Yorba Linda vs Irvine (Anaheim, Huntington Beach: houses, transfer, neighborhoods)

[Asmth3432]

Me and my wife are looking to make the move from the Bay Area (Cupertino) to Orange County. I work for a defense contractor and my job is being transfered to Anaheim, CA. We have spent the past two weeks going through our options and have visited a lot of communities in Orange County. We have narrowed it down to these two areas. We are looking to buy a home soon, as our current home in Cupertino is already in escrow.

We have settled on two neighborhoods:

East Lake Village in Yorba Linda or Turtle Rock in Irvine

pros and cons of each?

[bhcompy]

I would say Yorba Linda simply because the commute is much better. Both are great family cities, Yorba Linda maybe a little lower on the scale, but one of the top 5 family cities in the area(and definitely better youth sports city).

Depending on where in Anaheim the job is, you could take rail from Irvine(Metrolink).

If you're going to work at Boeing, they close facilities and move people around left and right, so Yorba Linda might not be a great choice because the other Boeing offices that people rotate through are in Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and El Segundo

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by Asmth3432

Me and my wife are looking to make the move from the Bay Area (Cupertino) to Orange County. I work for a defense contractor and my job is being transfered to Anaheim, CA. We have spent the past two weeks going through our options and have visited a lot of communities in Orange County. We have narrowed it down to these two areas. We are looking to buy a home soon, as our current home in Cupertino is already in escrow.

We have settled on two neighborhoods:

East Lake Village in Yorba Linda or Turtle Rock in Irvine

pros and cons of each?

Your job will be in Anaheim. Think about that first.

Where in Anaheim is it? I would guess that it would probably be in what is known as "Northeast Anaheim Business Center".

In any event, Yorba Linda would be FAR closer than Irvine.

Not having a long commute would be better than any perceived advantage one might have living in Turtle Rock.

Turtle Rock is one of Irvine's most exclusive neighborhoods if not THE most exclusive. That means $$$$$ for a house unless you have a really good deal going.

East Lake is most likely a bit less expensive, and I would not rule out other parts of Yorba Linda or neighboring cities if East Lake does not work for you.

Plus, in my mind, Yorba Linda feels like a real place, and shopping is a bit more accessible there than in Turtle Rock.

You really don't want to make the drive from southern Irvine to Anaheim every day unless you carpool. There are worse drives out there than this, but you gave two places to choose from. I would choose Yorba Linda, were I in your situation.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

Yorba Linda would be FAR closer than Irvine.

That sounds odd, "far closer".

[BRinSM]

i would also choose yorba linda simply because of proximity to anaheim. i grew up in yorba linda and it was a great place to be a kid. yorba linda will get warmer in the summers, but not terribly so. both are very suburban, but i always felt the geography and housing stock was much more interesting in yorba linda. if you can afford it, it is a win-win either way, especially if you have kids. however, your commute will be much shorter and you'll have easier to access to everything but the beaches if you go with yorba linda.

[Asmth3432]

Thanks for the info....Not too worried about housing cost we have found houses in both areas and they are significantly less than what we were expecting to pay, they are also much more updated/newer than the area we are moving from.

This might seem like an odd question but which area is flashier? We do not want to live in a pretentious community and are looking for an area that is low key. This is probably the most important criteria to us for choosing one over the other.

Commute wise the office is maybe 5-10 mins away from the East Lake Community and probably 25 mins from Turtle Rock. 25 mins personally is not that long of a commute if its worthwhile to live in that area. We are torn between the two and are just wondering about the intangibles and what type of people actually live in these two communities?

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by Charles

That sounds odd, "far closer".

Wow. Didn't even notice. Being ironic in a two-word phrase. Anyway.....

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by Asmth3432

Thanks for the info....Not too worried about housing cost we have found houses in both areas and they are significantly less than what we were expecting to pay, they are also much more updated/newer than the area we are moving from.

This might seem like an odd question but which area is flashier? We do not want to live in a pretentious community and are looking for an area that is low key. This is probably the most important criteria to us for choosing one over the other.

Commute wise the office is maybe 5-10 mins away from the East Lake Community and probably 25 mins from Turtle Rock. 25 mins personally is not that long of a commute if its worthwhile to live in that area. We are torn between the two and are just wondering about the intangibles and what type of people actually live in these two communities?

That 25 minutes of commuting from Turtle Rock to Anaheim is IF there are no accidents or traffic slow-downs. Perhaps the toll-roads would be 25 minutes, but they take you out of the way a bit.

[bhcompy]

There is no toll road to Anaheim, only through(or east of) Anaheim Hills. 25 minutes on paper turns in to 60 minutes in reality. My commute says 25 minutes on Google and Yahoo Maps. In reality it is 60 minutes. The 55 and the 5 are both very heavily traveled freeways for commuters and both congested all the time

[Asmth3432]

The Anaheim office is located off Weir Canyon, I am not that familiar with the area but when google mapped it shows as 23 Miles via 405 to 55 to 91, and 21 Miles via 241 Toll Road (From Turtle Rock). Is there heavy traffic on the toll road going this way? Is this a pretty popular commute route Irvine to Anaheim? Commuting 1 hour each way would not be possible and by default I guess we would have to choose East Lake.. Thanks for the help.