Florida Virtual Houses

Corona needs a beer, Lake Elsinore’s under water

April 6th, 2009

I took another tour of the sprawling communities east of Los Angeles this weekend. I drove south from Fontana on highway 15, past acres and acres of warehouses. Then came Norco and Corona, which reminded me of my trips to suburban Las Vegas a few years ago. In Corona you see a dozen small office towers along the highway, almost all of them filled with real estate related tenants. There were builders, mortgage companies, title companies, real estate agencies.

I wondered how these buildings could all stay occupied given the bust. That's when I passed one—formerly the home of Pardee Homes—with big signs on it that said the entire building was for lease.

Next on the tour was Lake Elsinore, a resort town with actually quite a pretty lake nestled amidst the mountains. One thing Lake Elsinore did not seem to have is any inherent industry--other than a few boat rental outfits and an outlet mall--and seeing as how it took me an hour to get to Anaheim and two hours to get back to Los Angeles even on a Saturday afternoon—I’m guessing the commute time to anywhere but Corona is brutal.

Highway 91 is a toll road but you have to have secured your EZ Pass-like payment card in advance. I would have gladly paid the $2.80 advertized price in cash to get out of that traffic on Saturday.

I stopped in one of Lake Elsinore’s many new home developments—this one run by Castle & Cooke. The 2,000 square foot, 3 bedroom homes still seemed a little pricey to me at $260,000, given the remoteness of the place. The saleswoman said they were having a big sale 10% off the list price and 6% more toward closing costs if you use their in-house financing arm. Sixteen percent right off the top before I have started to negotiate! I guess its easier for them to do that than to actually lowering their prices.

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