Moving from Michigan to Ventura County,CA (Los Angeles, Oxnard: apartments, foreclosures)

[speed73]

Hello,

I will be moving from Michigan to Ventura County,CA soon. I need help with the following:

1. Which are good family oriented suburbs to choose to live. My husband's new job is going to be in Carpinteria and I plan on taking up employment (engineering background) once I move there and settle down (provided I am lucky enough to find employment, that is).
2. I have a second grader and he goes to a really good (blue ribbon) public school here in Michigan. I need to find a place that is in a great school district (which I guess would translate to good schools).
3. (Related to point 1 regarding places to live)..we plan on renting a condo or townhome for now, what are reasonable rents for these in these localities.

I am heavily dependent on responses here. I have a couple of months before I move, but unfortunately, I am unable to travel to the place so that I check them out in person. Appreciate any help provided. Thanks !!

[Charles]

What will be your rent budget?

This should help with looking for potential schools:

California School Performance Maps

What about Carpenteria itself (I don't know too much about it.) What about the Ventura area? Maybe some parts of Santa Barbara too. Camarillo and Thousand Oaks are nice but they are getting a little far for commuting to Carpenteria.

[Humanoid]

You will probably find the best bang for your bunk in Ventura. Its an interesting small beach city, but is cheaper than some of the other areas with similar crime rates etc. Anyhow, there aren't too much jobs in this area of the state so you may have trouble finding something. The biggest area for employment is Oxnard and its just south of Ventura.

Anyhow, you should be able to find a nice rental (2~3 bedroom) for $1,800 give or take. Although just to warn you foreclosures are high in the Condo markets here in California so you have to very careful not to rent from accidental landlords (Folks that purchased investment properties hoping to flip, but not trying to rent out). You may be better off looking at some of the nicer apartment communities in the area. Archstone has a few complexes in the area and their communities tend to be decent (I haven't looked at their Ventura complex though, just the ones in Thousand Oaks and Los Angeles). There are also some interesting complexes on the beach/harbor that are reasonably priced, such as:

Paz Mar Apartments: Welcome to Paz Mar Apartments a Channel Islands Harbor apartment community.

[speed73]

Thanks for the information. Yes, I will be looking at townhomes/condos rented by a management than individual.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by speed73

Hello,

I will be moving from Michigan to Ventura County,CA soon. I need help with the following:

1. Which are good family oriented suburbs to choose to live. My husband's new job is going to be in Carpinteria...

If you can, move to Carpinteria. The commute from Ventura County to Santa Barbara County is a bear. Goleta (north of Santa Barbara) is for the most part suburban. From there it's a 20-mile "reverse commute" to Carpinteria, meaning that the heavy traffic pattern is in the opposite direction. If you do insist on Ventura County, your husband can commute by express bus, Coastal Express Northbound | VCTC.

If you find that Santa Barbara County is too expensive or for other reasons want to live in VC, east Ventura, portions of north Oxnard and Camarillo offer the closest resembling suburbia. In Oxnard there is a new development in progress called Riverpark that holds some pretty nice promise, City of Oxnard Schools in Ventura County California :: RiverPark. Good luck to you.

[activelori]

I lived in Ventura for 13 years. Just moved away this past May. Check out "Ventura Charter School" and the "Open Classroom at the Blanch Reynolds School" for an alternative public school choice. The open classroom concept is not for everyone, but my daughter enjoyed kindergarten at Ventura Charter. The public schools in Ventura were good to and I would have sent my daughter there if she had not gotten into one of the open classrooms. There are also a math magnet school. Some more info can be found at Schools of Choice.

[speed73]

Thanks for the information on schools. This is one thing I am really particular about. I am sending my 2nd grader to a school of choice here in MI only because of the Magnet program the school offers and the general performance of the school acadamically. There are no charter schools here where I live though and so I am unaware of the pros and cons of those. I will check out the website mentioed and see how it goes.

Meanwhile, please feel free to make suggestions on schools and where to choose to live in Ventura county.

Thanks again. Really appreciate the input.

[okie333]

Originally Posted by speed73

Hello,

I will be moving from Michigan to Ventura County,CA soon. I need help with the following:

1. Which are good family oriented suburbs to choose to live. My husband's new job is going to be in Carpinteria and I plan on taking up employment (engineering background) once I move there and settle down (provided I am lucky enough to find employment, that is).
2. I have a second grader and he goes to a really good (blue ribbon) public school here in Michigan. I need to find a place that is in a great school district (which I guess would translate to good schools).
3. (Related to point 1 regarding places to live)..we plan on renting a condo or townhome for now, what are reasonable rents for these in these localities.

I am heavily dependent on responses here. I have a couple of months before I move, but unfortunately, I am unable to travel to the place so that I check them out in person. Appreciate any help provided. Thanks !!

We lived in Carp for a while. May I ask what your husband's work is there?

In my opinion Carpinteria is probably one of the safest nicest places to live in the county. Santa Barbara is VERY expensive and its nice there to but one thing you will have to get used to is the pedestrians jutting out in front of you where ever you go, bicyclists in your lane with you and inpatient drivers with no where to go. The culture out here is pretty simple. Its not that diverse ( LA is but not ventura county) Its either white lower income and uneducated, rich elitests, or mexican migrant workers. Not too many blacks, asians, indians, or anything else for that matter but that all depends on how much you care about that stuff.

What ever you do stay away from Oxnard, it looks nice in certain areas but after a while in the area you will start to understand why. There are some gang problems i guess, but lets face it Oxnard just has problems. The good parts of Ventura lie on the eastern hills area. There are others but there are some pretty nice communities up there. Ojai is also a small town community . You can get there by going south on 101 from carp and take 33 east. Or from Carpinteria you can go to 150 right out of carpinteria and hook up with 33 east and see a pretty part of the area on your way to Ojai. I like the ojai climate better. Its hot and dry versus humid and more on the chilly side.


good luck with your move. Welcome to sunny california!

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by okie333

What ever you do stay away from Oxnard, it looks nice in certain areas but after a while in the area you will start to understand why. There are some gang problems i guess, but lets face it Oxnard just has problems.

Take it from someone who has lived and worked in west Ventura County and south Santa Barbara County continuously for more than 20 years, Oxnard as a "troubled city" is grossly overblown. But if my word isn't good enough, perhaps a word from the Chief of Police with some statistics might help:

"Crime over the past 15 years has been reduced by nearly 65 percent. Violent crime categories are down by more than 60 percent. Homicides are half of what they were just a few years ago. The crime rate in Oxnard is lower than that in other cities in Ventura County, the city of Santa Barbara and even Beverly Hills. The city has the fifth-lowest crime rate in the nation among cities in our population category of 150,000 to 200,000." (Oxnard's population is 192,000.)

City Of Oxnard California | Oxnard Police Department

To the OP, good luck in your decision; make an informed one.

[okie333]

So you cre8 definatly have a biased opinion then being from this area only. I moved to the area not to long ago and It is a beautiful place like i mentioned before but if you have lived in other areas of the united states- not just one; you definitly take in to consideration the crime in the area especially if you have young children. In my opinion the towns i mentioned over Oxnard are way more worth looking into. If you were being un biased you would agree that Goleta, SB, Ventura and Carp are far safer. There are many people who live in one place only and never know what goes on in theri neighborhood. I have been so used to moving from different places that I have a been able to adapt and be pretty aware of my surroundings. I firmly believe than Oxnard is the worst descision out of all the others suggested. Camarillo, SB, Ventura, Carp, Goleta and Ojai. For something that means more than someones pride and biase on an enternet forum I sure hope they do make the right descision for the family.