Home maintenance for Santa Ana homeowners
Santa Ana has some of the oldest housing stock of any large Orange County city: about a third of its homes predate 1960 and about 11 percent date from 2000 or later. Floral Park and French Park are National Register districts with review rules for exterior work, and the city pumps most of its own water, at about 14 grains of hardness.
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Home maintenance help in Santa Ana
Half the homes in Santa Ana are more than 50 years old, so much of the work here is catching worn pipes, wiring and roofing before they fail. OakTend gives Santa Ana homeowners free home maintenance help during our preview: add your house once and get a reminder when each check is due.
Homes in Santa Ana, at a glance
- Population
- About 310,000 to 316,000 peoplethe 2020 Census counted 310,227; recent ACS estimates run near 316,200. Source: Census Reporter, U.S. Census Bureau data
- Median year built
- 1969Source: Census Reporter, ACS 2020-2024 five-year table B25035
Santa Ana is inland, so it gets hotter summer afternoons and more Santa Ana wind than the coastal cities, and less salt air than the beach towns, though salt can still carry several miles inland.
When homes were built
- Homes counted
- About 83,701
- Built before 1950
- 13.1%
- Built in the 1950s
- 20.8%
- Built in the 1960s
- 17.4%
- Built in the 1970s
- 22.7%
- Built in the 1980s
- 10.5%
- Built in the 1990s
- 4.4%
- Built 2000 or later
- 11.1%
The 1970s are the single largest decade, with the 1950s and 1960s close behind.
Source: Census Reporter, ACS 2020-2024 five-year tables B25034 and B25035
Heat
About ten miles inland, Santa Ana averages summer highs near 84 degrees and defines an extreme heat day as anything above 96.3. The city's planning work projects those days climbing from a historical handful a year to an average of 11 by mid-century and 25 by the end of it.
Fire service
Fire service comes from the Orange County Fire Authority, which the city's fire page says runs ten stations throughout the city for fire suppression and emergency medical response.
Source: City of Santa Ana, Orange County Fire Authority page
Real neighborhoods in Santa Ana
- Floral Park
- Historic French Park
- Wilshire Square
- Downtown Santa Ana
Floral Park, a 1920s and 1930s neighborhood of Spanish Colonial, French Normandy, English Tudor and Italianate homes, joined the National Register in 2023 as the city's largest historic district. Historic French Park, listed in 1999, is about 20 blocks of Victorian and Craftsman homes northeast of downtown, and Downtown Santa Ana is a third listed district.
Water, permits, and local rules in Santa Ana
Water
The city runs its own water utility. Its 2025 Consumer Confidence Report puts the groundwater at 239 ppm of hardness, about 14 grains per gallon (range 130 to 307 ppm), with about 85 percent of the supply from local groundwater and the rest imported from the Metropolitan Water District. That is very hard on the Water Quality Association's scale, which starts at 10.5 grains.
City of Santa Ana Water Services · Source: City of Santa Ana, 2025 Consumer Confidence Report
Permits
Applications, fees, status checks and inspection scheduling run through Accela Citizen Access, which covers planning, building and public works permits. The division also offers same-day PBx Express over-the-counter permits and Electronic Plan Review; the track depends on the job, so ask the division at 714-647-5800.
City of Santa Ana Building Safety Division permit portal · Source: City building division
Main hazards
The city's 2022 FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan ranks earthquake, flood, climate change and epidemic as the significant threats to Santa Ana. Wildfire is not on the list.
Mello-Roos tax
Most of Santa Ana was built out before the 1982 law that created Mello-Roos Community Facilities Districts, so those special taxes are rare here; the county Treasurer-Tax Collector's lookup answers for a specific parcel.
Source: OC Treasurer-Tax Collector
Liquefaction and faults
The same plan carries a state liquefaction map showing significant susceptibility across most of the city, flat, low Santa Ana River floodplain with shallow groundwater. No known active fault runs through the city, though several regional faults can shake it.
Flood zones
The northern, southern and western parts of the city sit in FEMA 100-year or 500-year flood zones or behind a levee, while the part east of Broadway is outside the mapped zone. FEMA's Flood Map Service Center answers for a specific parcel.
Source: City of Santa Ana Hazard Mitigation Plan, flood chapter
What OakTend does
A maintenance plan built around your home
OakTend turns your home's age, systems, and history into a plan of what to check and when, not a generic checklist.
Ask OakTend anything about your house
Get answers about your systems, their ages, and what's likely to need attention next, any time.
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Guides for Santa Ana homeowners
Electrical panel upgrade cost
A third of Santa Ana's homes predate 1960, often on panels sized for that era.
Sewer line problems in Orange County
Original sewer laterals under pre-1980 Santa Ana homes are well into their service life.
Water heater replacement cost
City groundwater runs about 239 ppm, and a replacement needs a permit before work starts.
Orange County home maintenance checklist
Attic ventilation and roof checks matter more as inland extreme heat days climb.
Maintenance that matters in Santa Ana
Repiping a house in Orange County
The median Santa Ana home was built in 1969. If a house that age has had more than one leak, read when a whole-house repipe makes sense.
How to change your furnace and AC air filter
In Santa Ana, check the AC filter every month.
Does your Orange County city have hard water?
Santa Ana's water comes from the City of Santa Ana Water Services. See how hard it is, from the provider's own report.
Nearby cities
Questions from Santa Ana homeowners
What review does a house in Floral Park or French Park need?
Exterior work in a historic district can need a Certificate of Appropriateness or a Neighborhood Review application that a tract home elsewhere in the city never sees. French Park also has its own SD-19 zoning overlay and design guidelines, so check with the city before ordering windows, roofing or paint.
When does a Santa Ana water heater swap need a permit?
Always. The city's permit guidance says replacing a water heater requires a permit, pulled before the work begins, and applications go through the Accela portal.
Local facts on this page last checked .