What can you tell me about Victorville (Los Angeles, Fresno: rent, crime)

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by jaycee777

When I first moved to Victorville about 15 years ago, it had a somewhat small town/community feeling to it, the sky was much clearer, and there was hardly any graffitti. Unfortuneatly, all of that has changed within the last five years for the same reasons that everyone here has talked about.

I've lived the past year just outside of Charlotte, N.C. and love it. That should speak volumes.

The high desert certainly has its problems but ... have you read the Charlotte forum lately? They're filled with threads about the major crime problem there.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/charl...te-thread.html

In fact, the crime rate is much higher than Victorville.

Charlotte, North Carolina (NC) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders
Victorville, California (CA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders

I get tired of people making other places sound like utopia when, in fact, they're not.

[115db]

It depends on what psrt of town you live in, just like any other city in the world, there will be good and bad. Heck, even in Apple Valley theres a downside and an up-side. No place on earth is going to be completely free of any flaws. I love the high desert for the cleaner air, a bit less expensive than other areas, and a whole different type of people here, compared to some other places. Im not going to say its perfect. The more people in any city, the higher the chances of assorted lifestyles. Period. Thats just the way it is anywhere.

[MamaNana]

bAREFOOTgIRLY ~~~
I've lived here for 21 years , and yes it has changed in the last 5 years, but then again we only had 2 stop-lights (at freeway) for about 7 miles on Bear Valley Rd.at one time. I agree with LiveWire, it doesn't matter where you live you have the good and bad. I lived in Burbank, CA. for 29 years before I moved to Victorville. I was a divorced mom and could not afford anything in the San Fernando valley by myself. I remember my first Christmas parade, it felt a bit hokie but I had tears in my eyes because it just felt that I had made the right decision. For those that say that this area is horrible or worst, you've not lived here.-- PureHapa, Kathleenh54 ,& redcoff ,are full of baloney, yes it is hot in the summer ,100-110 , but it is Hotter in Palm Springs, swamp coolers are my friend. We made our backyard into our oasis ,(2 weddings done here). So you make what you want out of life. Yes there are Meth houses but even in Beverly Hills you have that , you had nice places and bad everywhere. The people here come from all walks of life , from Doctors to stay-at-home-Moms. At least living here , Moms have the chance to stay home with their babies, where other places , both parents have to work and babies are put into daycare all day.~~As for - redcoff usually battered women's shelters are in locations that the husband/boyfriend can't find the women. Most of the battered women come from San Bernadino/Rialto/ Rancho Cuamonga/Ontario area and yes even here.

[YankeeTom]

Originally Posted by rcandelaria

Hello bAREFOOTgIRLY,
I came across you posting and was reading what other are saying about Victorville. I currently live here in Victorville. I could tell you its Hot!! it gets around 100-110. Then the winters get cold 30's. I guess its nothing compared to Colorado winters. The people are different you have great young families with good morals trying to raise a family with what they have and then you have those who are up here because it was cheap and they could buy a house unfortunately they were problems from else where. I have lived here for 3 years and bought a new home here. I personally have not had any troubles our neighborhood is nice and everyone takes care of there house BUT due to the heat it is hard to keep your grass green all the time and the when you finally get the sprinklers times set just right and your grass is greener …the weather changes and you end up over watering hahahaha.
I was traveling to Beverly Hills for work which is a little past Hollywood, thinking I was making great money and the drive would not be to bad. Let me tell you I did it for 1 year I drove 3 different routes I it took me 3 hours ONE WAY!!!! it was 96 miles to work and 96 miles home. I would leave around 4:30am and there was still traffic. And if there is an accident forget it every one has to stop to look. Traffic on the 15 freeway coming home is very slow and on Fridays it the worst because everyone going to Vegas is heading that way too. Needless to say I recently quite my job the money was not worth the drive. Back to Victorville. I have heard that there is a problem with Meth freaks up here. I have seen a few tweeters running around by the old parts of the city but no more then any other cities around. You are going to get good and bad anywhere. I believe that in the future as the house prices move upward that the bad apples will turn there house for drug money or they will lose it and they will not be able to afford another one here and they will move on. Please don’t misunderstand me its not like there are low life in every house but there are some and you will be able to tell. There is a row of restaurants up here that are nice / clean / and the people are friendly there is a new movie theater and a nice size mall. I think that the city is really trying to change the perception of what “Victorville” was. Back in the day Victorville and the surrounding cities were crappy houses were dirt lots with a trailer or small house set on it surrounded by chain link fence with 30 dogs in the yard all with something wrong with them, 10 cars and only one barley worked, and dirt roads. It was just an all around place were nobody wanted to go unless they were passing though. Now a lot has changed. There are some big housing developers building beautiful homes, The roads are paved and we are starting to get new commercial building popping up everywhere. There are still a lot of dirt lots but it but if you ride dirt bikes it perfect. If you are a church goers there is a large church called High desert church that is awesome they always have family activities going and it’s a great environment for the family

When I ran across this " BUT due to the heat it is hard to keep your grass green all the time and the when you finally get the sprinklers times set just right and your grass is greener …the weather changes and you end up over watering hahahaha. " WHY?? Why with all the water problems would ANYONE water a desert????
WHY live in a desert only to try and change the nature of it???
What A Waste!!!
Why not go with what Nature gives you? Rocks , Sage brush , Mnts , Sunsets. If I lived in a Desert ( and I might one day ) I would NEVER water a front or back yard!! Maybe a catus in a pot but thats it!

It is what It is let it be what It wants to be. Stop wasting water.

[sheri257]

I lived in Hesperia (which is right next door to Victorville) for five years, and just recently moved. Here's my take on the positives and negatives ...

Positives:
* Cheap housing and now, it's dirt cheap. Prices have gotten down to 2003 levels. You can save a lot of money.
* You have Victor Valley College and CSU isn't that far down the 15. I got a great education at VVC.
* Growth -- in this area it's huge. Lots of commercial office buildings going up and it's going to be even more of a future boom area, despite the recession. The future development in this state is all heading in this direction.
* The weather isn't as bad as people say. For one thing, you still get enough marine layer during the summers to cool things off. It's not always 110 days. To me, the bigger issue was that winters were much colder than I anticipated.

Negatives:

* Not much infrastructure ... roads aren't paved as much as they should be and drainage is practically non-existant. They've tried to make some improvements but it's definitely not keeping up with the growth in that area. There's virtually no urban planning either.
* Good paying jobs are still mostly down the hill so that means extra commuting and gas costs. That will change eventually but ... not in the short term. Better pay could be five to ten years away.
* With all of the growth the air quality has gotten much worse. When I first moved up there the skies were clear. Not anymore. It's getting just as hazy as down the hill.
* IMO, it's not really the meth addicts or the crime that you need to worry about. This area is still mostly dominated by dirt bike riding, conservative rednecks. If you're into that or, don't care then ... it will work great for you but, if not ... this is the closest thing to Texas that you will find in California.

[Texasturkey]

Originally Posted by LivingLikeAGradStudent

Choosing to live in Victorville and commute to Hollywood? That's unfortunate on so many micro and macro levels. If housing prices would be keeping you out of a job-adjacent home, then rent. Four hours (minimum) a day of traffic, either by car or mass transit, for the privilege of picking joshua tree stems out of your gravel driveway on the weekends? There must be another option.

Consider another option. You want to own a house in Victorville and drive to Hollywood? You are are at the end of SB county and you would be driving to West LA county. How many freeways would you need to take? You would have to leave at 3 am. That is insane! You are much better off renting in Hollywood or some other LA city along the way there. (Apartments, houses, mobile homes). You will save $$$ on gas and car maintenance. Good luck!

[115db]

Originally Posted by Victorville Resident

BarefootGirly,

[Re the Decision] Specific to your question of the amount of home you could get for the money, please carefully adapt your preferences (demographics, local vs. nationwide crime levels, commute, etc.).

[Re Crime] L.A. and Chicago are the most gang-riddlen places in America. And although most of the "gang-culture" had more/less been contained in pockets throughout southern calfornia (esp. along the coast), the gang-members and the gang-culture have metastasized; spreading to all but rural communities. Gangs are indeed a growing problem in Victorville, as nearly everywhere else in S. California. Gangs will be especially unsettling to you if you have never experienced its menace.

[Re Value] 300k may get you a mobile home (without the land, of course) in Orange or Ventura County. Both of those counties are along the coast and are generally more desirable places to live than the Inland Empire. You may also be able to buy a condo (< 1000 sq. ft.) with 300k. In either case, it's likely you'll end up in an area that has a crime rate comparable to Victorville. Yet in Victorville, 300k can buy a 3000 sq.ft. 6 bedroom home with a 3 car garage.

[Re the commute] Your husband can drive 45 minutes to the train station in San Bernadino. From there, he can take the train to L.A. and take the light-rail/subway within LA. The train ride may around an hour. Driving to and from is not recommended, but if he must, he should drive across the high desert from Victorville to Palmdale and then head south from there. That drive is much more reliable IN TERMS OF TIME but also more dangerous since the road across the desert is an undivided highway -- mitigate the risk of that route by staying behind a big rig). Anyhow that drive should be about 1.5 hours (4AM - 5AM into L.A., AM - 3PM back to the high desert).

I love it up here. If I relocate again though, probably in about 5 or so years, it probably would be my final move, and its either gonna be an area like possibly S Dakota or Oklahoma. Beautiful areas, lots of breathing room, and again, depending on where you live, you can have serenity and quiet without block walls and HOA .

[Tim-mac]

Stay away from Victorville. It's housing is less then most of Socal for a reason. We lived there for 5 years and moved down the hill last summer and have not regreted the move since. If you have no choice stay away from the North side along the I-15. It's old and run down. Many areas that were very nice when we first moved there (Eagle Ranch and Brentwood) became overun by section-8 rentals owned by landlords that lived down the hill and didn't care who rented as long as the checks were coming in each month. We sold our first house there and had to rent while we were waiting for our new house to be completed. We would call the landlords phone number to set up an appointment to see the rental and time after time the landlord would say I live too far to come up , just go in the side door to the garage it's open, call me if you like it. The last straw for us was 2 years ago when our house was completed we moved in and within one month 4 of the houses on our street alone were rented out to section-8 families. Well I could care less that these people were on public assistance. What I did care about was that these families moved in and along with them (I kid you not) was a broken down car for each house and one of them had two broken down cars. But that is minor. They didn't water their lawns so in a brand new neighborhood you've got dead lawns within a few months. So you ignore the fact that you just spent nearly 400K for a house and you neighbors are on public assistance. Well you come home from work at lunch time (I was fortunate to work in Victorville and not commute) and grown men are playing Basketball in the street. They maddog you because the have to move out of your way. So you say maybe they work the night shift??? No they are there when you get home playing Basketball. They don't have to work. The Babies mamma has got a free ride and a big beautiful 2500 sqf home. What a deal. I can't confirm this but I was told that San Bernardino County paid something like 75-80% of the rent to those on assistance opposed to Los Angeles County which I heard was like 25-35% of the rental price. That would make since because a few that I talked to were there from Los Angeles. I mean I'd live in a brand new, two story, four or five bedroom home for 300 to 500 dollars a month if I could. My kids all went to Silverado HS. My kids always came home and said that they were in "Lock Down" because of some racial fight or something. The cops would come in full riot gear. Non of this is an exaggeration. There are alot of good hard working families that live there that are trying to raise a family. There is also alot of bad people ruining for them. It's everyone trying to be harder then the next guy. If you have kids or teens look elsewhere. Trust me

[lizwolfspada]

Definitely, spend a little time visiting to see what you think. There has been some expansion in shopping, restaurants, movies etc. Houses are still relatively inexpensive. There are probably a lot more gang problems than when you lived here before. More large housing developments, built during the housing boom and now selling cheaply. It is of course, very hot in the summer and can be cold and windy in the winter. We live in Wrightwood and I teach in Phelan, so we are about 40 minutes from Victorville.
Liz

[msleon]

Victorville is a wonderful place to live. Every city needs people who get involved in changing their communities and not just dump there. Communtiy involvement is important but I love it there because even where the gang members are it is not as bad or as crazy as living even in Rancho or Ontario I know the whole area and surrounding and believe me Victorville will get better because people are going to mobilize to make it better. The homes are emaculant and stylish and cheap. I will be moving back there soon and I too will be commuting back and forward to LA.