Coto De Caza is a suburban planned community of about 4,000+ homes, and one of Orange County's oldest and most expensive master planned communities. The project began in 1968, when it was envisioned as a hunting lodge, now the Coto de Caza Guest Lodges, and the community was completed in 2003. Around the town there are still a few undeveloped lots available for purchase. There are two 18-hole golf courses and two club houses, one considered the "old club" and the other the "new club."

Coto de Caza contains commercial endeavors, The Coto de Caza Guest Lodges & The Coto de Caza General Store. The whole community is guard-gated, and some of the more exclusive areas are even guard-gated multiple times. Residents shop seven minutes away in Rancho Santa Margarita ten minutes away in Mission Viejo two minutes away in Las Flores or four minutes away in Ladera Ranch. Most students in Coto de Caza reside in the Capistrano Unified School District and attend Wagonwheel, Tijeras Creek, Las Flores Middle School, Tesoro High School, and Santa Margarita Catholic High School (not part of Capistrano Unified).

The majority of the community is tract homes and semi-custom homes, with collections of customs on the outskirts off the main streets. Coto de Caza is twenty minutes from the Interstate 5 freeway and five minutes from the 241 toll road to Irvine and then Riverside County.