Where should we live? - Los Angeles - California (CA) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

monkeyblue · 08-01-2016, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elhelmete

Each is pretty spendy.

Where are you staying for now?

We are renting in Glendale now and really enjoy it but outside of a tiny condo, we can not even think about buying here. We like the town and "feel" and I'm not sure if we will find the same in Santa Clarita but it's worth looking. We initially tought of Thousand Oaks because of the relative proximity to beach.

elhelmete · 08-01-2016, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeyblue

I think this pretty much sums up our plan.
Everyone has given us great feedback...thank you! Two more cities to wonder about..Canoga Park and Winnetka. How would you rate them vs. Chatsworth, Santa Clarita, Tarzana and Tujunga? Traffic and safety-wise.

Lived in Winnetka, decent starter neighborhood. Some sketchier areas here and there.

Canoga Park is not great, but around the fringes where it becomes West Hills or Woodland Hills it can be ok.

Traffic-wise the problem those 2 have is that they're plop in the middle of the valley, not really near the 118, 101, or 405 so you have a lot of local streets before you can hit the freeway.

Can't speak to Tujunga circa 2016 but it's ideally situated for you. We looked into buying there in 2002/3 thinking it would gentrify soon but from what I hear it has not.

West of Encino · 08-01-2016, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeyblue

I think this pretty much sums up our plan.
Everyone has given us great feedback...thank you! Two more cities to wonder about..Canoga Park and Winnetka. How would you rate them vs. Chatsworth, Santa Clarita, Tarzana and Tujunga? Traffic and safety-wise.

Canoga Park is less safe. Winnetka seems okay. Canoga Park has a heavy gang presence.

Also those areas, except Santa Clarita, are part of the city of LA.

ryanms3030 · 08-01-2016, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeyblue

We are renting in Glendale now and really enjoy it but outside of a tiny condo, we can not even think about buying here. We like the town and "feel" and I'm not sure if we will find the same in Santa Clarita but it's worth looking. We initially tought of Thousand Oaks because of the relative proximity to beach.

I was renting in Glendale for 5+ years before recently buying a condo in Santa Clarita. It's different. My experience in my neighborhood in Santa Clarita is it's very quiet, it's all families, and "walk score" is zero. It's nice area to actually walk around with my family at night when it's not 100 degrees but I'm not really going to walk to do any shopping or dining out. But I already have a kid who's not in school yet but schools are all 9/10 where we live. And I no longer have the Armenian Fast and Furious crowd drag racing through my neighborhood at all hours. It is actually very nice to sit outside at night and maybe hear one car drive by in a 20 minute period instead of constant traffic

BkCarras · 08-01-2016, 05:55 PM

Hey Monkeyblue,

Santa Clarita is a great option in your price point. Ill list a few reasons why below.

Commute: With Sun Valley only 20-25 miles your commute should be under an hour depending on what time you need to be at work. There is a little bit of traffic in the morning on the 5 South but it breaks up a little bit and shouldn't take you too long to get to work. My advice is looking at google maps a little bit before you need to be at work and drop a pin in Santa Clarita and retrieve driving directions and it should give you a realistic idea on estimated time arrival/how long your trip will be.

Schooling: We have an excellent award winning schooling system out here. Santa Clarita schools consistently rank in the top 10% in California.

Walking Accessibility: As you have noticed California is a little more spread out. However there are some areas in Santa Clarita that will allow you to easily access our town center. There is an abundance of paseo trails that go throughout this valley that make it easy to take a nice bike ride or walk through town.

Bang For Your Buck: In your price point you can definitely get that 3+ bed 2+bath and able to have a decent size yard. If your looking for quite a bit of land I can give you some other options but they will take away from your desired accessibility factor.

Beach Access: Ohhh how I love the beach as well! I used to live in Santa Barbara and moving away from the beach was one of the hardest things to do! Santa Clarita is right by highway 126. You hop on there and have an easy traffic free most of the time to Ventura (Meaning you dont have to take a trip onto the 405). And if you like seafood and happy hours I highly advise Lure Fish House for happy hour times of Monday-Friday from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM and Sunday 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM

I have lived and worked all over Southern California. If you have any questions on other communities please let me know. Sherman oaks and Encino are very nice but you will sacrifice space and quality with those areas being much more expensive for and older dwelling. I hope this has helped you a little bit.

Brooklyn Carras

ryanms3030 · 08-01-2016, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BkCarras

Hey Monkeyblue,

Santa Clarita is a great option in your price point. Ill list a few reasons why below.

Commute: With Sun Valley only 20-25 miles your commute should be under an hour depending on what time you need to be at work. There is a little bit of traffic in the morning on the 5 South but it breaks up a little bit and shouldn't take you too long to get to work. My advice is looking at google maps a little bit before you need to be at work and drop a pin in Santa Clarita and retrieve driving directions and it should give you a realistic idea on estimated time arrival/how long your trip will be.

Schooling: We have an excellent award winning schooling system out here. Santa Clarita schools consistently rank in the top 10% in California.

Walking Accessibility: As you have noticed California is a little more spread out. However there are some areas in Santa Clarita that will allow you to easily access our town center. There is an abundance of paseo trails that go throughout this valley that make it easy to take a nice bike ride or walk through town.

Bang For Your Buck: In your price point you can definitely get that 3+ bed 2+bath and able to have a decent size yard. If your looking for quite a bit of land I can give you some other options but they will take away from your desired accessibility factor.

Beach Access: Ohhh how I love the beach as well! I used to live in Santa Barbara and moving away from the beach was one of the hardest things to do! Santa Clarita is right by highway 126. You hop on there and have an easy traffic free most of the time to Ventura (Meaning you dont have to take a trip onto the 405). And if you like seafood and happy hours I highly advise Lure Fish House for happy hour times of Monday-Friday from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM and Sunday 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM

I have lived and worked all over Southern California. If you have any questions on other communities please let me know. Sherman oaks and Encino are very nice but you will sacrifice space and quality with those areas being much more expensive for and older dwelling. I hope this has helped you a little bit.

Brooklyn Carras

To add to those points. I work right by the Burbank airport so Sun Valley area and it generally takes me no longer then 30 minutes to get to work in the morning and 35-45 min to get home. Certainly reasonable by LA standards. I have only been in Santa Clarita since May and I realize commutes might change a little after the summer but I'm right off the 5 on both ends so it's not bad. Commuting from some of the places OP is looking at in the middle of SFV will be a worse commute.

I actually went to Ventura yesterday. Less then an hour and a pretty scenic drive on the 126. Not beach front property in SCV but certainly easier to get to beach then Glendale or some other parts of the SFV and I would much rather go to beaches in Ventura area then deal with Santa Monica/Venice area.

The bike path system in Santa Clarita is very extensive. I'm a cyclist and I've done 30 miles without having to get on a surface street with cars.

monkeyblue · 08-01-2016, 06:34 PM

I am very grateful for the additional info. We are going to seriously look at Chatsworth, Santa Clarita (sounds like the best option for us), Thousand Oaks and Tujunga. It may look like a lot but we were not able to narrow anything down a few days ago. Thanks again! I will come back with update, if anyone cares.

nightlysparrow · 08-01-2016, 07:26 PM

For Thousand Oaks, don't forget there's a Ventura County sub-forum here

Kaphawoman · 08-02-2016, 06:34 PM

Thousand Oaks is extremely safe, quiet, and family-friendly. It's not walkable though. Rather than having a downtown or city center, it's basically a collection of well-manicured subdivisions and shopping centers. It's also very expensive to buy or rent there, but another bonus is its proximity to Malibu (I usually went there instead of Ventura when I wanted to go to the beach). It can feel pretty far from official LA though.

Yaelle · 08-20-2016, 10:28 PM

Weather has not been mentioned as a consideration, but the valley is at least 15 degrees hotter in summer and colder in "winter" (quotes for you east coasters) than say downtown LA and any area not too far from the beach, and Santa Clarita will make the difference 20 degrees hotter or cooler than those areas. Thousand Oaks, however, is not in the valley and does get more ocean breezes. If weather even matters at all.