When you think of California it’s normally something about L. A., San Francisco, or San Diego but Orange County, is often the best option to raise a family.
With that said, did you know that four of the top five cities on the NerdWallet’s best places for young families list in Southern California were in Orange County.
The frequent reason is Orange County’s higher quality of schools, a strong labor pool and has alloted funds for infrastructure improvements. Examples of this are expanding Sand Canyon Avenue in Irvine where Interstate 5 is located.
Home affordability in Orange County is reasonable compared to adjacent L.A. county and San Diego down south. The monthly cost of homeownership, which includes mortgage payments, property taxes, homeowners insurance, utilities, and other bills is affordable.
Best cities for young families in Southern California
- Irvine
The incredible city of Irvine attracts families with its top-rated public schools and some of the nation’s best, including the renowned UC Irvine. In addition to the honor of a top score of 10 by GreatSchools, Irvine schools have strong backing from the community.
Irvine is a safe, clean, diligently planned city with high-tech, bio-tech and financial companies based there. It has many parks for walking, hiking, and biking and has been awarded America’s safest city by the FBI since 2005.
The majority of the city was developed within the last 25 years, so there’s many neighborhoods, each with different styles of home design from French, Greek, Italian, Mediterranean, to Spanish architecture.
According to Realtor.com, Irvine homes for sale have a median listing price of $921,097 as of Oct. 27, 2020
The city’s high home values are on par with the quality the city provides. There’s convenient access to the beach just 20-30 minutes away in Laguna or Newport &Huntington Beach not to mention the many parks residents can enjoy.
- Rancho Santa Margarita
Only a 10-20 minute drive from Irvine or the beaches, this late 1990’s master-planned city features a healthy trend of increasing income since 1999. The city features two excellent school districts, Capistrano Unified School District and Saddleback Valley. The evidence is supported by students’ state test scores, which are particularly high in science.
Home values in RSM, CA have a median list price of $641,950 which is below the county limit for a conforming loan with rates currently at decades lows.
- Cypress
Despite being only 6.6 square miles, Cypress is ideally located for commuting to L.A. or south Orange County for work. The city has seen redevelopment projects in pockets near Lincoln & Moody.
It’s considered a nice quiet middle class community with very highly rated public schools like Oxford Academy, Cypress High and Margaret Lindell Elementary as well as Cypress Junior College. As a result housing demand is constant with apartment rentals, condos, townhomes, and single family homes.
Home values in Cypress, CA have a median sales price of $812,000 which means a down payment of 6% or more will get you a conforming loan rate in 2020.
- Yorba Linda
Yorba Linda is an upscale neighborhood within the hills right near the 91 and 57 freeways. If you enjoy riding horses, there are some equestrian centers, along with trails for horseback riding, hiking and biking.
Many residents say it’s the perfect place to raise kids as its very family oriented and tends to always earn 9 and 10 rankings from GreatSchools which include Fairmont Elementary, Linda Vista Elementary, Bernardo Yorba Jr. High and Yorba Linda High School at 19900 Bastanchury Road.
Recently, the city has undergone multiple redevelopment and expansion initiatives to update roads, public areas, and construct new schools. The median price for a home is $901,753 according to Zillow in Oct. 2020.