Top Rated Irvine Mortgage Broker

Geographical information on Irvine. Irvine is a master-planned city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of central Orange County, California, in the United States. The city was formally founded on December 28, 1971, after the Irvine Company began developing the area in the 1960s. According to the 2020 census, there were 307,670 people living in the 66-square-mile (170 km2) city. It has the second-highest population in Orange County, the fifth-highest in the Greater Los Angeles area, and the 60th-highest in the US as of 2023. Irvine is home to the national or international headquarters of several companies, especially in the semiconductor and technology industries. A number of universities, notably the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Concordia University, Irvine Valley College, and campuses of Pepperdine University and the University of La Verne, are also located in Irvine. An image of the UCI campus during its first development. Irvine was home to the Gabrieleño indigenous people approximately 2,000 years ago. When Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà arrived in the region in 1769, forts, missions, and cattle herds were established. The Spanish king divided up the territory for private usage and missions. The Mexican government took over the missions’ lands after the Mexican Congress passed the Mexican Secularization Act of 1833, which secularized the missions following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821. It started allocating the land to Mexican nationals who submitted grant applications. The area that eventually became the Irvine Ranch was comprised of three enormous ranchos, or Spanish/Mexican land grants: Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, Rancho San Joaquin, and Rancho Lomas de Santiago. In order to settle debts resulting from the Great Drought, Jose Andres Sepulveda, the owner of Rancho San Joaquin, sold 50,000 acres (200 km2) to Benjamin and Thomas Flint, Llewellyn Bixby, and James Irvine in 1864 for $18,000. Irvine, Flint, and Bixby paid $7,000 for the 47,000-acre (190-kilometer) Rancho Lomas de Santiago in 1866. Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana’s property was subject to complicated title issues following the Mexican-American War. The property was split up among Flint, Bixby, and Irvine as part of a lawsuit in 1868. Sheep grazing occupied the ranches. However, tenant farming was allowed in 1870. In 1878, James Irvine paid $150,000 ($4,887,414 in 2024 dollars) to purchase his partners’ stakes. His 110,000 acres (450 km2) extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Santa Ana River in a distance of 23 miles (37 km). In 1886, James Irvine passed away. James Irvine II, his son, inherited the ranch and included it in the Irvine Company. Citrus, olive, and field crops replaced ranch operations under James Irvine II.