How has East Anaheim/Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda avoided the decline of the rest of North County? (Santa Ana: mortgage, homes)

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by motobecaneti

I for one never understood why Yorba Linda is expensive. It has nothing going for it geographically. South OC cities will remain the most exclusive and sought after areas for years to come.

Expensive compared to what? The median home sales price in YL is $659k which is rather inexpensive compared to south OC. Even cheaper than HB. Believe it or not, living near an ocean isn't that important to many people, even in southern California.

[motobecaneti]

There is no way Mission Viejo is going to become Watts. Yorba Linda might because it's surrounded by declining cities. South county is a big chunk of goodness and Mission Viejo is right in the middle of it. Sorry I don't see that happening.

[motobecaneti]

Originally Posted by mbell75

Believe it or not, living near an ocean isn't that important to many people, even in southern California.

Being a statistician you are, you must have stats to back up this outlandish statement. Or is this just sour grapes talking?

[RudyOD]

Originally Posted by motobecaneti

There is no way Mission Viejo is going to become Watts. Yorba Linda might because it's surrounded by declining cities. South county is a big chunk of goodness and Mission Viejo is right in the middle of it. Sorry I don't see that happening.

I am not trying to create a debate on "What if"s/hypotheticals . Simply stating that no one can predict the way neighborhoods will evolve to be years from now. No matter how affluent or decent or filled with goodness it might be today.

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by motobecaneti

Being a statistician you are, you must have stats to back up this outlandish statement. Or is this just sour grapes talking?

YL is one of the wealthiest cities in the entire country, 4th to be exact. You don't think the rich people there could afford to live at the beach if they wanted? As I said, living near an ocean isn't that important to many people. Ive lived at the beach and its insanely crowded and noisy 7-8 months out of the year. Many people don't want anything to do with traffic, noise and the beach crowd. Using myself as an example, I will probably move to Newport or Dana Point sometime because they are nice, clean cities with like-minded people for myself and cooler than living inland. Has nothing to do with the ocean itself. I'd rather live closer to hockey games, baseball games and concerts, I do that way more often than I ever do the beach. However, Anaheim is not a nice, clean city with like-minded people.

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

Now, to answer your statement.

Yes, Yorba Linda and Anaheim 92807 and 92808 are very nice stereotypical safe suburban conservative areas (not sure about "white bread" these days --do you like yours Persian, as many of the denizens of 92807 and 92808 are from Iran originally? They are considered "white" on the race scale but I don't think they are what you had in mind by "white bread".)

To what changes are you referring? More Mexican and other Latin American nationals here? More people of Asian origin here?

Also, most of the homes in the rest of North County are quite a bit older than the majority of homes in Anaheim 92807 and 92808 and much of Yorba Linda. History, sir, history.

Buena Park and Stanton have a major tourist highway (Beach Blvd) going through them. That gives them some unique challenges.

Anaheim, as mentioned elsewhere, is a large city. In some states it would be THE prime city. It is not declining in the Rust Belt sense at all, even if some of the neighborhoods have changed. They are working on Downtown and the Platinum Triangle.

Placentia is a weird bird, have to admit it, but not declining; just seemingly ashamed of anything south of Chapman that might offend the "upper crust". Lot of nice neighborhoods, though, and some HUGE slabs of houses, considering that they might be "run of the mill" in the city.

Brea and Fullerton ARE lovely cities and are not lower middle class, by and large (especially not Brea--have you seen the latest real estate prices there? ). Also, Brea and Fullerton (as mentioned above) have some good schools.

Westminster is really not part of North County; more west central, actually.

Surprised you left out La Palma, Garden Grove, La Habra and Cypress. La Habra especially seems to be a favored whipping boy, though it has problems attracting business because of its relatively remote location (from freeways, that is). Pity the city fathers don't market it as a retirement destination for people wanting to own homes, as it has scenic beauty and home prices are reasonable for Orange County.

As for GG, it too is a fairly good-sized city which gets its slings and arrows from people that don't like its diversity (it has no ethnic majority). But it has a number of nice places (and not just in Westside 92845).

Even if you're a troll, I am ok with tapping keys to express my disagreement with your statement and your way of thinking.

Oh, and I assume by weather you're speaking of Southern California standards. Almost anywhere else it would be PERFECT. A few weeks of summer heat does not mean lousy weather.

No, he was right on with his assessment. Most of these cities (with the exception of Brea which is still nice) up until about 20 years ago were mostly filled with middle class people, relatively low crime rates and nice neighborhoods. They have been mostly replaced with low income immigrants, illegals, much higher crime rates and not so great neighborhoods. Definitely a decline over the past few decades, anyone who thinks otherwise never lived in OC decades ago or they are in severe denial.

[caliguy92832]

It's because Anaheim Hills is where alot of the LA Angels baseball players live.

[Pennychaser11]

Only matter of time before OC in general sees LA-style decline similar to 70-90's. YL/Anaheim hills are still nice because it's newer and they're in the 'hills'. I do not see these areas going bad but never say never. Suburbs of LA started all nice, solid middle class areas, then ghetto moves in and destroys them then these cities get revitalized. My guess is Temecula/Murrieta and surrounding areas will get developed and similar things will happen to OC.

[Robsteel17]

I think you may be lumping all places in together in certain cities when they aren't necessarily the same thing. For example, you mention Anaheim Hills as being a nice area, which it is. It is also a part of the city of Anaheim, which you mention as being in decline. Yes, some parts of Anaheim are somewhat run down, but obviously it has nice parts too. It's the same as if you write off all of Long Beach as a ghetto because of North Long Beach or the Westside, which would come as a shock to the denizens of the multimillion dollar houses in Belmont Shore, Naples, or Bluff Park.

Take Fullerton. Other than some parts in the southwest and southeast parts of town, the rest of the city is quite nice. There are nice old Craftsmans in the downtown area. Nice suburban tracts around CSUF. And some of the nicest houses in the county are up in the hills. Kind of an odd town to crap on.

Other nice areas in North OC can be found in Cypress, La Palma, and Los Alamitos.

Yes, Buena Park, Stanton, Garden Grove and Westminster have large tracts that have declined. This is due to many factors but mainly has to do with when they developed. Much of these areas, as well as West Anaheim were built during the 1950s and early 1960s. The postwar years saw a huge influx of returning soldiers seeking a piece of the suburban good life. Technological advances allowed houses to be mass produced on the cheap to meet burgeoning demand. However, many of the houses amounted to little more than small stucco and plaster boxes. By contrast, homes built during the 1970s onward tended to be larger and better constructed. These homes became more desirable, leaving the older, smaller housing stock to be inhabited by the working class and more recent immigrants, who unfortunately are less likely to take the same pride of ownership. They are also less likely to have extra money available for upkeep and repairs.

The result is that areas like Stanton or Buena Park that primarily developed between 1945-1970 tend to be more run down. And areas like Cypress or La Palma (as well as Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda) that were mostly developed after 1970 have remained nicer. Ironically, areas built before WWII like the downtown areas of Fullerton or Orange have also remained more desirable. This is due to their proximity to walkable neighborhoods, but also because the quality of construction in many of the older houses was better than the cheaply mass produced tracts of the 1950s.

[NickofDiamonds]

Living in Yorba Linda is primarily attractive because of the view as the price of housing reflects as you go higher up the canyon wall.
Across the canyon is Anaheim Hills which is even more attractive because it has a view of the mountains which are spectacular when they are covered with snow in the winter and is on the shady wall of the canyon which makes it a little cooler and greener in the summer.