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Thanks Everyone...these are very good suggestions and great information. Comming from RI, I do think we are going to try to stay somewhat close to the coast. Part of the decision to move to California was because of its proximity to the ocean. I know that you pay a premium for location, but I can't see us living futher than a short drive to the beach.
San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano are two area's that were mentioned, what are those area's like. I guess they are a little more affordable than Newport or Huntington Beach and are right on the water, both positive attributes. One thing that I do not think I have mentioned is that I am 27 and my wife is 25, so although we are looking for somewhere safe and somewhat family friendly, we do not want to be completely isolated...somewhere with lots of things to do, for us and our daughter, would be great.
I am not overly concerned with gas prices...most of the driving I will be doing will be business related and I recieve a car allowance and mileage. I know that the cost of living will be substancially higher that what we are used to on the East Coast...but I am also getting a decent increase to my total comp and base salary, so all and all that should be a wash. I have managed to pay off all of our debt and own both our cars outright, so I am hoping not to have to use credit-cards to fund this venture...if anything the budget I have set for our rent leaves a little left over for enjoying our twenties and saving for a down-payment.
Thanks again for the comments...keep them comming!
Try Murrieta or Temecula area. They are nice areas in between San Diego and LA, only 30 min from Ocean Side Beaches and 45 min to Big Bear Snow Mountains. I grew up there and it has grown a lot but is still fairly inexpensive to live and the people are decent. It hasn't become totally crowded yet and not as crazy superficial as Orange County with 18 year old girls getting boob jobs for their grad present. You can still get a nice small town feel with a lot going on and very centrally located.
I would stick more to San Clemente than San Juan Capistrano. SJC is also not a waterfront city. Its southern portion is close to the coast of Dana Point (about 1.5 miles away), but the majority of the city is centered around Ortega Highway. Still, the city is fairly close to the beach, no more than a twenty minute drive. SJC is a charming small town centered around the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano, which was founded all the way back in 1776. The city has a nice downtown area with private shops and is deeply routed in its historic history. Hispanic culture (Hispanics are 43% of the city), is also very important in this community and they celebrate as variety of traditional Hispanic holidays throughout the year.
However, I don't think the city is the best for living. I will try to write as objective as I can on the city, but my personal opinion is it is a place to visit, not to live.
-SJC is very much a rural city trapped among the suburban cities of Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel, with beach towns at its southern border. The city reminds me a lot of Paso Robles, CA in northern California. SJC does not allow construction ontop of ridges any where in its city limits. A huge amount of the city is open space also. Basically, they are very serious on preserving San Juan as a small town and have been fairly succesful. If you dropped out of space into SJC, you would never know you are in one of the largest metropolitan areas on the planet.
Traffic is a serious concern in the downtown area and on Ortega Highway. The interchanges are pretty much a nightmare at rush hour as this is the cities only main road and the street which most people live off. Add to the fact that downtown is almost right off of the freeway and there are stop lights every couple yards and the traffic backs up bad. The city prefers to keep the streets two lanes rather than widen to four to preserve the rural feel.
-Downtown SJC is a great place to walk around and browse boutique stores. There is not much nightlife though, so no clubs. It is more of a historic type downtown and all stores close at dusk, but all the cafes and restaurant stay open. There are some good places to eat, like Cedar Creek Inn, which is very good.
- Communities: SJC sort of has a reputation of being a rich-poor city. The middle class is definitly not the majority of the city. There are many old apartment complexes surrounding downtown and it is a fairly poor area where immigrants mainly live. Crime is not super violent (this is no Compton), but there is a gang injunction on the area and you will see some graffiti saying the gang "SJC" on stuff. Basically, the downtown area valley is not the best area of the city. Then, on the opposite side of the Interstate 5, which splits the city in half, is a fairly rich portion of the community. Expensive neighborhoods like Marbella Country Club and Estates, the Hunt Club, Hunter's Creek, San Juan Hills, and Starwberry Lane are on the other side of the freeway and most homes in these neighborhoods cost 1.5 million up to multi million dollar equestrian estates. The cities primary middle class neighborhood, Mission Ridge, is located in the valley between the hills where these multi million dollar homes are. In general there is just this odd feeling of rich on the hills, poor in the valley in San Juan. I would recommend living on the side opposite downtown because crime is not as big a problem.
-Schools: Very much a mixed bag in San Juan. The poorer areas tend to have lower performing schools, and the richer areas have good schools. Some, like San Juan Elementary and Kino****a Elementary near downtown perform really low, while Ambuel Elementary on the other side of the freeway scores a respectable 8/10. In middle school, many parents pull from school as Marco Forester Middle School is not a very safe place. Fights and the growing problem of the "SJC gang" have plagued the school. Its test scores aren't good, but not as bad as an inter-city school. Many people choose private school at the middle school level with the prestigious and ridiculously expensive St. Margret's Academy getting most of the wealthier children that live on the hills. The majority of the students in San Juan Capistrano will attend the brand new San Juan Hills High School, which has yet to reveal test score performance due to being brand new.
-Overall, you either love San Juan or it isn't for you. It is not the suburban master planned perfection of most of south Orange County, nor a beach town like San Clemente. Rather, it is a rural type and culture small town in the middle of OC. It has great attributes like horse trails, tons of open space, a charming little downtown, and also some baggage like bad traffic, worse schools than surrounding communities, and more crime.
Beautiful and historic Mission San Juan Capistrano
Historic Los Rios Street near downtown
Downtown
Valley, notice undeveloped hills in background, typical throughout the city.
If you are going to be in sales or an everyday road warrior covering a territory from the San Fernando Valley (LA) to San Diego, I have a suggestion. You may want to bias your territory toward LA as opposed to picking a midpoint; this will put you in the area of Huntington Beach to Mission Viejo with Irvine being a great central point. I have worked this territory over the years and have some input which may or may not apply to your situation.
LA County will typically have the highest concentration of businesses. Traffic in LA is the worst. If you live all the way down in San Clemente, you will have to start everyday with a long drive to LA, SD, or even a 45 minute drive to OC businesses in rush hour(s) traffic. Irvine is the center of OC business; being there can put you near accounts that you will be able to manage well and drive to on short notice. When you have to go to LA you can start your day extremely early (6AM) drive as far as you need to go and work your way back to OC visiting accounts along the way. You can also visit OC accounts early, drive to LA after 9:30AM take care of business quickly and start back to OC by 2:30PM.
When you go to SD you can work local OC accounts on your way south until rush hour traffic in north SD county thins out. By 9:00AM you will be able to visit accounts on your way down to SD or head all the way down to the city and work your way back. On your way back, once you are past northern SD county, traffic will not be that bad (relatively speaking) northbound to Irvine. If you are doing a lot of business in SD, staying overnight one day a week is a great and cost effective way of getting plenty of business done without losing your mind. SD is also a great city if you must stay overnight. I wish I could say the same for LA but if you are stuck there on late business you will still drive the 45 miles home. Just wait out rush hour by eating dinner or going to the gym then start home after 7PM and you should make it in an hour (fingers crossed).
There have been suggestions to think about moving inland along I15; I would only consider this if you have a large amount of business both in Riverside and San Diego County. BTW, it is very hot out there in the summer but beautiful in the winter.
I hope some of this helps (your time is your money); you will still spend plenty of your time in traffic and none of what I said is gospel. It all depends on your flexibilty and situation, good luck on your move. By the way, I live in Huntington Beach and love it!
BM22 => thanks for the advice for a fellow road warrior ...That makes sense and seems very applicable to the type of travel I will likely be doing. Can you give me a little more info on living in Huntington Beach? I have a friend who very recently moved there, his experience is somewhat limited (but he loves it). From the post's I have read / and some of what I have heard there are some 'rough' area's of HB...however for the most part people seem to like it. Is there any truth to the rumors, are there area's to stay away from? From your experience, do you think it would be a good environment given our family dynamic? HB seems like the So Cal dream, and really is the young beach community I pictured when I signed up to relocate to California....is that the case?
I can't wait to get out there and start 'Living the Dream'
I would stick more to San Clemente than San Juan Capistrano. SJC is also not a waterfront city. Its southern portion is close to the coast of Dana Point (about 1.5 miles away), but the majority of the city is centered around Ortega Highway. Still, the city is fairly close to the beach, no more than a twenty minute drive. SJC is a charming small town centered around the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano, which was founded all the way back in 1776. The city has a nice downtown area with private shops and is deeply routed in its historic history. Hispanic culture (Hispanics are 43% of the city), is also very important in this community and they celebrate as variety of traditional Hispanic holidays throughout the year.
However, I don't think the city is the best for living. I will try to write as objective as I can on the city, but my personal opinion is it is a place to visit, not to live.
-SJC is very much a rural city trapped among the suburban cities of Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel, with beach towns at its southern border. The city reminds me a lot of Paso Robles, CA in northern California. SJC does not allow construction ontop of ridges any where in its city limits. A huge amount of the city is open space also. Basically, they are very serious on preserving San Juan as a small town and have been fairly succesful. If you dropped out of space into SJC, you would never know you are in one of the largest metropolitan areas on the planet.
Traffic is a serious concern in the downtown area and on Ortega Highway. The interchanges are pretty much a nightmare at rush hour as this is the cities only main road and the street which most people live off. Add to the fact that downtown is almost right off of the freeway and there are stop lights every couple yards and the traffic backs up bad. The city prefers to keep the streets two lanes rather than widen to four to preserve the rural feel.
-Downtown SJC is a great place to walk around and browse boutique stores. There is not much nightlife though, so no clubs. It is more of a historic type downtown and all stores close at dusk, but all the cafes and restaurant stay open. There are some good places to eat, like Cedar Creek Inn, which is very good.
- Communities: SJC sort of has a reputation of being a rich-poor city. The middle class is definitly not the majority of the city. There are many old apartment complexes surrounding downtown and it is a fairly poor area where immigrants mainly live. Crime is not super violent (this is no Compton), but there is a gang injunction on the area and you will see some graffiti saying the gang "SJC" on stuff. Basically, the downtown area valley is not the best area of the city. Then, on the opposite side of the Interstate 5, which splits the city in half, is a fairly rich portion of the community. Expensive neighborhoods like Marbella Country Club and Estates, the Hunt Club, Hunter's Creek, San Juan Hills, and Starwberry Lane are on the other side of the freeway and most homes in these neighborhoods cost 1.5 million up to multi million dollar equestrian estates. The cities primary middle class neighborhood, Mission Ridge, is located in the valley between the hills where these multi million dollar homes are. In general there is just this odd feeling of rich on the hills, poor in the valley in San Juan. I would recommend living on the side opposite downtown because crime is not as big a problem.
-Schools: Very much a mixed bag in San Juan. The poorer areas tend to have lower performing schools, and the richer areas have good schools. Some, like San Juan Elementary and Kino****a Elementary near downtown perform really low, while Ambuel Elementary on the other side of the freeway scores a respectable 8/10. In middle school, many parents pull from school as Marco Forester Middle School is not a very safe place. Fights and the growing problem of the "SJC gang" have plagued the school. Its test scores aren't good, but not as bad as an inter-city school. Many people choose private school at the middle school level with the prestigious and ridiculously expensive St. Margret's Academy getting most of the wealthier children that live on the hills. The majority of the students in San Juan Capistrano will attend the brand new San Juan Hills High School, which has yet to reveal test score performance due to being brand new.
-Overall, you either love San Juan or it isn't for you. It is not the suburban master planned perfection of most of south Orange County, nor a beach town like San Clemente. Rather, it is a rural type and culture small town in the middle of OC. It has great attributes like horse trails, tons of open space, a charming little downtown, and also some baggage like bad traffic, worse schools than surrounding communities, and more crime.
Beautiful and historic Mission San Juan Capistrano
Historic Los Rios Street near downtown
Downtown
Valley, notice undeveloped hills in background, typical throughout the city.
Great info but if you could give me your opinion on specifically this part of SJC zipcode 92675 I believe the street name is La Zanja, what area would that be in? Thanks
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A Good Central Location for a Socal Road Warrior
...That makes sense and seems very applicable to the type of travel I will likely be doing. Can you give me a little more info on living in Huntington Beach? I have a friend who very recently moved there, his experience is somewhat limited (but he loves it). From the post's I have read / and some of what I have heard there are some 'rough' area's of HB...however for the most part people seem to like it. Is there any truth to the rumors, are there area's to stay away from? From your experience, do you think it would be a good environment given our family dynamic? HB seems like the So Cal dream, and really is the young beach community I pictured when I signed up to relocate to California....is that the case?
