Moving to Costa Mesa California: Pros and Cons

 

So if you wanna go into Costa Mesa's pristine weather, yes. Everyone knows the coastline is fantastic weather. However, if we're really splitting hairs here, the coastline does get that marine layer, so it makes the weather a little bit chillier, not quite as pleasant.

 

very pleasant, but I'm just saying not quite as pleasant. Whereas by the time you get to Costa Mesa, a lot of that marine layer has either burned off pretty early or hasn't even gotten there. So you actually have just absolutely amazing weather in Costa Mesa. Yes, and we're talking about, we are lifelong southern Californians, so we are, we can tell the difference between 78, which is a little too hot.

 

Oof. A little too hot. And 75. Perfect. Beautiful. So we are obviously splitting hairs, but Costa Mesa arguably. Just the best weather you will ever find. 72 is actually pretty nice. Must say. True. Yeah, that's true. Another pro in Costa Mesa is the fact that it's where its location and how the freeways run through it.

 

It is very easy to get from point A to point B. You have the 4 0 5, the 55, and the 73 freeways, basically all running through the city. So it's really easy to get. Pretty much wherever you need to go, whether it's north, south, east, or west, and where, or like is actually situated. You're right next to John Wayne Airport.

 

So there you have that going for you. So it's really easy to get to the airport. You have the beaches just minutes away. Just take the 55 South, and then you're there. And. Literally minutes. And then also, you have employment centers that are actually right nearby. So you have Newport Beach.

 

It's a major employment center as well as Irvine, which is another one, really easy to get to. Yeah. And even Anaheim is another big employment center and it's easy to get to Anaheim from Costa Mesa as well. Oh, for sure. Now remember that amazing weather that we have, because we don't have that marine layer, comes at a price. A con for Costa Mesa is actually the fact that we are not right on the coast.

 

Yeah, you don't, you can't, you're not gonna get a house right on the beach in Costa Mesa because it doesn't have any coastline. Yeah. It's a shame. Another pro of living in Costa Mesa is that Costa Mesa is a very charming city. It has. A lot of, I would say, what we would call organic growth.

 

The architecture is much more charming than maybe if you were in Irvine, which is very master planned, and everything really looks the same. Everything is exactly where it should be. Whereas Costa Mesa, it's definitely more, cute sea. You could sort of it, if cities like San Diego or maybe Pasadena, people really like these cities because they're charming.

 

They're very cute. That is how Costa Mesa. Yeah, there's a lot of variance there. You don't have, while you do have some track homes and stuff like that, again, it doesn't have that whole master plan field. That's not what you're looking for. Yeah, and I would argue also that Costa Mesa has probably my favorite neighborhood out of all of Orange County, which is East Side Costa Mesa.

 

I just love the homes there. They're just so charming and cute, and it's just the most lovely little neighborhood, and it's just so beautiful. It's my favorite neighborhood in all of Orange County. So now, given that Eastside, Costa Mesa, is one of Courtney's favorites, is it Courtney's actual favorite neighborhood in Orange County?

 

It does come at a cost. One of the cons of Costa Mesa is that it's actually pretty expensive. The cost of living here is pretty high. And Eastside Costa Mesa, in particular, is actually very high. Yeah, it's almost like new. It borders Newport Beach, so you're almost getting Newport Beach prices.

 

Yeah, obviously it depends on where Newport Beach, definitely like Newport Heights, you'll get, it's definitely more affordable than Newport Beach, but it's certainly higher than average for the, like, for Orange County at least. For sure. So pro and cons for Costa Mesa are actually the schools now on the pro side.

 

It's part of the Newport Mesa Unified School District. It's a great school district overall. Cause you have this mix of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa schools. The con with that, though, is that the actual schools within there are a little bit hit and miss. So the school, which might be right, like the closest school in your neighborhood, may not have the best rankings or ratings.

 

However, the good thing is that you have inter-district transfer possibilities where you can actually, let's say, go to a different school that obviously has better rankings. Yeah. So you obviously always have the opportunity to transfer. It's just not guaranteed. And then, you also get the con of maybe where you buy your house is not exactly.

 

Five minutes away from the school you're going to, you might have to commute 10 to 15 minutes to go to the school that you want within the district that you think is better for your family. Okay. Another Pro Costa is actually the shopping, absolutely amazing shopping in this city. For one, you have South Coast Plaza, which is the granddaddy of all shopping centers in Orange County.

 

Really? Actually, it's the biggest mall or so. South Coast Plaza is the biggest mall in the West. And I think it did 1.5 billion in sales. That's what its average is annually. So it's huge, and it's honestly. It's gorgeous, it's a great mall, like a gorgeous mall. You have the high-end stuff, but also you have the, like, the entry-level things too.

 

You have a Forever 21, and you have a R mess. You have a massive, it is a massive difference here. But again, everyone goes to the shop there. It's actually and honestly an amazing mall. Yeah, it's a destination. We'll just go there just to walk around cause it just makes you feel happy.

 

But to just walk around in South Coast Plaza, it's a great mall, but then Costa Mesa has Great malls as well. Like what? You have the lab, which is actually pretty cool. So you have a couple of, you have the lab and the camp, which are basically centered around a common theme. So the camp is obviously like outdoorsy stuff.

 

The lab's kinda like this counter culture type of stuff. So it actually has that going on. Then you also have SoCo, which is it's a little bit of everything, so it's more of a furniture-based thing, but you also have some really good restaurants there too. Yeah. So, Costa Mesa, the shopping.

 

Phenomenal. You cannot go wrong with the shopping in Costa Mesa. So, since we're talking about shopping, another pro of Costa Mesa is the food. So the food at these malls is phenomenal. And actually, the only two restaurants in Orange County that have Michelin stars are in Costa Mesa. So Ta Maria is one of them, and Hannah Ray Sushi is another one.

 

And they're both in Costa Mesa malls. And also you have the Typhon, which is at South Coast Plaza. You have a lot of other restaurants on the South Coast. The eating and the restaurants in Costa Mesa. Really? Yeah. Right up there with the shopping. Really phenomenal. You have great food in Costa Mesa, so another Koba Costa Mesa is actually the fact that Costa Mesa as a city is very anti-growth.

 

I think after decades of development, and all that stuff, what we see is that there's a pushback, and dealing with City Hall or the building department slash planning department isn't the easiest. If you're a homeowner trying to upgrade your home, they either make it. Possibly rezone it, add a granny flat.

 

It's, there's a little bit of, there's a decent amount of friction there, if not all-out impossible. Like rezoning isn't easy. We, we, we had a situation where we're trying to. Help us, try to get a good understanding of what was going on at the particular property that had a funny, funky, little zoning situation.

 

And we could not get a straight answer from the city. So another pro of Costa Mesa is that it has Orange Coast College, which is a really good community college. So you can save some money. So your kids don't go right away to a UC school or something else? It's actually so Orange Coast College is one of the best community colleges in the United States.

 

It's in the top 2% for graduating, and I think it's number five for all of California for transferring to either UC schools or to a Cal State School. So you have that option just right in your backyard. It's a really good community college. You can save literally tens of thousands of. By going that route as opposed to immediately going into college.

 

So if you're keeping tabs on the pros and cons, obviously, there are more pros than cons to living in Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa is honestly a fantastic city. It's again, situated. It's got great weather. It's just got so many things going for it. We were actually really stretching when it came to the cons, because again, there's just not that many cons when it comes to Costa Mesa.

 

Yeah, I actually really love Costa Mesa. I love its architecture. I love just how cute it is. I love the weather. It's very practical. The food. Yeah. Costa Mesa is a great place to live. Yeah, for sure.