How is our neighbor Lake Forest?

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<p>I have been watching the Lake Forest area, also. The home prices are very reasonable relative to Irvine. Does anyone have any opinion of this city? </p>
 
<p>I've looked out there as well. I have kept an eye on this one:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1065199">http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1065199</a></p>

<p>Nice, good-sized house for only $150K more than my 1600sf Irvine condo. So tempting. Most of Lake Forest is old though, like late 70's. I think the area up by the toll road is nice, just kind of far away from things. No neighborhood schools either.</p>

<p>Price in Aliso are coming down pretty good too. If we can't swing buying in Irvine comfortably, I think we'll go AV vs. Lake or RSM. Rather be closer to the water.</p>

<p>Check out this comparable value in AV:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1502988">http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1502988</a></p>

<p>$280-300 per sf for a good neighborhood with decent upgrades is doable in places like LF, AV, and RSM.</p>
 
I considered Lake Forest, but chose Laguna Niguel over it. Most neighborhoods in LF are too close to the freeway for my taste, and some of them look pretty shady (like the ones around Carlota, Ridgeroute, and so on. The closer to the freeway, the worse they look. Lots of mobile homes and cheap apartments. I'm not a huge fan of Mission Viejo, but it's much better than LF. Just drive around there, everytime I'm passing by those homes, literally backing to the road, with all adults present during the weekdays (indicates unemployment perhaps, not a good sign for having them as your neighbors), sipping beer, with 4+ kids running on the road unsupervised, lots of beat up cars and pickup trucks and old RVs parked along the road, and the list goes on. Trust me, there is a reason why the prices there are lower than the neighboring cities.

Oh, and look up the Meagan's law map for LF, there is plenty of sex offenders usually living at those cheap apartment complexes (I haven't checked for LF, but I was stunned to learn that most of them in Laguna Niguel concentrate in those cheap apartments on Alicia, near the wilderness park and 73 road. Even if you don't have kids, it is always a good indicator of bad neighborhoods.
 
<p>Hahaha. Thanks, blackacre. My wife and I was looking at those 2 cities, LF and Mission Viejo. From looking at a map. LF seems so far away from everything. </p>

<p>But with the keen info. you provided, I can now convince my wife to look elsewhere.</p>
 
Most places of rental will have undesirable elements. Lower rent places will attract some questionable renters like you have described. Private residences near apartments suffered some with lowered comp value. You may have seen some blue collared renters. It is really hard to tell if they are bad neighbors or not. The area around the lakes is nice and some area inside thr Eucalyptus Forest is interesting. This would be a good place for first time buyer. Laguna Niguel is certainly a much higher pedigree but price is out of reached by the first time buyers.
 
<p>bk,</p>

<p>You know those older homes near Main and Civic Center in Santa Ana. How can I describe them. They have cone shape roofs. Are those what they call "Victorian's"?</p>
 
<p>Let me clarify: I was actually describing Lake Forest SFRs I'm passing by every other day. I doubt that all of them are rented out. Even so, do you really want to live next door to blaring music, 7 junk cars parked in each driveway, and bunch of unruly kids? I'm not even talking about cheap apartment complexes folks, these Lake Forest SFR people would look like aristocrats compared to them :)</p>

<p>I know nothing about those 2 neighborhoods bkshopr has described, but no neighborhood exists in isolation. </p>

<p>My own list of desirability of the South OC cities would be: </p>

<p>Newport Beach/Corona Del Mar</p>

<p>Irvine</p>

<p>Laguna Beach</p>

<p>Dana Point/Laguna Niguel</p>

<p>Aliso Viejo</p>

<p>Mission Viejo</p>

<p>Rancho Santa Margarita</p>

<p>Lake Forest</p>

<p>Santa Ana</p>

<p>I might have forgotten some other south OC cities, but these are the ones I'm most familiar with. </p>
 
<p>Reason,</p>

<p>You are about to high jack this Lake Forest thread. The structure that you are referring to is the Stick and Shingle style. The Victorian is a highly decorated Stick and Shingle style house by many exterior ornamentations bought from catalogs such as brackets, spindles, gable end louvers, spandrel lattice, and fancy cut trims made from the industrial revolution. </p>

<p>The one in Santa Ana has excellent Stick and Shingle form but lacking the ornate decorations. </p>

<p>The simplification of the roof form to simple hips and gables is called Arts and Crafts with emphasis in artistic expression of beam and structural joinery. Later this style evolved into the craftsman style that took on more oriental motif and the absence of nails and screws in all the structural connection using mortise and tendon connections. </p>

<p>The cheap version of the craftsman is called the cottage. It has lots of wood sidings and interesting patterns but lacked the expression of the big beams and structural expression. Most homes in City of Orange were cottages made by Sears. </p>
 
<p>Black Acre,</p>

<p>Newport Heights is right next to Costa Mesa but separated by Old Newport Blvd and some elevation changes. Million dollar homes on one side and day laborers standing across the street on the Costa Mesa side like the Old Berlin Wall that separated East from West berlin. </p>

<p>Orange Hills and Cowan Heights adjacent to Chapman Ave at the bottom of the hill is another example of night and day bordered by just a fine line marking the rich folks and the day laborers.</p>

<p>Be adventurous get out of South County once in a while. Explore SoCal. There are a lot out there to learn and see. Have an open mind and take some risk. Most successful people take risk.</p>
 
<p>I know Newport Heights area. I remember a few years back they used to actually be either Santa Ana or Costa Mesa's territory, but fought hard to join Newport :)</p>

<p>You are right, there are neighborhoods just like that in every city. I work in Newport, so I guess I'm stuck in the south OC. Oh well, don't want to be the thread-hijacker, so won't go into detail on that :)</p>
 
<p>bk,</p>

<p>Sorry for the off tangent question there. I figure you might know the answer, so I am chasing you from one "thread" to another. </p>
 
<p>Ipoplaya-</p>

<p>When my family moved from Chicago in Nov 2005, I saw 8 Crystal Glen in AV. Back then the price was $1.15 or $1.2 million! What a price reduction!</p>
 
If you're into the "prestige factor," then Lake Forest is pretty low on the list compared to other South County cities.





blackacre, good idea to make lists, which are always fun, and to clarify my own POV (as a south county native) I'll make my own in terms of desirability:





Newport/CdM (not even sure if this is technically south county anymore - it used to be a while back in RE stats)


Laguna Beach


Dana Point/Laguna Niguel (about even)


Coto de Caza (perhaps even with DP/LN in the best parts, but negative is its distance from the beach)


Aliso Viejo


Mission Viejo/RSM (about even, RSM is probably a bit below)


Lake Forest/San Juan (note: there are some very, very nice parts of San Juan - including by Marbella CC)
 
Well the "bad elements" don't cause much trouble in Lake Forest. Violent crime is only <a href="http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Lake+Forest&state=CA">23%</a> of the national average. Not as good as Irvine's <a href="http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Irvine&state=CA">15%</a> but still excellent.
 
Nope, crime isn't too much of a problem over there.





Let me also clarify: many of the newer and more-expensive homes in Lake Forest are in Foothill Ranch, which is to the east.
 
I dont think lake forest is that bad but its far from everything else and there isnt much out there...how is the school district there btw anybody know.
 
Could we move this thread to "OC Real Estate" section?





Some interesting facts:





Lake Forest has population density of 6,274 per sq mile, and is considered to be the most densely populated city in South OC as of 2007.





Lake Forest annexed Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills communities in 2000. For those who feel the city is kinda boring, you can take Irvine Center Drive, Alton Pkway, or I-5 up to Irvine Spectrum very easily. i prefer Irvine Spectrum because Laguna Hills Mall is kinda gimpy.





The City of Lake Forest has been ranked the 10th and 15th safest city in the US by different research firms. However, of all the friends I know, the most crazy one (who has been admitted to the mental ward on 2 occasions) lives there. I do not want to be anywhere near her.





The city has 2 small man-made lakes, which look like duck ponds compared to Lake Mission Viejo.

 
There are a lot of good schools there, starting at the woods/lake and go away from the freeway the schools are good.





There is also a very nice area about half way to Foothill Ranch which has very high end view homes good schools, neighborhood parks. I forget the name but its a great neighborhood. Around Normandale somewhere.





Spectrum is about 5 mins from Lake Forest (not FR though), and I have never seen beer sipping, porch dwelling, unemployed sex offenders when I was there.





Lots of nice SFR neighborhoods when you get away from the freeway, closer to the Lakes. As long as you check which schools you're assigned in each neighborhood, its and excellent alternative to Mission Viejo and a lot closer to the rest of OC.





If you think Aliso Viejo is "closer to the water" then go during the summertime. Laguna Niguel or even Irvine are much better choices if you're looking for weather. AV, LF and MV are all hot in the summer, with AV being the hottest.
 
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