Some of the most
affordable Orange County cities are Anaheim, Garden Grove, Buena Park, Fullerton, Westminster, and Rancho Santa
Margarita. Each of these cities are located in North OC, except for Rancho Santa Margarita.
Rancho Santa Margarita is
located in South Orange County and has a
population of 48,792. RSM was officially
incorporated on 1 January 2000 and is regarded as one of the best places to
live in California. The city is mainly residential yet has convenient access to shopping in nearby Tustin and Laguna Hills as well as
the job hub of Irvine a little farther north.
Most of the home styles
have a Spanish theme with red tile roofs on single family homes or apartment
buildings. Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch,
and Rancho Cielo are the pristine and popular communities. Dove Canyon is most
expensive neighborhood in RSM, where homes sell for roughly 1.5 million
The schools of RSM have
half of them in Saddleback Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) and the other
half in Capistrano Unified School District
CUSD (same school districts as Mission Viejo).
A lot of Rancho Santa
Margarita's communities have a "Supplemental Fee" called Mello Roos.
It is similar to a property tax, and is added to the semi-annual tax bill. An
overwhelming majority of RSM homes come with Mello Roos fees.
