Is Corona the Center of the Universe? part III

In order to determine the car expense, I calculated the distance from the house to the "work" site. I then figured out the monthly expense for fuel. The problems with this was 3 fold:

1. It did not take into account the wear and tear on the vehicle.
2. It did not take into account the cost of toll roads.
3. By calculating only fuel the costs were VERY close. For example, the closest home was in Irvine and fuel costs per month was $14.66. The furthest home was in Corona and the fuel costs per month was $131.02 per month. Making the difference only $116.36.

Therefore, I decided to see what the difference would be if I calculated at the mileage reimbursement given by the Federal Government. Using the above example, the per month car expense for Irvine is $84.37, and the per month car expense for Corona is $861.96. The Corona expense also got bumped for the cost of using the toll roads daily.

The only city that comes close to Corona in monthly cost for housing and car is Santa Ana. However, to get that home in Santa Ana (which I am not saying is a bad area - but it ain't the best) you have to put out $22,000 more in downpayment. Which isn't so bad...because that nets you an internal rate of return of 10.9% on your monthly savings.

All of the other cities are not even close. The reality is simple, in Corona you will get a lot bigger bang for your buck than you will of any of the cities I looked at in Orange County except Santa Ana. The other factor that was not included in this study was HOA. The vast majority of all homes in Orange County have an HOA. In fact, a large portion of Irvine has HOA's in excess of $400 per month.

I am not going to go as far as to say that Corona is the center of the universe, but it is a very viable option for those living in the O.C.

Is Corona the Center of the Universe?

So, every other Tuesday a lovely lady comes to clean our house (this is a requirement of my wife working full time). She prefers us to not be home...so Mac and I usually go to the bear place (Hunney's Restaurant) for breakfast. A couple weeks back I was reading an article in the Orange County Register - I know print is dead, but I had nothing else to do for 3 hours. But, I digress...

The article basically said it doesn't make financial sense to live in Riverside County when you work in Orange County. Now, the author of this article not only had a certain amount of snobbery in their writing, but they also lacked the ability to do simple math.

So, I decided to open the MLS, google maps, etc...and see what the actual numbers looked like. Here are the constants for my experiment...

Work address: 17951 Macarthur Blvd, Irvine, CA
Downpayment: 20%
Interest Rate: 6.5%
Mileage: $0.545 (current mileage reimbursement by the Federal Government)
Car: '09 Mercedes Benz C300 Sports Sedan (26 MPG highway)
Premium Gas Price: $2.47/gallon (Chevron as of today)

The City's looked at:

1. Aliso Viejo
2. Costa Mesa
3. Irvine
4. Newport
5. Tustin
6. Villa Park
7. Santa Ana
8. Orange
9. Rancho Santa Margarita
10. Corona

These homes are average...they are obviously not the top of the market, nor are they the worst houses available.

The homes:

31 STONE PINE Aliso Viejo $599,000 4 3 2108
2513 Colby Place Costa Mesa $509,900 4 2 2200
36 Gillman ST Irvine $584,999 5 3 2294
2120 Vista Laredo Newport Beach $929,000 4 3 2100
14112 Carfax AV Tustin $449,900 4 3 2138
10535 South Cedarhil Villa Park $675,000 4 3 2387
1911 West SECREST Santa Ana $350,000 4 2 2112
3343 East Ruth Place Orange $419,000 4 2 2200
19 Sunny Slope R. S. M. $524,900 4 3 2300
13453 Barker LN Corona $239,900 4 3 2100

more to come in tomorrow's post...