Why do places like Santa Ana have insanely large numbers of people living in one house? (San Diego: sales, real estate)

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by It is 57 below zero

What makes OC expensive to live in?

Supply and demand. There aren't enough homes/apartments for all of the of people who want to live in a place where they can go to the beach in February.

While you're be shoveling 18" of snow off the walk.

We won't go into living in Illinois and having to deal with humidity that can grow mushrooms on the carpeting.

[MaxLMG]

Originally Posted by It is 57 below zero

The cost of living here in Illinois is high but nowhere near as high as there. There aren't many overcrowding problems here as far as I know, and the cost of living is somewhat lower in the suburbs.

I know that other major cities, like New York, have overcrowding, but even they don't have a bunch of people living in one house.

Are public places in OC also overcrowded a lot of the time, such as schools, or department stores? Or is the problem that most of the jobs there are used up that there aren't many more hiring spots left?

What makes OC expensive to live in?

Unless you are living in Chicago (Cook County actually), the cost of living isn't that high in Illinois. The taxes are higher in IL compared to IN, but the overall cost of living is cheaper with the exception of Chicago of course.

You make a good point and you are correct. The reason why OC and LA are expensive are primarly:

1. High demand area, due to weather and whatnot.
2. Overpopulation. California has over 30 million people. Indiana has 6 million. Most people live in Southern California.

Most of the places in OC are crowded. If you need to go anywhere unless its very close by expect to spend 1hr commuting. Also parking, forget it. Before in Indiana I just "park further down". Here parking is as rare of a commodity as water.

There's virtually no similarities from the Midwest to California.


When I was in Indiana, I lived in a 1 bedroom 1 bath 800sq apartment, only 7 years old, full electric, full balcony, 1 car garage, 7 miles away from the capital downtown Indianapolis (Colts Stadium close by), washer and dryer INCLUDED, and FREE water. I did not pay utilities, just electric for the place. I paid $650/month.


That similar set up I described would easily cost over $2,000/month here in OC. Probably even close to $3,000 being as new as my place was.

[kwong7]

It's not just Santa Ana. My wife grew up in Westminster during the 80s and revisiting her neighborhood was an eye-opener for her. The streets are littered with cars because every household seems to have 3-6 drivers living in them. Her friend's neighborhood in Anaheim Hills is now exactly the same, as was my childhood neighborhood in Costa Mesa. My mom's neighborhood in Huntington Harbor wasn't changed much (the neighborhood is full of baby-boomers), but a house down the street was purchased and completely remodeled. The occupants are 4 white-collar looking singles in their late 20s.

When you put it all together, it seems that the high price of housing and flat wage growth has encouraged folks to share a home (whether they are boomerang adult-kids, renting a room, or living multi-generational).

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by It is 57 below zero

Santa Ana has an average household size of about 4.9, according to Census statistics, and most of Orange County also has a household occupation number that's very high.

No, OC does not have an average household occupation thats very high. At 2.97, its hardly above the CA average of 2.88. As for Santa Ana, its an easy answer. Take a look at the demographics and median household income of Santa Ana. Self explanatory.

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by kwong7

It's not just Santa Ana. My wife grew up in Westminster during the 80s and revisiting her neighborhood was an eye-opener for her. The streets are littered with cars because every household seems to have 3-6 drivers living in them. Her friend's neighborhood in Anaheim Hills is now exactly the same, as was my childhood neighborhood in Costa Mesa. My mom's neighborhood in Huntington Harbor wasn't changed much (the neighborhood is full of baby-boomers), but a house down the street was purchased and completely remodeled. The occupants are 4 white-collar looking singles in their late 20s.

When you put it all together, it seems that the high price of housing and flat wage growth has encouraged folks to share a home (whether they are boomerang adult-kids, renting a room, or living multi-generational).

It's why I can't live on East Side even if I wanted to pay realistically around 1800

[It is 57 below zero]

Originally Posted by kwong7

The streets are littered with cars because every household seems to have 3-6 drivers living in them.

Just a side note, why don't people put their cars in garages anymore? I've noticed in the last several years, fewer people use their garage, and besides, it is meant to protect your car to prevent issues like car thefts, or having to shovel snow off your car, or if your car has some kind of violation (like an expired license plate), you won't get a ticket for it out of shock.

[NickofDiamonds]

What is this snow that you talk about ?
If it has water in it, we'll take several tons of it !

[jimmy92683]

Overcrowding is generally the rule for any city with many recent immigrants from relatively poor countries such as Mexico, and Vietnam. My family came here in 1990 and 12 people lived in a 3 bedroom apartment and we lived like that for 4 years. You also have richer immigrants from China and Taiwan and they tend to live in cities like Irvine with no overcrowding issues.

[incognitoe]

Santa Ana, CA isn't even top 10. Colorado City AZ is #1 with an avg household size of 9.18. Next. If you look at the charts, the red states once again tops the charts.

Top 10: Cities by Average Size of a Household - PolicyMap

[It is 57 below zero]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

Supply and demand. There aren't enough homes/apartments for all of the of people who want to live in a place where they can go to the beach in February.

While you're be shoveling 18" of snow off the walk.

We won't go into living in Illinois and having to deal with humidity that can grow mushrooms on the carpeting.

Originally Posted by MaxLMG

The reason why OC and LA are expensive are primarly:

1. High demand area, due to weather and whatnot.
2. Overpopulation. California has over 30 million people. Indiana has 6 million. Most people live in Southern California.

On a side note, why do a lot of people choose California over Texas or Florida? Those places also have nice weather year-round (as in warm weather all year). Florida doesn't usually get extremely hot in the summer either.

Texas has over 25 million people, and Florida has about 18 million, and those are the next two most populated states after California. Neither of those places have a cost of living as high as that, and many people go to southern Florida for vacation in the winter.