Relocating to California. Good places to raise kids? (Santa Ana, Anaheim: apartment, crime rates)

[ME_Young]

My DH is interviewing for a position in Santa Ana. I don't have any personal knowledge of the area, but haven't read a lot of flattering things about it since I started looking for information. If my DH accepts the position, he will likely move a few months ahead of me, since I'll be staying here to let my DD finish out the school year and sell the house before I move out with the kids. I imagine that he'll find some sort of month-to-month apartment situation when he is out there, but we'll want to find a house. Where is a good city/town to raise children that is a reasonable commute to Santa Ana? Orange County seems so expensive that I don't know if we can afford it, but I was thinking about looking in Riverside County, parts of which do not appear to be too far away. For example, I found a town called Corona that looks like it's about 30 min. from Santa Ana.

My top concerns are good schools and affordable housing, and of course, crime rates. I work from home, so I won't have a commute, but my DH will need to commute to Santa Ana, as I mentioned.

Any suggestions? I am not from the area and do not have the faintest idea where to start looking.

Thanks!

[dusesean1986]

Originally Posted by ME_Young

My DH is interviewing for a position in Santa Ana. I don't have any personal knowledge of the area, but haven't read a lot of flattering things about it since I started looking for information. If my DH accepts the position, he will likely move a few months ahead of me, since I'll be staying here to let my DD finish out the school year and sell the house before I move out with the kids. I imagine that he'll find some sort of month-to-month apartment situation when he is out there, but we'll want to find a house. Where is a good city/town to raise children that is a reasonable commute to Santa Ana? Orange County seems so expensive that I don't know if we can afford it, but I was thinking about looking in Riverside County, parts of which do not appear to be too far away. For example, I found a town called Corona that looks like it's about 30 min. from Santa Ana.
My top concerns are good schools and affordable housing, and of course, crime rates. I work from home, so I won't have a commute, but my DH will need to commute to Santa Ana, as I mentioned.
Any suggestions? I am not from the area and do not have the faintest idea where to start looking.
Thanks!

Yeah you are right about Santa Ana. Do not live their, gangs and heavy illegal immigration has rundown the city. You can work their, it's not that dangerous, just sketchy. Look into these cities, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Anaheim. This is only because you don't have much money. Do not move to the Inland Empire and commute to Orange County, the traffic is bumper to bumper on the way home. Trust me! You could get away with Corona though, which is a relatively nice city. It's on the western edge of the Inland Empire. Your commute would probably be an hour to hour and fifteen each direction. If he can leave between five or six o'clock he'll be much better off. Also, look into the cities of Norco and Yorba Linda, both very nice communites, ecspecially Yorba Linda. Norco is relatively close to Corona, so the traffic wouldn't be horrendous and Yorba Linda is closer than Corona to Santa Ana. If you go to realtor.com, you can find home prices on any city in the United States, just click in the city and it will showing selling property. Here's a good website, go to muninetguide.com and you'll find information on average income, diversity, schools and safety. Hope that helps. If you have any questions let me know? Hope all goes well. If you found this helpful, just click rate this post positively underneath this quote.

[donewithsocal]

Okay, let's clear up something about Santa Ana first...it's a large area, and yes there are definitely areas with serious gang problems. However, there is also an exclusive part that is unincorporated Orange County, with a Santa Ana address. This area recently won the battle to be able to be called North Tustin on their addresses in order to differentiate itself from SA. This is where I grew up, and my mom still lives there. Property values are very high and it is a great place to live. (A four-bedroom, 3 bath ranch style home such as my mom's sells for around $800,000). Nice restaurants, shopping, centrally located to all parts of Orange County, the beaches, etc. I don't know where you're from, so I have no frame of reference to what is affordable to you. To live in a nice area of Orange County you will be hard-pressed to find a house for $600K. I just did a search on Realtor.com and found several between $600-700K in North Tustin. The way to search this area is with the zip code 92705. My DH and I would consider moving back to the area, but we are upside down in our current home and are going to wait it out. At that point we may move out of the area entirely. Somewhere with four seasons, trees, lakes/rivers for fly-fishing, great for raising children, nice people, etc. Preferably in the Northwest or PacNW. Any ideas? Anyone? Any questions on SoCal, especially OC, let me know - I've lived here about 30 years.
PS..can give more info on places to live once I know your target price range. Corona could be a good possibility and there is a toll road that your husband can take depending on where in Corona you live and where in SA he would work.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by donewithsocal

At that point we may move out of the area entirely. Somewhere with four seasons, trees, lakes/rivers for fly-fishing, great for raising children, nice people, etc. Preferably in the Northwest or PacNW. Any ideas? Anyone? Any questions on SoCal, especially OC, let me know - I've lived here about 30 years.

Here are a couple of shots while on a hike we took about one mile south of Palmer Lake, CO. This is eight miles, not eight hours, from my house. This is less than one hour from downtown Denver, 35 minutes from south Denver, and 25 minutes from downtown Colorado Springs. That guy was fly fishing and pulling trout out with ease.







http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...o-springs.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...ghborhood.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...see-yours.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...see-yours.html

[donewithsocal]

Thank you Charles for your post and pictures. I will share the info with my husband. We have been looking into Boulder (but now I'm not so sure after reading some threads) and also Northern Idaho, possibly Coeur D'Alene area. I love Colorado, but I am concerned about the urban sprawl. I have heard that some SoCal builders have moved up there - and that is one thing we are trying to avoid, living in cookie-cutterville. I know this isn't the thread for this discussion, so I'll leave it at that. Maybe I'll run into you in another chat room, or you can "PM" me, though truthfully I'm new to the site and don't know how you would do that. Any insider info on CO is appreciated...Thanks again!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by donewithsocal

Maybe I'll run into you in another chat room, or you can "PM" me, though truthfully I'm new to the site and don't know how you would do that. Any insider info on CO is appreciated...Thanks again!

For us, we wanted to be near jobs. You have to evaluate the regions' employment situations. Are there jobs for him/you in Boulder? Are there opportunities for "Plan B"? We like living essentially between the job centers in Denver and the Springs.

Oh, by the way, the commuter bus that runs between the Springs and Denver has FREE HIGH SPEED INTERNET ON IT while you ride.

FREX

To send a private message to someone, find one of their posts, click on their handle "Charles", select "send a private message to Charles" for example.

[SocalSteve]

The Western part of Corona (92882) is really nice and prices are now at the high 400's for a nice home. This part of Corona is close to the nice green hills of the Cleveland National Forest (not the brown hills common just a little further East). There's top-rated schools; new shopping and restaurants. Two Metrolink stations (connects to Santa Ana) and the 91/241 toll roads are all nearby.

Zillow.com is a good source of info. Can just do a search of Corona 92882. Our neighbor just lowered their price to $498,000 and it's a really well-kept 3 bdrm + office home with a 3 car garage. I think they are paying for closing costs as well.

Good Luck!

Steve

[Malcolm]

move to Iowa, unless you work two jobs and can afford a nice community. but then, you won't see your kids...catch 22?