Why should I live in Los Banos, CA? (San Jose, San Francisco: mortgage, appraiser)

[outofca]

It's more than 90 minutes especially on Friday and Holidays--up to four hours or more. There really is no quality of life when your always on the road. Find something small and closer to where you work if you must come out here. Los Banos is basicly a truck stop town. ---last place I would ever want to live. Gilroy and Morgan Hill are nice as well and are about 25 - 30 minutes from San Jose. Think about it before you make the move out here---you will be at work or on your way to work most of the time to pay for a mortgage on a house you won't often enjoy. Great for workaholics, not so great for families. Also, the school system in CA is horrible. We have lived here our whole lives and now are leaving so that we can enjoy a better quality of life. Good luck to you.

[Ajjjax]

It's true. What do we do for fun here in Los Banos? We go to the Food For Less. No joke. There is absolutely nothing to do here but go to work and come home, and maybe work out every once and a while.

However, people are all very pleasant here, and everyone is polite. (I think it is the "This place sucks, but we are all in it together" mentality). This is basically a one road town. The housing prices are a complete joke. I do believe that you would have to be a complete moron (or independently wealthy and not very bright) to buy a house here right now.

We have no real crime to speak of in this town. The reason? This town is FULL of illegal immigrants and their American citizen kids. They work hard, don't ask for much, and tend to keep a low profile. They care about their family, and don't bother anyone.

[rjx]

Before reading this thread I had been bringing up Los Banos a lot as a "possible" option for my fiance and I to purchase our first house. I am from Santa Clara and she is from San Jose. We are now starting to plan our futures together and I was telling her that while searching of Remax's site, we can get a nice big house for 400k in Los Banos. And in Santa Clara that same house would list in the upper 700k range. And we won't have the means of buying a house in the 7's, and maybe the mid 6's. So 400k sounded great! But I guess their is more downside to living in Los Banos than there would be upside.

Morgan Hill and Gilroy are far better options I guess. But we were also talking about the Nevada (Carson City, Reno, Sparks) area as well. You can get a lot of house for the money and its not nearly as isolated as Los Banos.

To the original poster, if you didn't have to commute to the bay area, Fresno imo is a far better option than Los Banos. Its more affordable than the bay area and its like living in San Jose. I don't think my fiance wants to live out there though. Good Luck.

[dablues63755]

Not knowing the area at all and moving from Missouri, where would be the best place for our teenagers to live and go to school? Husband will be taking a job in Morgan Hill.

[PSUMom]

Originally Posted by dablues63755

Not knowing the area at all and moving from Missouri, where would be the best place for our teenagers to live and go to school? Husband will be taking a job in Morgan Hill.

Based on traffic alone...go for Morgan Hill. Your husband will have a nice commute. Also, it's a nice community, the schools are decent and you can get a lot for your money compared to some other towns in the Bay Area...although you'll still have sticker shock coming from MO!

[masalamomma]

I just moved back to Denver area after a two year absence and I am shocked at the decline of this city. I live in the southern suburbs knows for the educated middle-class, upper middle class family area. There are so many restaurants and shops that have closed down. So many stores in the nice mall nearby have shut down. In case you haven't heard, Colorado is #1 in the country in foreclosures - it is estimated that 1 in 60 homes is in foreclosure.

Unless you are independently wealthy and don't have to work, I would check into your job situation before moving the whole family here. Plus, I am not sure if the houses here have hit rock bottom yet given the climate.

Just a city to be careful about I think. We are planning on moving out ourselves this summer - hopefully to Texas. But my husband has an offer for Sunnyvale we are also considering.

[Smilefallingstar]

I was born and raised in San Jose CA. I love it there. I ended up moving out here almost 10 years ago with my family. It's true there's nothing really to do, except go to a movie or something. All that is changing though and fast! Property value over here is hot. All the houses are selling like hot cakes. Our little town is developing into something bigger. Recently we got a new Lowe's, Home Depot, Big 5, college and our Chili's and Super Target are under way. That is not including our small shopping mall the city is planning. Were 1 hr and 15 from San Jose (I know I drove it many times) 45 mins from Gilroy outlets. Going in the other direction of San Jose is Merced. Also taxes are cheaper going this way. Curious about anything else just ask.

[Ajjjax]

Sheesh........Houses in this town are NOT selling like hot-cakes!

You must be a realtor or something!!! Property values were hot 2 years ago, but they have declined since then. Zillow.com will tell you that; just look at the sales history.

Houses are for sale everywhere, most with "Price Reduced" signs. My friend paid 375K for a 1200 sqft home in August, 2006. It is worth about 330k right now, at best. If she listed it for what she paid for it, do you think it would sell like a hot-cake? Or do hot-cakes usually sell for less than what it costs the guy to make them?

Also, I know for a fact that Lowe's is currently cutting back on their hours for employees except for management. Why they thought that this town could support 2 home improvement centers is beyond me. It's not like we are growing by leaps and bounds.

Chili's will do well, though, when it opens, as will Target. No one ever goes to the Big 5; watch and see, it will close eventually.

Also, the population here has completely outgrown its infrastructure. That means that the roads were not built to handle the current traffic roads. Pay too much attention to changing a CD in your car as you drive down the road and blam; it's all over. This makes for a dangerous commute, which is something to consider.

[Jerseygirl31]

Have you considered Texas?
We're leaving California to move to a neat little western town in Texas. We know there will be trade offs and are not looking for Utopia but there are more pluses for Texas in the trade offs so we are building there.
We did most of our research on the net than spent real time there firming up what we learned.

[fromthebay]

dont move to los banos... its horrible... it is a town full or farmers and there isnt much there... youre better off with somewhere like gilroy where the prices are the same and the area is nicer and less secluded.