Just a few months after moving into her new one-bedroom apartment in Irvine's vibrant Great Park neighborhood, Kim Pohas is once again keeping her eye on real estate prices.

She loved her condo and bought it in May 2023 for $643,000, days after touring a model home and deciding to splurge on upgrading the flooring and kitchen backsplash. But a Zillow alert had informed her that property prices in the neighborhood were skyrocketing.

On a whim, Pohas put the condo on the market, and in late May, a year after purchasing it, she received an offer she couldn't refuse: $821,000.

“It's like flipping a house, but we didn't do anything,” said Pohas, 40. “It was brand new. We just lived in it.”

Pohas' story sounds like the pandemic era of skyrocketing home prices and frantic bidding, not today's, when real estate values ​​are stagnant and mortgage rates are crushing the market. But the city of Irvine is bucking the trend.

Over the past year, the median home price in central Orange County has soared to $1.56 million, a 20.8 percent increase, the highest in the country. Real Estate Analyst Reviews Zillow Data Home Economics.

It's not just a question of price. Irvine is outpacing California communities in growth and home construction. While Los Angeles, San Francisco and other big cities have lost thousands of people, Irvine has added more than 13,000 residents in the past three years, more than any other city in the state. During that time, the city, now home to 315,000 people, has overtaken Santa Ana to become California's 13th largest city. Of the 100,000 net new homes built in Orange County since 2010, more than a third of them — 35,000 — were built in Irvine.

The city's popularity is nothing new; rather, it is taking root as one of the largest master-planned communities in the United States. Sixty years ago, the Irvine Co. began transforming 100,000 acres of pastures, bean fields, and citrus orchards into a series of independent suburban villages. Over time, Irvine has gained recognition for its excellent public schools, low crime rate, and Ample park spaceThe economic engine of the University of California, Irvine, combined with luxury office towers, has made the area a haven for upper-class families, especially those who have migrated from East Asia in recent decades.

“This is a very clean, safe city with plenty of room for more housing and jobs,” said John Burns, CEO of Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting. “There's nothing like it in Southern California.”

Irvine has been a hotbed of homebuyers throughout its history. Plans for the city began in 1960, when the Irvine Company donated 1,000 acres to the state for a university to serve as the base for the new community. The company then built residential centers of single-family homes, townhouses, and apartments, each with its own school, retail, and playgrounds. Highways connected neighborhoods to business parks and green spaces.

When Woodbridge, one of Irvine's most prestigious neighborhoods, opened in 1976, 10,000 enthusiastic visitors flocked to the sales office. “Transforming Irvine Ranch” A book documenting the city's history. Irvine executives Oklahoma land grab.

Numerous homeowners associations and special taxing districts oversee the village, and the Irvine Company maintains a powerful influence in the city: Three-quarters of Irvine's more than 40,000 apartments are still owned by the company, according to data from real estate firm CoStar.

While some residents describe the manicured, uniform environment as boring, the quality amenities and lifestyle have won them a loyal following.

Jonathan Sun, 37, bought a new condo in Irvine in 2017, then moved into a new four-bedroom house with his wife two years after they got married. He says the village concept makes life convenient, with homes, schools, parks and shops all close by.

“Everything is very neat and tidy,” said Sun, who works in engineering.

Irvine's population more than doubled between 2000 and 2020. Though the city saw a decline in population during the first year of the pandemic, growth has rebounded sharply (at least by California's sluggish standards): 6,200 people moved into Northeast Irvine's ZIP code between 2019 and 2022, the most in Southern California. According to a Times analysis of U.S. Postal Service data..

The area is home to the Great Park, a former Marine Corps base that became 4,700 acres of vacant land after the base closed. The future of the land was the subject of lengthy debate, including a move to turn it into a new commercial airport, but was resolved in 2002 in favor of residential development. About a quarter of the site will be dedicated to parkland, and the city plans to build as many as 15,800 housing units there.

The Great Park's construction has helped Irvine continue to far outpace surrounding areas in residential construction: According to U.S. Census data, the 9,400 housing units permitted in Irvine over the past five years is twice as many as any other city in Orange County.

The small lot in the Solis Park neighborhood of the Great Park is packed with new construction townhouses, three stories, three and four bedrooms, with small balconies and two-car garages. Freshly painted yellow crosswalks mark the way to the K-8 school. Prices for townhouses listed at a recent open house range from $1.5 million to $1.8 million.

But analysts said new supply still outpaces demand, especially in Irvine, one of Orange County's employment hubs.

“The most amazing thing about Irvine is the job growth is so strong,” Burns said. “The jobs are here in Irvine.”

Surrounding areas have seen strong price increases: Besides Irvine, four other Orange County areas — Laguna Niguel, Tustin, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo — are among the top 12 U.S. cities with the fastest home price growth over the past year, according to Zillow.

Chan “Emily” Calcote, a real estate broker in Irvine for 10 years, said the growth of the nearby community is driven by would-be homebuyers who have been pushed out of Irvine by soaring housing prices.

She said the recent surge is being driven by foreign buyers from Asia, who have long been drawn to Irvine by its K-12 schools, universities and other amenities. About 40% of Irvine's population is foreign-born, and of that, 80% are from Asian countries, according to census data. Today, the majority of Irvine residents, 44%, are Asian, the data show.

Calcote said Irvine's reputation is spreading by word of mouth among Asian families who can afford to buy.

“If you talk to Chinese people or Korean people, they know about Irvine,” Calcote said. “They might not know about California, but they know about Irvine.”

Foreign buyers, who often pay cash or borrow outside the traditional mortgage market, are less sensitive to rising interest rates. These owners may be relocating to Irvine or simply looking for a safe place to park their money. Orange County is one of the few places in the country where investor activity is picking up. According to research by Burns' company.

Shanghai resident Liu Guanyi bought a new four-bedroom home in Irvine's Portola Springs neighborhood for $2 million in June, and plans to move there with his family in the next few years.

He was already familiar with Irvine: In 2019, he and his wife traveled there for the birth of their first child so that his wife could obtain U.S. citizenship, and he has since bought a home in Irvine and another in Anaheim, making the new home his third in Orange County.

Liu said that like many in China, he was impressed by Irvine's good schools and low crime rate, and he wants to give his daughter and 6-month-old son an American education.

“We feel the American education system is still the best in the world, so we wanted to give our children a broader perspective,” said Mr Liu, 38, who runs a company that makes car window coatings.

China's strict lockdown measures during the pandemic accelerated Liu's relocation schedule. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.

Rising prices have left some of Irvine's winners feeling stuck. Now, the Suns, who have two children, ages 4 and 1, are hoping to move to a bigger home. They've been unsuccessful, even as the value of their current home has risen dramatically.

With a budget of $2.7 million, Sun said, the homes they were looking at would either need renovations or be much larger than the 2,200 square feet they currently live in.

“We could sell our house in Orange County and move north or south and get exactly what we want, but it's our choice to stay,” he said.

Big construction in Irvine extends beyond the Great Park. In response to higher demand for housing than office space last year, the Irvine Company Agreement reached to build up to 4,900 new apartments On six sites that were planned for commercial development, the city Contract signed with developer Brookfield in spring As part of an agreement to close a nearby asphalt plant, 1,200 new homes will be built, most of them single-family homes.

After selling her Great Park condo in the spring, Ms. Pohas moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Irvine with her boyfriend and their three dogs, and put the proceeds into a high-interest savings account to keep the money liquidated in case mortgage rates fall, she said.

“We want to be ready to buy again,” Pohas said.

Times reporters Terry Castleman and Sandhya Kambhampati contributed to this report.