Orange County Family Neighborhood (Santa Ana, Huntington Beach: houses, neighborhoods, private school)

[mom4foxes]

In search of a family friendly affordable neighborhood in Orange County for a family of four children and divorced mom. Preference is a beach community, but close to Mater Dei school.

[BRinSM]

except for maybe the neighborhoods directly adjacent to the coast, all of orange county is family friendly.

[missionhome]

"Affordable" and "Beach community" don't really go in the same sentence. In general, the most expensive cities in the county are in the beach communities. If you have a budget for a house that you can tell us, it might be easier to tell you what cities you can afford. For example, is 450k affordable, is 600k, is 750k, is 200k, etc? Affordable means different things to different people so it is hard to know what price you are really looking for. Inland Huntington Beach is probably the most affordable beach city.

Best of luck, Mater Dei is a very good private school.

[losercore]

Yes Mater Dei is great. I went there. Too bad it's in one of the worst parts of Orange County. You don't want to live anywhere near there...Maybe Fountain Valley, but that's still not too close.

Costa Mesa, Huntington and Tustin are great. Tustin is not a on the coast, but it is stll nice and easy to get to MD. Orange is further but has some really nice spots. I grew up in the Foutain Valley and Huntington Beach areas and went to MD. It was no biggie, but it is still a decent drive.

Have fun

[oc2nyc]

It really depends on what you mean by "affordable." I am assuming that you make good money if you have kids that go to Mater Dei. You will need to be a little more specific about what is affordable to you before anyone can suggest a place to live.

[Coldjensens]

You can live in the south Coast metro area of Santa Ana and it is pretty nice. You could also live in some parts of Costa Mesa. Also look at Floral Park neighborhood in Santa Ana. A really nice neighborhood not far from Mater Dei. Be warned however that the Santa Ana public schools are mostly bad. If you cannot sustain the Mater Dei tuition, your ahd better get your kids into OCHSA (School of the Arts) or you will be looking at a high school with a poor academic record.

If you are prejudiced and cannot tolerate hispanic neighbors, then join the masses and avoid Santa Ana like the plague. IN that case, you only reasonable option is to commute from Irvine or win the lottery and move to Newport Beach.

[twoisbetter]

We moved from the West Garden Grove area (checkout Eastgate or Garden Park) about 3 yrs ago. Prices average a little less than the median for OC. We purchased our first home there, and its a quiet family friendly neighborhood. Not sure how far from Mater Dei tho.

[pootie562]

west garden grove is about 15 miles away and since the 22 east is not too bad in the morning your commute will be tolerable, but you can also use the 405 but who knows how that will be?

[EricReingen]

Affordable on the coast is definitely up for interpretation. The cheapest area on the coast is the cluster of Huntington Beach islands like Humbolt, Trinidad, Gilbert, and Davenport. Great family communities if thats what your looking for. Mater Dei is a drive from the coast so you would probably need to solidify exactly what you want. I am a Realtor in Orange County so any questions you have don't hesitate to contact me.

Eric Reingen
Prudential California Realty
949-698-3573
ericreingen@pruoc.com

[Broadmoor]

My neighborhood in Tustin is 3.5 miles from Mater Dei and 10 miles inland from Newport. Houses recently available are shown on our community website. I'm not a realtor, but believe that the two places on Windemere Lane and the one on Denbigh Lane are still available, asking price less than $400K. It's a community of detached, single family modern architecture homes with atriums, built in the late 60s. My sons are in their early twenties and love the proximity to everything. From there you can walk to Old Town or ride a bike to the beach. The younger one works at Disneyland, which is very close by, just up the 5 fwy. More info:
www.myspace.com/broadmoortustin