Best Places to Live in Orange County, CA: Insider Guide

If you’re moving to Orange County, you might’ve searched “Where is the best place to live in Orange County?” on sites like Quora or Reddit.

The problem with this approach is two-fold:

1) Orange County has 34 cities, so it’ll take you a long time to research and explore all of them

2) You’ll get a pretty wide range of opinions from folks of all different ages, cultural backgrounds, values, etc.

Therefore, we’ve decided to produce this guide to give you a more nuanced take.

Why are we qualified to write this?

First off, we are native OC residents and love living here. This also means we’re also able to appreciate and find beauty in pretty much every OC city. It is difficult to pick just a few for this list, as we believe Orange County in general is a wonderful place to live. :)

Best Places to Live - North Orange County

North Orange County tends to be more affordable than South Orange County since it’s farther from the coast.

Anaheim

• Home of the Disneyland Resort

• Note: It’s one of the largest cities in Orange County, and as a result, crime is relatively higher

Costa Mesa

• Orange County’s cultural hub with excellent dining options and numerous attractions including Segerstrom Center for the Arts, OCMA, and South Coast Plaza

Fullerton

• Great for students (home to CSUF, a 4-year university and Fullerton College, a community college)

• Walkable downtown area with bars and restaurants

• Close to major freeways and Disneyland

Orange

• Charming, walkable downtown area next to Chapman University with traces of Old Town USA (including antique shops)

• Centrally located and close to major freeways

Huntington Beach

• A world-class surfing destination

• Busy main street area near the pier

Santa Ana

• OC’s largest concentration of Latino-owned businesses

• Historic downtown with bars and restaurants

• The “county seat” of Orange County

• Very centrally located with access to major freeways

Best Places to Live - South Orange County

Housing tends to be more expensive on average in South OC since it’s closer to the beach.

Irvine

• An expansive, master-planned community

• Several major employers located here, including UCI

• Extremely clean and modern appearance (Irvine has an ordinance banning signage)

Laguna Beach

• Home to Orange County’s most picturesque cliffside beaches

• A bit of a bubble—not very close to other major cities or freeways

• Large artist community

Newport Beach

• One of the most affluent cities in the country

• Upscale dining and shopping (home to Fashion Island)

• Home to Balboa Island and Balboa Peninsula

San Clemente

• Laid-back beach town with a historic downtown area

• Like Laguna, it’s far removed from the rest of the county