Any information on Visalia CA? (Reedley, Lincoln: transplants, crime, houses)

[Layla44]

I want to get out of the Antelope Valley and am trying to find a decent place in CA to live that I can afford. I would prefer to move out of state, but don't want to leave my job here. Can anyone give me any information about Visalia or surrounding small cities? My main concern is crime and schools.

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by Layla44

I want to get out of the Antelope Valley and am trying to find a decent place in CA to live that I can afford. I would prefer to move out of state, but don't want to leave my job here. Can anyone give me any information about Visalia or surrounding small cities? My main concern is crime and schools.

They are building a lot of tracts up there, but it's still the land of agriculture and prisons. There are some areas that are nice in the Sequoia foothills, but I would personally avoid Visalia proper.

[grimstuff]

Try smaller surrounding cities, like Reedley or Exeter.

[Layla44]

Thanks for the help! Exeter was actually my first choice. I drove through there recently, stopped at a small antique shop. Seemed like a real nice small town.

[Joyful]

We moved to Exeter two and a half years ago. It's a nice town.
I'd give the schools mixed reviews, depending on the age of your children. By the time we moved here, our kids were too old to go to Lincoln (K-2) which I have heard many good things about, but we had bad experiences at both Rocky Hill (3-5) and Wilson Middle School (6-8). Mostly Rocky Hill -- the principal is horrible. But we love the High School. It's not perfect, but I have a lot more good things to say about it than bad.

Most of our shopping is done in Visalia (Costco, Target, malls, etc.) which is inconvienent at times. I do wish the city would allow for a little more growth, but I understand how too much growth can be a bad thing, too.

The air is bad here, as it is in all of the Central Valley... BUT, we don't get fog in Exeter nearly as bad as most other places in the Valley. We can have a perfectly clear day here and drive into Visalia and be surpised at how foggy it is! So that's nice! Plus there is a small town feel, we're just 20 minutes from the entrance to Sequoia National Park, 15 minutes from Lake Kaweah, 2.5 hours to the beach or LA, there are a bunch of parks in town and we have a cute downtown.

Plus, houses start under $100k (for a 1/1), a typical single family home (3/2) in one of the nicer neighborhoods start around $250,000 and go up from there. Prices have stayed stronger here than in Visalia, which I believe is a tribute to this charming community. Truth be told, though, the crime here is higher than average. It doesn't FEEL like it, though. We feel safe here, but if you look at the stats, they tell a different story. I do think things will start to get better, however... mostly based on the people who are moving here and my gut feelings. But I could be wrong! :-) Who knows.

I do know, however, that I have met some of the nicest people I've ever known here. We've met our very best friends here. Mostly other transplants like us, or folks from Visalia looking for a nicer place to call home.

I hope this helps!

[Roaddog]

I spent some time in Visalia a few months back and found it to a real nice town, the people seemed friendly and the town was laid out very nice, the landscaping was second to none, of course I disn't see everything and I dont live there but it seemed nice.

[rosettegarbanz]

One thing about Antelope Valley is that you can look forward to the evenings cooling down. Not so in Central Calif. Also make sure you can speak Spanish. That seems to be the official language now. PS try checking out Kingsburg.

[Axiom]

It's been a few years since we lived there (maybe 7 or 8) so I can't really comment on current conditions, but overall it was OK

On the up side:

loved having access to fresh produce, we really miss stopping at the roadside stands and getting all those good fruits and veggies.

our school experience was also good, but we left before the kids hit middle school. I had some serious concerns about the middle school they would have attended.

we met lots of great people there.


On the down side:

shopping really stinks, at least it did when we were there.

crime stats for the area as a whole are not great. You definitely want to be careful about what neighborhood you live in.

an even bigger concern for us though was the air quality. In fact that's the main reason we left.

[Layla44]

thanks for the replies! I'm still here in the Antelope Valley. Now thinking of maybe moving to Tehachapi. If I do move up to the Visalia area, I am thinking of Exeter as opposed to Visalia.

[Axiom]

Originally Posted by Layla44

thanks for the replies! I'm still here in the Antelope Valley. Now thinking of maybe moving to Tehachapi. If I do move up to the Visalia area, I am thinking of Exeter as opposed to Visalia.

I didn't even notice we were posting on a pretty old thread - looks like you got a bump back to the top.

Good Luck with your decision