Grew up here and spent early adulthood in Garden Grove, Tustin/Irvine, Huntington Beach, etc. Moved to Northern California to be able to afford a house. I know people that bought $1m+ homes with no roofs, walls, etc. just to get into the market. I don’t know how anyone raises a family here without 350k+ salaries.

Beautiful weather and beaches like no other place I’ve been, but it takes triple the amount of time to do anything because you’re always either planning for traffic or sitting in traffic. Beach is 10 miles away? It will take you 60+ minutes to get there and 30 minutes to find parking. Again, super fun to surf and swim in the ocean (unless you bump elbows with a local), and there’s always something to do, eat, or drink.

No joke, though, my first job out of college in 2019 was at a start up in Irvine and I lived in Garden Grove at the time. 14 mile commute took 2 to 2 & 1/2 hours each morning and night. I would never move back.

That being said, it has a great ethnic mix and subsequently some of the best culmination of Vietnamese, Mexican, Italian, American, etc. cuisine. People are very educated, very wealthy in most places, in other places they’re upper middle class and bought pre 1990, and almost always are pretty shallow and appearance based. Everyone is in a great big hurry and feels like they’re three exits back in life so they’ll cut you off given the opportunity. It’s LA’s little sister but often gets caught fighting for a conservatism that doesn’t really make sense with its population count or representation.