Young families surviving in Orange County (Anaheim, Garden Grove: apartments, lease, refinance)

[Newyorkernomore]

How do so many young families make it in orange county? It just seems like many get married and have kids very young. It seems a lot younger than they do here in ny. However, they seem so mature and have everything together more than we do here. How do they do it money wise? I am basing this off of what i saw when i vacationed there but also what i see on instagram? It is so expensive but they don't seem to be struggling or atleast they hide it well. Have nice homes, take vacations, stay at home moms. I don't get it! Nothing against ny, but specifically on long island, many of our young families are very trashy who are living off the system. What is the difference? Is it how they were raised in ca?

[Electrician4you]

Either they make the money to sustain that lifestyle or its fake it till you make it. That's if you make it.
Lots of fake I'm doing great let me show you people. Lots of possibly insecure people out there

[Finper]

Yes agree with above. Also they usually have families here that help. You can't move here cold and live like you described unless you make a VERY good income

[crabtrees]

Agreed and agreed. Living in Orange County and living comfortably in Orange County are two very different realms and it's not always easy to discern who is in each category. If you spend 30 minutes reading these OC forums you'll quickly understand that having money is the driving force here.

A chunk of the OC population is very wealthy, have big houses, nice cars etc. An even larger chunk of OC simply live paycheck to paycheck, but are so influenced by those who appear to have lots of money, they attempt to live a quality of life that they ultimately cannot afford. They buy a home they can't afford on an FHA loan, they lease the nice new car, they post a million photos of the family at various vacation spots etc. that they paid for with the credit card because they don't have the cash in the bank. Basically it comes down to a lifestyle that is not sustainable over a person's lifetime.

You'll read it over and over in these forums, and it's absolutely true, to live comfortably in Orange County you need to come from money, or have a family income of at least $150-$200k a year with 15-20 years to go before retirement. You can live in Orange County without being in one of those situations, but it will not be sustainable over your lifetime. You will be in debt for sure, and/or you will barely get by on the bare minimum. Period, end of story, I don't care how many people on here tell you they live here just fine on $13/hr while living in their friend's closet rent free. So many people leave because they finally realize that 'getting by' will be as good as it gets for them in OC, and they decide to move out of state so they can live comfortably.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Newyorkernomore

How do so many young families make it in orange county? It just seems like many get married and have kids very young. It seems a lot younger than they do here in ny. However, they seem so mature and have everything together more than we do here. How do they do it money wise? I am basing this off of what i saw when i vacationed there but also what i see on instagram? It is so expensive but they don't seem to be struggling or atleast they hide it well. Have nice homes, take vacations, stay at home moms. I don't get it! Nothing against ny, but specifically on long island, many of our young families are very trashy who are living off the system. What is the difference? Is it how they were raised in ca?

Like three of my employees, they bought when prices for homes were lower. I know a lot of people who did so and can afford to live there now as they refinanced, without borrowing money and lowered their monthly payment. I did and dropped my monthly payment by $400.00 and that was before the rates were as low as they are now. It is the current buyers who have a hard time, not long term residents.

[mrwumpus]

We had friends who bought houses in OC long before the bubble and they'd talk about their house gaining 20k equity in a month. Our big mistake was not buying immediately when we got married in the early 2000s or we might still be living there today.

We've threatened to move back and live like paupers again simply so our kids can have their "forever" friends back they were raised with there. Otherwise it's absurd what people pay to live there.

Our children's "rich" friends mostly seemed to have bought their houses in the 90s, and now have good $100k+ jobs.

Even my parents, who had been in OC in the 1950s, cannot live there any more despite owning a townhouse, because they failed to save enough $$$ for retirement but they earn just a little too much with their retirement income to qualify for discounted senior housing.

[socal88]

First off, there is a quite a range of affordability depending on what part of OC you're talking about.

If you're talking about most of south county and parts of north county like Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, then I'd say that it is quite difficult to afford unless you've got got household income of at least $150K to get in the game for an entry level house that will cost at least $700K. Obviously, it depends on how long you have been able to save for a down payment. There are still areas like Garden Grove, Anaheim, and Buena Park where you can get a decent home for under $600K, albeit still fairly small.

In some of the more affluent areas like Newport Beach, Irvine, etc., either you've got younger folks who are working in higher-paying areas such as law, finance, and tech or you have generational wealth with cases where parents have helped out or a home has been inherited.

There are definitely some young families with kids where the husband and wife got married young, probably had a frugal mindset with the expectation that they would soon have kids and didn't waste money going to overpriced bars/nightclubs/restaurants, and started saving for a down payment immediately.

That being said, you've got a fair number of folks living paycheck to paycheck trying to live the high life barely keeping it together. Some can fake it for a while, but others drop out and have to downsize.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by socal88

First off, there is a quite a range of affordability depending on what part of OC you're talking about.

Not so much anymore. When you're paying $500k for a somewhat-renovated home in La Habra, that is not "affordable" by most standards.

The taxes (alone) on that piece of property at the northern edge of Orange County, are going to be stifling.

[crabtrees]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

Not so much anymore. When you're paying $500k for a somewhat-renovated home in La Habra, that is not "affordable" by most standards.

The taxes (alone) on that piece of property at the northern edge of Orange County, are going to be stifling.

Exactly. If you're living in La Habra because you can "only" afford a half-million dollar home, you're going to be driving 90 minutes to work each way every day because no job around La Habra is going to pay you enough to allow you to live comfortably. The real money careers in Orange County are located in south county...use Irvine as the heart of the business district in the county. Go ahead and buy that home in La Habra and let's see how suicidal you are 5 years from now after making that commute twice a day.

[CaliRestoration]

Originally Posted by Newyorkernomore

How do so many young families make it in orange county? It just seems like many get married and have kids very young. It seems a lot younger than they do here in ny. However, they seem so mature and have everything together more than we do here. How do they do it money wise? I am basing this off of what i saw when i vacationed there but also what i see on instagram? It is so expensive but they don't seem to be struggling or atleast they hide it well. Have nice homes, take vacations, stay at home moms. I don't get it! Nothing against ny, but specifically on long island, many of our young families are very trashy who are living off the system. What is the difference? Is it how they were raised in ca?

Difference in fiscal perspectives.

OC, especially the wealthy enclaves, tends to attract fiscal conservatives who are hard working capitalist that have earned their way into that lifestyle. Being on welfare or state entitlements is often seen as "shameful" in these circles.

Also, there are a lot of $30,000'ers. These are people who lease luxury vehicles, rent "luxury" apartments or homes, and basically live off of a credit life line that eventually implodes and ruins them financially. A lot of people in OC are "fake it to make it types", not as bad as West LA, or Hollywood, but they exist in sufficient numbers in OC that I've encountered enough of them to be able to spot who they are with relative ease.