Santa Clarita?? (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Thousand Oaks: transporting, rent, amusement park)

[SC Valley]

Hello everyone! My family and I are from DC and have been looking for the best place in America to live for some time now. I have always been attracted to California for many reasons. First: the weather is awesome. Second: there are so many different places to choose from in terms of cities. Third: we love the diversity of both LA and San Francisco. My wife and I are more city people, and while my job gives me certain benefits, a paycheck to live in a upper middle class area of LA is not one of them. After living in DC for your entire life, and hearing people talk about the American Dream, we know want to live it. Due to my job, we have the mobility to move from one area of the country to another very easily. We have looked at every major metro area, and have come to the conclusion that the Santa Clarita Valley is the best suburban community in the nation. Believe me, we have looked at them all! We already have a house and will be moving within the coming week. I know it may seem a little bit too late by now to discuss whether we should move to SC, since we have already started moving. But I didn't find this site until a few days ago, and would still like to here opinions from a wide variety of people. We have talked to everyone including current and past residents, teachers, builders, even the a local deputy. Opinions we get won't really change our minds, obviously, but will still be taken into consideration on the off chance that we decide to move again in the coming years. We are well aware that the term, "best place to live" is rather subjective, and that there are hundreds of smaller cities in California that could take that title. But we aren't interested in small towns. We are interested in large boom burbs that are close to huge cities, such as SC. Call is suburbanites(shudders), but that is what we want. Thanks for your time!

[EscapeCalifornia]

I'm not sure I'd call the weather in Santa Clarita "awesome" when its 105F all summer. Its a nice area but the summers are not coastal moderate. And I hope you don't have to commute down the 5 with everyone else.

[SC Valley]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

I'm not sure I'd call the weather in Santa Clarita "awesome" when its 105F all summer. Its a nice area but the summers are not coastal moderate. And I hope you don't have to commute down the 5 with everyone else.

Thanks for the response! Yes I will be commuting into LA only about twice a week, but I'm from DC so traffic doesn't bother me. The rest of the time I will working from home, which will be nice. I have heard that Southern California highways are in a league all unto their own, I can't believe there would be anything worse than sitting in DC traffic. For us, 100 degrees or so isn't a bother. We would rather have that than -5 as a winter low.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by SC Valley

have come to the conclusion that the Santa Clarita Valley is the best suburban community in the nation.



Believe me, we have looked at them all!

What didn't you like about Thousand Oaks?

[marimari123]

We live in Santa Clarita. Lived here for 7 years now. It really is a great place to live, especially if you have children. Yeah it's the soccer mom stereotype here (stay at home moms, starbucks coffee in hand, driving the kids from one activity to the next...in a big SUV!).

There is a TON of stuff to do for kids...swimming, soccer, karate, etc. are all great classes offered through the city's parks and rec dept (or you can register for private classes). Plus Magic Mountain amusement park and Mountasia fun center (miniature golf, arcade, gokarts).

For the grownups, this is a golfing town. We live within 5 minutes of 3 golf courses. And lots of day spas (from really plain to super fancy). Also, lots and lots of sushi restaurants (almost all the sushi places in town are really casual).

Ok...the bad stuff...weather in the summer is unbearably hot. And summer seems to last a long time (this year it was really hot from June-Oct/Nov). It'll be over 100 degrees everyday. Step outside and your skin will burn within minutes. Our electricity bill in the summer is about $300/month even though the thermostat is set to 78 degrees. That's because the AC unit has to run non-stop just to maintain 78 degrees. And we live in a new house so it's not that the AC unit is malfunctioning.

The second bad thing about SC is the lack of good restaurants. We have lots of fast food joints as well as chain restaurants. But if you want to have a nice (expensive/romantic) dinner...there aren't too many options (maybe about 5-6 nice restaurants in town).

So weather and restaurants are the only not good things about this city. People are nice. Schools are good. It's a real "cookie-cutter" town since all the houses look the same. But we like that. Personally, I have no problem with tract housing.

Welcome to SCV!

regards,
mari

[greggd]

Did you rent or buy a home in Santa Clarita?

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by SC Valley

Third: we love the diversity of both LA and San Francisco.

I'll skip the Santa Clarita Valley weather issue since it's been mentioned already. But I'm puzzled that you would choose Santa Clarita given your stated preference for the city and diversity, a la L.A. and S.F.

Santa Clarita Valley doesn't exactly square with either city or diversity. It's mainly Caucasian and proud to be suburban.

[SC Valley]

Thank you all for taking the time to repond! We just recieved word yesterday that our moving company made good time in transporting everything from our DC house, out to California. We will be taking a plane out early tomorrow morning, and should arrive at LAX a few hours later. My wife and I are very excited, considering the fact that this move almost didn't happen. Our four children, on the other hand, are a little apprehensive to say the least. We tried to make the move before the school year started, but just weren't able to get it all together.

It seems that some of you have questions so I will take this time now to answer them:

cre8: I can see where you are coming from. While me and my wife love the city and have grown up there. But now that we have chidlren, the suburbs look more and more attractive as the years go along. Our oldest will be starting high school next year and we really want to make sure that he is in a good school. DC offeres excellent private schools, but they are very expensive. Obviously SC is not as diverse as LA, but it isn't as if LA is that far away, and we will be using the city as much as possible for recreational purposes.

greggd: For the time being we are renting a home, but we have several properties that we are interested in. With the housing market the way it is, and having not lived in the area before, we just want to feel the market out before we buy.

Charles: Oh we loved Thousand Oaks! We just weren't ready to put that kind of money into a house, yet. We are only renting in SC so it is very possible that if something comes up we might act.

Thanks again for the responses!

[CamaroGuy]

Santa Clarita is just about the best place in Los Angeles county to raise kids. The schools there are very good.

[desert student]

My family and I are golf nuts, and everytime we visit extended family in LA we always go golfing in Santa Clarita. I have watched it grow over the years and it appears to have turned into a great city. Definition of soccer mom suburbia, but suburban perfection none the less.