OC Loft Guide, a premiere guide to Orange County lofts, launches new website to cover high rise condominium communities in the area. According to Spencer Hoo, OC Loft Guide’s residential specialist, “OC Loft Guide mainly focuses on lofts and urban communities, while high rise condos are considered urban homes they do not fit well into the loft category. That is why we decided that a new specialized site was necessary in order to provide the same excellent service and key information to consumers that are interested in these properties.“

Similar to OC Loft Guide, High Rise Condo Guide covers communities in the greater Orange County area. Recently, the site has started covering The Marquee at Park Place, The Plaza, Astoria at Central Park West, and Avenue One, all of which are mid rise and high rise communities in Irvine, CA. In addition to providing consumers with key information such as the features, pictures, maps, and floorplans on each community, it also keeps up-to-date news about these communities.

The growth in this niche market has been slowed due to the recent recession, with many builders converting high rise condos into apartment homes. A good example is Skyline at MacArthur Place in South Coast Metro, originally built as high rise condos; it has since been purchased by Essex in March of 2010, and now converted into luxury apartment homes for rent. We have seen other condo to apartment conversions, for example, the 250 unit Anavia condo next to Angel Stadium, has also met a similar fate after being purchased by Essex.

Despite these recent conversions, there are still many new and existing high rise condos available for folks who want to live in an urban lifestyle, yet have the ability to become a homeowner. In fact, Lennar has been investing heavily in the Irvine area. Right off of the 405, Central Park West offers both Astoria, for high rise luxury living and Belvedere, a mid rise condo community.

High Rise Condo Guide has begun coverage with Lennar’s properties starting with Astoria and will be adding Belvedere in the upcoming weeks. For more information about High Rise Condo Guide, please visit its website at HighRiseCondoGuide.com.