Info On Living In Orange County, Ca (Santa Ana, Huntington Beach: low income, fit in)

[rach78]

I am thinking of moving to Orange County. Would really appreciate your help if anyone could tell me which parts of Orange County are good for young, single,professionals to live and also where cost of living is reasonable.

[EscapeCalifornia]

What's your definition of "reasonable"?

[losercore]

Yea reasonable will be the keyword. I just left SoCal after spending my whole life there and headed to the Mid-West.

Young, single professionals will fit in well in Newport, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach non of these I consider reasonable.

Costa mesa is nice and a little less expensive than Newport HB.

if you can be away from the beach then Orange, Tustin and Fullerton can be pretty cool for singles. Orange is a fun town and 1/2 the price of the beach cities for rent.

Hope this helps some. let me know if you have any questions

[rach78]

Is Orange mostly a safe part of town? I visited Tustin but couldn't find any nice apartments for reasonable rent in safe parts of Tustin; the only places I would live in cost $1800+ per month.

How is Mission Viejo/Aliso Viejo? I visited Irvine and didn't like it there; are those places similar to Irvine?

Which part of the midwest did you move? Just curious, because I am moving from the midwest.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Orange and Tustin both have nice and not-so-nice areas. $1800/mo for a 2/2 apartment is about right, at least for nicer areas like Tustin Ranch. Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, and Irvine, like the rest of South OC, are all pretty similar. Safe, expensive, if not a bit bland and boring. Great places to raise a family but not the most exciting places for singles.

[missionhome]

Check out this thread to find all you want about Mission Viejo. It's very safe- the fourth safest city in the country, but there are many more families than young singles. Similar to Irvine, but not flat.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/orang...city-city.html

[solo_rider]

"which parts of Orange County are good for young, single,professionals to live"
To answer the first part of your question: anywhere near the beach! San clemente, dana point, laguna, newport, costa mesa, huntington.

"and also where cost of living is reasonable"

If you're young, single, and a professional, sorry, but there is no affordable housing in orange county, period.

I have an article from the Business Connection newspaper of Irvine, Vol 25 #2,published by the Irvine chamber of commerce sitting infront of me, and the headline today (August 2007) reads:

"Housing shortage projected for Orange County"

And here's a quote from the article:

"Forecasts estimate we could lose up to 20% of our young adults in the next 20 years due to the lack of entry-level housing."

That right there is the biggest drawback to living in the OC. You can deal with traffic, smog, congesion, anything, so long as you can find affordable housing.

But when you are paying $2000 per month to live in a 30 year old dumpy appartment and you're a young working professional looking to establish yourself, you're going to understand real fast how difficult of a situtation it is now.

I'm 25 and I am a professional Microsoft .NET Web applications and database designer (aka senior, experienced web desiger and programmer). You would think that I make a lot of money, and you'd be right. However, I don't make enough to afford a home, and neither does my girlfriend, who is an accountant at a large computer distribution company here in Irvine. Even if we add our incomes, we will still fall short of the average $700,000 home price right now.

According to the OCBC, the median home price in OC is $710,000 right now. You'd need to gross $145,680 per year to afford the mortgage. The average school teacher makes about $57,782 per year, nurse, 70k per year, and from my experience, the average IT goon (non engineer) makes 50-60k/year, average sysadmin 50-70k, average web designer 40-80k, average.

As you can see, the trend is that everyone makes about 30-50% of what they would need to afford a home.

As a result, people like myself who are mid twenties are moving out of orange county. About half to three quarters of my friends have moved or are already moving out of the state or county to places like sacramento, phoenix, north carolina, etc.

I myself and my girlfriend will be moving out of state within the year. Its simply too hard for young people to establish themselves without big bucks from their parents (not a problem for the Newport and Laguna Beach crowd).

So my advice to you is this: if you want to live here for a few years and experience the OC and everything it has to offer, great! But you're not going to be able to live a comfortable life here unless you come with some serious equity to lay down.

[El-Sea]

Well put. Just one additional note, there is something called "Barrio Housing". Anyone not making over $75,000 per year can qualify to purchase low income housing. These condos are in some nice areas and are priced much lower than their neighbors.

[losercore]

Originally Posted by rach78

Is Orange mostly a safe part of town? I visited Tustin but couldn't find any nice apartments for reasonable rent in safe parts of Tustin; the only places I would live in cost $1800+ per month.

How is Mission Viejo/Aliso Viejo? I visited Irvine and didn't like it there; are those places similar to Irvine?

Which part of the midwest did you move? Just curious, because I am moving from the midwest.

Yes Orange has very nice and some moderate nice areas. A few places on the border of Santa Ana are a little shady. I Grew up in HB but lived for a few years in orange without a problem.

I moved to Madison, WI. I love it here in comparison. No traffic, nice people, lower cost of living. I love how beer is like water out here.

Anyway. Depending on where you are coming from rent is not cheap in OC. The last place I lived just before moving out here was in Cypress for about6 months. It borders some really crappy cities but is nice and still i was paying too much.

Feel free to PM me and Ill give you my email if you have any questions. I check email way more than this site

Where are you coming from?

[Reivax]

Originally Posted by solo_rider

According to the OCBC, the median home price in OC is $710,000 right now. You'd need to gross $145,680 per year to afford the mortgage. The average school teacher makes about $57,782 per year, nurse, 70k per year, and from my experience, the average IT goon (non engineer) makes 50-60k/year, average sysadmin 50-70k, average web designer 40-80k, average.

Sincerely, 145k would be barely comfortably to walk in on a 700+k house with no down payment.

I feel your pain.

Don't be afraid to leave California. It really isn't as great as everyone wants you to believe.
If you think you can handle humidity, take a look at the Houston suburbs. Houston's a big city (5 million, 4th largest in the US), plenty of IT work, pay's the same as here give/take a couple thousand (there's no state income tax in Texas, so it's a wash, anyhow) and here's the beauty - 3000 sq. ft. home, 4 bdr, swimming pool, 1/4 acre lot in established, tree-filled area can be had easily for 250k. No, that's not a misprint, no you're not in BFE, yes there's still a Starbucks nearby, around 20 miles/30 minute drive from downtown Houston.