Looking for a Down-to-Earth City in OC??? (Irvine, Orange: rental, homes)

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

At some point, they're ALL "down-to-earth" cities.

We've yet to see any of the Orange County cities hovering in the air.

I have heard that many residents are high though.

Just kidden

[Reader33]

I could have written your post 2 mos ago. My husband just got a job in Tustin and we were struggling with where to live as well. I have 4 kids ages 3-13 and have similar wants as yours.
I did tons of research here and other places and narrowed it down to Laguna Niguel and south Huntington Beach. My 4 priorities-commute less than 30 min, good schools (even though I homeschool 2 of my kids-good schools are still important for home values and other issues), walkable (zillow has a walk score attached to houses), and close to the beach.
We ended up in south Huntington Beach and LOVE it. It's only a 25 min commute for my husband in rush hour (avoid the 405 at all costs), we live next to the Santa Ana bike trail, and across from an almost 200 acre nature preserve, great schools, and we are 10-15min to the beach on our bikes. We use the bike trail almost daily.
The neighborhood is great and while you can tell there is some "keeping up with the Jones's" going on, everyone is really pretty friendly and there is a lot of variety of people. We don't have HOAs so don't have to worry about those issues.

I like that I'm close to Target but still have lots of local shops and markets to shop at too. I avoid chain restaurants like the plague (except for In/Out Burger-yum) and that's not a problem here because there are TONS of local places of all types. I found a great Italian place and bakery based on searches here, as a matter of fact.

ETA: Not sure about the other areas but Huntington Beach has an excellent park and rec system of classes for kids and adults. I got my kids into swim and tennis lessons easily and they are great so far. I also found day camps that interested all of the my kids this summer. They offer a huge variety of classes and they are very affordable.

I think taking a weekend to check out some areas will help you a lot-you'll have a gut feeling about certain places and that will help you narrow it down.

www.greatschools.org has school reviews that I found helpful as well.
Good luck!

[joggermama]

Thanks for the info Reader33! So Huntington Beach is walkable, has nature preserve and you can bike all over town. Sounds awesome!!! I really hadn't even really considered Huntington Beach. Now I have even more to think about. We are going to have to rent for awhile when we get down there because we have 2 houses in Norcal to sell. So, we should have plenty of time to shop around and see where we might enjoy living. I definitely want to take our time and find the right area and right fit for us. Although, Huntington Beach will probably be a stretch for our budget...

[Reader33]

Originally Posted by joggermama

Thanks for the info Reader33! So Huntington Beach is walkable, has nature preserve and you can bike all over town. Sounds awesome!!! I really hadn't even really considered Huntington Beach. Now I have even more to think about. We are going to have to rent for awhile when we get down there because we have 2 houses in Norcal to sell. So, we should have plenty of time to shop around and see where we might enjoy living. I definitely want to take our time and find the right area and right fit for us. Although, Huntington Beach will probably be a stretch for our budget...

HB is like everywhere else, there are more expensive places and more affordable places.
I used ocactiverentals.com to look for a rental house but we needed a house because we have 4 kids. You could probably get by with something smaller so it would be more affordable.

I hadn't really looked at HB at first either because I thought it would be too pricey but many of my husband's co-workers live here and commute to Tustin too. They encouraged us to look more at the area. South HB is going to be a shorter to commute because you can take 55 most of the way down, central or north HB gets to be 30min +

Feel free to send me a message if you want more info. Ironically, we moved from the midwest too

[joggermama]

So, after some information gathering...we have narrowed it down to Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo and Huntington Beach. I realize they are all different in geography and lifestyle, so we really need to rent for 6 mos to a year to get a feel for these communities and do some house shopping. Oh, and there is that small matter of selling our 2 houses that we own in Norcal. Lol.

We are currently looking to rent a 3 bedroom townhouse/condo/single family home while we relocate to OC. We really only want to spend around $2,000, plus or minus a few hundred $. Just a quick search turned up some listings for 3 bed apts and townhouses in Aliso Viejo. Some are gated with pools and have 1200-1300sqft. They look fairly nice. We think this would be a good place to sit tight for 6mos-1 yr while we figure out where we want to live in OC. And AV seems pretty centrally located to all of the cities we are considering, for ease of "city shopping". And good schools are a must for our kids.

Some things I like about these cities:
Aliso Viejo sounds like it is walkable to shops/restaurants and has pretty good schools. Mission Viejo has the private lake for MV residents, very cool. Lake Forest would be close to hubby's work, has pretty good schools and sounds very family friendly. Huntington Beach sounds walkable/bikeable/ and is close to the beach.

My questions:

#1) Does anyone have experience with renting in condos/townhomes in AV? How did you like it? Any recommendations?

#2) Approximate Commute Times to Tustin? from:

Lake Forest
Aliso Viejo
Mission Viejo
Huntington Beach

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[joggermama]

Another question I should have added:

Does anyone know if there a good number of Stay at Home Moms in Aliso Viejo?

I have found a few moms groups, so it seems promising for meet to hook up with other SAHM and find friends for my kiddos.

[joggermama]

I think I'm going to post my questions in a new AV-specific thread.

[cnev3]

There is way too much stereotyping going on here. And I admit i've been guilty of stereotyping myself.

I've lived in OC for almost all of my life, and i've traveled a good amount, and haven spent a lot of time in other places.

The fact is, OC is very diverse, and even a single city like huntington beach is diverse. In this city you can find multi millionaire real estate tycoons, and immigrants living well below the poverty line. Uppity snobs, and down to earth liberals.

I've experienced the best, and worst, the good and bad, of what the city has to offer, as far as the people and the culture.

Ultimately what matters the most is your attitude, your perspective, the people you meet, and the company you keep.

But if you go by facts, and statistics, orange county is a quite a livable city.

[cnev3]

Originally Posted by Kevin_NYC

Most of the people complaining...

Are not attractive
Are not successful
Are not solvent
Are not a lot of desirable things

Consider the source of these opinions....

You know this because of a few sentences someone typed on the internet?

Wow, that's true clairvoyance you are blessed with

[MikesWorld9999]

I recently visited. I like the OC, but I did feel that Irvine/Aliso Viejo/Mission Viejo/Lake forest felt kind of "clean and soulless" to me. Would be fine for short-term, but just too planned, not sure how to explain it.