Best Bang-for-your-buck housing: Fontana? Corona? Norco? (Riverside, Irvine: apartment, new house, schools)

[Tom63376]

I would like to move back to California now that the home prices are coming
back to earth.

What is the best bang-for-your-buck area with a "newer" houses & stripmalls.
Something like Fontana / Corona / Norco..

Also, is the air quality better in say Corona, Norco, or in Fontana?

Thanks!

[Fontucky]

Fontana has some of the worst air in the country, as far as microparticulates are concerned. That's the stuff given off by diesel engines.

[Tom63376]

Ok.. I'll scratch Fontana.. I only mentioned it because I remembered
it as a brand new area.

I lived (rented) in Irvine for a year in 2006 and miss CA weather.
I know the area's I mention are not as mild but I will never be able to
afford a decent house in Orange Country. Corona is starting to look
affordable with newer homes in the low 300s.

How about Corona VS Norco for air quality?? I know they are close by
to each other but even small distances seem to make a difference is
temperatures and air quality.

[BRinSM]

corona and norco used to be extremely different in terms of housing and lifestyle, but as tract housing made its way into norco, it is now just an extension of corona. there is still the horse property areas of norco, but much of the city is now newer developments and has lost much of its charm.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Tom63376

Ok.. I'll scratch Fontana.. I only mentioned it because I remembered
it as a brand new area.

Fontana North of Foothill all the way to the base of the mountains is brand new.
Most of the city South of Foothill ranges from turn of the century bungalows to interwar single family customs, to postwar crackerbox tracts, sixties apartment blocks, to the newer eighties and nineties developments in Southridge at the very South end of town. I live in a 70 year old farmhouse just South of I-10.

There's all kinds of housing available.... too bad the air's so polluted. I wouldn't want to raise kids here because of that reason alone.

[Tom63376]

How's the air quality in norco or Corona?? Better than Fontana? better than Riverside??

[that1guy]

The air quality Inland is pretty bad all around. Mira Loma, near Corona, has the worst air quality in California. With that said, Fontana, Corona, and Norco have about the same air quality. So, the best bang for your buck might be Fontana.

[Tom63376]

So are there any other cities in LA County, Riverside County, or Orange County
that have similar home prices to Fontana/Corona but also have better air quality?

I remember driving north on the 15 going to Big Bear in 2006 and hitting that wall
of dense smog in Mira Loma.. What happens to the poor people who live in that smog?
Do they get lung cancer or anything serious like that??

[Tom63376]

By "poor" I meant unfortunate..

[lunk]

Actually I'd say SB County has the worse, Riverside County is a little cleaner with the cool riverbed and river fog to cool off in the nights. Fontana is still filled with thugs in those new houses just like moval. Fontana smells like diesel year around, with high car theif, low performing schools, and terrible air all year. Corona and Norco are better areas closer to the action. Mira Loma ant't too bad, as long as you don't live on the northern edge where the smog from SB County blows in. Other than that its cleaner, and you can at least breathe.