Moving back to OC (Irvine, Yorba Linda: rent, lender, how much)

[ocatheart]

We moved from Irvine, CA less than a year ago to Austin, TX and as much as I like Austin, I'm ready to move back to be closer to family and to enjoy the lack of fire ants and scorpians.

When we lived there before, we rented. We were on a considerably lower income and we paid a significantly low rent for the area. Now that we want to move back, we want to purchase a home. My husband will be making anything from 100k to 150k and I am a stay at home mom (we have 3). My question is will this be enough to buy a 3 bedroomed home there and will we still be able to live somewhat comfortably?

Also, does anyone know anything about Yorba Linda? Is it safe? My kids will all be home schooled so schools don't matter too much.

Thanks!!

[Roma]

Well, I hope you can come back to OC soon.
I also moved to Texas 2.5 years ago and I want to come back. There are a couple of other people on this board wanting to come back to Calif too. So you are not alone. Oh, and yes, those fire ants, I know the pain. Ouch

[nevercoldcall]

I love how so many people trash Calif - I moved here from Scottsdale, Arizona and all I heard is how much I will hate it, hate the people, hate the traffic, etc.

Well, the people are far friendlier than in the Phoenix area, traffic isn't half as bad as Phoenix, and the weather is the best in the world!!!

Oh yeah and I had a scorpion problem too in Arizona :-)

A good friend of mine left Phoenix for Houston and isn't thrilled at all with it so he's also working on getting here to OC.

[JKatherine]

Hi Ocatheart, I have been to TX once, and could not wait to leave and it was only for a week.

You should not have a problem purchasing a home with that income, and check out MRMLS or Realtor.com so you can get a feel for the housing and prices in the area.

As far as I know Yorba Linda is a lovely community, and here is a URL where you can go and check it out. http://www.ci.yorba-linda.ca.us/home.php (broken link)

Good luck with your upcoming move.

[newportbeachsmostwanted]

Yorba Linda has made the Morgan Quitno safest cities in America list a couple times. It's so nice. ....Lots of single family homes. Very quiet and family-friendly... ... Not to mention EXCELLENT schools. Okay, I'm starting to sound like a realtor. I better stop this and get more personal.

My favorite area is up in the hills because of horse trails, really nice homes, and city lights views. The last time I checked, the downtown area was undergoing extensive remodeling and getting new landscaping (not sure if it's done yet).

Yorba Linda is so far the only city, that I've seen, to use landscape lighting in their medians--I thought that the lighting was so beautiful and nice.

The only downside to living in YL is traffic outside of YL. The nearby freeways which get jammed up like sardines during rush hour.

If you have any further questions, please let me know..

[fpbear]

Yorba Linda is one of the nicer areas of north OC. But if it's been a while since you last lived in OC, keep in mind the traffic has become a LOT worse just in the past 5 years. It seems that everyone from New York and the East Coast has moved to OC ever since 911, and in addition to the growing hispanic/chinese immigrant population, the region is bursting at the seams unable to support the massive influx. In the 1980s I thought this was the greatest place to be, but everything changed in the late 1990s. After living here since 1975 I can't wait to move out of here.

[Jenali]

Originally Posted by ocatheart

We moved from Irvine, CA less than a year ago to Austin, TX and as much as I like Austin, I'm ready to move back to be closer to family and to enjoy the lack of fire ants and scorpians.

When we lived there before, we rented. We were on a considerably lower income and we paid a significantly low rent for the area. Now that we want to move back, we want to purchase a home. My husband will be making anything from 100k to 150k and I am a stay at home mom (we have 3). My question is will this be enough to buy a 3 bedroomed home there and will we still be able to live somewhat comfortably?

Thanks!!

I think it depends on how much you're willing to put down .There is a large gap between making $100K and $150K,I don't think it will be easy to make it with only $100k/yr with 3 kids unless u've some cash to put toward the down payment .
Good Luck to you and ur family ,and wb to OC .

[Axiom]

Originally Posted by Jenali

I think it depends on how much you're willing to put down .There is a large gap between making $100K and $150K,I don't think it will be easy to make it with only $100k/yr with 3 kids unless u've some cash to put toward the down payment .
Good Luck to you and ur family ,and wb to OC .

I agree, at that level you can probably qualify for an extra $200,000 or so house price with a salary difference of $50,000 a year.
Of course those numbers very much depend on how much you're putting down, your debt ratios, etc.

We spent a day looking at properties in Yorba Linda recently and thought there were some very nice areas. It seems you can get more house for your money there than most all the other areas we looked at. (mostly So OC)
The commute knocked it out of the running for us though. After doing a few trial runs we decided a bit further away but in a different direction with less congerstion suits us better.

[kturbe]

I would recommend you talk with a lender in the area to review your entire picture financially and see what you can afford. There are some good deals and roughly looking at you noted you should be able to but that depends on the financials, neighborhood, etc. I can help connect you if you need some help, please do not hesitate to contact me.