Lake Elsinore??? (Garden Grove, Irvine, Santa Monica: appointed, crimes, new home)

[trmc2007]

We have experienced no issues or problems living in Wildomar. We looked at Temecula, Murrieta, French Valley and it added an additonal huge commute for us to the Metro Link station-that 215 is awful and trying to navigate to the 15 from the French Valley area is a nightmare-we tested it from overnighters at hotels to see what the commute would be. . We looked at Canyon Lake, nice place but either real pricey or real cheap... We chose to live in Wildomar, and bought a brand new home (3800 sq feet) with property. However property here is not the same as property in OC or in NY where we are originally from (upstate NY) that is. However, after moving from the OC, we love our new area and home!! it was a great choice for us. Lets face it, anywhere in So Cal is a commute at least 45min to 60min.. it IS what you make of it.. So, did I want to commute to the average 1200sq ft 3bed 2 bath that currently sells for 550k-750k? or do I choose to buy same price for a larger New home? with less tax etc.. Our commute isnt as bad as everyone told us either, but like I said we stayed in different cities to test the commute in the AM traffic. So, anyway-we are up at 5am just as we were before when we lived in Fullerton, and we drive to the metro link and take the metro to Irvine and Fullerton respectively, then we drive to our respective offices. I am on average at my office by 8am, he is at his by 7:45am. Yes we have kids, (2 at Elsinore High) play varsity and they have had no issues at all, our youngest at the local Elementary school loves it and they have a great day care, less then what we were paying in the OC and better services. On average we are home by 7:450pm just as we were before. In fact we are less stressed and the kids love the home and new friends they have made as well as us.

It is really up to you, what is best for you, what works for us may not work for you. But I see many people that do not comute, because they are afraid of the train etc.... being from NY, its just a way of life.... anyway --all cities have bad areas, drugs and gangs... but so far from what I have seen, the builders are buying up the trailers and trash places... Elsinore, Wildomar are in teh next 5-8 years going to be the next OC-- its closer then Temecula to OC/Chino and Temecula is just over built, you cant movr on those streets on any weekend.

[ferretkona]

It is 96 degrees over here in Bellflower today, I can't imagine how hot it is in Elsinore. Who ever heard of 96 in March???

[CoolCat]

83 and sunny

[trmc2007]

MMMM central AC and an ocean view...J/K I feel for you both--indeed warm out and gotta love that ash just floating around over here from the fire.yeah NAHT!

[visionar7]

I have heard the north side is nice....and saw some houses in the areas of Grand Ave..in the blocks mentioned....can't seem to find it on any maps

[SocalSteve]

Corona has some great housing values and is a city on it's way up, while half of the OC and most of the Inland Empire is going the other way. There are a ton of OC transplants in Corona most of whom moved here to raise their children within their means - what a concept! The Elementary School by my house (Eisenhower) has a 898 API which isn't too shabby. Parks & Rec. dept. is staffed by great people who value our community and children. Tons of great golf courses, new restaurants and shopping (Trader Joe's opening Fall 2007). The weather in the Summer is same as Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda. Can drive to Laguna Beach in 40 minutes via the toll road. One hour thirty to Lake Arrowhead. Would I go any further East - no thanks. Even the Eastvale area to the North (where the dairies used to be) isn't to my liking. But where I live, at the base of the Cleveland National Forest (exit 91 at Main and drive south to Foothill), is a beautiful place to live and raise a family. Just google Riverside MRMLS. Try the 92882 zip code and you'll see a lot of nice houses around $550k. Just my two cents.

[trmc2007]

I went back and read the old posts on this topic and I think one of the things failed to be mentioned is that at one time many areas in the IE were not so terrific.. But keeping in mind that with the new expansions going on, people moving into these areas who desire to have new homes, just with the building of malls and homes that have been going on the last year or so has changed the area tremendously. If you drive through Elsinore and Wildomar areas you will see that there are pockets of dead area (no homes just land) as well as trailer areas which have been moved out, and are still be demolished.

Elsinore at one time was trailer park capitol because land was cheap and no one was round to do or say much... but things are changing and quite rapidly and I am sorry to say with Temecula and Murrieta So much farther from the 91 and Ortega, more people are moving to Elsinore, Canyon Lake and Wildomar because they see the commute time is cut down since Elsinore is the 1/2 point. From what I see every weekend and just with talking to people more and more and more are seeing Elsinore/Wildomar as the next OC, lots of people feel that Temecula was built too fast and was more or less a "test build" for new homes and expansions as a bedroom community.. that current builders are learning from the mistakes made by Temecula builders and improving on their developments.

The homes off of Grand/Central are Windstone, brand new and I think sold out already

[dgrilley]

Statistically crime here is pretty low. Maybe it is underreported, but I have seen 0 criminal looking activity in the 4 months I have lived here. I live in the Canyon Hills area which is right next to the gated Canyon Lake Community. I've never seen a single gangbanger type looking character in the area. In some of the older parts of town you see homeless, but I don't know any area where you wouldn't see that. My neighbor hood always has kids walking around til later hours of the night and brand new schools within 1 mile.

I wouldn't move here for orange county accessibility unless you had to like me because of the affordability. With the 3 year construction project on Ortega it can be pretty messy. As someone stated previsouly the 91 parking lot is a complete joke. It can easily take 3 hours to get anywhere in orange county from Elsinore taking the 91 and much of the time takes 2 hours on Ortega because of contruction. Fasttrak barely helps because the biggest problem is the 15/91 interchange where there is no fasttrak. I don't know of any construction project to improve these areas in the near future and ortega won't be done for 3 years. Even then they aren't doing anything but putting a smaller shoulder in to my knowledge. That will only make the windy drive easier and attract more commuters to an already somewhat conjested 2 lane highway.

[wheretolive]

Hi, does anybody know if 1800 lakeshore dr is a nice place to live in or not? I'm still looking for a quiet and safe place to live, to raise a family. Thanks a lot

[Tool Shed]

Originally Posted by Twinkle Toes

Go with Temecula instead. It's the lesser of two evils.

LOL!, but true, honestly avoid Lake Smellsomore. People say that just because there are NEW houses and such that everything is fine. uhhh.. New houses doesn't guarantee a good place to live. The would have sold a home to anyone in the last few years with sub prime shady loans and such, you don't even need to doc. your income. Now there are new houses with little gang bangers, white trash, actually all types of trash, and they just deprive their yards and wreck the neighborhood.

Elsinore does have more crime, way more drug use/production, than Temecula, and it has other problems too.