Cost of living in Irvine CA

Hello ladies, I am so glad I found this forum. We currently live in upstate NY and my husband may receive a job offer in Irvine CA. I am a little concerned about the cost of living in CA. We currently own a house in NY, but I don’t think that will be possible in CA, so we will have to downgrade to an apartment. I had a few questions:
1) What is the average rent of a 2-3 bedroom (900- 1500 sq ft) apartment in a safe area in or around Irivne? We think we can afford around $1700-2000 a month.
2) Are utilities usually included in the rent, how much does that usually cost per month (based upon usage for 2 people)?
3) Are groceries really that expensive? We usually spend around $200-300 per month on groceries.
4) Can anyone recommend any good apartment buildings? I don’t think we want to move into any student like apartments, but apartments for professional people.
5) Also is there a temple in the area? I am assuming there are lots of Indian grocery stores.
6) Do Indian movies play in local theatres there?
Sorry for so many questions, just trying to get an idea of what Irivne is like and whether there is a good Indian community.
Thanks a lot,
Cooks.

 

Hi Deepthi,

thanks a lot for the reply. I will check out the link you sent. I was more interested in the luxury kind of apartments, so hopefully will be able to find something. Wow didnt realize there were so many Indians there. I live in upstate NY so we only have 1 indian store, no indian movies and limited Indians (which is good in a way too ).

But thanks for the reply.
cooks

 

Hi Pavithra,

Thanks for that information. I will surely check out that parkwest apartment complex. I did have one more question. Does the $1760 include utilities? or is that separate? How much do utilities usually cost?

thanks,
cooks.