Santa Ana vs. Anaheim

hs_teacher_IHB

hs_teacher_IHB

New member
I have a friend who currently lives in Westminster. He has decided to buy a house. He wants to spend around 300K. He initially looked in Garden Grove and Westminster, but could not find anything at that price. So then he decided to look in Santa Ana and Anaheim. He says he has found a house that he likes.



My question is... how would one go about comparing locations versus price premiums?



My friend tells me that the house he found in Anaheim is an SFR with 3 bedrooms and is in good condition. Plus, it's only 325K.

Personally, I think he's making a mistake. Where he currently lives, he is close to his family, friends, highways, and food.



Would any of you choose a poor location for a better house?
 
[quote author="hs_teacher" date=1253575725]I have a friend who currently lives in Westminster. He has decided to buy a house. He wants to spend around 300K. He initially looked in Garden Grove and Westminster, but could not find anything at that price. So then he decided to look in Santa Ana and Anaheim. He says he has found a house that he likes.



My question is... how would one go about comparing locations versus price premiums?



My friend tells me that the house he found in Anaheim is an SFR with 3 bedrooms and is in good condition. Plus, it's only 325K.

Personally, I think he's making a mistake. Where he currently lives, he is close to his family, friends, highways, and food.



Would any of you choose a poor location for a better house?</blockquote>


Where in Anaheim? Where I live is very close to freeways and food, so it really depends. Also, the taxes from the resort subsidize some of my Anaheim Public Utility costs (or so I was told). Living in the resort area has been a good experience so far. Keeping tourists safe is in everyone's best interest, so I benefit from that. On the flip side, the schools suck.



Rule of thumb is that the closer you get to Stanton in one direction or the 91 in another, the more ghetto it gets. Other areas are hit and miss. Even 92805 has random pockets of normal neighborhoods.



Your buddy should look at the neighborhood he'd have to drive/walk through to get to various amenities. Even if his street is fine, the next block over could be one you don't want to walk down at night. He needs to weigh that information into his buying decision. What good is a bigger house if you don't want to leave it at night?
 
He said something about Brookhurst and Ball. The thing is, he works in Costa Mesa and would now need to take the 5 and 55. But he doesn't seem to care about the location or neighborhood. He just insists that it's a pretty decent house. I fear that he's only focused on the house and not taking into consideration the location.



He was also considering a house on McFadden and Bristol in Santa Ana. I think that's a horrible location because it's in the middle of Santa Ana and far away from all freeways. But once again, he thought the house, itself, was nice.



Personally, I live in Tustin and I'm so glad I'm close to the 55 Freeway. There's not a single day that I don't use that freeway to go somewhere. I'm not too fond of Tustin, but I'm glad I have easy access to get out and about.
 
[quote author="hs_teacher" date=1253580108]He was also considering a house on McFadden and Bristol in Santa Ana. </blockquote>


The good news: that isn't the worst part of Santa Ana.

The bad news: it still sucks. I wouldn't want to be there after the streetlights came on if you know what I mean.



IMO, hs_ friend has "buck fever" and is looking for something to shoot at.
 
Here is a rule of thumb for Santa Ana:



North the 17th street and East of the riverbed is the safest area. A triangular area between Main and the Freeway 5 is not good known as the Aqua Motel.



Area north of Freeway 5 is good.



Area south of 5 and 17th street should be avoided.



Area south of 1st street and north of Macarthur must be avoided.



North Tustin in Santa Ana zipcode is the best. (The rural neighborhood character is attractive until the Asians and Persians rebuilt ostentatious palaces)







Anaheim is one of the longest cities in the US.



The resort area is up and coming.



The Colony is getting the proper care and revitalization.



The area near Lincoln and Harbor is planned to be the new downtown.



Anaheim Hills is ideal.



All other areas with 1950's cookie cutter houses and Lanai style apartments must be avoided. Beach, Magnolia, Brookhurst, and west of Euclid should be avoided period.
 
[quote author="hs_teacher" date=1253580108]He said something about Brookhurst and Ball. The thing is, he works in Costa Mesa and would now need to take the 5 and 55. But he doesn't seem to care about the location or neighborhood. He just insists that it's a pretty decent house. I fear that he's only focused on the house and not taking into consideration the location.

</blockquote>


Going through the crush is a major, daily life thing that he needs to think about. 5 north at 3-6 pm is usually painful. 5 South 7-10 am will also be slow going.
 
There are a lot of misconceptions about Santa Ana and Anaheim. Outsiders see Irvine the same way too. Outsiders immediately cast a bad "Stuccoville" reputation for Irvine from what they could see from the main arterial roads. There are plenty of wood houses and natural scenic communities in Woodbridge and Turtle Rock.



No one should be a critic until they really know of SA, Anaheim, and Irvine intimately. How do we establish credibility? Having lived and worked in all 3 cities to understand their idiosyncrasy and I have done that.



To be a critic one should have 90% correct guesses on BK trivia. I have only posted Irvine so far and only a very small handful of participants IMO really know their own city and I assume others know very little and likely don't have a clue about Santa Ana or Anaheim. Gang shootings, bad schools and Disneyland are the only things outsiders know of SA and Anaheim.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1253584366]. Gang shootings, bad schools and Disneyland are the only things outsiders know of SA and Anaheim.</blockquote>
There's more to Anaheim?
 
[quote author="autox" date=1253594188][quote author="bkshopr" date=1253584366]. Gang shootings, bad schools and Disneyland are the only things outsiders know of SA and Anaheim.</blockquote>
There's more to Anaheim?</blockquote>


Absolutely! In the last 10 years the Harbor Blvd corridor/Chapman/ Katella known as the resort district grew the fastest in all of OC. Their planners have excellent background in commercial but lack experience in understanding the volatile dynamic of residential projects.



The major sport and entertainment venues and the happiest place on earth are all in Anaheim. The city has the right revenue generating mechanism to sponsor future projects.



Society is going green and so is the recycling of underutilized districts. When RE value is totally depressed the chance of complete renewal of the industrial sector is very likely. The biggest hindrance to ambitious revitalization project is high RE prices.



Lower RE value, cheaper operation cost and closest proximity to value housing is a huge draw for start up businesses as recession turns around. Anaheim is known to the world because of Disneyland and the business potential is there. Their rent is 1/2 of Irvine and much more convenient to the existing freeway and railroad infrastructure.



Here is a trivia for you. Of 1,000 people around the globe knew Anaheim but only one has heard of Irvine.
 
I would seriously consider the Colony for the price point your friend is looking for. I did a quick search on Redfin and found a few single family homes that sold below $300,000 in the last few months. The City of Anaheim is clearly behind revamping this area given the financial incentives offered to homeowners in The Colony. The city offers the Mills Act (tax savings), rehab grants, below market rate loans to preserve the historic properties in the Colony. Plus, if your you buy a foreclosure, this area falls under a down payment assistant program. (look for all this info on the city's website). To learn more about what it is like to live in this neighborhood I would recommend going to one of the events at Pearson Park and talk to the neighbors. Here are some good websites



<a href="http://www.anaheimcolony.com/">Anahiem Colony</a>



<a href="http://www.meghanshomes.com/">Realtor that knows this area well</a>





<a href="http://www.anaheimhistoricalsociety.com/links.htm">Anaheim Historical Society</a>







Bk, you mentioned commercial expertise within Anaheim. Do you think Anaheim will eventually become the job center of Orange County.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1253599504]



Here is a trivia for you. Of 1,000 people around the globe knew Anaheim but only one has heard of Irvine.</blockquote>


This reminds me of a PM I got a few years ago from a pony collector in the Netherlands whom I bought some items from:



<blockquote>Ive done something really stupid...



your package arrived back to me this morning.. Ive accidentally send it to canada lol... I dont know what i was thinking.. probalby dueing to thatCA in your adres. there was a note on it that there was something wrong with the adres, so I checked your adres and didnt see any mistakes, but then my boyfriend took a look at it and said: cool! anaheim! the anaheim ducks rule! you stupid, anaheim is in the USA!

never thought my BF would come in handy with pony-issues



anyway, Ive send it again today *for the second time 11 euro's ouch!*

you are now officially the pony-collector I spend the most money on! jay!





blah... what a way to start your day off



and I am very very very sorry to keep you waiting for your pony's so long.



greetings, stefanie</blockquote>
 
[quote author="Mcdonna1980" date=1253612740]I would seriously consider the Colony for the price point your friend is looking for. I did a quick search on Redfin and found a few single family homes that sold below $300,000 in the last few months. The City of Anaheim is clearly behind revamping this area given the financial incentives offered to homeowners in The Colony. The city offers the Mills Act (tax savings), rehab grants, below market rate loans to preserve the historic properties in the Colony. Plus, if your you buy a foreclosure, this area falls under a down payment assistant program. (look for all this info on the city's website). To learn more about what it is like to live in this neighborhood I would recommend going to one of the events at Pearson Park and talk to the neighbors. Here are some good websites



<a href="http://www.anaheimcolony.com/">Anahiem Colony</a>



<a href="http://www.meghanshomes.com/">Realtor that knows this area well</a>





<a href="http://www.anaheimhistoricalsociety.com/links.htm">Anaheim Historical Society</a>







Bk, you mentioned commercial expertise within Anaheim. Do you think Anaheim will eventually become the job center of Orange County.</blockquote>
You really know your stuff McDonna! I never knew that Anaheim actually had any decent areas (similar to what you taught me about Fullerton).
 
[quote author="USCTrojanCPA" date=1253615123][quote author="Mcdonna1980" date=1253612740]I would seriously consider the Colony for the price point your friend is looking for. I did a quick search on Redfin and found a few single family homes that sold below $300,000 in the last few months. The City of Anaheim is clearly behind revamping this area given the financial incentives offered to homeowners in The Colony. The city offers the Mills Act (tax savings), rehab grants, below market rate loans to preserve the historic properties in the Colony. Plus, if your you buy a foreclosure, this area falls under a down payment assistant program. (look for all this info on the city's website). To learn more about what it is like to live in this neighborhood I would recommend going to one of the events at Pearson Park and talk to the neighbors. Here are some good websites



<a href="http://www.anaheimcolony.com/">Anahiem Colony</a>



<a href="http://www.meghanshomes.com/">Realtor that knows this area well</a>





<a href="http://www.anaheimhistoricalsociety.com/links.htm">Anaheim Historical Society</a>







Bk, you mentioned commercial expertise within Anaheim. Do you think Anaheim will eventually become the job center of Orange County.</blockquote>
You really know your stuff McDonna! I never knew that Anaheim actually had any decent areas (similar to what you taught me about Fullerton).</blockquote>




:) Thanks



There are many great pocket neighborhoods in the OC. The most fascinating pocket neighborhoods were developed by long time land owners. There are some families I know, that live in declining areas of LA and OC, that created a little oases for themselves by building a compound of homes and hand selecting neighbors within their acres of land. You would never know these neighborhoods existed from driving down the street. These families have lived in their little compounds for decades without one incident of crime because their oases are so hard to detect.
 
[quote author="hs_teacher" date=1253580108]He said something about Brookhurst and Ball. The thing is, he works in Costa Mesa and would now need to take the 5 and 55. But he doesn't seem to care about the location or neighborhood. He just insists that it's a pretty decent house. I fear that he's only focused on the house and not taking into consideration the location.



He was also considering a house on McFadden and Bristol in Santa Ana. I think that's a horrible location because it's in the middle of Santa Ana and far away from all freeways. But once again, he thought the house, itself, was nice.



Personally, I live in Tustin and I'm so glad I'm close to the 55 Freeway. There's not a single day that I don't use that freeway to go somewhere. I'm not too fond of Tustin, but I'm glad I have easy access to get out and about.</blockquote>




The commute will suck. No honestly. It'll be an hour long. He will be stuck in grid lock both directions.
 
[quote author="No_Such_Reality" date=1253618840][quote author="hs_teacher" date=1253580108]He said something about Brookhurst and Ball. The thing is, he works in Costa Mesa and would now need to take the 5 and 55. But he doesn't seem to care about the location or neighborhood. He just insists that it's a pretty decent house. I fear that he's only focused on the house and not taking into consideration the location.



He was also considering a house on McFadden and Bristol in Santa Ana. I think that's a horrible location because it's in the middle of Santa Ana and far away from all freeways. But once again, he thought the house, itself, was nice.



Personally, I live in Tustin and I'm so glad I'm close to the 55 Freeway. There's not a single day that I don't use that freeway to go somewhere. I'm not too fond of Tustin, but I'm glad I have easy access to get out and about.</blockquote>




The commute will suck. No honestly. It'll be an hour long. He will be stuck in grid lock both directions.</blockquote>


An alternative to the freeway would be to take Harbor straight down to CM. It would be about 10-13 miles from Anaheim to Costa Mesa. Google says 30 minutes for one way. I guess how accurate that is would depend on how good a job the traffic light engineers did on Harbor.
 
[quote author="Mcdonna1980" date=1253619749]An alternative to the freeway would be to take Harbor straight down to CM. It would be about 10-13 miles from Anaheim to Costa Mesa. Google says 30 minutes for one way. I guess how accurate that is would depend on how good a job the traffic light engineers did on Harbor.</blockquote>


I don't know how bad it will be in the AM, but judging from the times I have been on Harbor in the AM and the drive from Chapman down Harbor to South Coast Plaza (not even Costa Mesa really) during rush hour (which took 45 minutes, and 45 minutes back to Chapman on Fairview because I noticed how gawd awful the traffic was on the other side of Harbor going down there)... the 30 minute Google estimate is at around 3AM. From the Brookhurst/Ball area it would take over an hour to get to the CM city line.



However, there is plenty of great food on Brookhurst from Ball down to the 91. Of course if you go there for dinner during Ramadan, just remember that it is buffet at any of the Halal places. I can highly recommend the Thai food place and their buffet. Also Victory bakery/restaurant is great middle eastern food. And just down Ball a little ways is Zankoo chicken, and if you have lived in OC/LA for more than 3 years and haven't had Zankoo, then you aren't living. I'd link all the places, but yelp is down, and... well... you all have google access too.
 
[quote author="Mcdonna1980" date=1253612740]I would seriously consider the Colony for the price point your friend is looking for. I did a quick search on Redfin and found a few single family homes that sold below $300,000 in the last few months. The City of Anaheim is clearly behind revamping this area given the financial incentives offered to homeowners in The Colony. The city offers the Mills Act (tax savings), rehab grants, below market rate loans to preserve the historic properties in the Colony. Plus, if your you buy a foreclosure, this area falls under a down payment assistant program. (look for all this info on the city's website). To learn more about what it is like to live in this neighborhood I would recommend going to one of the events at Pearson Park and talk to the neighbors. Here are some good websites



<a href="http://www.anaheimcolony.com/">Anahiem Colony</a>



<a href="http://www.meghanshomes.com/">Realtor that knows this area well</a>





<a href="http://www.anaheimhistoricalsociety.com/links.htm">Anaheim Historical Society</a>







Bk, you mentioned commercial expertise within Anaheim. Do you think Anaheim will eventually become the job center of Orange County.</blockquote>


I thought about The Colony for awhile, but it still seemed very hit and miss. One block would be ok, and then the next block was barrio. It may change its stripes for the better in the next decade or so, but with the bust, I am no so optimistic. Plus, it has all the "openness" problems BK identified with respect to Woodbury in the other thread.



Don't get me wrong, there are some fabulous houses there, many of which I would like to live in, but it is not Floral Park or old Fullerton.
 
[quote author="EvaLSeraphim" date=1253622475][quote author="Mcdonna1980" date=1253612740]I would seriously consider the Colony for the price point your friend is looking for. I did a quick search on Redfin and found a few single family homes that sold below $300,000 in the last few months. The City of Anaheim is clearly behind revamping this area given the financial incentives offered to homeowners in The Colony. The city offers the Mills Act (tax savings), rehab grants, below market rate loans to preserve the historic properties in the Colony. Plus, if your you buy a foreclosure, this area falls under a down payment assistant program. (look for all this info on the city's website). To learn more about what it is like to live in this neighborhood I would recommend going to one of the events at Pearson Park and talk to the neighbors. Here are some good websites



<a href="http://www.anaheimcolony.com/">Anahiem Colony</a>



<a href="http://www.meghanshomes.com/">Realtor that knows this area well</a>





<a href="http://www.anaheimhistoricalsociety.com/links.htm">Anaheim Historical Society</a>







Bk, you mentioned commercial expertise within Anaheim. Do you think Anaheim will eventually become the job center of Orange County.</blockquote>


I thought about The Colony for awhile, but it still seemed very hit and miss. One block would be ok, and then the next block was barrio. It may change its stripes for the better in the next decade or so, but with the bust, I am no so optimistic. Plus, it has all the "openness" problems BK identified with respect to Woodbury in the other thread.



Don't get me wrong, there are some fabulous houses there, many of which I would like to live in, but it is not Floral Park or old Fullerton.</blockquote>


Yeah, that is true. It is more seedy than Fullerton or Floral Park. But on a $300,000 budget it's not a bad choice. The city has tried to address some of the openess issue by closing off streets but have not gone far enough.
 
[quote author="graphrix" date=1253621671][quote author="Mcdonna1980" date=1253619749]An alternative to the freeway would be to take Harbor straight down to CM. It would be about 10-13 miles from Anaheim to Costa Mesa. Google says 30 minutes for one way. I guess how accurate that is would depend on how good a job the traffic light engineers did on Harbor.</blockquote>


I don't know how bad it will be in the AM, but judging from the times I have been on Harbor in the AM and the drive from Chapman down Harbor to South Coast Plaza (not even Costa Mesa really) during rush hour (which took 45 minutes, and 45 minutes back to Chapman on Fairview because I noticed how gawd awful the traffic was on the other side of Harbor going down there)... the 30 minute Google estimate is at around 3AM. From the Brookhurst/Ball area it would take over an hour to get to the CM city line.



However, there is plenty of great food on Brookhurst from Ball down to the 91. Of course if you go there for dinner during Ramadan, just remember that it is buffet at any of the Halal places. I can highly recommend the Thai food place and their buffet. Also Victory bakery/restaurant is great middle eastern food. And just down Ball a little ways is Zankoo chicken, and if you have lived in OC/LA for more than 3 years and haven't had Zankoo, then you aren't living. I'd link all the places, but yelp is down, and... well... you all have google access too.</blockquote>


Zankoo chicken is always busy. We were there about 2 or 3pm and the place has good business.
 
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