Moving to Lancaster/Palmdale (Los Angeles, Santa Clarita: foreclosures, hotel, buying a home)

[canibeyou]

If you're thinking of making the commute from Santa Clarita to Lancaster, might I suggest moving to Tehachapi (31 miles from Lancaster). Clean moutian air and friendly people. Houses are still reasonable (and you get property with them! Shocker for So.California, huh! LOL. Well.... the Northern most part of So.California) Do a Google search on Tehachapi, I'm sure you'd be more pleased with that type of community and commute.

[whowants2know]

Originally Posted by newlife

Hey,

Just wanted to know if anyone could give me some feedback on moving to the Lancaster/Palmdale area. I have been told to stay west because of all of the crime and issues with the eastside area. I am thinking about Sunset Ridge or West Palmdales Chapparral/Manzanita. If there are any other areas that are better than these that anyone may know of just let me know.

Why would you select those areas?

[Vette guy]

Newlife, I suggest you trust your gut with this decission. The Antelope Valley is not as bad as you describe Atlanta to be. But it is not the safe bedroom community that it used to be. Safety is all relative to where you are coming from. If you are coming from a the bronx, NY, Lancaster/Palmdale looks pretty good. Compared to Santa Barbara, it's a dump. So trust your own judgement.

There are some very nice neighborhoods there and very friendly people. Be selective where you go. Drive around and look at the homes. I found the newer neighborhoods are best because you have either first time buyers or buyers "buying up" so they have pride in their homes and some self dignity. The older neighborhoods start to get a lot of renters moving in and that is where there seems to be the trouble zones. We went through that twice. We kept trying to move away from the trash by moving into newer neighborhoods, but the neighborhoods just keep getting older and the 4-5 year old kids that used to play in the streets are now 15-16 year olds causing trouble. I'm speaking generally & from personal experience.

For you best interest, stay on the west side and drive through the subdivisions and look at how people maintain their property. I think its a pretty good judge of character, but there may still be a few bad apples.

Good luck!

[andrew.c]

I live close from those apartments, but i wouldent recomend u to live there it is really dangerous there at nigth

[SCVGIRL]

I had lived in Quartz Hill for many years. We moved three years ago to the Santa Clarita Valley. Hands down, it is much nicer here. The weather in the AV prevented us from enjoying our yard - very windy and very dry. http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima...s/frown.gifThe SCV has much less wind and more moisture. We get the fog from the beaches at times here. http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima...lies/smile.gif At night, the air feels so fresh and clean. In the AV, the air feels dry and dusty.

The schools here are great. The people very friendly. The weather superb. Yes, to get from one side of town to the other does take a bit of effort. But it is worth it. If your after a big house for less money, sure the AV is the way to go. But for me, I prefer a smaller house for the same price with a better quality of life. Remember the old saying, "You get what you pay for". http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima...s/rolleyes.gif

As far as the AV having clean air, http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima...s/confused.gif with the wind that they have, how could that be?? It is so full of dust. After spending anytime outside, you soon realize that it is a falicy.

Take a really good look. Check out the two malls and compare. Check out the kids in the schools and compare. Check out the kids in the streets and compare. Check out the weather and compare. I think that you will soon realize what the difference is and it is huge!

Good luck with your decision.http://pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima...ilies/wink.gif

[canibeyou]

SCVGIRL... your post made me almost spit juice out of my mouth all over my keyboard!

The SCV is NOT like what you described. I mean... clean air??? Are you kidding me? That thick brown layer of stuff I see when I head down that way... that brown stuff blocking the blue sky... that's clean air??? Friendly??? Who's friendly there? The thousands of people driving like they're the only ones on the road and you should get out of their way no matter what? Traffic in SCV is horrendous. Or is it the family that thinks everyone should bow down and recognize that their kid is the greatest thing to ever happen to this Earth and if you don't worship their kid the way they do, they're just downright rude?!? The endless sea of tract homes that makes the landscape look like Legoland and where the houses are barely 6 feet (8 feet at best) from each other makes it convienient to hear your next door neighbor. And we won't even mention the amount of deaf people that live in SCV..... well, I assumed they were deaf 'cuz they could never hear their own dog barking all day long and all night long (and, God forbid, you ever mention it to them). And you can have one of these lovely homes for, oh, half a million... and that's on the cheap end.

Don't get me wrong.... I don't live in the AV and I no longer live in the SCV either, but someone has to. Just don't lead people astray and make it seem like the SCV is THE place to live. Perhaps it's just me and my family, but the cons heavily outweighed the pros for living there... but then again, we wanted clean air, friendly people, room to breath, etc. The only pro's on our list were shopping and dinning. Just not worth putting up with everything else just to have those two things.

[newlife]

I made the visit to Lancaster and Santa Clarita about two weeks ago. Coming from the south I enjoyed the Desert Mountains. I thought the landscape was very pretty. As for living I decided to stay in Santa Clarita and commute. Since I am a fairly young person I think that I want to be near the night life and enjoy the shopping and dining. I also enjoyed going to Santa Monica. I am a beach girl and I think living in Santa Clarita will put me close enough to visit a couple of times a week without renting a hotel. I also thought the people were nice compared to the south and east coast prejudices. People just seemed to be more open. I liked the fact that there was a melting pot of people.

Over all I enjoyed my visit and I am looking forward to moving in a few months.

[metoouto8]

Originally Posted by newlife

Does anyone know anything about the West Park apartments or the Willows or Westwood Townhomes?

I lived in the Westwood Townhomes from 2004-2006. The staff was very friendly and handled any issues promptly. They also kept the grounds very neat and clean. A couple of months before I moved, they went under new management. Usually this signals future problems, but I didn't experience it.

I hope it works out for you and it's true about the east side of Palmdale and Lancaster to an extent. I purchased a home in the Westside of Lancaster but found that some areas on the east side were very nice.

[ibarrio]

#17 occurred last night. Murders that is.

[romarie]

After reading all these posts about how bad Palmdale is, I feel like I must be living in an alternate universe. I have been living in Palmdale since 1990. I have never had any problem with crime. The neighborhoods that I have lived in have stayed pretty nice. The only reason we moved here was reasonable home prices. Santa Clarita is nicer and closer to LA. Yet, I can not compare the two. I just can not afford it. My house would cost almost a million dollars in Santa Clarita. Prices are coming down I just do not see the value to the houses there. I would rather move to Pasadena.