Where to Live in Orange County?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi all,

I will soon be moving to the O.C. (“Don’t call it that.”) to take on what, from everything I can tell, will be my dream job. My office will be right by John Wayne Airport and, driving-wise, I’ll be going all over SoCal (Woodland Hills, Torrance, Irvine, Rancho Bernardo mainly) to visit customers and other sites.

I’ve visited Orange County on numerous occasions for work, but could use suggestions as to where to live. I will be buying, not renting, though I’ve accepted that I’ll be downsizing to a small single family home or town home. I’m wondering if y’all can suggest places to consider buying in based on the following:

Would like:
[ul]
[li]Low crime (violent and property crime) and clean (I realize many neighborhoods show some age. What I don’t want are cars up on tires, crap on people’s lawns, heavily littered public spaces, etc.)[/li][li]Hiking/biking nearby (the closer, the better)[/li][li]A pleasant downtown or town center with independent stores, restaurants, and bars would be nice[/li][li]Reasonable commute time from John Wayne airport (less than half hour). A long distance going against traffic, short distance in heavy traffic, or surface streets available to avoid freeway traffic are all good as long as it’s a reasonable commute time.[/li][li]Respectful, courteous, down to earth people. Or barring that (this is Orange County I’m talking about here), people who mind their own damn business.[/li][li]Housing prices are also a concern, but I’ll figure that out.[/li][/ul]

Things people always bring up that I don’t really care about:
[ul]
[li]Good schools. I realize good schools and good neighborhoods are frequently correlated, but my priority is on good neighborhoods. I don’t have kids and am not going to have any, so schools don’t concern me.[/li][li]Diversity. I’m not anti-diversity nor pro-diversity. It’s just not a thing that concerns me one way or the other as long as my other criteria are met.[/li][/ul]

My thinking so far:
Orange (the city) seems to offer quite a lot of what I’m looking for. The Old Towne area looks really nice. I like the looks of Irvine Park and the hills to the east. It’s right by the Santa Ana River trail. Close to the attractions of Anaheim. Reasonable distance from work and close to the freeways that’ll take me to all the other places I have to visit. How are the crime rate and cleanliness though? Those are general things that concern me about North OC.

As far as beaches go, Huntington Beach is the one I think meets my criteria and has the best chance of being “doable” when it comes to affordability.

Irvine is so vanilla and boring. This is where I’ve frequently traveled for work. Chain restaurants, malls, shuts down after 5. Blah. Lacks any sort of downtown or town center. Pleasant weather, very safe, and very clean though. And they have an Improv. And I like that one seafood restaurant I used to take customers to.

I’ve heard Long Beach is a shithole. Is this still true? That’s too bad; it would be pretty cool to live next to the Spruce Goose.

Thanks in advance for y’all’s suggestions.

2

Damn, didn’t realize how TLDR that all was until I posted it. Sorry about that. Just read the bullet points.

3

Y’know, the estate of Howard Hughes would’ve paid you ten THOUSAND dollars if you had resisted temptation and called it the Hughes H-4 Hercules. :wink:

FTR, I don’t know if that urban legend is true.

4

Fountain Valley might be perfect. Its safe, clean, close to the beach and Mile Square Park is there. Its a great place for a family.

5

Mission Viejo is worth looking at, some nice wilderness bike and hiking trails close by.

6

Long Beach was, is, and always shall be a shithole.

Laguna Niguel is probably out of your price range. It sure is mine!

7

The northern edge of Santa Ana is pretty good and it’s close to Old Town
Orange. But I would avoid the rest of Santa Ana. A home near the
downtown part of Huntington Beach might work, there are several
shops and restaurants there. Seal Beach would be another good place
to look but homes there are not cheap. Villa Park is a nice area
but there is no downtown area.

I lived near downtown Long Beach for many years and it wasn’t
bad but it wasn’t that great either. I enjoyed being able do my shopping
on the weekend without having to drive. But I never felt comfortable
enough with the neighborhood to walk downtown to the movie theaters and
restaurants late at night.

The eastern part of Long Beach is OK as long as you are not under the
flight path of the Long Beach Airport. If you can afford it, the Belmont
Shore of Long Beach might be what you are looking for. It has many shops
and restaurants and there is a bike/pedestrian path along the beach.

Good luck with your home search.

8

I daresay Irvine is one of the best places to live in Orange County even if it lacks a historic downtown core with low crimes, great and spacious neighbourhoods, and some very nice housing that avoids the usual monotone cookie-cutters seen in suburbia.

Neighbouring Newport Beach is also great (and has some more independent stores I think even if still without a historic downtown core) especially areas like Corona Del Mar (my favourite beach is there) but I’m not too sure about the prices…

As you said Orange would be a good area for somewhere a historic downtown core although it isn’t quite as spanking new like Irvine is.

Fullerton has a nice downtown core and some nice neighbourhoods around it although commuting may be a problem.

Anaheim has great amenities too especially in the “Platinum Triangle” area they are developing or even the area around the library (which has some nice houses even if I’m not sure about the quality of the residents).

9

Forgot to answer this question. I think Orange is a safe, clean place and I wouldn’t
mind living there.

10

For North OC (counting the major cities only):

Fullerton>Orange>Anaheim>Garden Grove

11

I recommend Balboa Towers. Just watch out for loose seals.

12

I lived in Aliso Viejo, and I think it meets the criteria very well. Also, it’s just a short jump over the hill to Laguna Beach. I lived in Dana Point for a time and enjoyed it, but the summers tend to be overcast, if that matters to you. Surprised hell out of me.

13

Wow, silenus. LB certainly has areas of shithole, like almost everywhere else in the world, to varying degrees. You should lighten the fuck up. Not everyone can live in your sacred patch of SoCal.

14

n/m

15

Long Beach isn’t in OC, and the Spruce Goose isn’t there anymore.

I grew up in Tustin, and all I really miss are the fast food options.

I’d say you can’t go wrong, unless you pick Santa Ana.

16

  1. Long Beach is not in Orange County. (Edit: ninja’d, but I’ll leave it as it is a very important distinction.)

  2. If you must live on the other side of The Orange Curtain, Huntington Beach will do.

17

As a SoCal native (Please don’t call it ‘Cali’!), I’ve always called it ‘OC’ (no ‘The’) or ‘Behind the Orange Curtain’.

I have relatives in Orange, and my best fiend used to live there. Seemed OK, for ‘Reagan Country’.

18

There are many neighborhoods that have everything you’re asking for… depending on your definition of affordable. Corona Del Mar is exactly what you want but even a small condo/SFR is going to cost over 900k. Seal Beach is an often overlooked area and has a great downtown but is definitely pushing the half hour to JWA limit. Same for Laguna Beach. Maybe something in Costa Mesa near Newport Back Bay/Triangle Square would be good and you could head down to Balboa Peninsula for the downtown action/frozen bananas.

Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel are nice but very family oriented with more chain stores than independent shops. Plus it’s a $10 round trip to get to JWA area using the toll road.

19

I think a very major point is that the traffic situation is going to get much worse over the next 30 years (population growth and California’s unwillingness to invest in transportation improvements). So a current half hour commute could turn into an unpleasant hour commute.

I think you would be better off renting for the next year so you can look around and make an informed judgment rather than rushing into something now.

20

Before I left, light rail seemed to be helping a lot of people get to where they wanted to go. I lived on the west side of L.A., so it didn’t do me any good; but it’s something to consider.

A great thing about California is that they allow motorcycles to split lanes. I live in west L.A. and worked in Orange County, 42 miles away. Riding the motorcycle saved me a couple of hours or more per day on my commute, between being able to split lanes and being able to use the HOV lanes. And the weather is much better for motorcycling down there, than it is up here!