Advice on where to live in South California

San Diego might be the nicest place to live in continental USA.

Hi Jods,

You might want to consider some of the coastal cities in LA county or northern OC.  But housing cost will be pretty expensive out towards the beach cities.  If your husband doesn't mind the commute then you find cheaper housing going inland. Overall traffic is a pain in SoCal so you guys will have to consider that into how far you and your family want to live and what is close enough for your husband to commute.  Us SoCal folks sometimes literally spend more time commuting simply because of the traffic and congestion.  So Idefinitely be prepared for our crazy freeway and car culture.  
OC has some nice neighborhoods but there are some not so quite ones too so definitely do lots of research.  If you have some cities in mind feel free to let me know and I can give you some advice or info. I am not from LA County or OC but I have lived in SoCal for a majority of my life so I am somewhat familiar with some of the cities out in those counties.   

Cheers,
Elle

Thank you so much for your advice Elle, really appreciate that. My husband needs to travel twice a week with work so we need to be fairly near John Wayne airport. I'm thinking if the traffic is bad we are probably better to be near the subway so he can get to the airport fairly easily? We have looked at places like Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, Aliso Viego, Mission Viego. However when typing in how long the train takes it is from 1hr 30 - 3hrs. Maybe we need to look at a different airport and totally new area??? I just want his commute to the airport to be as easy as possible but need that nice suburban lifestyle with a good school for my 7yr old. Such a hard task in such a small space of time. Thank you

Sorry, what are your thoughts on Cypress and Walnut? One site says its 3hrs to the airport on the train, another site says 1hr 20?? Seem to get more for your money property wise here though.

Hi Jods,

I wouldn't necessarily recommend Cypress. Walnut might be a better place.   Diamond Bar is nearby, I would recommend you check out Diamond Bar because that might be a better city for what you are looking for.

Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo are pretty good places.  As for the train, unless you guys are close to Metrolink (train) and/or its convenient to drive to a Metrolink station  then I'm not sure how useful the trains are for your moving plans.  Unfortunately, train/subway travel in Southern California is not as common and sometimes not very convenient as in other cities.  Overall public transportation is not a good option for life in Southern California unless you live and work near Metrolink stations.  Hence why we are very much a "car culture" because in all honesty it is very difficult to get around without a car and not extremely very inconvenient to take public transportation.  Unless you end up living pretty close to a Metrolink, otherwise you guys don't have much option for depending on public transportation.
 
Here is a link to the Metrolink:  http://www.metrolinktrains.com/routes/

Unfortunately, even if Metrolink was an option, I am afraid it won't be very useful for your family and the need to live close to LAX.  But it might be an option if you guy need to be close to John Wayne Airport.  Just to clarify, does your husband have an option with regards to which airport he works at?  If so then John Wayne Airport will give you guys more options with regards to good cities to look for place to live and the Metrolink is close enough to John Wayne.

I recommend Irvine.  It is a nice community with lots of nice neighborhoods and good schools and its is really really close to Santa where John Wayne Airport is. So if John Wayne is an option then I would totally recommend Irvine as a good place to move to that best meets what you are looking for (e.g. good city, good neighborhood, good schools, close to your husband's job--if he ends up working in John Wayne). 

Also if your husband only has to be in LAX twice a week then it should be perfectly fine to live farther away from LAX and/or John Wayne.  But overall I think Irvine and those other cities you listed are good options.  The other cities (e.g. Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, etc.) are in South OC and would make the commute longer than if you lived in Irvine. 

Hope that helps.  Feel free to let me know if you have any further question or need more info.

All the best,
Elle

sorry I meant Santa Ana.  Haha...I guess I have Xmas on my mind

Housing cost in LA County and OC can be pricey so yeah getting a better deal regarding housing is a consideration.  There are lots of people who work in LA and OC who end moving to the Inland Counties (e.g. Riverside, San Bernardino) to buy cheaper and/or more affordable houses.  But a lot of those people end up commuting 2-4 hours each day (some each way) just so they can have that affordable place and decent school/neighborhood for their family.  But that kind of takes a way from the family time so it really depends on what y.  ou are looking for and the quality of life you guys want.  Personally, I would pay a little extra for a nicer neighborhood but try to live close enough that it doesn't take too much time away from my quality family time.  There are lots of nice suburbs in OC and LA county but I think considering the info. you have given so far, I think your better option is to look at OC area. This is just my opinion but I think OC life would be suit you and your family.  LA can get pretty busy and intense.  Unless you end up in one of the LA suburbs that is more out of the way, it might be better raising the kids in OC. (e.g. more chill/relax pace of life and more family friendly cities). 

Hahaha..I myself am hoping to move to LA county simply because I am tired of living in the Inland Valley and want to move closer to the beach.  Since I don't have a family I am willing to live in an expensive shack near the beach in Malibu or Santa Monica because it gets me close to LA yet lets me be close to the beach.  So for me, I would totally pay the high prices for all the craziness and traffic/busy-ness of LA ;p Otherwise, I would also pick OC for a place to live if I had a family.  The cost of living in OC is well worth it considering the good schools and safe neighborhoods that are much more family friendly compared to LA.

Hi Jods,

Just FYI: might want to check out OCRegister website....maybe there are some classified advertisements for housing. maybe it can give you some ideas or some good leads for possible places to rent/buy in the area.

Cheers,
E

Wow, that helps so much. Husband doesn't need to be near LAX at all so just being near John Wayne airport is fine. He is having to also open an office and we are thinking it seems Irvine may be the place to do that. So living near Irvine would work and even better if you say the surrounding neighbourhoods are nice and have good schools.

Do you think there are other places near better airports such as San Diego or another smaller airport? Or is the area around John Wayne pretty nice? Also is the whole of California awful traffic or mostly in downtown LA? Thanks again for your time. We are coming out early Jan so I'm trying to give us as many areas to check out as possible. The job really only needs him to be near "ish" an airport and that's more us wanting to make that commute as easy as possible so he is not stressed, we dont have to be right next to one. But really other than that we can pick and choose where we stay. Lucky for us to have that option but also hare when you are looking at such a huge area.

Appreciate your help xxx

To be honest, I would much rather stick with OC.  I lived in SD and went to college out there.  San Diego is a nice place and there are nice cities such as Encinitas, Carlsbad, Del Mar (in North County) and more closer to (South County) Coronado, La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya--sorry I still remember a woman who was from out of state calling a radio station asking about La Jolla (pronounced with a J sound) and the radio personality laughed. We have lots of cities and streets that have Spanish names so some folks mispronounce some of the names and some of the names can be difficult to pronounce if you are not used to Spanish and/or not from the area. But after a while you get used to the spelling/pronunciation.  Anyways, tangent. LOL!

San Diego is a bigger airport which ultimately means more traffic and more people.  And in terms of neighborhoods that you might be looking for, you will probably want to live farther away from the SD airport. John Wayne Airport is located in Santa Ana which unfortunately isn't known as a great neighborhood.  But Irvine is the neighboring city.  It is interesting that sometimes just by driving a few streets over into another city, it is a completely different vibe.  My hometown is like that.  We live in one of the nicer and wealthier cities in the Inland Empire but the city right next to ours has lots of crime and at one time was the murder capital of the country.  So sometimes moving a few miles makes a differences in the quality of the neighborhood/city.

If you stick to JW, then you don't need to be in Santa Ana to live.  You can easily live in Irvine, or some of the other South OC cities near Irvine and your family and husband should do just fine commute, school, neighborhood wise.

But if you want to try a larger airport such as SD, then try looking at cities in North County SD.  SD county has a large military community because it has Miramir AFB, Coronado Naval Base, Camp Pendleton Marine Corp base so  many cities have lots of military personnel and their families living there. Similar to OC, SD has lots of beaches (actually I prefer the beaches in SD county because they are cleaner than LA beaches and it tend to be less hectic in the southern counties of OC and SD compared to LA County.

As for traffic, yes traffic is a pain in the butt everywhere you go in California. SoCal traffic is notoriously bad! The 405 freeway is horrendous and of course any freeway going in and out of LA is horrible!  But you will find that traffic is horrible wherever you go.  It is pretty much a way of life. Two/three decades ago a drive to OC from the Inland Empire would only take 30-45 minutes.  Now only on good days and off traffic hours can I get to OC in an hour.  The longest it has taken has been 4 hours due to a traffic accident.  With lots of cars, traffic, accidents are common and vice versa.  So yes you and your family won't be able to avoid the traffic issue but you can minimize it by being selective on where you live and how far you need to drive (what direction, what hours, etc.).

I hope that helps. If you guys have more options with regards to jobs and not restricted with where to live then I say Irvine and South OC cities are your best bet if your husband ends up being at JW.  If SD airport is more preferable for your husband's career then North SD county cities would be your best bet.  North County has cities/neighborhoods that better suit what you are looking for in terms of SD Airport.

Either way SD and OC has great weather, great beaches, lots of sporting activities (SD Chargers, SD Padres, LA/Anaheim Angels, etc.), lots of universities in the area so I know you and your family will love it in SoCal. That is the biased SoCal native in me talking   Oh a plus, OC has Disneyland, I can imagine your kids might like that
And LA isn't that far away for visit or weekend trips to check out the sights in LA county.  Overall SoCal offers you lots of options with regards to neighborhoods, recreational activities, geography (e.g. beaches, mountains, desserts), great universities, etc. You just have to get used to the traffic

Good luck and hope everything works out and I hope you will enjoy SoCal just as much as I do.

You have been so helpful. We have done lots of research and do seem to have narrowed it down to being near to the John Wayne airport and Irvine. Quite liking the sound of Aliso Viego, Mission Viego and Lake Forest. We will come out though in Jan and you never know, may totally change our minds but at least we have a base to start and those areas do seem suited to young families. Thanks again, your advice is much appreciated. Just as a matter of interest do you get lots of earth quakes there? Just getting myself ready for what to expect

Earthquakes happen all the time. we mostly don't feel them. Every now and then you will feel one but luckily we haven't had a big one in a while. But I know from friends and acquaintances that moved to California and experienced their first earthquake it can be a very scary experience even when it is just a small tremor. After a while of living through a few small tremors here and there you learn to sleep through them. Yes, earthquakes happen but it isn't something that happens everyday (at least nothing noticeable). Just keep it in the back of your mind as with any natural disaster and be prepared. That is all. No need to worry about earthquakes.

Have a great trip in January and I am sure you and your family will do just fine when it comes time to move.