North OC vs South OC (Santa Ana, Riverside: how much, houses, law school)

[Maverick21]

I currently live out of state but might be getting a job offer to work in Newport Beach. I have a 1 year old and another one on the way, my wife works and combined I guess our income will be around $225-$250(ish) give or take.

We have friends in Mission Viejo (which we love). We are looking for a community that has decently priced homes with a small yard at least, no Mello roos, close to the beach (15 mins or so) and close to highways (15 mins or so).

We liked Mission Viejo and RSM (both seem to have excellent schools which are important to us since we aren't private school people).

But I don't know much about North OC, what towns are safe, good schools, close to beach and highways? Thanks, any other info would be much appreciated

[Electrician4you]

Fountain Valley
Huntington Beach
Newport Beach

Seriously if you're gonna work in Newport look into Fountain Valley. It's really safe, good schools. Prices are comparable. You're 10 minutes from the ocean and work is not far The amount of time you save by not commuting and having time with your family will be priceless.
Commuting from mission viejo will be 30-1 hr or more. If you take PCH from Newport to Crown Valley with no traffic you're looking at 30-45 minutes average. But with traffic you're looking at 1-1.5 hrs on same route. Especially summer time in Laguna gets PACKED. I used to work at Mission hospital NV and Laguna.

You're relatively limited to 55/405/5 or 55/405/toll/5 or 55/405/133/PCH/Crown or Newport streets to PCH/Crown to get to MV.lots of options but with traffic.....
I had 2.5 hr drives from Mission Viejo Crown/5 to 405 in Huntington when traffic was bad. Average commute wac45 minutes using 405/5 route. You would be adding about 10 minutes or more depending on where in Newport you are

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

Fountain Valley
Huntington Beach
Newport Beach

Seriously if you're gonna work in Newport look into Fountain Valley. It's really safe, good schools. Prices are comparable. You're 10 minutes from the ocean and work is not far The amount of time you save by not commuting and having time with your family will be priceless.
Commuting from mission viejo will be 30-1 hr or more. If you take PCH from Newport to Crown Valley with no traffic you're looking at 30-45 minutes average. But with traffic you're looking at 1-1.5 hrs on same route. Especially summer time in Laguna gets PACKED. I used to work at Mission hospital NV and Laguna.

You're relatively limited to 55/405/5 or 55/405/toll/5 or 55/405/133/PCH/Crown or Newport streets to PCH/Crown to get to MV.lots of options but with traffic.....
I had 2.5 hr drives from Mission Viejo Crown/5 to 405 in Huntington when traffic was bad. Average commute wac45 minutes using 405/5 route. You would be adding about 10 minutes or more depending on where in Newport you are

Mission Viejo Crown/5 to 405 is quoted as taking 2 plus hours. That is certainly possible in greater LA traffic, but definitely not the norm. The 45 minute average sounds right. But be aware that there is a toll roll (73) that is close by that would give you a straight shot to the 405. The toll road would make the commute very doable. The toll is 7 dollars, but varies by time and can be less.

You always check sigalert and see if the toll road is needed on a given day or just factor it in as a cost of life.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Maverick21

I currently live out of state but might be getting a job offer to work in Newport Beach. I have a 1 year old and another one on the way, my wife works and combined I guess our income will be around $225-$250(ish) give or take.

We have friends in Mission Viejo (which we love). We are looking for a community that has decently priced homes with a small yard at least, no Mello roos, close to the beach (15 mins or so) and close to highways (15 mins or so).

We liked Mission Viejo and RSM (both seem to have excellent schools which are important to us since we aren't private school people).

But I don't know much about North OC, what towns are safe, good schools, close to beach and highways? Thanks, any other info would be much appreciated

To be 15 minutes from the beach and work in Newport you need to be in:

Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Corona Del Mar, or of course in Newport Beach. Any other location will be much further away drive time except maybe southern sections of Fountain Valley or Santa Ana. Your budget allows a lot of flexibility.

[kwong7]

Originally Posted by expatCA

To be 15 minutes from the beach and work in Newport you need to be in:

Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Corona Del Mar, or of course in Newport Beach. Any other location will be much further away drive time except maybe southern sections of Fountain Valley or Santa Ana. Your budget allows a lot of flexibility.

ExpatCA is right. 15 min from the beach and to work in NB is very limiting. If you expanded you range to 30 minutes or by distance, you could consider Irvine, Lake Forest, Laguna (with toll roads), etc. I use to live at my mom's house in Huntington Harbor while I worked in Newport Beach; the commute was awful. It took about 10-25 minutes just to get to the freeway, then another 20-30 in traffic. 30 minutes to an hour doesn't sound bad, but this was only a 14 mile commute…that's an average of 14-28 mph. The drive back up was horrible. I believe the 405N stretch from Fairview through Brookhurst has been rated one of the work congestions in the nation and it's pretty much from 3pm-7:30pm every day.

I currently live in Newport Beach (right by the airport), and find it's a convenient location as long as I'm not traveling north during rush hour. As for schools, Irvine seems like the place to be; however, I believe the best indicator of your child's academic success lies in their individual motivation to learn and achieve. Parents, teachers, coaches, neighbors, and other fellow students can contribute to a cultivating and encouraging environment, but they can also be distractions too. My wife's education went from bottom-barrel to elite and it's all because of her individual drive.

She attended Star View Elementary (HB), Mesa View MS (HB), Ocean View HS (HB), UC Riverside, USC law school, and finally the London School of Economics. By the time she reached law school, she realized that she was in the 5% who never attended a prior private school but she finished in the top 10% of her class. Her attitude is that where you go to school doesn't necessary determine your academic trajectory; however, I remind her of the law of large numbers shows. Individuals can rise and be outliers, but the reversion to the mean shows the likely trend. We debate this often.

On the other hand, many parents feel that going to a great school can negatively impact their child's prospects for college since the competition can burn them out, and some colleges set a maximum acceptance offers to such schools. To which my opinion is your kid will be just fine if they received a good education and are flexible with where they want to attend higher education.

[pacific2]

If you don't mind taking the 73 Toll, then you have other options. You could get to NB from Aliso Viejo and parts of Laguna Niguel is 25 minutes or less. The 73 runs straight through AV.

I don't know about your preferences in beaches, but you can easily get to Laguna Beach from AV in 10-15 minutes.

I know little about Fountain Valley, but I would definitely recommend checking it out, as well, to see what it has to offer.

In short, you have a lot of places to consider. So, look at North, Central, and South OC.

[pacific2]

Regarding Irvine, there are very good schools there, but attendance at an Irvine high school does not in any way guarantee admission to a top university.

The follwing discussion is from Talk Irvine
http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php?topic=2022.55;wap2

"IndieDev:

If we use 588 as our baseline, then 399/588 = 68% of Uni High Students go to UCSD, UCI, Fullerton, or CAL POLY SLO after graduation. Damn, 70% of the students pretty much go to mid-tier or lower tier schools.

That's definitely not worth $1,000,000...

...But I think it's safe to say that Uni High isn't some magical feeder school for top tier universities, which was my point from the very beginning.

Would you pay $1,000,000 for a home knowing that your child had a 70% chance to go to UCI, UCSD, CSU Fullerton, or CAL POLY SLO?

Do people really believe that you can't get into those schools coming from Aliso Niguel High School, Beckman, or any other high school with a 800+ API?

So explain to me what the premium means for Uni High zoned houses? It's marketing, just as I've been saying ALL along."

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

Mission Viejo Crown/5 to 405 is quoted as taking 2 plus hours. That is certainly possible in greater LA traffic, but definitely not the norm. The 45 minute average sounds right. But be aware that there is a toll roll (73) that is close by that would give you a straight shot to the 405. The toll road would make the commute very doable. The toll is 7 dollars, but varies by time and can be less.

You always check sigalert and see if the toll road is needed on a given day or just factor it in as a cost of life.

I've had two hour drives from Crown Valley/5 to 405/beach bl. The 55 can get backed going into
Newport and backs up a lot of times. Depending on where op moves AND his working hours he could have some traffic to deal with.

[Joe Van Fossen]

I would recommend against North OC if you're working in Newport. I would also recommend Fountain Valley, Aliso Viejo, and Irvine as options. Mission Viejo could be doable, but RSM might be a bit of a commute. When I used to live in Aliso Viejo my dad was working in Newport Beach and that commute was very doable.

[OCerik]

South OC is very doable going to Newport because of the 73 Toll Road, that drive is a breeze. With that income you'll have plenty of options. How much square footage are you looking for? That basically determines how close to the beach you can get.

You could get a nice house in Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo for sure. The toll road goes right through Aliso Viejo and it's a very clean, active, & newer city with easy access to Laguna Beach. You could also get something in a beach city if being by the water is important (San Clemente/Dana Point & Laguna Niguel which is beach close)