Where does the Newport Beach money come from? (Laguna, Laguna Beach: credit, loan)

[OC Investor2]

Also seems to be alot of folks who made money in all aspects of real estate - Mortgages, Developers, builders, brokers, etc. Alot of folks have gotten rich turning OC from orange groves to Upper middle class suburbs over the last 50 years and many of them live in Newport Beach.

[hsw]

Difficult for any outsider to measure liquid net worth of a given rich dude, let alone that of any town/urban region

Anyone with real money/assets couldn't precisely measure own net worth on any given day, let alone could the useless census bureau or some silly stockbroker survey

Sure, any place with enormous population growth over past 30yrs (like many urban regions in CA, TX, FL) has a lot of guys who made money off real estate, car dealers, etc etc

That said, LA region has had far less wealth creation than regions like Woodside/Atherton/PaloAlto or Manhattan, as it simply lacks any major lucrative industries like tech or hedge funds (or oil&gas like Hou/Dall)

Thus, many of the more costly homes in NewportCoast (or BevHills/Malibu) are owned/rented as wkend houses by those who earned their money elsewhere....in tech or oil&gas or finance, etc

Agree, perhaps 95+% of the houses in NewportCst are poorly built but to be expected as they are essentially monster tract houses on puny lots w/zero privacy or elegant landscaping

Money doesn't buy taste

And those with money and taste can easily buy multiple adjacent lots to create a decent >1ac lot and have a competent architect/builder engineer and build a bespoke house...but that is an exceptional approach in places like Nwpt though far more common in primary-home places like Woodside where homes are more often bespoke-built and on privacy-landscaped >4ac lots...

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by AD1985

The first time I saw the level of wealth in NB I was amazed.

Is it any different than the level of wealth--not sure how you're measuring "wealth"--than any other affluent city in southern California? e.g. Beverly Hills, San Marino, Palos Verdes, Pacific Palisades, La Jolla....

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Is it any different than the level of wealth--not sure how you're measuring "wealth"--than any other affluent city in southern California? e.g. Beverly Hills, San Marino, Palos Verdes, Pacific Palisades, La Jolla....

Perhapsa bit more ostentatious. Newport is a place to display your wealth whether you are wealthy or not.

[Mach50]

I met many mortgage "brokers" who made a couple of million during the real estate corruption years, while living NB. Needless to say they are very shady individuals.

[Curbed Enthusiasm]

Originally Posted by bowneline

As mentioned above, lots of business owners. It really goes to show how taking a risk on small business can pay off, if done right.

I grew up on Newport and a lot of my friends's parents owned medium size businesses, that you would not think made a lot of money, but did: auto body repair shops, medical equipment manufacturing etc.... Then, there were the more obvious things like car dealerships, commerical real estate, restaurants etc....

There were, of course, the usual suspects like doctors and lawyers, but not as much as you would think.

Until the early 1990's, this was definitely the case. When I was growing up, the wealthy families in Newport were mainly small business owners, white collar professionals, perhaps a few lawyers and doctors, but not many people had the huge amounts of wealth that today's wealthy families have. By today's standards, most of those families would be firmly classed as middle class. Being affluent in Newport Beach back then meant your dad worked, mom stayed at home, you lived in a comfortable home in Dover Shores or Harbor View Homes (early 90's price tag of approx. $300,000, and extremely modest in comparison to anything in Newport Coast today), perhaps had a small boat, and maybe a membership to a yacht club. It was a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle that seems so far away from life in Newport today. The whole social fabric of the area has changed. Life was a lot simpler and more grounded back then. Today's it's far more fake and filled with snobby people flaunting their artificial wealth.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by Curbed Enthusiasm

Until the early 1990's, this was definitely the case. When I was growing up, the wealthy families in Newport were mainly small business owners, white collar professionals, perhaps a few lawyers and doctors, but not many people had the huge amounts of wealth that today's wealthy families have. By today's standards, most of those families would be firmly classed as middle class. Being affluent in Newport Beach back then meant your dad worked, mom stayed at home, you lived in a comfortable home in Dover Shores or Harbor View Homes (early 90's price tag of approx. $300,000, and extremely modest in comparison to anything in Newport Coast today), perhaps had a small boat, and maybe a membership to a yacht club. It was a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle that seems so far away from life in Newport today. The whole social fabric of the area has changed. Life was a lot simpler and more grounded back then. Today's it's far more fake and filled with snobby people flaunting their artificial wealth.

I grew up around there too, a bit further down the coast in what's now Dana Point and remember the change happened with the Big Canyon development. That's when and where all the nouveaus started moving into that area, from elsewhere. The homes looked very un-South Orange County, like a bunch of faux-Beverly Hills mansions plopped onto the landscape.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by Mach50

I met many mortgage "brokers" who made a couple of million during the real estate corruption years, while living NB. Needless to say they are very shady individuals.

A couple million hardly makes you wealthy. The value of the pension of a California State Prison Guard is about that much.

[Socalpal]

Originally Posted by hsw

Difficult for any outsider to measure liquid net worth of a given rich dude, let alone that of any town/urban region

Anyone with real money/assets couldn't precisely measure own net worth on any given day, let alone could the useless census bureau or some silly stockbroker survey

Sure, any place with enormous population growth over past 30yrs (like many urban regions in CA, TX, FL) has a lot of guys who made money off real estate, car dealers, etc etc

That said, LA region has had far less wealth creation than regions like Woodside/Atherton/PaloAlto or Manhattan, as it simply lacks any major lucrative industries like tech or hedge funds (or oil&gas like Hou/Dall)

Thus, many of the more costly homes in NewportCoast (or BevHills/Malibu) are owned/rented as wkend houses by those who earned their money elsewhere....in tech or oil&gas or finance, etc

Agree, perhaps 95+% of the houses in NewportCst are poorly built but to be expected as they are essentially monster tract houses on puny lots w/zero privacy or elegant landscaping

Money doesn't buy taste

And those with money and taste can easily buy multiple adjacent lots to create a decent >1ac lot and have a competent architect/builder engineer and build a bespoke house...but that is an exceptional approach in places like Nwpt though far more common in primary-home places like Woodside where homes are more often bespoke-built and on privacy-landscaped >4ac lots...

Southern California has the movie industry which produces some wealth along with importing/exporting/shipping, there is also a pretty decent sized tech industry in Orange County. I agree though a lot of the homes in Newport Beach are 2nd or 3rd homes where people have permanent residences elsewhere (within the US and internationally). The trend now seems for a lot of international buyers to buy homes in Newport Beach.

Newport Coast is far more diverse than other parts of Newport Beach. A lot of international money in this area.

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

A couple million hardly makes you wealthy. The value of the pension of a California State Prison Guard is about that much.

It's enough to buy a house on Newport Coast.

The title of the thread doesn't say "wealth", it says "money"...2 very different things.

DC to Boston has wealth, I'd say SoCal has money.