Area Recommendation b/t Irvine and Garden Grove/Westminster (Santa Ana: short sale, HOA)

[MNCold]

My husband was laid off in April and now has a job prospect in Irvine, CA.
We're from Minnesota and is now comtemplating the move to OC. We're both software engineers. We are Vietnamese and will frequent the Vietnamese town in Garden Grove/Westminster area.

We have two young children (3 and 1) so safety and good daycare and good school is most important to us. We're hoping that we can find an area that meet our needs: Safe, good school, family oriented and preferbly somewhere between Irvine and Garden Grove/Westminster as we will be driving back and forth between those two locations. Irvine would be perfect for us BUT it's so very expensive and very high HOA so we're hoping to find somewhere in between. We're really hoping that we can keep our budget under $500K but can potentially up it to $600K if need to.

I've looked at Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, RSM, etc..... that seems to be really good but they're a bit further away. We have heard that Santa Ana is very bad. If we can't find anything that meets our need in between Irvine and Garden Grove, we might end up in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo or RSM, et... area b/c safey and school is most important to us.

I'm looking for your recommendation: Do we have any area that similar to Lake Forest, MV, RSM, AV, etc...that is less expensive than Irvine that is in between Irvine and Garden Grove. How bad is the school in Garden Grove?

[bhcompy]

Western Garden Grove is very nice and probably has homes within your range(and no HOAs). Southern California neighborhoods can typically be measured by the quality of their schools, so I would suggest looking at the schools and using that to narrow down where you'd like to look. A useful tool is California School Performance Maps

[Charles]

Originally Posted by MNCold

will frequent the Vietnamese town in Garden Grove/Westminster area.

How often? A couple times a week? Couple times a month?

If a couple times a month, I'd stay south of Irvine in those towns you mentioned, Mission Viejo, RSM, AV, LN, LF as they are cheaper than Irvine and the drive to Irvine isn't too far. West of Irvine becomes more challenging as the schools might only be OK in some neighborhoods - less selection. Since only a couple times a month, the drive further north to Garden Grove and Westminster might not be that big of a deal - especially on weekends for social activities and shopping.

Like mentioned above, check School Performance Maps and maybe Fountain Valley, Tustin, and Anaheim Hills.

[bm22]

Sounds like Fountain Valley to me.

[MNCold]

Sorry I should mention that we will visit the VNese town at least once a week for grocery and restaurant shopping. If we can find a location in b/t and the drive isn't too bad, then couple times a week. I'm a hard core when it comes to VNese food.
If we end up to live in Lake Forest, MV, etc.. then once a week drive to VNese town as I'm not a big fan of driving either. I will probably cook a lot more at home than if we would be closer to the VNese town.

[bhcompy]

Keep in mind there is plenty of Vietnamese food around the county. You can find pho restaurants in many cities

[Bob's Burgers]

Quote :"we will visit the VNese town at least once a week for grocery and restaurant shopping..."

Is there a Vietnamese town in Orange County? Are you referrring to the Little Saigon commercial shopping area on Bolsa Avenue?

[Timbukto]

I'm viet and raising a family in southwest Anaheim and recently bought a 2k+ sqft ~8k lot house for under 400 via short sale. Looking at the school performance maps is nice and all, but do yourself a favor, go onto greatschools website and compare say Loara to Irvine high school. One will be a 6 and the other a 10...break it down by race however and you'll see that the API difference from an asian in Loara to an asian in Irvine is not much. In fact you could arguably say that given equal API scores, the one in Loara may get the higher grades (less competition basically), rank, letter of recs, and accomplishments *relative* to the school and environment. In addition they have a more diverse and potentially more motivated upbringing vs the everyone has to have an iPhone and be the son/daughter of a CEO, or senior VP, etc. The ethnic food around GG/WTM area is great including not only Viet but a fair share of Korean as well at great prices. The further away you get the worst it tastes and the more it costs IMO. I like fountain valley as well since its not as boring and cookie cutter as Irvine but not sure if you'll buy a whole lot of house for the money there quite yet.

[metanymph]

I second Fountain Valley as well, which is right next to Westminster (and Huntington Beach).