Family of 6 Moving to Orange County. Looking for Low Cost of living!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Who has four kid these days and wants to relocate to OC.

You never know.

[CadillacRF]

May be wrong, Charles. All the listings you found are nice and are in good areas. I appreciate the time and effort to look all of this up.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by CadillacRF

May be wrong, Charles. All the listings you found are nice and are in good areas. I appreciate the time and effort to look all of this up.

Here are more tools that I put in this thread that I started:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/orang...ing-tools.html

Quite geared towards Orange County too.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by NickelDime

Dirk, that move would be completely different today.

Many who live in OC wouldn't be able to afford the home they're living in - because they bought in the 90's. Not saying you're in that camp, but times were different 11 years ago.

That smells like an inflated market, or one that remains in denial. There's no sacred ground, the surrounding dirt is getting cheaper, and jobs have receded over the past couple of years.

It is very difficult to make ends meet AND save for the future in OC - unless one is doing extremely well, making tremendous sacrifices, or arrived before the bubble.

Count yourself in at least the last camp.

That last camp might be today's camp - or getting close to it.

We bought a brand new home in a very nice section (Lang Ranch) of Thousand Oaks in 1997. We paid $150/sqft. (We sold in 2006 at $418/sqft.) This neighborhood compares with the nicer newer master planned neighborhoods in Orange County: the schools are outstanding (all 10/10 on Great Schools for example), practically no crime, squeaky clean, lots of amenities, landscaped public areas (sidewalks, medians, etc). Total family neighborhood. Very nice, very desirable.

What is a realistic, honest, no kidding average annual appreciation rate for real estate? Four percent?

At 4% average annual appreciation rate, that $150/sqft, 12 years later is $240/sqft, not too much different from what Ladera, RSM, and Coto, and Mission Viejo are going for now - and they are still falling.

Mission Viejo, CA 92692 | MLS# S588068

3 Clawson St, Ladera Ranch, CA 92694 | MLS# S553510

16 Shea Rdg, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 | MLS# S591940

34 Downfield Way, Coto De Caza, CA 92679 | MLS# S565985

22 Las Pisadas, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 | MLS# S571321

[oc2nyc]

I am not sure where exactly this thread is at the moment but I feel badly for the original poster. It is difficult to move four children, and getting information from people in the desired area is key.
On the other hand, many people don't want to hear the truth about the area they are looking at. They want to hear that the place they desire is as wonderful s they see on TV, or what they have heard from vacationers.
Let me just say, we are a family of six and we make over $150k a year, and yes, it is difficult to live here. We live in Rossmoor, an unincorporated city in Los Alamitos/Seal Beach. We rent a very small, 50 year old home, and pay to be in a good school district. We moved here in 1996 and have loved this are until the last five years. We will be moving to CT in July 2010 when our second graduates from Los Al High School. We want our last two to have a better education, in a school not riddled with drug use, in an area where keeping up with the Jones' is not the local pastime. There are some wonderful people here but the area has changed A LOT since we first got here. In my opinion, right now with budget cuts So Cal is not the place to raise children. If you don't have a choice, make the best of it, but if you do stay away until this state gets it together!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by oc2nyc

getting information from people in the desired area is key.

***

We moved here in 1996

***

We want our last two to have a better education, in a school not riddled with drug use, in an area where keeping up with the Jones' is not the local pastime.

I think the City-Data forum has been pretty helpful. The posters are getting both sides of the story.

***

Imagine had you bought then.

***

Do you have reason to think that the schools in CT don't have drugs too, or have less drugs? Is the school in CT better (whatever "better" means) than the Los Alamitos school? Keeping up with the Jones is going to happen anyplace where median incomes are in the six figure range.

[NickelDime]

Originally Posted by Charles

That last camp might be today's camp - or getting close to it.

We bought a brand new home in a very nice section (Lang Ranch) of Thousand Oaks in 1997. We paid $150/sqft. (We sold in 2006 at $418/sqft.) This neighborhood compares with the nicer newer master planned neighborhoods in Orange County: the schools are outstanding (all 10/10 on Great Schools for example), practically no crime, squeaky clean, lots of amenities, landscaped public areas (sidewalks, medians, etc). Total family neighborhood. Very nice, very desirable.

What is a realistic, honest, no kidding average annual appreciation rate for real estate? Four percent?

At 4% average annual appreciation rate, that $150/sqft, 12 years later is $240/sqft, not too much different from what Ladera, RSM, and Coto, and Mission Viejo are going for now - and they are still falling.

Mission Viejo, CA 92692 | MLS# S588068

3 Clawson St, Ladera Ranch, CA 92694 | MLS# S553510

16 Shea Rdg, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 | MLS# S591940

34 Downfield Way, Coto De Caza, CA 92679 | MLS# S565985

22 Las Pisadas, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 | MLS# S571321

Good discusison, Charles...

Two thoughts:

The areas you're highlighting have much lower $/psf because of inflated mello-roos and HOAs. TO/Lang Ranch is a nice area, but the markets are different.

I would use a reasonable gross rent multiplier (say 160x monthly rent as a longstanding historical average) to divine value rather than picking an arbitrary moment in time and tacking on 4% annual appreciation.

So the question is - what are the rents in the area in relation to values for comparable properties?

We recently bought in Valencia because the GRMs finally came in line with historical averages. Add the median value (low 400's) lining up with median household incomes (low $100k's), and it made sense. Values will likely fall further, but I know I didn't buy at the top. I have a family -- stability and a sense of permanence are a priority, plus renting got old.

OC has quite a ways to go - it's still much cheaper to rent and values remain disconnected from incomes. That's a bit of contango; renting should actually have a premium over purchasing as buyers need to have a down payment and good credit. There's also a premium to pay for the flexibility/lack of commitment.

[mommyntheoc]

The schools in the Capo Valley & Saddleback school districts are all great schools. You can rent a house for $2500 easily in Mission Viejo these days. You can even rent a townhome (3 bd) in Aliso Viejo or RSM for $1800. Temecula is quite a commute, it would cost you so much in time, gas, car maintenance, and the like that it wouldn't be of benefit. Plus, riverside county is considered "scummier" than orange county for the most part - Temecula has tried to clean up it's reputation but unless you live out on a ranch there, there are a lot of juvenille issues. Hope that helps!