Irvine, California

The numbers

Newer construction carries a clear premium: homes built in 2010 or later closed at a median of $1,700,000 across 938 sales, against $1,510,000 citywide.

The village system is the thing to understand

Irvine is built as a series of master-planned villages, and a village does more work than a neighborhood name usually does. It determines the era of construction, whether a Mello-Roos special tax applies and for how long, the association structure, the amenity set, and in most cases the school attendance area. Two homes of similar size and condition can price very differently across a village boundary — which is why a citywide median is a starting point and not an answer.

About one in six Irvine sales is not in Irvine Unified

This is the single most common wrong assumption we correct. Irvine Unified is consistently among California's highest-performing districts, and buyers often treat "Irvine" and "Irvine Unified" as the same thing. Over the last 36 months of recorded sales:

That puts roughly 84% of Irvine sales in Irvine Unified and about one in six somewhere else. None of those other districts is a problem in itself, but if you are buying in Irvine specifically for the district, the city name on the mailing address will not tell you. Verify the attendance area with the district for the exact address — and note that boundaries get redrawn as new villages come online.

Two association fees, not one

Almost every Irvine home has an HOA: 1,966 of the 2,056 homes sold in the last twelve months, at a median of $251 per month. The part that catches buyers out is the second fee. 762 of those homes — about 37% — carry a second association assessment on top of the first, at a median of $193 per month.

For a home with both, that is roughly $444 per month in dues before any Mello-Roos special tax. A single quoted HOA figure often covers only the master association, so when you compare two Irvine homes, ask specifically whether there is a master association and a sub-association. It is a meaningful difference in carrying cost that does not show up in the price.

Mello-Roos

Many Irvine villages carry a Community Facilities District special tax, billed on the annual property tax statement in addition to the base rate and separate from HOA dues. It has a defined term rather than running in perpetuity, so the years remaining matter when you compare two otherwise similar homes, and the amount is set per district and per phase rather than per city. Ask for the CFD number and its payoff schedule on any property you are considering.

Where we work in the city

The team specializes in Orchard Hills and works across Irvine. Glara Lee was raised in Orange County and educated in Irvine public schools; Veronica Lee has sold here since the 1990s, through multiple market cycles. Across the team's four agents, CRMLS records 559 closed home sales totaling more than $533 million.