University Park

Yes, if you want a walkable, tree-covered village next to UC Irvine for less than Turtle Rock money. University Park is Irvine's original village and still one of its most walkable. Homes face shared greenbelts, paths connect the schools, parks, pools, and shopping center, and UC Irvine and University High are a few minutes away. The trees are mature, and there's a 16.3-acre community park. The costs: 1960s and 1970s construction, association dues and rules in most tracts, and freeway noise on the streets nearest the 405.

Because the Irvine Company built it in the mid-1960s, before the city existed. UCI opened on October 4, 1965 on 1,000 acres the company had sold to the University of California for $1. University Park went up beside it as the first village inside what became Irvine. The city didn't incorporate until December 28, 1971. Sales were slow at first, because the village stood alone and the 405 was unfinished. Once complete, it held Irvine's first library, first high school, and first retail center.

The greenbelts are the shared parks and paths the village was designed around. Sasaki, Walker and Associates turned the homes toward internal greens and separated the footpaths from the roads, so residents walk to school, the pool, or the store without crossing an arterial. Community associations own and maintain them. Village Park, for example, keeps 38 acres of greenbelt with pools, spas, and courts for its 636 homes, funded by dues. Budget for those dues as part of the cost of living here.

Irvine Unified School District. University Park Elementary sits inside the village on Sandburg Way, Rancho San Joaquin Middle School is on Michelson Drive, and University High School is on Campus Drive beside UCI. University High, Irvine's first high school, sits on 55 acres and enrolled 2,363 students in 2024-25. Attendance areas change, so don't count on a school until you've put the address into IUSD's School Locator.

Close on both counts. The UCI campus, about 37,300 students on 1,582 acres, begins a few minutes west of the village, and University High shares its edge. The 405 runs along the village's north side with ramps at Culver Drive and Jeffrey Road. John Wayne Airport is about 2.3 miles west and the 73 toll road about 2.1 miles west. The northern streets closest to the freeway get road noise, so walk the block before you commit.

About $1 million to $1.8 million as of September 2026. On September 25, 2026 all 15 active listings were detached or zero-lot-line houses built between 1965 and 1975, from $999,995 for a two-bedroom to $1.8 million, with a median ask of about $1.39 million. Every one carried association dues of about $190 to $400 a month. That's generally below comparable houses across University Drive in Turtle Rock.

Most homes pay HOA dues, and Mello-Roos is not a given. The village is split among several community associations, including the University Community Association, The Terrace, Parkside, Parkcrest and Village Park, and the September 2026 listings showed dues of about $190 to $400 a month. University Park was built before the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, and it isn't named on the City of Irvine's list of community facilities and assessment districts. I still read the county tax bill for the exact parcel before an offer, because it's the one document that shows every charge.

It's a detached house built on or right up to one side property line, so the lot has one usable side yard instead of two narrow ones. University Park's planners mixed zero-lot-line houses with standard detached houses and townhomes so the village could serve buyers at several budgets. You get a detached house with no shared walls on a smaller lot. Before you plan work on the wall that sits on the line, check the association documents and the title report for any maintenance easement.

Mostly no, with two exceptions to check by address. On the 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone map Irvine adopted effective July 23, 2025, most of the village is outside any zone, but blocks along University Drive, on streets such as Chicory Way, Shasta and Cedar Tree Lane, and the east end near Juniper and Eucalyptus came back Moderate or High. The state's seismic hazard map puts the northwest corner near Culver Drive and the 405, around Hopkins Street, Peabody Way and Iron Bark Way, in a liquefaction zone, which sellers must disclose and where new construction needs a site-specific geotechnical investigation. FEMA maps the sampled streets as Zone X, minimal flood hazard.

You can lease it for 31 days or longer, but not as a nightly or weekly rental. Irvine's zoning code bans short-term rentals, defined as stays of fewer than 31 consecutive days, in every residential zone, and the city can fine $1,500 per day of violation. Each community association can add its own leasing rules on top of that. If you're buying with a rental plan, read the CC&Rs before you write the offer.

University Park is the flat greenbelt village north of University Drive, and Turtle Rock is the hillside village south of it. University Park's 1960s and 1970s homes face shared greens and footpaths, while Turtle Rock, started in 1967 as Irvine's first hillside community, winds along a loop road with houses from the late 1960s through the 1990s and Bommer Canyon's open space behind it. In September 2026 University Park houses asked about $1 million to $1.8 million, and Turtle Rock listings ran from about $1.47 million for a condo to $8 million. Most Turtle Rock streets are also High or Very High on Irvine's 2025 fire map, while most of University Park is outside any zone, so price insurance early there.

Read the Turtle Rock guide

Yes. If you're moving for a UCI job and still overseas, I'll tour a greenbelt house for you on video and go through the association's CC&Rs with you in Russian. That includes the leasing rules, in case you might rent the house out later.