Is Moreno Valley a good place to live? (moving from L.A.) (Los Angeles: rent, high crime)

[Jay in LA]

Hi, I currently live renting a house in Los Angeles. Rent is high and I feel like I'm wasting a lot of money renting when we can now easily afford a house in many places.

Moreno Valley seems like one of the most affordable places with larger homes.
I'm just wondering if this is a good place to live, I'm always a little suspicious of places with relatively low prices.


Can someone who knows MV tell me what the good areas are or what areas to avoid?

Also, how hot does the weather get in MV? I've always lived near the coast, so if it gets too hot I'm not sure I could stand it, I could probably get used to it eventually.

Finally, I've come accross some posts which mention "Valley Fever". Is this a real threat in MV?

Thanks for any info.

[eclipxe]

I wouldn't live there. It is a depressing area to me.

[David Aguilar]

Are you going to move your job with you to Moreno Valley?

All that money you are "wasting" on rent, will be wasted on commuting and all the "fun" that comes with that, if you still have to work in LA. In that scenario, the money you'd save on rent by living in MoVal would be directly thrown into commuting.

MoVal is cheap, because there aren't as many jobs out there, and it has a less than favorable reputation compared to other cities in the IE.

MoVal gets hot and smoggy.

I believe true Valley Fever can occur most anywhere in So. Calif.

If your job is coming with you, go for it. People always say north of 60 is better, but take that with a grain of salt, of course.

[that1guy]

Moreno Valley is cheap because of several factors:

1) Land Speculation: The area has historically been the fastest to boom and the fastest to bust. The city has ranked as both the nation's fastest and sixth fastest growing cities (1989 and 2006). So, speculation is huge. Thus, the crash was HUGE...

2) Stigma: For whatever reason, there is a stigma attached to the town. When I was a kid it was because it was too suburban. Then the base closed down. The city also did go through a bigger demographic shift compared to other cities in the region. Thus, there was a little culture clash that taints its reputation. When you compare it to other inland cities, it score average in crime, slightly above average in terms of average income, and slightly below average in home price. So, really Moreno Valley is truly average for the region. For SoCal it scores average in crime, average in come, and far below average in housing prices. It's really an average town.

3) Jobs: The base closed down. Now there are plenty of blue collar jobs, but hardly any white collar jobs. This model resembles Orange County and other suburban SoCal regions.

Just avoid Central Moreno Valley and Edgemont. The rest of Moreno Valley is very suburban. The NW and NE end are nice as well as SE end.

[Jay in LA]

Thanks for the replies.

I do realize that job and commuting seem to be the main factors, but luckily I work from home on my computer and have a stable online business. I would just need to visit downtown L.A. maybe once a week.

I'm just looking for a place where I can get the most square footage for the money and not too far away from L.A.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by eclipxe

I wouldn't live there. It is a depressing area to me.

Did you know that Moreno Valley has more people living there than Temecula? So it may be depressing to you, but not to the vast number of people moving and living there.

It's a statisical fact that Moval has a population of approximately 178,000 people living there.
Temecula has a little over 100,000 people.

Moval is 47% white
Temecula is 62% white

Moval is 20% black
Temecula is 3.1% black

Moval is 25% hispanic
Temecula is 24.2% hispanic

[lashad]

Hey there is alot of racism when people talk of moreno valley. My uncle once said its "too dark" for him. Being a mother of two children of color i think this is horrible. I lived in Moreno Valley for a while and it is a nice place to live. But now, for me, I want to get away from the smog, traffic, liquar stores, and fast food restraunts which includes Moreno Valley and most of California

[eclipxe]

Originally Posted by antredd

Did you know that Moreno Valley has more people living there than Temecula? So it may be depressing to you, but not to the vast number of people moving and living there.

It's a statisical fact that Moval has a population of approximately 178,000 people living there.
Temecula has a little over 100,000 people.

Moval is 47% white
Temecula is 62% white

Moval is 20% black
Temecula is 3.1% black

Moval is 25% hispanic
Temecula is 24.2% hispanic

Yes, I was *perfectly* aware that Moreno Valley has a larger population than Temecula. So does Santa Ana, LA and New York City. That doesn't change the fact that those cities are also depressing to *me*. I didn't say it was depressing to the 170k+ folks that call it home. However, I think if you do a poll of residents in Moreno Valley, the majority would choose to live elsewhere if they could. This is just anecdotal however, based on people I know that live there. Most folks *hate it*. Smog, crime, distance from everything, heat, etc. The city is also very "ugly". There is little natural beauty (IMHO) or attention to aesthetics in the design and planning of the city. I attribute much of this due to the way the city was formed - as a conglomeration of a few other cities. There is no cohesive master plan for the city or for neighborhoods and that leads to a detached, ad-hoc feel. That is depressing to me.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by lashad

Hey there is alot of racism when people talk of moreno valley. My uncle once said its "too dark" for him. Being a mother of two children of color i think this is horrible. I lived in Moreno Valley for a while and it is a nice place to live. But now, for me, I want to get away from the smog, traffic, liquar stores, and fast food restraunts which includes Moreno Valley and most of California

I am very glad that you mentioned that, and I didn't want to go there but since you did, thank you. What is so sad is that, a poster who pretty much worships Temecula listed the top ten niciest cities to live in Riverside County and she included Lake Elisnore and Hemet, leaving out Moreno Valley. Moreno Valley may be too dark for some people, but I would have to say, that Moreno Valley is just as equally nice, if not to many people nicer than Hemet and Lake Elsinore. I just found her choice of cities interesting without her realizing her own bias against a city that probably has the same amount of crime as Hemet and Lake Elsinore. In fact, Lake Elsinore and Hemet when I mentioned those cities to people who live in Menifee, Murrieta, and Temecula are sorta places they wouldn't even want to live in. Menifee, in my opinion has nothing yet to make it nice. It seems to me when I tell people that I live in menifee, they go how nice it is. Have you seen parts of Menifee on the west side of the 215, that used to be parts of Sun City? To me, it appears that people have allowed that part of town to go. But again now that Menifee is a city, they replant the green belts that have died.

I was born and raised in Compton, moved to Menifee to offer my children a better life without having to deal with gangs and drugs, then my son who went to Paloma High told me all of the things that were going on there, and so I realized that you can run but you can't hid from it.

I Know what it feels like to grow up in a town that has become not only notorious for its high crime, but has become worldwide famous by gangsta rappers who grew up in Compton just to capitalize off of the city's bad image. Most of these CA towns are OVERRATED anyway, and I have tried to point that out many times, but some who are on the defensive about their precious cities attack me for stating the truth.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by eclipxe

Yes, I was *perfectly* aware that Moreno Valley has a larger population than Temecula. So does Santa Ana, LA and New York City. That doesn't change the fact that those cities are also depressing to *me*. I didn't say it was depressing to the 170k+ folks that call it home. However, I think if you do a poll of residents in Moreno Valley, the majority would choose to live elsewhere if they could. This is just anecdotal however, based on people I know that live there. Most folks *hate it*. Smog, crime, distance from everything, heat, etc. The city is also very "ugly". There is little natural beauty (IMHO) or attention to aesthetics in the design and planning of the city. I attribute much of this due to the way the city was formed - as a conglomeration of a few other cities. There is no cohesive master plan for the city or for neighborhoods and that leads to a detached, ad-hoc feel. That is depressing to me.

I need to ask you one question before I reply to your post. where did you grow up?