OC is a great place to live with a high cost of living. Irvine in particular is a great place to raise kids with excellent schools. City is clean and always feels safe. Ranked safest city in the USA with a population >100,000. Weather is the best as well. Only wished housing was more reasonably priced.[more...]

All - 12/29/2007

Climate-Great Crime- Just as worse as Long beach or Compton-Check the Irvine Police Log. And the Cops are lazy. The L.A. Police Department work harder and get paid less. The Officers in Irvine give out tinted window tickect and J-walking tickets and mostly parking tickets. Culture and Recreation-fair Economy- To be honest bad for everyone, worse for minorities. Education-Broad opportunities for everyone but, I don't think certain individuals are being compensated fairly for thier experience and education. Health- A lot of the white peolple look old for thier age, but they exercise a lot. Most Japanese and Vietnamese look old also. Blacks skin hold well. Environmentally the air polution is fairm but the Eater department need to take a good look at the harsh chemicals they are using in our water. Housing- There are a lot affordable housing, but the waiting list is very long. Trying to buy a house forget it. 7-10 familes have lost thier new home on Barrance and Harvard to the Santa Clara Apt homes. The rent has sky rocketed since 2000. what a 2bedroom used to cost you now pay for in a 1 bedroom. Politics- there is not enough space or time for me to elaborate on this corrupted, deceptive and manipulative subject. Quality of life- it would be great if you did not have to work so hard to live in a decent nieghborhood. Recreation-Depending on what you like to do, L.A is the beat (Kodak Theatre) (Univeral Studios) etc.... Irvine is pretty serene. Religion-Your preference. Be carful what churches you go too. Some are not met for everyone even if you share the same faith. I find home a wonderful Sanctuary. Transportation- I think if some people want a 8-5 job they should apply elsewhere. Some of the buses stop too early. And some do not run frequent enough.[more...]

Great community - 8/31/2007

I moved to Irvine from the Midwest about 3 years ago and haven't regretted it for one minute. This is one heck of a nice community. Very planned out, clean, safe. Great university close by, lots of business opportunities, parks, recreation spots. The housing is beautiful with a lot of townhomes and cottages. Traffic flows through the area very well. Good access to the freeway, close to the beach, shopping, airport, museums, sports, theme parks, other O.C. neighborhoods. L.A. and San Diego are within 2 hours north and south respectfully. Great weather year round as well. Only negatives are lack of personality (Compared to places like Orange, which has the Old Towne, very charming place with a lot of character) and high housing prices (then again, it's California, but good news is housing prices are starting to drop due to the slow real estate market, so good time to get a house!)[more...]

Life in Irvine, Ca. - 7/11/2007

We moved to Irvine 2 years ago. It's a great place to live. The business community of Irvine is near-by, as are the beaches, plenty of recreation opportunities and freeway access. The traffic within Irvine is very well laid out, much better than many parts of Southern California. The school district is also one of the best in the area, plus many opportunities for higher education including the U.C.I. campus. The weather of course is wonderful. The main downside is the cost of housing, but that's true throughout the state.[more...]

economy - 5/1/2007

it is getting too crowded and home price is outrageous![more...]

OC - 4/25/2007

The weather is great the traffic is pretty much horrendous for a hundred miles in any direction you can drive 7X24.[more...]

Living in Fantasyland - 8/29/2006

Should you be able to afford the unreasonably high price of homes in this city, you will enjoy probably the best public school system in California along with one of the safest places to live. The master planned city hosts a large high tech community with the University of California, Irvine as its crown jewel. Crime is very low and it is safe to frequent the pathways and bikeways at all hours. Longtime residents consider Irvine to be the "Center of the Universe" as those who can afford the high demand real estate prices, enjoying "to die for" shopping, restaurants and nearby beaches.[more...]

Steril, expensive, no soul, but beautiful - 4/8/2006

If you like cleanliness, sunshine, lots of shopping, millions of cars on the road, I guess Irvine is perfect. The school system is great. What I am missing is soul and friendliness. Irvine is about as anomynous and steril as a hospital. The homes are ridiculous for the price your are paying. A townhouse with 1650 sqft and no upgrade or yard is now $725,000. If you have enough money that is great, then getting something better will get you right at $850,000 and above. The house tax rate is around 1.12% plus Mello Roos. I like California's beauty, but I cannot wait to move away in something less pretty where I can actually afford living, and will feel more at home and not like a constant rat race.[more...]

expensive houses - 3/12/2006

Irvine is a very nice/safe place to live, there are a lot of parks, the streets are nice/clean, and there are also a lot of employment opportunities. However, the housing is way too expensive, I'm so scared that I'll rent for the rest of my life if I stay here.[more...]

Real Estate Agent -Orange County - 3/2/2006

Relocating Specialist[more...]

Expensive - 2/26/2006

You get what you pay for . . . I guess. Very nice, master-planned community, but ridiculously expensive.[more...]

Perfect Location! Safe with Great Schools - 2/25/2006

Irvine is centrally located between Los Angeles and San Diego. Very safe with top-rated schools.[more...]