Moving near Irvine (Santa Ana, Anaheim, Costa Mesa: to rent, neighborhoods, college)

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by jaykenealy3

What about outside of Orange County, but still close to Irvine Valley College?

IVC is deep into OC. The closest area that's not OC is Corona but its not that much cheaper and the drive is HELL. Like MWJamesLDS said, you can't look at commutes in terms of miles. You have to use time. Corona might not look far from IVC, but it could be 60-90 minutes in traffic.

[jaykenealy3]

I see what you mean, the traffic here sucks during rush hour too. During rush hour a drive that usually takes 10 min turns into 45. I hate traffic

So basically I would be best trying to find something in OC.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by jaykenealy3

I see what you mean, the traffic here sucks during rush hour too. During rush hour a drive that usually takes 10 min turns into 45. I hate traffic

So basically I would be best trying to find something in OC.

Yes, as close to where you work and go to school as possible. Here's a data point on traffic from my own experience: Find IVC on a map and drive down Jeffrey to the 405 freeway. Follow it north to the Euclid St. exit (exit 12) in Fountain Valley. Google Maps says its 11 miles and should take 15 minutes or 25 minutes in traffic. Its an hour drive in the afternoon.

[MWJamesLDS]

Another thing to understand is that although there is still a rush hour or 3, there is ALWAYS traffic on the roads and freeways. I would occasionally go out on the roads at 10am or 3pm(probably its own rush hour because of schools letting out) and get into backed up traffic. Often the root of the stopped traffic is acciddnts. With Millions of people on the roads, there are always accidents. Check out Sigalert.com to see.

[jaykenealy3]

Okay then, how about this: What if I went to a different Community College, then transferred to UCI? What towns could I actually afford in the entire state of California? Still something safe, preferably on the coast. . .

[MWJamesLDS]

California has a ton of Community colleges, check out the state website California Community Colleges - Listings - Alphabetical (http://www.cccco.edu/find/find.htm#o - broken link) However, as I mentioned earlier, if you want to stay in the relative area, check out oceanside, CA. A good portion of the drive between Oceanside and The OC is through Camp Penelton(spelling?) So the traffic flows a lot better. MiraCosta CC is in Oceanside. Its not a pristine as the OC there, but its still pretty nice and the rents are a bit cheaper. Plus, if your fiance finds a job there, he wouldn't have to quite when you got into UCI.

[MWJamesLDS]

Oh, FYI, there's a Tranfer agreement between Californina Community Colleges and The California State Universities and the University of California in regards to general education. The one for the UC is called IGETC. You can completed the IGETC requirments at any California CC and get it certified, that way, when you get into to UCI you won't have a ton of extra general education classes to take. A good website to look at to see agreements between the schools is Assist.org

[jaykenealy3]

Thank you for the info, I'm going to check out the IGETC site now!

[JSuccess]

I just moved here from Chicago 6 months ago. I lived in schaumburg for a while and in the south burbs in alsip (127th and pulaski). So I will give you my thoughts on how you can make it in the OC with what you stated. First, if you all are only making 20K in chicago then you can probably add about 10K - 12K in salary in terms of how much they will pay you in the OC because the salaries here are different then in Chicago. Upon getting here I found my field paid 30% more in salary here. I am also familiar with the Irvine area because I worked in that area and I am also moving there in the near future. That area is very expensive, it would be comparable to Scahumburg/Elk Grove Village or the far north suburbs. So with the income you are talking about, you could not live there. Also being that your credit is below par you will need to rent from somewhere like craigslist or a personal owner because the rental companies (Irvine Company) look at credit. I would not suggest that you try to live in Irvine because of the cost, you will either barely make rent or be out on the street within a few months. Also, if you can, sell your car and try to find one when you get out here. Places to live to consider would be Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo or further south down I-5 from Irvine. But again, the rent is high out here, not like in Chicago so be prepared for that...you are looking at about 1500/mo (min). Also the ghettos out here are nothing like what you see in Chicago. When people say ghetto or hood out here they mean mexican and somewhat filthy but not like when you say hood in chicago where you are literally running for your life. Mexicans do take all the labor jobs and they will work for anything so your fiancee could really have a problem finding work. You really need to do your research on this move because UCI and IVC are good opportunities but moving to the OC is a financial shock for many people and one thing i noticed was that you really have to have money to be out here. Most people that I know are living check to check or way above their means and are one bad choice away from being in real trouble. The ones that I know that are making it are business owners or authors or some other type of business opportunity. So, I dont want to ramble but I brought my family out here 6 mos ago and we have two kids and me and my wife both work and are saving to move to irvine but we have had to really change our spending habits and so forth because the prices and lifestyle is way different then when we were in Chicago. hope that helps

[JesusisLord]

Originally Posted by 1828144

And you'd better know Spanish.

This is simply not true with living in Orange County. I feel that's a below the waist hit to Latino immigrants, of which I respect and love dearly! I choose to forgive and forget your statement, but ignorance is never a bonus in any kind of society!