Moving to Orange County, CA

Death Cab For Albie

Hey Friends,

So i'm moving to Orange County, CA (Irvine more specifically) for a new job and was wondering where the best places to live are? Unfortunately, I've always been a big fan of loft style living (high ceilings, exposed brick, etc...) and the OC doesn't seem to offer alot of that outside of Santa Ana, which i've heard is not very safe. Anyone from the area or who has lived in the area that has any recommendations on good places to live? I'm a bit nomadic and like to move around, so i'm not looking to buy a house or anything. I basically am just looking for a place that is nice and has stuff for someone in their late 20's to do. Oh also, i'd like to keep my commute to no more than an hour to and from work (so 2 hours total).

TychoCelchuuu

Santa Ana's safe. Irvine and everything around it is a shithole if you're in your late 20's and want stuff to do although if you're willing to put up with 1 hour commutes you could maybe find some place that isn't so boring that you'll want to shoot yourself in the face. I haven't lived in the area for a while so I'll let other people drop in with more specific/useful advice.

kaliyama

Corona Del Mar and Newport Beach are great towns, well under an hour commute on surface streets.

Bursar

Hooray! Having lived in Orange County my whole life, finally there's a question here I can actually answer. :-)

Where are you commuting to? Your proximity to the major freeways determines your ability to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. I work in Irvine and live in Garden Grove, and my drive time varies between 20-45 minutes depending on how stupid other drivers are being that day. Note: the 5 S to 55 S is always terrible. It's just a fact of life.

For places with stuff to do, look into Orange or Fullerton or around there. They both are starting to get big "downtown" areas based near the colleges, meaning lots of restaurants and such for the youngin's to hang out. Irvine might look nice, but it has literally nothing to do after 9 o'clock (and every apartment I've looked at there is as expensive as all hell).

Also, I see lots of ads for cheap places in Anaheim, but beware of living too close to Disneyland. Fireworks are LOUD.

Nana

I've lived in Orange County all my life as well, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Anaheim, and now Santa Ana.

I wanted to say: Don't write off Santa Ana completely, it really is not a dangerous area. I live on the border of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa (walking distance to the South Coast Plaza) and this is honestly one of the best neighborhoods I've ever lived in. The people are friendly, and there is a lot to do in the area.

Irvine is lovely, but pricey. As a few posters above have said there is really nothing to do there at night. But it is a pretty and quiet city. (which I think is nice)

I used to work in Irvine and it was about a 10 minute commute from my current apartment (which doesn't mean much since Irvine is huge) Other cities you might want to look into are Costa Mesa, and Fountain Valley.