California has quaint towns, right? :)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by jenoweisz

Hi to all. i am native to southern ca. lived here most of my life. i am now homeless living in motels, cuz no one will rent me an apt. i come from the san fernando valley and also hollywood, and believe me when i tell you most of soutern ca. is horrible and like hell. i recently went to the santa clarita valley and palmdale and it too turned into rubbish. sand diego is bad too. so is the san gabriel valley. so is most of orange county. you have to be very very rich to live in southern ca. ventura county and conejo valley also bad. oxnard, camarillo ventura bad bad bad. need to know more .ask me. i'm up in oxnard/ camarillo now in a comfort inn, looking to move somehere. everything changed too, really fast and drastically. it seems the whole world moved here.it's seems to be the most most expensive area to live in the world and the worst quality of life, esp. los angeles county.your'e playing russian roulette if you move anywhere in los angeles county unless you have a lot of protection and a lot of money. i am someone that knows. what are esp. horrible is the nastiness, and crime, and cruelty and corruption, and the gigantic over inflated prices. so. ca should be destroyed and the world will be a better place. so, does anyone know of a place i can rent. i have the money, there is just no room.

What are you talking about? Rents are down in the Ventura County area due to the reduced price of housing in the area. Housing is way down in price from where it was a year or two ago. Many that were renting have now bought homes or are in the process of buying homes. My realtor sends me information on homes that are selling in the low $200,000 range. Just today I recieved a notice of a 4 bedroom 4 bath home that was built in 2004 selling for $226,000. It sold originally in the $450,000 range. A year ago the average rent was in the $1,500 range in Oxnard for a 2 bed 1 bath place. I bet you could find the same place for $1200 a month. I have seen 1 bedroom units renting below $1,000. As far as crime, it has decreased quite a bit in the Oxnard area. Mayor Holden along with the other city officials and Police Department have done a lot for the area to discourage crime and the criminal element. It is now safer to live in Oxnard than in Santa Barbara. (Not that I wouldn't mind having a home in Santa Barbara.) If you can't find a place to rent in Oxnard, either you don't have an income (meaning an income of 3 times the rental amount.) , don't have the first month rent, don't have the deposit, or have very bad credit.

[justhere]

Originally Posted by jenoweisz

Hi, is greater Phoenix bad now? are there any good places in az? it's one of the places i.m thinking to move, a whole bunch of people from ca. moved there .is scottsdale, or chandler or gilbert safe? i've been to greater phoenix, but it was 11 years ago. and things change fast.

One of my best friends called me 9 mos. ago and said Scottsdale cost of living had just skyrocketed and she and her mom can't afford to stay there anymore (she runs her own biz). She said her business just was not bringing in the money anymore (hair salon). They had lived there almost 10 years. We had a small herd of friends escape from the OC in the late 90s, sold their homes, bought homes in Arizona, now many are regretting the move. Two more of our friends moved to Phoenix year before last and were trying to get back to California. Just in our circle of friends, it appeared a lot of them migrated from California to Arizona over the last decade or so and drove up the cost of living because they were willing to pay more for a place than most of the natives, but less than they would have in California. But with the economy the way it is now, without work, lower rent/mortgage doesn't really matter.