04.21.07

Orange County MLS - Homes Real Estate

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02.19.07

Orange County MLS - Index by Town Name

Posted in Orange County MLS Homes Real Estate for Sale at 5:50 am by idxsi

Kevin Keaty Real Estate Team, Orange County, California

Buyers Agent Offering Exclusive Buyers Services

Kevin Keaty Real Estate Team, Orange County, CA, Protecting The Southern California Home Buyer, Phone: (760) 214-7268, kevinkeatyn@orangecountyhomesre.com

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02.16.07

Orange County Geography

Posted in Orange County Georgraphy at 5:30 pm by idxsi

Orange County Geography

Cities in Orange County

Cities in Orange County

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,455 km² (948 mi²), making it the smallest county in Southern California. Surface water accounts for 411 km² (159 mi²) of the area, 16.73% of the total; 2,045 km² (789 mi²) of it is land.

Orange County is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Los Angeles County, on the northeast by San Bernardino County, on the east by Riverside County, and on the south by San Diego County.

The northern part of the county lies on the coastal plain of the Los Angeles Basin, while the southern half lies on the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. Most of Orange County’s population resides in one of two shallow coastal valleys that lie in the basin, the Santa Ana Valley and the Saddleback Valley. The coastal plain gently rises into the Santa Ana Mountains, which lie within the boundaries of the county and of the Cleveland National Forest. The high point is Santiago Peak (5,687 ft/1,733 m), about 20 mi (32 km) east of Santa Ana. Santiago Peak and nearby Modjeska Peak, just 200 feet shorter, form a ridge known as Saddleback, visible from almost everywhere in the county.

The Santa Ana River is the county’s principal watercourse. Its major tributary running through the county is Santiago Creek. Other watercourses within the county include Aliso Creek, San Juan Creek, and Horsethief Creek. The San Gabriel River also briefly crosses into Orange County and exits into the Pacific on the Los Angeles-Orange County line between Long Beach and Seal Beach. Laguna Beach is home to the county’s only natural lakes, Laguna Lakes, which are formed by water rising up against an underground fault.

Residents often divide the county into “North County” and “South County”, as opposed to an East-West division characterized by coastal and inland cities; however, there may be significant cultural differences found on the coast than futher inland. There is no formal geographical division of North and South County, though a North-South border may be drawn somewhere along the Tustin-Irvine and Costa Mesa-Newport Beach city boundaries, or along the boundary between the 714 and 949 area codes. Orange County is part of the five-county Greater Los Angeles area.

Incorporated cities

As of August 2006, Orange County has 34 incorporated cities. The oldest is Anaheim (1870) and the youngest is Aliso Viejo (2001).


Noteworthy communities

Some of the communities that exist within city limits are listed below:


Unincorporated communities

These communities are outside of city limits in unincorporated county territory:


See also: List of neighborhoods and unincorporated communities in Orange County

Adjacent counties

All Orange County Geography text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Orange County History

Posted in Orange County History at 5:27 pm by idxsi

Orange County History

Members of the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño nations long inhabited the area. After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Junipero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano became the first permanent European settlement.

A severe drought in the 1860s devastated the prevailing industry, cattle ranching, and much land came into the possession of Richard O’Neill, Sr., James Irvine and other land barons. In 1887, silver was discovered in the Santa Ana mountains, attracting settlers via the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads. This growth led the California legislature to divide Los Angeles County and create Orange County as a separate political entity on March 11, 1889. It was named for its most famous product, but other citrus crops, avocados, and oil extraction were also important to the early economy.

Orange County benefited from the July 4, 1904 completion of the Pacific Electric Railway, a trolley connecting Los Angeles with Newport Beach and Santa Ana. The link made Orange County an accessible weekend retreat for celebrities of early Hollywood. It was deemed so significant that the city of Pacific City changed its name to Huntington Beach in honor of Henry Huntington, president of the Pacific Electric and nephew of robber baron Collis Huntington. Transportation further improved with the completion of the State Route and U.S. Route 101 (now mostly Interstate 5) in the 1920s.

Agriculture, such as the boysenberry which was made famous by Buena Park native Walter Knott, began to decline after World War II but the county’s prosperity soared. The completion of Interstate 5 in 1954 helped make Orange County a bedroom community for many who moved to Southern California to work in aerospace and manufacturing. Orange County received a further boost in 1955 with the opening of Disneyland.

In 1969, Yorba Linda-born Orange County native Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States.

In the 1980s, the population topped 2 million for the first time. Orange County had become the second largest county in California.

A spectacular investment fund melt-down in 1994 led to the criminal prosecution of Orange County treasurer Robert Citron. On December 6, 1994, Orange County declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy, from which it emerged in June 1995; this was the largest ever municipal bankruptcy in the U.S. The county lost about $1.6 billion through high-risk investments in derivatives.

In recent years, the county has been characterized by conflict between the older northern and newer southern cities over development, the building of new toll roads, and a recently defeated proposal to build an international airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station that would have reduced operations at the existing John Wayne Airport.

All Orange County History text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Orange County Demographics

Posted in Orange County Demographics at 4:31 pm by idxsi

Orange County Demographics

Historical populations
1890 13,589
1900 19,696 44.9%
1910 34,436 74.8%
1920 61,375 78.2%
1930 118,674 93.4%
1990 2,410,556 24.7%
2000 2,846,289 18.1%
2005 est. 3,056,865 7.4%

As of the census² of 2000, there were 2,846,289 people, 935,287 households, and 667,794 families residing in the county, making Orange County the second most populous county in California. The population density was 1,392/km² (3,606/mi²). There were 969,484 housing units at an average density of 474/km² (1,228/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 64.81% White, 13.59% Asian, 1.67% African American, 0.70% Native American, 0.31% Pacific Islander, 14.80% from other races, and 4.12% from two or more races. 30.76% are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

In 1990, still according to the census² there were 2,410,556 people residing in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 64.49% White, not of Hispanic origins, 23.43% Hispanic or Latino, 9.99% Asian, 1.62% African American, 0.36% Native American, and 0.11% of some other race.

There were 935,287 households out of which 37.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.9% were married couples living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.00 and the average family size was 3.48.

The population is diverse age-wise, with 27.0% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% 65 years of age or older. The median age is 33 years. For every 100 females there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $61,899, and the median income for a family was $75,700. Males had a median income of $45,059 versus $34,026 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,826. About 7.0% of families and 10.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.

It is likely that Hispanic population is larger than US Census numbers due to the thousands of illegal immigrants residing within county lines.

Orange County Median household income by community

Unincorporated communities are included if their population is greater than 15,000

All Orange County Demographics text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Orange County Education

Posted in Orange County Education at 4:19 pm by idxsi

Orange County Education

Orange County is home to many colleges and universities, including:

Many Orange County residents commute to colleges in neighboring counties, including California State University, Long Beach, which is just miles from the L.A. county line.

Its county department of education also oversees 28 school districts.

Further information: List of school districts in Orange County, California

All Orange County Education text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Orange County Points of Interest

Posted in Orange County Points of Interest at 4:13 pm by idxsi

Orange County Points of Interest

The area’s warm Mediterranean climate and 42 miles of year-round beaches attract millions of tourists annually. Huntington Beach is a hot spot for sunbathing and surfing; nicknamed “Surf City, U.S.A.”, it is home to many surfing competitions. “The Wedge”, at the tip of The Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, is one of the most famous body surfing spots in the world. Other tourist destinations include the theme parks Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim and Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park. The Anaheim Convention Center is the largest such facility on the West Coast. The old town area in the City of Orange (the traffic circle at the middle of Chapman Ave. at Glassell) still maintains its 1950s image, and appeared in the That Thing You Do! movie. Little Saigon is another notable tourist destination, being home to the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. There is also a sizable Korean community, particularly in western Orange County.

Other notable structures include the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse in Santa Ana, the largest building in the county; the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, the largest house of worship in California; the historic Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach; the Huntington Beach Pier; and the restored Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Some of the most exclusive (and expensive) neighborhoods in the U.S. are located here, many along the Orange County Coast, and some in north Orange County. Large shopping malls exist throughout the county, such as the Irvine Spectrum Center, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Fashion Island in Newport Beach, The Block at Orange, and the recently remodeled Shops at Mission Viejo in Mission Viejo.

Historical points of interest include Mission San Juan Capistrano (destination of migrating swallows), and the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace (the only privately controlled presidential library in the nation since the government began constructing these libraries in 1939) in Yorba Linda. The Nixon Home is a National Historic Landmark, as is the home of a very different character, Madam Helena Modjeska, in Modjeska Canyon on Santiago Creek.

All Orange County Points of Interest text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Orange County Politics

Posted in Orange County Politics at 4:08 pm by idxsi

Orange County Politics

Year Republican Democratic
2004 59.7% 641,832 39.0% 419,239
2000 55.8% 541,299 40.4% 391,819
1996 51.7% 446,717 37.9% 327,485
1992 43.9% 426,613 31.6% 306,930
1988 67.7% 586,230 31.1% 269,013
1984 74.7% 635,013 24.3% 206,272
1980 67.9% 529,797 22.6% 176,704
1976 62.2% 408,632 35.3% 232,246
1972 68.3% 448,291 26.9% 176,847
1968 63.1% 314,905 29.9% 148,869
1964 55.9% 224,196 44.0% 176,539
1960 60.8% 174,891 38.9% 112,007
1956 67.4% 113,510 32.6% 54,895
1952 70.4% 77,548 29.6% 32,530

Orange County has long been known as a Republican stronghold and has consistently sent Republican representatives to the state and federal legislatures. Republican majorities in Orange County helped deliver California’s electoral votes to Republican presidential candidates Richard Nixon (1960, 1968 and 1972), Gerald Ford (1976), Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984) and George H. W. Bush (1988). Orange County has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1936 landslide re-election for a second term. Although Democrats have made inroads in the northern end of the county since the mid-1980s, Orange County politics are still dominated by Republicans. Five of the county’s six U.S. Representatives, four of its five State Senators and seven of its nine State Assembly members are Republicans, as are all five members of the County Board of Supervisors following the replacement of Democrat Lou Correa in 2007.

According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, as of December 26, 2006, Orange County had 1,501,843 registered voters. Of these registered voters, 47.78% (717,546) are registered Republicans, and 30.08% (451,706) are registered Democrats, giving the Republicans a registration advantage of 17.7% (265840) – or over a quarter of a million voters. An additional 18.19% (273,215) declined to state a political party, and the remaining 3.95% (59,376) are registered with minor political parties.[1]

Orange County has produced such notable Republicans as President Richard Nixon (born in Yorba Linda and lived in San Clemente), U.S. Senator John F. Seymour (previously mayor of Anaheim), and U.S. Senator Thomas Kuchel (of Anaheim). Former Congressman Chris Cox (of Newport Beach), a White House counsel for President Ronald Reagan, is currently chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Orange County was also home to former Republican Congressman John G. Schmitz, a presidential candidate in 1972 from the ultra-conservative American Independent Party and the father of Mary Kay Letourneau. In 1996, Curt Pringle (currently mayor of Anaheim) became the first Republican-elected Speaker of the California State Assembly in decades.

While the growth of the county’s Hispanic and Asian populations in recent decades has significantly influenced the culture of Orange County, its conservative reputation has remained largely intact. Partisan voter registration patterns of Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic minorities in the county have tended to reflect the surrounding demographics, with resultant Republican majorities in all but the central portion of the county. When Democrat Loretta Sanchez defeated veteran Republican Robert K. Dornan in the congressional contest of 1996, she was continuing a trend of Democratic representation of that district that had been interrupted by Dornan’s 1984 upset of former Congressman Jerry Patterson. Until 1992, Sanchez herself was a Republican, and she is viewed as having moderate or even conservative positions on many issues.

Republicans have responded to the influx of ethnic immigrants by making more explicit efforts to court the Hispanic and Asian vote. In 2004, George W. Bush captured 60% of the county’s vote, up from 56% in 2000, despite a higher Democratic popular vote compared with the 2000 election. Although Barbara Boxer won statewide, and fared better in Orange County than she did in 1998, Republican Bill Jones defeated her in the county, 51% to 43%. And while the 39% that John Kerry received is higher than the percentage Bill Clinton won in both 1992 and 1996, the percentage of the vote George W. Bush received in 2004 (60% of the vote) is the highest any presidential candidate has received since 1988, showing a still-dominant GOP presence in the county. Democratic strength is concentrated in the communities of Santa Ana, Laguna Beach and Laguna Woods.

The county features prominently in the book Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right by Lisa McGirr. She argues that the county’s conservative political orientation in the 20th century owed much to its settlement by Midwestern transplants, who reacted strongly to communist sympathies, the civil rights movement, and the turmoil of the 1960s in nearby Los Angeles—across the “Orange Curtain.”

In the 1970s and 1980s, Orange County was one of California’s leading Republican voting blocs and a sub-culture of residents to hold “Middle American” values that emphasized a capitalist religious morality in contrast to West coast progressive liberalism that well existed there.

Political jokes spoke of Orange County as a “white” racist bastion, where their city councils alleged to have ties to the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis, though they are mean-spirited rumors meant to generate controversy on the county’s attitudes on the rising percentage of minoritiy groups moving into formerly homogeneous suburban communities.

Santa Ana has a high portion of Republican voters from culturally conservative Asian-American, Middle Eastern and Latino immigrants, many came as refugees from wars and dictatorships, are strongly loyal to policies of the Republican party to defeat communism and radical Islamic terrorism. High numbers of Vietnamese-Americans in Garden Grove and Westminster are also Republican loyalists for the party’s anti-communist policies, with more than 55% registered Republican compared to 22% Democratic. Republican Assemblyman Van Tran was elected to become the first Vietnamese-American to serve in a state legislature and is tied with Texan Hubert Vo as the highest-ranking elected Vietnamese-American in the United States. In the special election for an open Board of Supervisors seat in 2007, two Vietnamese-American Republicans won the greatest number of votes in a field of 8 candidates, with the winner becoming the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor in the nation and making the Orange County Board of Supervisors all-Republican.

All Orange County Politics text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

02.15.07

Orange County Bank Owned Homes for Sale

Posted in Short Sale - Bank Owned at 2:39 pm by idxsi



We have just added Orange County Bank Owned Homes search by Motivated Sellers - Bring All Offers - Price Reduced and other Orange County Investor keywords.

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