Moving from NYC to Orange County (Long Beach, Santa Ana: for sale, real estate, apartments)

[k11206]

Hi There, I'm moving from NYC for a job in Buena Park. My Husband and I are looking for better weather and better quality of life. I'm looking for a more laid back vibe, I completely understand it will not be like NYC and I'm happy about that . I am visiting this week to secure an apartment. What are the best sources for finding a place? I've been using trulia and craigslist, but i haven't seen that much out there. We would ideally like a 2 bedroom single family home, rent $1800-$2200. I would like to live close (15 min walk) to a downtown area so that I could walk to restaurants/shops. I've been looking at Fullerton, but not sure what areas are best. Also Anaheim, but it seems everyone keeps talking about crime being horrible. I'd like to be within a 30 minute commute to work and I'm terrified of major traffic which is why i'm looking relatively close to Buena Park. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[pacific2]

Try Find Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Apartments & Houses for Rent - realtor.com®, but I suspect that you will probably have to up your price if you are looking to rent a single family home. The $1800-$2200 price range would probably be more fitting for an apartment.

Also, even though most of the listings are for apartments, you may want to check:
Apartments for Rent - PadMapper Apartment Search for Oodle, PadLister, Airbnb, Kijiji, and other Apartments.

This might be worth a look:
http://www.hotpads.com

Orange comes to mind as a possibility, but I'll leave it to others to suggest a North County neighborhood since I don't live in that area, and I'm not up there very often.

[veritasveritas]

Your choices are Cypress, Cerritos, or La Palma

[DinsdalePirahna]

I move out here from Long Island about 20-something years ago. Never really looked back. Don't complain about Pizza and Bagels. because you'll have awesome mexican food.

I can make it to Knott in about 35 minutes from our condo in Huntington Harbour. There are two rental units in your price range in our community. Not a real downtown area, but their are plenty of amenities within walking distance (including the beach!)

Good Downtown areas to look at are Seal Beach, Orange, Fullerton, Huntington Beach

Anaheim and Santa Ana can get VERY sketchy in the wrong neighborhoods, But they have some very good areas in transisition. Avoid Stanton and Midway City

[viceversa]

Wrong place to move to. Laid back vibe? Relaxing? Orange County has one of the worst traffics.... Real Estate prices are through the roof. You want to spend 30 years paying off a $600k home, when the actual real value is around $350k?

[oclady]

LaMirada is a nice community. I lived there 29 years ago. It's just North of Buena Park and not a very hard commute.
It's an older community and you may want to take a look on Trulia.

Don't look on Craig's List for any rentals. It's not safe and there are a lot of scams that will take not only your money, but money from several other potential renters. Then they flee and you'll never recover your money.
Hope this helped.

[Cardiff Kook]

Originally Posted by viceversa

when the actual real value is around $350k?

The ****? Doesn't the market dictate value? If people are willing to pay 600k, isn't that the market value?

[Urban Planner]

Originally Posted by Cardiff Kook

The ****? Doesn't the market dictate value? If people are willing to pay 600k, isn't that the market value?

ahahahahahaha omg this is an awesome response.

[socal88]

Fullerton is a good option and if you don't mind driving just a tad more, I'd even look into Tustin, which is a good area and shouldn't be more than a 20-25 minute drive from Buena Park.

[Robsteel17]

You might have a hard time finding a house to rent in that range. But you should be able to find a decent apt/condo/townhouse. Unfortunately, being in walking range to downtown shops is not a viable option in most of Orange County. Notable exceptions are Fullerton and Orange which have quaint, old downtown areas that kind of resemble Midwestern county seats.

Anaheim and Santa Ana are trying hard to create/revitalize their downtown areas but there still isn't much of a vibe, especially in Anaheim. The situation is improving but slowly. Also there are some iffy neighborhoods in both of those cities. Nothing horrific though. Nowhere even close to some of the sketchier neighborhoods in NYC.

As a good urban/suburban compromise you might look at Long Beach. IMO, it's the best spot in SoCal that many out of towners don't know. It's more of proper city (pop. 500,000) with an actual downtown complete with skyscrapers, urban lofts and a thriving bar scene. It also has many distinct walkable neighborhoods and many places for rent. Even single family houses. It's a little bit of a further drive to Buena Park but by no means awful. My wife commutes between Long Beach and Anaheim daily and it's about 30 min each way. 40 with traffic. Pretty standard for around here.