Homes Expected to Go on Sale in June : Housing: Construction in the county is to begin early next year on the new generation of moderately priced, courtyard-style dwellings.

By JOHN O’DELL

Oct. 11, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEWPORT BEACH —

Work on a new generation of moderately priced detached homes in Orange County is scheduled to begin early next year, with sales starting in June, according to officials at RecreActions Group of Companies.

Rancho Santa Margarita will get the largest concentration of the courtyard-oriented homes that are to be built by an RGC affiliate called Newport CourtHomes. Work is slated to begin in February on a 35-acre project in the heart of the large TownCenter mixed-use area, a focal point of the 5,000-acre planned community.

The CourtHome development will include 129 attached townhomes and 307 detached homes with densities of 13 to 15 per acre.

That same 15-per-acre plan also is scheduled to be used late next year in a 150-home development in the Eastlake planned community near Chula Vista in south San Diego County.

CourtHomes in the TownCenter will range from a 638-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath townhome tentatively priced at $94,900 to a 1,460-square-foot, four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom single-family home priced at $172,900--prices that will make many of the homes eligible for low down payment FHA loans under the new $151,725 FHA price lid signed into law Tuesday by President Bush.

And Irvine Co. officials already have approved two of Newport CourtHomes’ developments--214 units at 12 per acre in Tustin Ranch and 100 units on 10 acres in Newport Ridge--a new development area in unincorporated county territory in the hills above the exclusive Newport Coast development.

Projected prices for Newport Ridge range from $285,000 to $358,000, although RGC Chairman E. James Murar said homes on lots with “premium views” will go to about $400,000. In Tustin Ranch, base prices now are set at $221,000 to $225,000.

Newport CourtHomes also is negotiating to acquire two parcels in the Westpark area of Irvine for a total of 278 homes with an average density of about 16 per acre.

Those two-story homes--with bedrooms above the two-car garage--would be small by current standards for single-family detached housing in Orange County--ranging from 860 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms to 1,889 square feet with four bedrooms and two and half bathrooms. Tentative prices range from $145,000 to $199,000.