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Old 03-15-2008, 12:38 AM
 
12 posts, read 41,406 times
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Relocation to Santa Ana....where would you buy for your family?

Priorities
Good schools...middle & high School
Commute 1 hr or less
3600+ Sq ft
1.5 million or less puchase price

Thanks!!!

PS Wife was looking at Codo de Cata and Ladera Ranch as possibilities
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Old 03-15-2008, 12:51 AM
 
Location: RSM
5,113 posts, read 19,681,943 times
Reputation: 1927
for that size of house you're really limited. coto & ladera ranch probably would work. santiago canyon maybe?, anaheim hills, newport coast, possibly the costa mesa country club area

there are newer developments in huntington harbor/bolsa chica area and in seal beach(on seal beach blvd between westminster ave and pacific coast highway) that may fit your needs as well
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Old 03-17-2008, 03:32 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,701 posts, read 79,330,237 times
Reputation: 39408
Are your kids into who has the nicest shoes or the best name brand purse? If not then you may want to be a bit careful about where you choose. If you want shallow materialistic children, Coto de Caza or Newport beach would be a great place.

Anaheim hills might be a decent option. Foothill is a pretty good high school. Orange Park acres or Villa Park are probably good options for you, lots of bigger houses on half an acre or more there. OPA has reasonably good schools. Certainly good enough if your kids are motivated and well grounded. V.P. has very good schools (for Orange County anyway).

You could find a really amazing house in Floral Park in Santa Ana for that price. Some are substantially larger than 3600 s.f. If your kids are artistic or musically inclined, they could go to OCHSA (arts school in the top five in academics for the county). If they are into sports and catholic they could go to Matre Dei.

What type of housing are you looking for? A biggish house on a good sized lot with some privacy would be Anaheim hills and possibly Orange Park Acres. A McMansion in a subdivision of matching McMansions would be Coto, Irvine, or the newer subs out along Chapman or further (Chapman becomes Santiago). A true mansion from the 1900s- 1940s means Floral Park. A sardine can with an ocean view and/or beach access - Newport Beach. villa park s older (i.e. 1960s - current) large subdivision homes on good sized lots.

Coto to Santa Ana can be a nasty drive. Usually not too bad on the toll road.
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Old 03-17-2008, 05:05 PM
 
2 posts, read 12,106 times
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Why not Irvine? Best schools in OC. Email me and I can help you out.
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Old 03-17-2008, 08:04 PM
 
70 posts, read 279,242 times
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WOW, seems exactly like me 5 years ago. I was working out of Santa Ana and needed a 4000 sq ft home.

I made the move to Anaheim Hills, and it was the BEST move I ever made. I was looking at Villa Park and Coto de Caza at the time, but we found a house in Anaheim Hills that was perfect for us. We love our community, very rural, beautiful, and safe. And the high school is amazing (Canyon High)--best public high school out there in my opinion--the strongest API in district, and within the top ten high schools in the county. I couldnt ask for a better community--less than 10 miles from Disneyland and Angel Stadium, but another world away from it. Anaheim Hills is about a 30 min commute to Santa Ana for me (by side streets). Homes are large (for the most part) and you can get a great home for 1.5mil. Good luck!
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Old 03-17-2008, 09:16 PM
 
Location: Mission Viejo, CA
2,498 posts, read 11,398,010 times
Reputation: 1619
OK, I did not want to rewrite this entire thing over again, but this is something to think about when moving to Ladera Ranch. Just so you know, before you think I am anti-Ladera, I am not. I highly recommend the community because of its close family feel, beauty, and more unique architecture for track homes. BUT, the recent boundary change by the Capistrano Unified School District has moved 75% of Ladera Ranch to San Juan Hills High School this year. The school is brand new and here is the copied in paragraph I wrote about the problem of this school to another poster a few weeks ago:

Now, Ladera Ranch. I highly recommend Ladera Ranch. It is the newest South OC community and has lots of kids. It is also the epitome of the master planned community if that is what you are looking for. You must see it to believe it. The catch is this: Only buy in the portion of Ladera that attends Tesoro High School in Las Flores (which is often considered to be in RSM). South Ladera recently was moved to San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano. The school doesn't have any test scores because this is its first year and it has only freshmen. The "talk of the town" so to speak is about what a disaster this school has become. The Principal who at first said he was committed and would be there until retirement, announced his resignation after only 5 months basically alluding to he couldn't handle the kids anymore. I have friends from Ladera who had their children there, and at the start of the new semester, all but one of them pulled their kid out and moved them to Tesoro High School, Capo Valley High School, or private school. Tesoro gained 30 transfers from SJHHS and Capo got 15 transfers from SJHHS of kids who couldn't handle all the problems (which I will name in a minute). This is out of a class of 500, and 45 transfered! I think the school will hurt south Ladera' home values a lot more than north Ladera attending Tesoro which is an award winning high performing school. If you think you'll have your kids here a while, then south Ladera and its new high school in San Juan is not for you, basically stay north. So, the problems: The majority of the classes have had to be classes for English Learners who parent's estimate make up 45% of the school and then for the really smart kids who were promised a state of the art high school (the other 25%, most of whom transfered). The other normal kids got lumped together and forgotten. There have also been lots of racial tensions at the school which is really sad. The school is estimated to be 60% Hispanic (remember, no official reports come out until after testing season, so this is just off what other parents say that have kids there), and the other 40% comes from Ladera Ranch (which is probably the whitest community on earth), and the white kids that live in the huge mansions on the hills in San Juan Capistrano. So apparently there have been lots of fights and the police have been called out due to gang problems. This is a bad reflection on all the kids for not getting along. Also, with the district budget cut due to our Governor's cut to education, the school will probably not be completed (stadium, pool, baseball field, etc...) for several years.
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Old 03-17-2008, 09:43 PM
 
70 posts, read 279,242 times
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Missionhome, the majority of homes that are larger ($1M+) in Ladera are in the small village of Covenant Hills, the southernmost village of the community (thus, the area attending SJHHS). Most of the Tesoro areas of Ladera do not even have homes in the caliber he is looking for. Ladera would not be a good option for him. And I dont think a school being largely Hispanic makes it a bad school. Edison High in Huntington Beach is only 10% hispanic, and is worse than some 40% hispanic schools in the county. Yes, generally the hispanic schools are low performing, but just because it is a hispanic school does not mean it WILL be a bad school, it is an unfair conclusion to make (look at Capo, a school that will be a hispanic majority here soon). Weren't you the one that was calling those of us racist for saying we didn't recommend an area because it was hispanic in a previous thread? What happened to the "great cultural advantages" of places like Santa Ana and Anaheim that you mentioned?
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Old 03-17-2008, 10:18 PM
 
Location: Mission Viejo, CA
2,498 posts, read 11,398,010 times
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I am not saying the school is bad just because it is Hispanic. But a school where kids fight over race and argue about it is a bad reflection on all sides. My friend said that a huge fight started in her sons Stagecraft class when a white student called a Hispanic student a derogatory term. The Hispanic student grabbed the white student by the neck and threw him off the theater stage. She pulled her child out of the school because the tension between students of different races was so bad. THIS IS A POOR REFLECTION OF EVERYONE, not just Hispanics, like I said before.

I know what I am talking about when it comes to South Orange County.
Word gets around fast on schools here and a school where there are constant food fights, constant police calls, graffiti on a brand new building, and a large transfer rate at the semester does not sound like a place where most parents want their kid. Sure I can't tell you the school will be bad forever, but right now, people in South Orange County have put a big X on that school as a place they would not send their kids. You wouldn't know though because you live in NORTH Orange County.

Also, you show little knowledge of south Orange County school's in general. Capo Valley High School is showing decreasing Hispanic enrollment and is projected to drop to between 10-18%, something I would not call a majority. Currently it is at 25%, also something I would not call a majority. Where did you get that Hispanics will suddenly surpass white students, currently 65% of students when the boundaries were changed to include predominantly Mission Viejo and a small neighborhood of San Juan. Where do you get your facts???? The Capistrano Unified School District's website would not agree with anything you said.


Also, where is your evidence Canyon High School is in the top 10 in the county. I don't think it is in the top 10 in API or on Newsweek's list of the top schools so is this just your bias or actual fact? Canyon is a great school, don't get me wrong, but is this just your opinion or fact, you should make that clear.

Look, I don't get involved in North Orange County stuff because I am not from there. Sure I go there enough, but I don't really know it like the back of my hand, just like you don't really know South Orange County and what goes on here so I guess what kind of annoyed me was how you second guessed what I said when your someone who doesn't even live in this area, in this school district, or in this community.

Here is a link to CUSD district boundaries for high schools: http://www.capousd-services.org/maps/pdf/CombinedHigh0708_Final.pdf (broken link)


Also, you don't have to live in Covenant Hills to meet his price range. Between 1 million and 1.5 million dollars, there are 15 listings all attending Tesoro High School, so he could possibly choose one of these homes. They meet his size requirement also.

Last edited by missionhome; 03-17-2008 at 10:46 PM..
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Old 03-18-2008, 12:09 AM
 
70 posts, read 279,242 times
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Sorry, 28%. Student Teacher Ratio Capistrano Valley High School - Mission Viejo, California - CA. It has grown about 2% every school year in hispanic population since 1999. And the census tracts that serve the high school under the new boundaries range from 15%-35% hispanic, I doubt that it will drop to 10% since none of the census tracts in its boundaries are that low. And it is not 65% white, it is 61% and dropping fast. Estimates have shown that it may drop to 22% because South Mission has a substantial hispanic population of its own. Remember, interdistrict transfers will likely cause these numbers to change, because some hispanic students will still want to attend Capo Valley.

And I am not acting like an expert, but when someone calls a school bad because it is hispanic, I will step in and show that we dont know if there is even 1 hispanic student at SJHHS because no data has been released. And your right, I know nothing about the schools in south county, but I do know that there has been no data released about SJHHS, so when numbers start flying, I can tell you they are false right off the bat. Please make sure you state "estimate" when you speak about SJHHS.

And Great schools.net gives 4 high schools a 10 rating and 7 others a 9 rating in OC. Canyon is within those 11 in the 9/10 rating. And it was the 8th highest API high school last year (Canyon High School (Anaheim, California) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).


And calling Ladera the whitest community around is wrong too. Ladera Ranch, California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The community is only 65% white-there are plenty of places with higher white populations than Ladera. It also brings in 13% of its own Hispanic population to SJHHS. Watch where you put the blame, San Juan Capo is not the root of all south county problems.

Last edited by OC1017; 03-18-2008 at 12:21 AM..
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Old 03-18-2008, 11:15 AM
 
46 posts, read 103,938 times
Reputation: 44
Be careful where you live in Santa Ana. There are many gangs there. No joke. East Santa Ana the hills is good but so is the areas near SouthCoast.

"As of the census[3] of 2000, there were 337,977 people, 73,002 households, and 59,788 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,808.2/km² (12,451.9/mi²). There were 74,588 housing units at an average density of 1,061.1/km² (2,748.0/mi²). Some consider these numbers to be severely undercounted, and put the population, which may consist of up to 25% undocumented migrants, at 500,000. [4] Santa Ana's population density is 4.6 per housing unit, the highest of any American city over 50,000. (By contrast, New York's is 2.8, and Los Angeles's density is 2.6 persons per housing unit.) Many residents live in illegally converted garages or in rooms not meant for occupancy. The city has attempted to reduce the number of individuals living inside one house by passing density limitations, which resulted in a civil rights lawsuit being filed and the limits ultimately dropped. [5]

The racial makeup of the city was 42.73% White, 1.70% African American, 1.19% Native American, 8.81% Asian, 0.34% Pacific Islander, 40.64% from other races, and 4.58% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 80.07% of the population. Non-Hispanic Whites make up 12.4% of the population, down from 70% in 1970.[6] Since then the city has been suffering from white flight." - Wikipedia.

Last edited by Paleoroundtable; 03-18-2008 at 11:55 AM..
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