Relocating from SF Peninsula to Northridge CA (Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks: homes, buy)

[jlmt]

My husband has a possible job offer in Northridge and we are trying to find a suitable community for our family. We are in our late 30's early 40's and have 2 young children. We have a 3 1/2 year and a 5 month old, and education is our number one priority, as well as a safe family friendly community. We are interest in these towns:

Thousand Oaks
Westlake Village
Oak Park
Aguora Hills
Calabasas

We can afford anything upwards to 1.1M.

I'm little concern about commute times. If we were to reside in any of the above mentioned communities, what commuter hours would be ideal to avoid traffic. Currently he drives 20 minutes reverse commute, so this will be a big wake-up call in dealing with LA traffic. Which town would be the best commute?

Coming from a small town in the bay area we are use to a short walking distance to downtown and nice parks. I know this will be hard to find in the above mentioned towns. We don't mind driving short distances, but would love to be able to walk from our home.

Lastly, we are looking for some diversity, culture, and more important friendly people.

[BRinSM]

traffic should be manageable from those locations, the only issue is that there is no easy freeway access to northridge.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jlmt

If we were to reside in any of the above mentioned communities, what commuter hours would be ideal to avoid traffic.
Which town would be the best commute?

Thousand Oaks, especially north of the 101 would be the least painful experience because even though it is more miles using 23/118 to Northridge, it would be a lot less on the nerves than driving from Calabasas (or Oak Park or Westlake Village or Agoura Hills) grinding on Valley Circle or the 101 and Tampa or Desoto or whatever.

Also, there is the option of taking the Metrolink from Moorpark to Northridge.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by jlmt

My husband has a possible job offer in Northridge and we are trying to find a suitable community for our family. We are in our late 30's early 40's and have 2 young children. We have a 3 1/2 year and a 5 month old, and education is our number one priority, as well as a safe family friendly community. We are interest in these towns:

Thousand Oaks
Westlake Village
Oak Park
Aguora Hills
Calabasas

We can afford anything upwards to 1.1M.

I'm little concern about commute times. If we were to reside in any of the above mentioned communities, what commuter hours would be ideal to avoid traffic. Currently he drives 20 minutes reverse commute, so this will be a big wake-up call in dealing with LA traffic. Which town would be the best commute?

Coming from a small town in the bay area we are use to a short walking distance to downtown and nice parks. I know this will be hard to find in the above mentioned towns. We don't mind driving short distances, but would love to be able to walk from our home.

Lastly, we are looking for some diversity, culture, and more important friendly people.

All kind of needlessly long drives IMO. Nice areas near Northridge. Its 20-30 minutes at rush hour just from the 101 into most of Northridge.

Why not buy huge in Porter Ranch and send the kids to private school?

Or Simi Valley. Or Santa Clarita/Valencia.

Something like this:

http://www.redfin.com/homes-for-sale...6&zoomLevel=13