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Numbers vary a bit depending on where/when you pull them, but the cost of living index for Cincinnati is roughly 91 and for Irvine is 173
BTW, I picked Irvine because it's known for quality public schools and it would be a reasonable commute (depending on exact locations of course) But most of Irvine is about as cookie cutter as it gets. It's generally well planned cookie cutter though.
As you can tell by the COL numbers above, certainly expect Southern California to be more expensive, but housing is the main culprit, and if you can afford something in the $750,000 - $1,000,000 range, you should be OK where that's concerned.
I think Covenant Hills is suffering from what much of Ladera Ranch is - it was a product of RE bubble years. Many people probably got into way more house than they could legitimately afford, some of them likely using really stupid financing products, and declining prices are not helping their situation. You have to watch out for crazy high HOA fees there as well. IMO a commute to Santa Ana from there could be ugly.
My advice: keep the commute as reasonable as possible. With your price range you have plenty of choices that make more sense than far flung areas like Covenant Hills.
I'l partial to Seal Beach or Huntington Beach. Great public schools and you'll never need to run your air conditioner and almost never run your furnace. There are some good values all over Huntington Beach. Very few "cookie cutter" neighborhoods.
Most homes in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach are tract homes too - just 1950s and 1960s version of cookie cutter. The trees are bigger, the residents have repainted their homes but every fourth or fifth home is going to be essentially the same (unless they were renovated).
Otherwise, yes to all of the above, great schools, perfect weather and central to everything - but not inexpensive - primarily due to those reasons.
RSM recent sales 4BR, $750K to $1M is about $236/sqft, HB is about $323/sqft
what is the story with Covenent Hills in Ladera Ranch...it seems like the homes are beautiful, new and not terribly expensive....is it far from every thing? Are there excellent schools near Ladera?
Another area that seems to have reasonably priced, nicer homes is Rancho San Margarita.
The areas I'm interested in are possibly Ladera Ranch, Laguna area (Nigel), Irvine, Tustin, Allison Viejo...am I missing any...are there areas I should stay away from? What about Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo?
I realize I have many, many questions, I just want to be 100% sure I make the right decision for my children.
To add to your list above, Irvine, Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch, Wagon Wheel, Las Flores, Foothill Ranch, Coto de Caza.
Covenant Hills is the gated southern portion of Ladera. HOA is at least $200/month but you get all of Ladera's fantastic amenities.
Schools are excellent. Covenant is zoned to San Juan Hills. Check lot size in Ladera, some lots are kind of small, like less than 6000 sq feet.
Mission Viejo is giganctic and the grandaddy of the region. Lots of variety, great schools.
You need to check out my tool kit thread
The more upscale "nice" Cities are in south orange county which is a vast sea of conforming suburbia. It is the definition of cookie cutter (not only the homes, but people as well). If you want to avoid the vast sea of conforming suburbia, you will have to compromise. You have two options: Beach Cities or older, less pristine cities in Central or Northen Orange County.
Beach cities are very nice, and many of them have good public schools. Languna Beach in Particular. At $1 million you should readily be able to find a decent home in Laguna Beach. The lot will be very small, but you can play on the beach why do you need a yard? Parts of Newport Beach will also offer you some decent options, but much of it is cookie cutter. Seal Beach and Sunset beach have some nice options as does San Clemente, but you are getting into a longish commute.
Northern and Central cities are hit and miss. It depends on where in the city you look. Floral Park neighborhood in Santa Ana is IMO one of the nicest neighborhoods in Orange County. Maybe the nicest. You are looking at an turn of the century - 1930s large home with a very nice lot and as much as 1/3 or 1/2 acre of land in some places. Everyone walks around and greets one another like some movie from the 1950s. However Santa Ana as a whole is one of the most impoverished and highest crime rate cities in Orange County. At the same time, it my will be considerably safer than what you are used to. Last time I checked, Santa Ana was ranked slightly safer than average for cities in the USA of similar size.
Santa Ana has generally terrible schools, but there are exceptions. Orange County High School of the Arts is one of OC's best high schools and is located in a ten story office building in midtown Santa Ana. Mater Dei high school is a great private (Catholic) high school in Santa Ana. For lower grades there are some good charter schools, private schools and Santa Ana's "fundamental" public schools which are reasonably good.
Old town Orange is another place where you can avoid the cookie cutter conformity of south county. It is smaller and safer than most places in Santa Ana. Old town is mostly historic homes. Primarily craftsman bungalows. Houses are mostly small, but there are a few larger homes thrown into the mix here and there. The old town circle oozes charm and quaintness. It is really the only place like this in OC.
Old Tustin and Fullerton also have some charm but on a smaller scale and more peppered with modern stuff.
If you want to consider private school you have lots and lots of options. It depends on what you want. Do you want church based school? Are sports important? Large or small?
We had some of our kids in a school in Orange called El Durado School for Gifted Children. It was very small. They had about 5 5th graders and 7 4th graders so they combined the two classes for most subjects. The philosophy of the school was excellent and it was perfect for our kits. their graduates tend to do extremely well. There is limited opportunitiy for sports and for dating (you had better like one of the three boys/girls in your class or you are out of luck). It was expensive. About $12,000 per year plus fees of around $600, plus lunch, field trips etc. It is very diverse becuase for some reason many foreign dignitaries or business executives tend to put their kids there while they are in the USA.
There are loads of other options available for private school. It all epends on what you want, how much you are willing to pay and how far you want to drive your kids to school.
Personally I really like Silverado Canyon as well. It is kind of a small town nestled int eh Cleveland National Forest. You may even find a house that you access via your own private bridge across a small stream, or that stream may meander through your back yard. Scholls a re Orange S.D. which are decent, but not great. It is a slow twisty drive out to "civilization" (about 15 minutes), but it is a very pretty drive.
Floral Park neighborhood in Santa Ana is IMO one of the nicest neighborhoods in Orange County. Maybe the nicest. You are looking at an turn of the century - 1930s large home with a very nice lot and as much as 1/3 or 1/2 acre of land in some places. Everyone walks around and greets one another like some movie from the 1950s.
I just checked these out on google high def street view. They are beautiful homes. It is a beautiful neighborhood.
Advice from a midwest transplant from a city very similar to Cincinnati. Don't arrive with a bag full of dealbreakers like private vs. public schools. You're moving 2/3 of the way across the country. Why stop 20 miles from the coast and run air conditioning bills close to what your heating must have cost in the midwest? Santa Ana is criss crossed by al the major freeways in Orange County. The drive to your husband's office will be a wash from almost anywhere.
This is really good advice.
Be aware that posters on City Data tend to not disclose bias they may have, and also may post info that is dated by over a decade. Its in your best interest to come visit. Some portions of Orange County, including MANY within a 30 minute rush hour drive of Santa Ana, are really some of the best real estate in the entire world. Schools in most of these communities are quite good. In particular, a good starting point for you in your price range is Irvine, anywhere south of Irvine in Coastal OC(MV, AV, etc) although all of that will be "cookie cutter". San Clemente is really nice and NOT cookie cutter, but may be too far a drive. Huntington Beach and Seal Beach are great. On the northern part of OC, Brea, Orange, Anaheim Hills, etc may suit you and you'll be able to afford more house there.
I like Huntington Beach a lot. You're price range is too low for next to the beach, but the area surrounding the central park there is really nice. It's a huge park, and gorgeous.
Everyone has a different opinion on comfortable living for a family. For a family of four (two kids) in a $650,000 house with a mortgage of $375,000 - $450,000. You can do ok on $150,000/year, and be quite comfortable on $250,000.
Income tax is high. Property tax is not terrible as a percentage, but becuase homes are so pricey, it can be a big number. Newer homes often have Mello Roos (no different from another tax) and HOA dues as well. Utilities run around $600/month (Gas & Electric) with a balanced pay plan. Car insurance is expensive. Everything else is just a little bit more expensive. Gasoline runs about 20 to 50 cents a gallon more. Movies about $3 more, food about 10% more. McDonalds is almost exactly the same price. Entertainment can be very very cheap. Beaches, trails hills and mountains only cost gas and a parking/permit fee.
The weather changes very little and only gradually, so it is hard to notice, but it does change with seasons. It gets really hot sometimes if you are away from the beach, it gats down into the 40s at night during the winter (usually warmer during the day). It snowed in about 1989 or 1990 once. It will rain five or ten times a year, usually between October and March. Sometimes it rains really hard, but it never lasts very long. It gets really dry and you need to carry hand lotion and lip ointment. There are a few weeks that get so hot you will not want to go outside, but if you are at or near the beach, it rarely gets uncomfortably hot.
I just left Cincinnati (actually, Campbell County, KY) for the San Francisco Bay Area. I am traveling to O.C. next week to check out the area as I would like to attend grad school down there within the next 1-2 years.
I can assure you that leaving Cincinnati for most places in California is a step UP; I know I'm glad I left. Cincy has great parks, an awesome skyline, some cool neighborhoods, and that chili, but the winter weather sucked and people were cranky and very provincial. (Not as bad as Louisville downriver, but still enough to drive me out.) Even if you were to move to, say, Bakersfield, Stockton or Modesto, you're still within three hours of one major world city and the Pacific and in the midst of geographic diversity and fresh local fruits and vegetables.
Enjoy Orange County! Some other communities around there worth looking into: Tustin, Seal Beach, Cerritos, Fullerton, Yorba Linda, and Irvine.
At $1 million you should readily be able to find a decent home in Laguna Beach. The lot will be very small, but you can play on the beach why do you need a yard?
Any house near the water would be much more than 1M, even a very small house. Our family home, situated a block from Main Beach, is just a beach cottage -- barely big enough for a young or retired couple with no children -- on a 50x50 corner lot. The house has been in the family for 61 years and was/is not for sale; still, it's constantly solicited. At the present time, in this sluggish market, the offers are between 1M and 1.3M.
The chance to buy a 3-bedroom house in Laguna for 1M is slightly better in areas such as Top of the World and Countryman's Estates, but they're both on the hill (Top of the World is on a very steep hill) and not within walking distance to the beach.
Any house near the water would be much more than 1M, even a very small house. Our family home, situated a block from Main Beach, is just a beach cottage -- barely big enough for a young or retired couple with no children -- on a 50x50 corner lot. The house has been in the family for 61 years and was/is not for sale; still, it's constantly solicited. At the present time, in this sluggish market, the offers are between 1M and 1.3M.
The chance to buy a 3-bedroom house in Laguna for 1M is slightly better in areas such as Top of the World and Countryman's Estates, but they're both on the hill (Top of the World is on a very steep hill) and not within walking distance to the beach.
There were actually 40 SFR homes sold in the last six months between $750K and $1M in Laguna Beach and several of them were within walking distance to the beach.
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