Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighbhorhood in Santa Ana might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Santa Ana neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Santa Ana are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Santa Ana for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Mar-Les looks to be the cheapest Santa Ana neighborhood to live in.
At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Santa Ana. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Santa Ana that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Santa Ana.
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In California
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Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Santa Ana For 2024
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Population: 763
Cost Of Living Index: 115 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.6 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (11th cheapest)
More on Mar-Les: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,406
Cost Of Living Index: 131 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.4 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (5th cheapest)
More on Delhi: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,172
Cost Of Living Index: 133 (24th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.7 (14th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (7th cheapest)
More on Wilshire Square: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,128
Cost Of Living Index: 136 (3cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.9 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (12th cheapest)
More on Windsor Village: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,166
Cost Of Living Index: 107 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.7 (28th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (16th cheapest)
More on Flower Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 12,607
Cost Of Living Index: 134 (28th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.1 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (19th cheapest)
More on Memorial Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,168
Cost Of Living Index: 135 (30th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.0 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (18th cheapest)
More on South Coast: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 4,633
Cost Of Living Index: 118 (10th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.2 (23rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (20th cheapest)
More on Bella Vista: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,205
Cost Of Living Index: 131 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.2 (22nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (13th cheapest)
More on Bristol-Warner: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 309
Cost Of Living Index: 134 (28th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.2 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (2cheapest)
More on Fairbridge Square: Data | Real Estate
Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Santa Ana Hoods In 2024
To rank the cheapest places to live in Santa Ana, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 55 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Santa Ana.” We’re lookin’ at you, Mar-Les.
We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Santa Ana. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Santa Ana
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Santa Ana where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Santa Ana are Mar-Les, Delhi, Wilshire Square, Windsor Village, Flower Park, Memorial Park, South Coast, Bella Vista, Bristol-Warner, and Fairbridge Square.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Santa Ana aren’t all cheap. Morrison-Eldridge Par takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Santa Ana.
The most expensive neighborhoods in Santa Ana are Morrison-Eldridge Par, Bristol Memory, Floral Park, Cedar Evergreen, and Washington Square.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.
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