the reality of living in Orange County...

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Looking to Washington
Still, Simon says he's renting for now. It's cheaper than owning, and he thinks lower prices lie ahead, particularly if government support for the housing market wanes. Housing, he says, is "the single most important thing in the economy right now."
Former home-industry workers who have managed to find new jobs often have had to rethink their profession. The nonprofit Fair Housing Council of Orange County, which normally mediates disputes between tenants and landlords, recently hired a former real-estate agent to negotiate with lenders to keep troubled borrowers in their homes.
In Anaheim, Mayor Curt Pringle had consultant Richard Florida speak to local officials on how to attract a new "creative class" of jobs to the city. He also hired J.D. Power & Associates (like BusinessWeek, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies) to evaluate the performance of municipal services to help the city attract new businesses and residents.
Lucy Dunn, chief executive of the Orange County Business Council, a sort of Chamber of Commerce, was in Washington recently to drum up funding for housing, infrastructure and education initiatives in the county. Dunn says she is fighting stereotypes, fostered in part by television shows such as "The O.C." and "The Real Housewives of Orange County." In fact, the county is now more than 30% Hispanic, and some of the areas hardest-hit by the housing downturn are in less wealthy Orange County cities located inland, such as Santa Ana and Fullerton.
"There's a misperception that we're a bunch of white, rich beach lovers," she says. "The reality of our demographics and economy belies the myth."