Van Nuys (Los Angeles, Pasadena: to rent, house, to buy)

[tianarose]

Are there any areas of Van Nuys worth living in? Or is it all just a waste of time and money?

Thank you,
TR

[Charles]

Originally Posted by tianarose

Are there any areas of Van Nuys worth living in? Or is it all just a waste of time and money?

Thank you,
TR

Yes and no.

[Petrala]

there are good areas and bad areas. which area were you looking at?

[fastfilm]

The HPOZ area (Historic Preservation Overlay Zone) in Van Nuys that we Valley residents worked so hard to obtain to save terrific middle class housing and properties from greedy developers borders between Victory and Vanowen, Hazeltine and Kester, roughly. Some of the older properties are amazing, on a par with Pasadena's preserved, best modest homes. (The equivalents of mansions were torn down in the late 1950's.)

This is one of the older sections of the Valley, and the lots initially were subdivided in accordance with more traditional residential thinking that you still see in major cities elsewhere; i.e., that working class and middle class families want and deserve a modest, three bedroom house on a large lot within which their children and pets can play to their hearts' content. This has been an unfortunated temptation for developers to replace same with horrendously crowded, multi-density units. And we all know how L.A. city officials pander to developers.

If one is looking to buy a house, this HPOZ affords the protection against someone tearing down the Craftsman bungalow next door to you and building 50-unit instant "projects." If you are looking to buy a house for your family, this area would be a good investment for those without a lot money, as it would be as well if you're looking to rent a house for your family and pets to have elbow room. If you're renting for yourself alone and make more than 50K a year, there are other areas to consider that would be more suitable.

So consider tradeoffs, and your personal finances. The area does suffer from civic neglect. We homeowners have for years hounded our city officials for the services our taxes are supposed to cover, fixing infrastructure, gang abatement, code enforcement, etc. Our officials are also only too happy to push problems from their own districts to here, hence the non-HPOZ area being a magnet for illegals.

[Lake Conroe resident]

Originally Posted by tianarose

Are there any areas of Van Nuys worth living in?

Originally Posted by tianarose

No
Or is it all just a waste of time and money? Yes

Thank you,
TR

Maybe 30 years ago but not anymore

[Chowhound]

Originally Posted by Lake Conroe resident

[b]

Maybe 30 years ago but not anymore

I too concur

[Lovehound]

Please, only one Van Nuys thread per day. I already posted in the other Van Nuys thread. I'm tired of typing.

[LaoTzuMindFu]

Originally Posted by tianarose

Are there any areas of Van Nuys worth living in? Or is it all just a waste of time and money?

Thank you,
TR

The area of Van Nuys that FastFilm mentioned is very nice. The homes are beautiful and the lots are large. This is the area that is borded by Victory on the south, the 405 on the west, Vanowen on the north and Sepulveda on the east. If you have any children especially high school age I would say Van Nuys is not right for you. Van Nuys high school is a joke and is dangerous.

If no kids, you would like it (if you can afford to buy there) if you have kids, I would not recommend Van Nuys unless you are close to Kester elementary school where they have a great magnet program.

[Lovehound]

I wouldn't recommend sending your kids to any Los Angeles public school. Our schools used to be good but they're broken now. Send them to private schools instead.