Military family moving from TX to the Los Alamitos area, should we seek housing at Ft. MacArthur or elsewhere? (Los Angeles: fit in)

[Kim63]

Hi,

Our family is moving from a smaller area outside of San Antonio, TX (military) and are not sure which military base would be best for housing? Husband will actually work in Los Alamitos. We would like to feel safe and have "easy" access to nice things in the area and decent housing. Do any of the bases fit in that category? We have 4 kids.Thanks for any advice.

[BTroutman]

The city of Los Alamitos is nice. Some other cities you may consider are Seal Beach, Cypress, and La Palma. It's a small base as there is no commissary.

[dennismpat]

Originally Posted by BTroutman

The city of Los Alamitos is nice. Some other cities you may consider are Seal Beach, Cypress, and La Palma. It's a small base as there is no commissary.

I fully agree with this assessment. I work in Los Alamitos, and not only is it nice, but very safe. Since Los Alamitos is a small city, the police response time is VERY quick!

The other three cities mentioned are also nice areas in which to live.

[Maggie618]

I would suggest ruling Fort MacArthur out. Especially given that the two previous posters have good things to say about Los Alamitos.

My husband is in the Air Force and is stationed at Los Angeles AFB. The base housing for LAAFB is on Ft Mac. Ft Mac itself is nice...inside the gate. But the area just outside and surrounding the gate is horrible. The townhouses on Ft Mac are old and look a little run down to me. There are lots of nice little suburbs in SoCal that I think would be better than the base housing.

But if you do decide that base housing is right for your family, Ft Mac has a fitness center, youth center, almost everything a normal base/post has except for a BX/PX and commissary. Those are located on LAAFB...the commissary and BX are brand new, but aren't very impressive, especially if you're used to the commissaries and BX's in San Antonio.

BTW...I'm from San Antonio...born and raised!

[ften213]

I ran across these postings and thought I would give my first hand experience. BTW, I am also from San Antone- born and raised

My wife, son and I moved to Ft Mac from the UK. The previous poster was correct, the grounds on Ft Mac are very nicely maintained and all of the amenities of a base are located on the base (minus the gas station and commisary)

I think it is a good way to transition to this area. It alleviates the hassle of finding after hours child care and other issues related to PCSing to a new area.

The base housing is now contracted out to a management company and are called Tierra Vista? We moved out just as the transfer took place. We moved only because the location itself is not very convenient. My wife works in Santa Monica and the commute on the 405 freeway to San Pedro was horrendous! Anyhow, we now live in Culver City, a nice suburb between Santa Monica and San Pedro. You do have to make some sacrifices to live in the community and keep it within an affordable range. Townhouse style apartments seem to be the smartest way to go without exceeding the housing allowance by too much. But you do sacifice a yard and if you have more than one child this may be difficult.

San Pedro itself is not the nicest area, but we didn't really do too much in that area when we lived there...probably for that reason.

Hope this info helps on your decision.

[calquirky]

This is an old thread, but I'll add to it in the chance that another military family is coming in.
First of all Los Alamitos is nowhere near Ft. Mac. The first poster was correct. Find a house to rent in any of the nearby communities --all are nice and most have good schools. Your housing allowance should be enough to cover the rents here in SoCal. With the current devaluation of housing values running close to 30%, you might even find a foreclosure to buy! It's a great time to buy, if you can find a bank to make the loan.