Moving from Chicago to OC with kids (Santa Ana, Huntington Beach: cliquey, houses)

[whitesoxfan]

Reluctantly, we will be leaving Chicago for a job in LaPalma within the next few months. I have never been to OC. Our scenerio is 3 kids under 12 yrs. Happy with our current Catholic school and would like to find another with about 500+ enrollment and very good standardized test scores. Can you give me suggestions on where to look for good upper middle class family friendly areas with homes roughly 600- 700K. Additonally, aside from Santa Ana where should we definatley avoid looking?

We have a househunting trip planned for next week but only a few days to accomplish a lot of stuff. So the more specific you can be, the better.
Thanks for the help. Oh and yes, and as my ID suggests, I plan on remaining a White Sox fan!!!

[Coldjensens]

You pretty much described almost all of orange County. With a few exceptions, it is one big suburb with look alike homes and manicured lawns. It is almost all upper middle class and $600,000 to $700,000 is just a bit above the average price for homes.

California public schools are generally terrible. I know nothing about any catholic schools, but i know that there are some. I think that the best one is in Santa Ana. It is huge though. For some reason I cannot remember the name.


I would not write off Santa Ana entirely. Although I suspect that you would not like living downtown, there are some very nice neighborhoods on the edges of the city limits. Some of which are very close to that huge catholic school. they certainly have a beautiful campus and great sports teams (Mater Dei maybe is the name).

[oc2nyc]

I don't think you would want to live in La Palma, but there are some nice areas around there. The only area that I would suggest within a short distance is where I live, Rossmoor. It is in the city of Los Alamitos, but is an unicorporated area. We have one Catholic school in the city, St. Hedwigs. I went to Catholic school for 12 years but chose not to send my kids because we have an excellent school district. I have friends that have kids there though, and they seem to like it. The big high schools for a Catholic education are Mater Dei, farther south, Rosary ( all girls), Servite ( all boys), Connelly (all girls). These schools all have excellent reputations. I am not as sure about elementary schools. I have friends in Huntington Beach whose kids go to St. Bonaventure and they seem to be happy. Luckily there are quite a few Catholic elementary schools in this area. I am not as sure as you move into South Orange County. Taking some time to look around will help you get a feel for what city you want to be in, then you can go from there. If you have never been to So. Ca. it will be nothing like you are used to. Not much land, and houses are very close together, just be prepared. Although there are a lot of things to do around here, and the weather is nice, it is going to be more expensive as well. I would try to narrow your search to a certain radius from where you will be working and go from there.

[JakeDog]

The safest city in the entire country, Mission Viejo, is in Orange County. The schools are excellent and the housing prices are going in the toliet. it is a great place for kids. They will love it.

[missionhome]

Mission Viejo is too far from La Palma though to be able to drive daily during rush hour. It is a great city, but that commute will be rough.

[milk]

Irvine has the best schools and it is off two major freeways.

[slang75]

Originally Posted by milk

Irvine has the best schools and it is off two major freeways.

Irvine is incredibly boring and bland. If you're coming from Chicago nothing will turn you off to OC more than living in Irvine. The parks are empty and the people are very cliquey. Shopping is great, though

[oc2eire]

A good catholic school to look into would be this one: Annunciation Catholic School, Fullerton, California
It's in Fullerton, whcih isn't too far away from La Palma, and Fullerton is a very family friendly city, especially northern Fullerton. You should definatly make a trip down there sometime and check out a few of the homes.

[fipster]

please don't buy until you have lived in the oc for at least 6 months. you should only buy then when you figure out where exactly you want to settle.