Moving to Lancaster/Palmdale (San Jose, Santa Clarita: section 8, sales, apartment complex)

[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.

[junkman18]

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.

Go to this thread and have a look. all the Info. you need

http://www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...-palmdale.html

[nostress13]

I dont think that you will like renting an apartment in any part of the Antelope Valley. If you can try to rent a house in the Rancho Vista area. A rule of thumb for the Antelope Valley is to stay away from anything that is in the eastside , and stay away from all apartments. If you are new to the area you will soon find out why. Good luck.

[newlife]

I keep hearing about how bad things are there and I am about to come out there to visit on next week. The more bad things I read the more I want to move to Santa Clarita. I live in the ATL right now and everything is a good 30-45 minutes away so I am used to driving. Can anyone tell me how far the commute would be to Lancaster everyday?

[LHMwife]

(newlife wrote--I live in the ATL right now and everything is a good 30-45 minutes away so I am used to driving. Can anyone tell me how far the commute would be to Lancaster everyday?)
Answer: Santa Clarita is a reverse commute for the area so you can pretty much rely on the driving times quoted on a google maps or mapquest http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8...l=en&tab=wl&q=
My husband is driving from Santa Clarita to Palmdale everyday and it's taking him about 30-35 minutes. Lancaster is about another 10 - 15 minutes from Palmdale.
Depending on what kind of car you drive, it could be worth it but rents will be higher in Santa Clarita due to it's 30 to 45 minute proximity to LA and the Burbank airport. We are from a suburb area of San Jose,CA and we have done some research on Palmdale/Lancaster. We plan to move to the West side of Palmdale when I come down (if that helps) since we think it's nicer and I don't like the drive on Hwy 14 from Santa Clarita. I feel like Santa Clarita really isn't that much more superior than West Palmdale area although you will see much spirited debate on that matter in these posts. Santa Clarita is much more centerally located to the LA and Antelope Valley area however. Keep in mind, I don't live there yet. My husband has been there for a year working, on a bowling league, attending school after work, etc and he doesn't feel like I should be nervous...I am though--not gonna lie.

[hearselover]

I'm a realtor in the Antelope Valley, i.e., Palmdale/Lancaster. I have lived here going on 5 years now.

There are good areas and bad areas of this valley just as there are in any city anywhere in the world.

There are areas in both Palmdale & Lancaster that I refuse to show buyers houses. These areas are small compared to the city size.

I've seen people reply to similar questions with "say on the west side". If you are unfamiliar with the area then you wouldn't know that there are questionable areas on the west side of these cities just like there are questionable areas on the east side of both cities.

There is a west side neighborhood in Lancaster that contains a big concentration of section 8 houses --- it's surrounded by great neighborhoods but it's a scarry place itself.

Rancho Tierra Del Sol is an area between 25th East and 30th East, Avenue J and Avenue K in EAST Lancaster. This area has 1/2 acre and up parcels with only custom homes -- the last I checked the MINIMUM sales price in this area is over $550k. It's beautiful, upscale in this east lancaster area.

The east side has a lot of older homes. Too many people judge the entire neighborhood by a couple of run down houses on the block. EVERY block has an eyesore -- even on the west side. Heck I've seen BRAND NEW HOMES barely a year old that are neglected.

If two out of ten people gave the east side a chance, maybe we could weed out any undesirables, clean up the run down houses (how about buy one for cheap and fix it up the way you want?).

Or, go ahead and pay the inflated prices for a house on the west side.....

As far as the weather here --- if you live in Chatsworth or Northridge there is no difference in the weather other than we may get 2" of snow in the winter but it melts by 11 am.

[newlife]

Thank you all for your posts. I am thinking about renting when I first move there. I have chosen to stay in the Westwood Townhome community. I have talked to people that have moved there and they seem to like it. Does anyone know of any other half way decent townhome or apartment communities?
I do understand about the crime and the eastside drama. I live in a predominantly african american county here in the atlanta area. It is just the same as anywhere else. On one block there are million dollar homes and right around the corner there are some not so nice homes. I personally do not think that just because an area has a few bad apples that the entire place is just shot to hell. Right now I live in an apartment complex and it is very nice but god knows what all types of people are living here. They recently made everyone do a criminal background check to renew our lease to start weeding out the bad ones.


Also can anyone tell me about the Desert Christian school. I am thinking about putting my child there.

[ibarrio]

Desert Christian school.

Good School! Same with Paraclete High School.

[Vette guy]

Stay away from the east side. It is the bad side of town. Even if you find a nice street or neighborhood, you still have to go out at night. I just moved from west Palmdale because it is starting to get bad. That whole town is going down the tubes. They have even started a "War on Gangs" group to decide how to handle the gang situation. I think they're 10 years too late. Sorry, I have nothing good to say about that place and partially was why I left the state all together. I won't go back.

[newlife]

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