How should you choose between Irvine and South Orange County with a $2 million to $3 million budget? Compare housing, commute, ownership costs, and coastal access in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, and San Clemente.

What does roughly $2 million buy in South Orange County? Compare San Clemente, Dana Point and Laguna Niguel, and see how the same budget can mean a completely different house, neighborhood and coastal lifestyle.

The median home in Dana Point sold for $2.386M. Here's exactly what that gets you, what daily life actually looks like, the costs nobody mentions — and who should choose a different South Orange County city instead.