Irvine vs Tustin? and other nearby places...

[AyeScotland]

marcellamiami- Aside from top-notch academics, what type of high school experience are you thinking your kids will want? For example, are they athletes hoping to play high school sports and/or looking forward to going to Friday night football games, etc., or would those things not appeal to them? Are they artistic, and not particularly interested in sports (whether as an athlete or spectator)? If the latter, do you know about the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana (API 941, ranked #4 in OC this year, per the OCSA web site). This is a great school, a public charter school so no tuition (but I think they do ask parents to buy a certain amount of fundraising scrip each year -- IMO, one of the least painful fundraising methods, as you just give the school the money that you would otherwise be giving the retailer). Admission by audition and crazy popular -- they get way more kids applying each year than they have room for. BTW, you don't even have to live in Orange County for your kids to go there -- the school's reputation is so good that they have/have had kids ride the train from places like San Diego and San Bernadino (after driving down from Big Bear) each day, and the school has a bus that goes up to Los Alamitos to pick up kids who live in that area (and I imagine some may live in the South Bay area of L.A. and ride that Los Al school bus). As a charter school, they do not put up with things that the non-charter public schools have to put up with -- they toss kids out of the school due to behavior issues or poor academic performance (I believe defined as below 2.0, but might be slightly higher). I know some kids who go there, and they absolutely love it! (If you are interested in checking it out, they have three Preview Days each year -- one Saturday each in Oct and Nov, and one Saturday in January. You get the general admission session, can take a tour, and and can visit some of the arts conservatories that your child is interested in.) Would your 11 year-old be going into 7th grade this Fall? If so, you would probably need to get an application in ASAP if your are interested.

Here's the link to the OCSA web site:

OCSA Home

Also, your budget would allow you to buy a very nice home in Santa Ana's beautiful Floral Park neighborhood, full of vintage homes (mostly from the 1920s and 30s), in various styles such as Tudor, Spanish, Cape Cod, Georgian Colonial, etc. I think most of the teenagers who live in Floral Park either go to OCSA (for 7 -12) or to the big Catholic High School in Santa Ana called Mater Dei. Sports are king at Mater Dei, so athletes and students whose idea of fun is going to all of the football games, etc. really seem to love Mater Dei. (Both schools have significant numbers of students coming from all over Orange County (and for OCSA at least, from points outside of Orange County)). Living in Floral Park would allow your kids to sleep in longer (desperately needed!) than if you lived elsewhere, and would give your husband a 5 to 15 minute commute on surface streets to the office (depending on where in Santa Ana his office will be), and, on the days he goes to the airport (as long as he can fly out of John Wayne for the places he needs to go to), a 15 -20 minute surface street commute -- no horrendous freeway traffic jams to deal with!). To me, those things all add to the quality of life, which I know is something you mentioned you are looking for.

To get you going, here is just one of the several houses for sale in Floral Park right now (it was formerly owned by a family in the stone business, and has stonework seemingly everywhere in the house -- it is really something to see.)

2032 Greenleaf St, Santa Ana, CA 92706 is For Sale - Zillow

And here is the link to the Floral Park Neighborhood Association's web site:

Floral Park Neighborhood Association |

Just some food for thought...

[Gailw_1979]

Some homes in Tustin feed into Irvine Unified, since their proximity is so close. If it were me, I would want more bang for my buck in terms of housing, and seriously look at Tustin.

[ExeterMedia]

Originally Posted by Gailw_1979

Some homes in Tustin feed into Irvine Unified, since their proximity is so close. If it were me, I would want more bang for my buck in terms of housing, and seriously look at Tustin.

Those homes usually have the "Irvine schools" premium kicked in. So the "savings" are minimal.

[noghre111]

You can NOT go wrong with Aliso Viejo.

Amazing weather. you actually get a nice breaze from ocean. about 10 min drive to laguna beach. Very very very safe city. It's all good all around.

[lulu80]

You can't go wrong with Irvine. Safe, excellent schools, family oriented. I've been living here since 2003. Love it!!! But you will pay more for a house... I don't regret though

[AboveTheIce]

Depends on what you are looking for. We had a choice of moving anywhere in Orange County (with the exception of Laguna Beach and parts of Newport Beach) and we chose North Tustin. We don't care for the extreme cookie cutter nature of housing in most parts of Orange County and when we looked in Irvine most areas (not all) have strong HMO's that dictate what color you paint your house etc. That a was a deal breaker for us. Good Schools, great community vibe, lots of custom homes and a very centralized location made it the hands down winner for us.