Orange County City by City (Los Angeles, Santa Ana: oceanfront, apartment complex, rent)

[missionhome]

I saw a nice post in the Arizona forum in which members posted information on their city to create basically an encyclopedia of cities that people can go to for reference. I think this will be a huge benefit to people interested in moving to the area.
I'll start with where I live!
City: Mission Viejo
Region: Located in southern Orange County, adjacent to the cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Hills, and Laguna Niguel. Set in rolling hills with green landscaping along street slopes. Eucalyptus trees everywhere. Located about 4 miles inland from the ocean. Interstate 5 is the major freeway, with the 241 tollroad to Riverside running along the northern and eastern borders.
Weather: In the winter/late fall it is usually in the 60-70F during the day. In early fall it is hot like summer. Summer temperatures usually 80-90F. It is a dry heat with no humidity. Rainfall is very low like the rest of Southern California.
Housing prices: A better value than the oceanfront cities, though this is a very expensive area like the rest of Orange County. Single family home prices are from $650,000- $4,000,000. Apartments/Condos are from $275,000-$700,000. The smallest homes are 800-1,000 sq. feet and are the least expensive. The most expensive are the custom estates of the waterfront of Lake Mission Viejo.
Schools: Western half of the city is served by Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Eastern and southern part of the city is served by Capistrano Unified. Both are award winning school districts with award winning schools. The schools are very safe and the academic programs are excellent. Both districts are comparable, however SVUSD has declining enrollment as it serves the older areas, while CUSD has an increase in enrollment because it serves newer areas. Exceptional elementary schools include Bathgate (CUSD) which serves the neighborhood of Calafia (best test scores in the city) and De Portola (SVUSD) which also performs well. There are three middle schools, each feeding into one of the three high schools. All are good, though Newhart Middle School (CUSD) has parents that are recalling the district board due to being upset at the quality of the facilities. Mission Viejo High serves western Mission Viejo and is ranked 409 in Newsweek's list of the best high schools in the nation. That is quite an accomplishment and the school also has an excellent sports program claiming many of the leagues championships. Has AP and IB programs. Capistrano Valley High serves the eastern and southern portions of the city. It has an excellent baseball and basketball team and is also an IB and AP school. The school performs high as well and is 531 in Newsweek's list of the nations best high schools. Trabuco Hills High serves a small portion of MV students in the north, but most students at THHS come from neighbor Lake Forest and Rancho Santa Margarita.
Commute: Most people work either in Mission Viejo or southern Orange County. Irvine is a popular place to work with many high paying jobs. To Irvine is it about 20-35 minutes in traffic. To Los Angeles it is too far. Expect two hour drives in traffic to LA. To San Clemente in traffic expect a 30-40 minute drive. The five streets that go to the freeway are the most crowded, especially Crown Valley Parkway. A car is a must in this area since public transportation is not frequent.
Food: Mission Viejo is a family community and most of the restaurants reflect that. Typical places to eat are PF Changs, Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Oceans 33, Tortilla Flats, Peppinos, The Fish Market on the Lake, ect...
Shopping: Everything is within 20 minutes. Costco wholesale is in neighboring Laguna Niguel. Everybody with kids (or not) shops there to buy in bulk. There is an upscale mall, The Shops at Mission Viejo anchored by Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Macy's. A wide array of other smaller shops fill the mall. It is upscale with shops like Gap and Bebe, ect... but not the ultra luxurious stuff like Tiffany's, ect.. Big box retailers are prevalent in Mission Viejo, like Sport Authority, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Borders, Target, ect... Good array of everything in the area and in the city.
Air Quality: Better than northern Orange County and Los Angeles, but hey, it is Southern California, it can't be too clean.
Economy: Mission Viejo has a host of medical stuff clustered around Mission Hospital (the regional trauma center for South Orange County). Otherwise, most of the corporate type jobs are in Irvine, where the economy is excellent.
Crime: Mission Viejo has been on the FBI's list of the safest cities in American for its population class for several years. As of 2007, it was number 4. I think that says enough.
Culture: Mission Viejo people generally have kids and this is a very family oriented community. People here also are more mild mannered and not as snobby as neighboring cities. IN MV a millionaire who lives on Lake Mission Viejo can talk to a person living in the oldest apartment complex and still see each other as people. Unfortunately, that can't be said about everyone in Mission Viejo, but this doesn't really happen that often in some neighboring communities. In Mission Viejo a lot of people have nice cars and BMWs, Mercedes Benz, Lexus are normal, though there are many more normal cars like Toyota Camrys and Honda Civics. You can drive a thirty year old car in Mission Viejo and most people don't care. Sports for youth are prevalent and most parents are "soccer moms and dads" running there children from sport park to sport park. It just shows how much care parents put into there children here and why the community is so safe and peaceful. There is no night life really in the city, for clubs you have to drive to Newport and Huntington Beach. Most people are to bed by 10:30PM.
Recreation: Lake Mission Viejo is the biggest place for fun. It is a mile long freshwater lake that you can swim on and boat on (electric boats only). Homes and condos grace its shores as well as a shopping center called Plaza del Lago with restaurants and shops. You can sail on the lake, become a junior life guard, in the summer enjoy movies under the starlight at "Main Beach", rent a party boat, ect... It is really great and children love it because it is safe (no waves like the ocean) and clean (quality checked every hour by staff). It also isn't that crowded because only Mission Viejo residents can use it (you can bring guests though). There are a hosts of walking trails everywhere and wildlife like Santiago or Oso Canyon are minutes away. There is a movie theater, laser tag center, and X-box game center at the Kaleidoscope.

So everyone, lets keep the cities rolling. Next.....

[connie&dave]

Wow Missionhome! This is a great idea! Thanks to your information I have now put Mission Viejo on my list of contenders for our move back to OC next year. I only wish I could share some information on a city in the OC but I have never lived there but hopefully other members will share facts on other cities. Honestly this is why I started researching this website-I want FACTS on OC cities- not someone's negative opinions-they really don't help in weighing in the options on where to live. Good job!

[rockx]

Newport Beach: Fake, Rich, Ugly Old, racist snobs that raise their children the same way.

Laguna Beach: See Newport Beach, but with a tad more 'fake' artsy rich people.

Huntington Beach: Tourist surf city, trashy punk band neighbors that smoke weed all day and live off their parents who live in Newport Beach.

Irvine: Soccer moms, 0 culture, cookie cutter houses.

Dana Point: the toilet on beach.

Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Tustin, Niguel, RSM and others: Nice places, considered to be non-existent by all others that live on the Beach and you will get snubbed by someone who lives in NB or LB.


General OC: White, car loving, money hungry, size 2 barbie dolls married to fat white men who had "Lady B8" on their license plate before they got married. Mexicans may as well be considered slaves here (sorry to say).

[RobE]

Just a note about the Capo Valley School District: its superintendent and assistant superintendent were recently indicted and the entire school board is about to be recalled. The schools still have excellent reputations, but the board is a mess right now.

[Angel Bear]

Huntington Beach: Tourist surf city, trashy punk band neighbors that smoke weed all day and live off their parents who live in Newport Beach.

Except for the part about the weed and living off parents, I know where I'm going to live...oh yeah!! LOL Surf City, here I come...even though I won't surf by the pier until I've earned it LOL...so state park for me or further down to San Onofre...

[rockx]

Originally Posted by Angel Bear

Except for the part about the weed and living off parents, I know where I'm going to live...oh yeah!! LOL Surf City, here I come...even though I won't surf by the pier until I've earned it LOL...so state park for me or further down to San Onofre...

Have fun living next to the latest EMO band wannabees in HB.

Seriously tho, HB is the only cool place left in OC.

[abotha]

What a great idea! I would really appreciate if someone from Foothill Ranch could post some info. The good and the bad.....

[AnaheimDude07]

Anaheim Hills.....often confused with Yorba Linda....located in a highly expensive area in Santa Ana Canyon where the beauty of the hills were detroyed a while ago when the rich decided to vandalize the hillsides and put their obscene homes all over the hills. Those of us who live down on the canyon floor look up at those homes on the hills and secretly look fwd to the next major brushfire which should clean things up again.

BNSF railroad runs right through the middle of the canyon. It's a very busy railroad that keeps running day and night and if youre unlucky enough to live near any of the crossings (which I am) you can hear the loud blaring of the horns all day and all night.

Expect to pay premium prices for everything here. You add the word "hills" to any city name and it automaticaly makes things more expensive. The cheapest rent here is 1095.00 per month for a STUDIO. Gas is usually 10 cents or more per gallon than other cities, I usually have to drive to Brea to get gas 15 cents cheaper per gallon than our local gas stations.

We do have the Santa Ana River that gently flows through town. It smells like duck **** and you can usually see some sort of garbage floating downriver. You don't want to go near it at night because there are billions of mosquitos that tend to attack anything near the river.

Wish I could say something more positive but I'm just telling it like it is.

[richard head]

Originally Posted by rockx

Newport Beach: Fake, Rich, Ugly Old, racist snobs that raise their children the same way.

Laguna Beach: See Newport Beach, but with a tad more 'fake' artsy rich people.

Huntington Beach: Tourist surf city, trashy punk band neighbors that smoke weed all day and live off their parents who live in Newport Beach.

Irvine: Soccer moms, 0 culture, cookie cutter houses.

Dana Point: the toilet on beach.

Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Tustin, Niguel, RSM and others: Nice places, considered to be non-existent by all others that live on the Beach and you will get snubbed by someone who lives in NB or LB.


General OC: White, car loving, money hungry, size 2 barbie dolls married to fat white men who had "Lady B8" on their license plate before they got married. Mexicans may as well be considered slaves here (sorry to say).

Lets see, I just read your other post about racism in OC.
With this attitude, I can see why. Maybe its your attitude? You seem to be a little ... hostile.

Could it be that you are a Mexican in the OC? I liked the license plate line though.. that was funny.

[rockx]

Originally Posted by richard head

Lets see, I just read your other post about racism in OC.
With this attitude, I can see why. Maybe its your attitude? You seem to be a little ... hostile.

Could it be that you are a Mexican in the OC? I liked the license plate line though.. that was funny.

So you are admitting that a Mexican living in the OC would be expected to be hostile?



Actually I am white, my wife is mexican-american. Yes I am pissed after living here for 10 months and constantly being harassed by racist conservatives here in OC. This place pisses normal people off.

Oh and there really is a dude who lives in Balboa Island with the license plate "Lady B8". He is yet another douchebag driving a Silver Mercedes Coupe.

You sound like a typical white guy that has no friends outside his race here in OC.