El Camino Real Neighborhood Guide

The Village of El Camino Real is located in the northern part of Irvine, California. It was created during the first phase of the master-planned development of The Irvine Ranch®, which was founded by James Irvine more than 150 years ago. The neighborhood covers an area of approximately 1.25 square miles.

Construction on El Camino Real Village started during the 1960s. It completed by the early 1970s. The community has a nice mixture of housing, apartment complexes, and shopping centers. There are schools, churches, parks, and recreational areas to enjoy with plenty of open space.

El Camino Real is right in the center of everything, yet it feels like living in a protected, high-quality suburb. There are plenty of sidewalks to take a dog for a walk. Parents like the close proximity of good schools for the kids. Most people say they feel completely safe walking in this neighborhood at night. This is a great place to raise a family.

El Camino Real is one of the oldest, well-established neighborhoods in Irvine. This makes it a very desirable area to live in. 68% of the homes are owner-occupied. About 44% of the people who live here are families with children. The demographics of this area are 54% white, 33% Asian, 3% black, and 10% are a mixture of other races. The Asian part of the community is a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese. Because of the diversity in this community, there are ethnic-focused grocery stores and plenty of small restaurants with international-style food dishes to enjoy.

El Camino Real Village is part of the Irvine Unified School District. There are only a few public schools in this neighborhood and only one private school. Parents who want to send their children to other private schools need to send them to schools in other parts of Irvine.

The public schools are reasonably safe for children. Average test scores, which are received by the students at these schools, on the standardized California state exams, are decent. Parents who reviewed the public schools in this neighborhood, generally make positive comments about the teachers and their children’s experiences at the schools.

The schools in this neighborhood, are the first ones established in Irvine. They opened in the 1970s. During that time, the schools rapidly filled to capacity due to the influx of home buyers for the new development. More schools opened since then, in nearby subdivisions, so now the teacher-student ratio of the schools in this neighborhood is around 30.7, which is considered good.

The housing in this neighborhood consists mostly of single-family homes and with a few low-rise apartment complexes. Most of the homes and apartments were constructed during the 1960s and 1970s. The housing development was part of the first phase of the master-planned development of the city of Irvine.

The housing is organized in groups of homes interspersed with small green area parks. The homes were built on streets that branch off from each other and frequently end in cul-de-sacs. This was done to reduce the through-traffic that would create noise as cars go by. It also means that kids can safely play in the streets in front of their homes.

Bike paths and walking trails connect the housing areas to the other parts of the community. Most of the single-family homes are stand-alone units, built on large lots of about one-half acre. Some of the luxury homes have huge one-acre lots with big backyards