In 2016, Irvine, CA's Irvine Ranch became the number one master-planned community (MPC) in the United States. According to two national surveys by Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, three more Orange County MPCs -- Great Park Neighborhoods, Rancho Mission Viejo, and Baker Ranch, ranked in the top 20 nationwide.
These MPCs are attracting homebuyers within a broad age range, including millennials to age-restricted 55-and-older neighborhoods, and from various locations, with a large percentage of international buyers. UrbanLand reports that the shortage of affordable housing and other market pressures are spurring developers to build affordable housing for low-income households off-site.
These four hottest-selling Orange County MPCs have the advantage of being near high-paying jobs in sectors such as technology, biotech, finance, health care, aerospace, and higher education to attract the region’s highly educated workforce. Several were master-planned on legacy family ranches or farms and are being developed as amenity-rich suburban-style communities of for-sale homes.