Orange County Property Management

Orange County is included in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thirty-four incorporated cities are located in the county; the newest is Aliso Viejo, which was incorporated in 2001. Anaheim was the first city, incorporated in 1870, when the region was still part of neighboring Los Angeles County. Whereas most population centers in the United States tend to be identified by a major city with a large central business district, there is no single major CBD or dominant urban center in Orange County. Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, and Irvine all have smaller high-rise CBDs, and other historically older cities like Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and Orange have traditional American downtowns without high-rises. The northern and central portions of the county are heavily urbanized and dense, despite the prevalence of the single-family home as a dominant land use. The southern portion of the county is more suburban, with less density and limited urbanization. There are several edge city-style developments such as Irvine Business Center, Newport Center, and South Coast Metro.

The county is known for tourism with attractions like Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and several popular beaches along its more than 40 miles (64 km) of coastline. It is also known for its political conservatism—a 2005 academic study listed three Orange County cities as among America's 25 most conservative, making it one of two counties in the United States containing more than one such city. (Maricopa County, Arizona also had three cities on the list. Orange County is part of the Tech Coast.

The 2010 United States Census reported that Orange County had a population of 3,010,232. The racial makeup of Orange County was 1,830,758 (60.8%) White (44.0% non-Hispanic white), 50,744 (1.7%) African American, 18,132 (0.6%) Native American, 537,804 (17.9%) Asian, 9,354 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 435,641 (14.5%) from other races, and 127,799 (4.2%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,012,973 persons (33.7%).Orange County has the largest proportion of Asian Americans in Southern California, where one in five residents are Asian American. There is also a significant Muslim population in the county. Source Wikipedia

Economy

Orange County is the headquarters of many Fortune 500 companies including Ingram Micro (#69) and First American Corporation (#312) in Santa Ana, Broadcom (#343) in Irvine, Western Digital (#439) in Lake Forest and Pacific Life (#452) in Newport Beach. Irvine is the home of numerous start-up companies and also is the home of Fortune 1000 headquarters for Allergan, Edwards Lifesciences, Epicor, and Sun Healthcare Group. Other Fortune 1000 companies in Orange County include Beckman Coulter in Brea, Quiksilver in Huntington Beach and Apria Healthcare Group in Lake Forest. Irvine is also the home of notable technology companies like PC-manufacturer Gateway Inc., router manufacturer Linksys, video/computer game creator Blizzard Entertainment, and in-flight product manufacturer Panasonic Avionics Corporation. Also, the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Classic Center USA is located in the City of Irvine. Online Trading Academy, a professional trader education company, is also based in Irvine.[68] Many regional headquarters for international businesses reside in Orange County like Mazda, Toshiba, Toyota, Samsung, Kia Motors, in the City of Irvine, Mitsubishi in the City of Cypress, and Hyundai in the City of Fountain Valley. Fashion is another important industry to Orange County. Oakley, Inc. and Del Taco are headquartered in Lake Forest. Hurley International is headquartered in Costa Mesa. Both the network cyber security firm Milton Security Group and the shoe company Pleaser USA, Inc. are located in Fullerton. St. John is headquartered in Irvine. Tustin, California is home to Ricoh Electronics, New American Funding, Safmarine and Rockwell Collins. Wet Seal is headquartered in Lake Forest. PacSun is headquartered in Anaheim. Restaurants such as Taco Bell, El Pollo Loco, In-N-Out Burger, Claim Jumper, Marie Callender's, Wienerschnitzel, have headquarters in the City of Irvine as well. Gaikai also has its headquarters in the Orange County.

Costar

With rent levels surging over the last several years, and strong rent growth filtering into the historically lower-cost central suburban cities such as Santa Ana, Orange, and Garden Grove, renters increasingly have fewer alternatives to find affordable living options in Orange County. Even as development has spread across the county, builders are bringing high-end luxury units to market at the expense of mid-tier product - but they have few choices. The cost of development is exceptionally high and continues to surge, and numerous supply onstraints provide hurdles to new construction. As new luxury units pile up, fundamentals remain healthy, buttressed by a strong employment base and a diversified economy - much more so that last cycle. These are among the reasons that investors continue to target Orange County, even as average yields have settled below 4.5% and pricing fell in 2017.

Demand drivers in the metro are strong - and more diversified compared with last cycle. The workforce is highly educated, and nearly 40% of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree. This provides a backbone for the multifamily sector as the housing market, with home prices bumping up against $800,000, continues to price out many residents. Orange County's homeownership rate has steadily fallen over the last 10 years from north of 62% to 57% and newly built homes average nearly $900,000 - Less than a quarter of the county's households earn the requisite income to afford a median-priced home according to Chapman University. In fact, the California Department of Housing released a study in February 2018 that showed Orange County as having the highest housing burden among large California counties - with residents (owners and renters) on average paying 44% of their income toward housing.

Population growth is most pronounced in Irvine, the economic heart of the metro. It's growing by more than 2% annually, the highest rate in the county. It's also where more two-thirds of residents have a four-year degree. The disproportionate flow of demand into Irvine is leading to heavy supply additions. Despite the supply continuing to pour into the submarket, demand is stable, although vacancies might be difficult to keep in check. Today’s economy is broad-based and strong, and unlikely to be as susceptible to system shock if a single industry collapses as happened last cycle. Almost 200 Fortune 500 companies call Irvine home, and innovation firms from Blizzard Entertainment and Broadcom to Edwards Lifesciences and Google have a significant footprint here. And when Amazon narrowed its list of contenders for its HQ2, the Los Angeles metro area made the short list, of which Orange County is a part, suggesting that it's still in the running. The Irvine Company submitted a bid for its campus in the Irvine Spectrum.

If employment remains strong in high-paying sectors like professional and financial services, R&D, technology, and other knowledge-intensive sectors, metro wide demand should also continue to keep pace with deliveries in most submarkets. If the growth of high-paying jobs slows and the economy cools, oversupply may come into play, especially since everything being built is at the luxury end of the market. Worth noting, Boeing has begun moving people out of its Huntington Beach campus, which will ultimately include 2,400 workers over the next few years.

The jury might be out in some submarkets. Demand drivers in Irvine and South County are solid - although South County's wave of supply might push vacancies above their historical average to stay - it is primarily a homeowner submarket. The center of office activity is beginning to shift from Irvine to Irvine Spectrum as well, buttressing support for South County communities. Others, Anaheim and both Central OC submarkets, for instance, have softer demographics and fundamentals that might make too much luxury development a riskier proposition. Lower household incomes, less white-collar employment, and relatively affordable rents drive demand here. Existing inventory should continue to have high occupancies, but if too much high-end supply comes on line, demand might not materialize, especially since these submarkets have some of the most affordable home prices as well. Taken, the leasing velocity in 2017 deliveries has inched up above 2016's pace by about an extra unit/month - and both years are above the absorption average for communities built in 2015.

For More Information: www.visitcalifornia.com/region/discover-orange-county