The 10 Cheapest Irvine, CA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Irvine neighborhoods are Turtle Ridge and Uc Irvine for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Irvine
Source: Public domain

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Irvine might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Irvine neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Irvine are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Irvine For 2024

  1. Turtle Ridge
  2. Uc Irvine
  3. Walnut Village
  4. East Industrial Complex
  5. West Park
  6. Quail Hill
  7. Shady Canyon
  8. University Park
  9. Woodbridge
  10. El Camino Real

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Irvine for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Turtle Ridge looks to be the cheapest Irvine neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Irvine. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Irvine that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Irvine.

For more California reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Irvine For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,295
Cost Of Living Index: 145 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.1 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (3rd cheapest)
More on Turtle Ridge: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 15,807
Cost Of Living Index: 120 (3rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.8 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (10th cheapest)
More on Uc Irvine: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 7,675
Cost Of Living Index: 172 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.6 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (4th cheapest)
More on Walnut Village: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,182
Cost Of Living Index: 160 (10th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.9 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (12th cheapest)
More on East Industrial Complex: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 22,993
Cost Of Living Index: 167 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.3 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (7th cheapest)
More on West Park: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,651
Cost Of Living Index: 284 (23rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.1 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (cheapest)
More on Quail Hill: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 777
Cost Of Living Index: 242 (22nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.3 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (2nd cheapest)
More on Shady Canyon: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 7,885
Cost Of Living Index: 162 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.3 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (11th cheapest)
More on University Park: Data | Real Estate

Woodbridge Irvine, CA

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 24,966
Cost Of Living Index: 167 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.5 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (9th cheapest)
More on Woodbridge: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 15,999
Cost Of Living Index: 157 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.6 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (14th cheapest)
More on El Camino Real: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Irvine Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Irvine, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 23 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Irvine.” We’re lookin’ at you, Turtle Ridge.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Irvine. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Irvine

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Irvine where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Irvine are Turtle Ridge, Uc Irvine, Walnut Village, East Industrial Complex, West Park, Quail Hill, Shady Canyon, University Park, Woodbridge, and El Camino Real.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Irvine aren’t all cheap. Turtle Rock takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Irvine.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Irvine are Turtle Rock, Spectrum, San Joaquin Marsh, University Town Center, and Great Park.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more California reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Irvine For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Turtle Ridge 145
2 Uc Irvine 120
3 Walnut Village 172
4 East Industrial Complex 160
5 West Park 167
6 Quail Hill 284
7 Shady Canyon 242
8 University Park 162
9 Woodbridge 167
10 El Camino Real 157
11 Oak Creek 168
12 Lower Peters Canyon 161
13 Business District 138
14 El Toro Marine Air Station 216
15 Northwood Point 204
16 Rancho San Joaquin 117
17 Northwood 163
18 Irvine Health And Science Complex 150
19 Great Park 87
20 University Town Center 130
21 San Joaquin Marsh 154
22 Spectrum 172
23 Turtle Rock 228
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.