Santa Ana Info please (Anaheim, Garden Grove: rentals, townhouse, transfer to)

[SoDoneWithNY]

How is the Santa Ana area? I am looking for a a family friendly community with good schools and affordable rentals . Preferably a single family 4 plus bedroom home no more then 2000 per month .Any suggestions ??

[ragnarkar]

Your search will be much easier if you think outside of "Santa Ana"

[DinsdalePirahna]

Stay away from Santa Ana and Stanton.
Be careful in parts of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Westminster

[EscapeCalifornia]

$2000/mo is well below market for a 4+ bedroom house in OC. If you were to find it anywhere (still doubtful) it would be in Santa Ana, BUT the schools are terrible. 4 bedroom houses in cities with good schools are going to be north of $2500/mo. Often well north.

Go to California School Performance Maps and find Santa Ana. See all the red and orange? Unless you're an illegal alien packing yourself in with as many people as it takes to make the rent, there's no reason to live in Santa Ana.

For $2000/mo, will be looking at a 3 bedroom townhouse.

[Coldjensens]

Some of the nicer negihborhoods in Santa Ana are Floral Park; Sandpointe, Park Santiago, French Park, Washington Square, Wilshire Square. I do not recall the name, but there is a decent neighborhood down near south coast plaza and anoter one just south of 17th street about three or five blocks east of Grand. West Floral Park is pretty decent as well. There is a small neighborhood just north of Floral Park that is pretty nice. I cannot recall the name. It is tiny just a few blocks.

Good schools? Most of the regular schools are not very good. For elementary schools you want to go with what they call Fundamental Schools. John Muir is one. I cannot remember the others. Either that or private school or an intradistrict transfer to Tustin (Tustin Memorial Academy if you like hyper competitive schools). For private School, El Durado school for gifted Children in Orange is really great, but expensive.

Jr HIgh schools: Villa and I think Macarthur (either that or Macarthur is high school and the middle school is next to it) are fundamental. Our kids went to Villa, it was reasoanbly good, not without problems, but the top student from there could easily compete witht he top students from anywhere. One of the other fundamental middles schools is not very good, I think it its the one on Bristol north of 17th that looks kind of like a big darth vader head.

When you get to Jr. High you may be able to get into OCHSA (ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS). They have a Jr. High and it is execellent.

For High School, OCHSA is your best choice by a long shot. Kids have to be extremely talented in one form of the arts to get in. This can mean music, theater, creative wrtiing, graphic arts, photography, dance, art (drawing, sculpture) poetry, etc. It is one of the top schools in Orange County. Segerstrom High is not bad. Otherwise I would look at private school (Mater Dei maybe)?



Floral Park is family freindly. Park Santiago is ok too. French Park is not real family oriented. We raised our family there, but we were somewhat isolated. Still it was a great place for us, but we have a big family so we make our own fun. The others I am not certain. Find a family living there and ask them. .

Santa Ana is heavily hispanic. That bothers a lot of people and scrares a lot of people too. There is nothing wrong with Hispancis generally, most of our neighbors were fabulous people. However there are bad people around and some areas are pretty bad generally. THe bad people oftne stand out more becuase the good people are in their house eating or reading or something, so you see more of the bad people aruond.

For us, it was common to have cars drive by once or twice an evening or five to ten on a weekend with the thump thump thump balster going. We rarely saw any obvious gang presence. We had a neighborhood watch, but there were some thefts, an occaisional loud party and some other issues. It is a city. Floral Park has less trouble because it is somewhat seperated fromt eh rest of the City, Park Santiago is seperated too.

Nearby Orange is a great city with cheaper housing and much of it is very family friendly. Schools are decent, not great, but good enough for kids to go to college if they are intersted.


Hope that helps.

.

[SoDoneWithNY]

Thanks so much for all the great info!

[JMSinOC]

Try the unincorporated area of Santa Ana called North Tustin near Orange, 92705 zip code. Bigger lots and everyone super friendly. We also have several running trails and bike trails nearby.

[nurserosie]

Originally Posted by JMSinOC

Try the unincorporated area of Santa Ana called North Tustin near Orange, 92705 zip code. Bigger lots and everyone super friendly. We also have several running trails and bike trails nearby.

agreed...I live here...tho I doubt the OP can find a house to rent for 2K a month in this hood...

up in the hills of Lemon Heights no...in the flats..actually Tustin..perhaps..but then you lose the bigger lots and larger older one story homes..

we love it here..have great neighbors..and only have to drive 1 mile down the hill to every store in OC

[TSO2.0]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Some of the nicer negihborhoods in Santa Ana are Floral Park; Sandpointe, Park Santiago, French Park, Washington Square, Wilshire Square.
.

I grew up in Sandpointe, it kinda sucked as a white kid. Even though it was one of the more mellow Santa Ana neighborhoods. I was a white minority and the mexican and black kids in the neighborhood made sure I knew it. Just my experience though...