When Nemi Kotadiya’s family outgrew their Woodbury Village condo a couple of years ago, there was never a question of changing cities.
“It was Irvine or nowhere else,” Kotadiya says.
Kotadiya and his wife, Payal, who moved to Irvine from Boston in 2017, had fallen in love with the city and all its perks, from the abundance of parks to the excellent schools to the thriving job market. So naturally they stayed local when looking for a new home.
The move was a relative cinch. They found a four-bedroom home in Portola Springs, less than 2 miles away.
Their offer was accepted within 24 hours. And the family loves the new neighborhood.
“Everything is within walking distance, and there are so many younger families and so many fun things to do,” Kotadiya says, citing a recent movie night that drew 350 people.
An affirmation of the city’s Master Plan
An extraordinary quality of life and thriving jobs market have helped Irvine defy national trends. Homes continue to appreciate faster in Irvine than in any other city in the country, as the Los Angeles Times reported last month.
Over the past year, the city’s median home values increased 20.8%, which was tops in the U.S., according to a review of Zillow data by real estate analyst Home Economics.
“The city’s popularity is nothing new,” the article said. “It’s more the continued affirmation of one of the nation’s largest master-planned communities.”
The sunset view over Portola Springs is one of the many benefits of living in Irvine, where median home values have increased nearly 21% over the past year.
A brilliant blueprint
In the early 1960s, Irvine Company and its celebrated architect William Pereira designed a brand-new city that would surround a brand-new University of California campus. Planners had the luxury of a relatively blank canvas: nearly 100,000 acres of farmland and wilderness that formed the historic Irvine Ranch, the company’s chief asset since the 19th century.
“Everything is within walking distance, and there are so many younger families and so many fun things to do.”
Nemi Kotadiya, Portola Springs homeowner
Determined to create a civilized response to Orange County’s increasing sprawl, traffic and smog, Irvine Company devised a city of self-contained villages, job districts and open spaces. In subsequent years, Irvine’s schools and extraordinary level of public safety won accolades.
“It’s such a clean, safe city that still has room to add more housing and jobs,” said John Burns, chief executive of Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, in the L.A. Times story. “Nothing else in Southern California is like that.”
Thucelle Chu, who moved here with her young family from San Jose four years ago, would agree with the haven description. “We wanted our kids to have a better education and a safe neighborhood to grow up in,” she says. She and her husband, Uy, both IT workers, are excited that their kids will attend Loma Ridge Elementary School, where even kindergartners learn robotics. They’re also pleased that their new house in Portola Springs has doubled in value since 2020. (Portola Springs and Orchard Hills are the latest Irvine villages with homes for sale.)
Ample nature and jobs
Fueling Irvine’s housing market success is its rare combination of parkland and jobs. Beginning in the 1990s, Irvine Company made several land dedications that resulted in more than half of its Irvine Ranch property being permanently protected, surrounding the city with parks and nature. During that time, the development of Irvine Spectrum District began to add to planned office and industrial space and accelerate economic growth that is now spurred by medtech, health care, gaming and other high-tech industries.
“The most amazing thing in Irvine is the really strong job growth,” Burns said. “The jobs are in Irvine.”
Nemi Kotadiya worked for 15 years in the medical device industry before chasing his dream to become an entrepreneur in the child care business – a switch he says Irvine helped make easy. After Payal quickly found a new job as a pharmacy consultant, Nemi opened a child care center in Corona and then early this year launched a swim school closer to home, at Woodbury Town Center.
“We feel like we just hit the jackpot here in Irvine,” he says.
