10 reasons to move to Aptos/ Santa Cruz? 10 not!? (Watsonville, Commerce: real estate, apartment complexes)

[astrosona]

Hello Folks,

i am 24 and i want to move to Aptos, please write me 10 good reasons that why it's good to move to Aptos and why it is NOT good to move to Aptos.

thanks you all
sona

[SantaCruzIsMyHome]

Aptos? hmm... will be hard pressed to come up with 10 reasons...

1. Close enough to Santa Cruz without being in Santa Cruz.

2. Beautiful scenery.

3. Pretty close to San Fransisco.... kind of...

4. A few minutes drive to Watsonville (Home Depot, Target)... (although Santa Cruz is building a Home Depot finally on 41st st.)

5. I'm really struggling here....

Ok I'm moving on to why not to....

1. It's on nightmare highway 1 -- If you plan on working in Santa Cruz count on a hour transit each way in nightmarish traffic... Soquel ave. isn't much better...

2. It's not really near anything (restaurants, grocery stores, cafes, etc...).. if you like that... I guess go for it...

3. The real estate is still sky high.

4. Lots of crazy mountian people.

5. Cars, cars, cars, cars... you can forget about public transportation... and you'll be spending a lot of money on gas.

6. You can get all the perks of the scenery and live in Santa Cruz... or Watsonville (where the real estate is much much cheaper)

7. Why not live off highway 17 or Bonny Doon if you can afford it? the scenery is better and there are better ways of getting into town and avoiding traffic.

8. Buy a house on West Cliff in Santa Cruz... you know you want to ...

That's all I got... I tried...

Here's a website for Santa Cruz history and entertainment if you are interested....

http://www.bohova.com/

[astrosona]

Thank you so much.....i am confused..i don't know what to really do..i have lot of questions......but this was really useful

thanks

[Merical]

Ten good reasons to move to Aptos:
1. Laid back attitude of the townspeople
2. Friendly and unassuming
3. Casual and close-knit
4. Low crime
5. Beautiful
6. Coastal and country regions
7. Great community college
8. Some great deli style restaurants
9. Close to malls
10. Great state parks for hiking/biking
11 . Great coffee bars
12. Safe
13. schools are pretty good
14. The cement ship
15. Snow Whites!!!
16. Deluxe Foods got a great remodel and its fantastic.

Reasons not to move to Aptos
1. Often cold
2. Just as likely to see fog as sunshine in the summer
3. High housing prices
4. No mall to speak of (but close)
5. Traffic can be pretty horrific on Highway One
6. No formal police department
7. Can't think of anything else and I'm stretching to find what I have!!! Just move to Aptos, you'll love it.

[Wisteria]

I'm not sure why you see such a difference between Santa Cruz and Aptos?? They're basically all together. Aptos has a small downtown, but it's still considered part of Santa Cruz -- not downtown Santa Cruz, but it's kind of lumped in there. Aptos does have the community college, though, but even so, you can easily get there from Santa Cruz, Capitola, Soquel, or any other town nearby. I'm not sure what kind of vast difference you're looking for??

I live in Felton, and have worked in Santa Cruz and my daughter took classes at Cabrillo -- this whole area is not all that far apart.

What is it you're looking for and why just between Aptos and Santa Cruz?? Either place will put you near beaches, redwood forests, tons of hiking trails, surfing, restaurants, beauty....not sure what you're getting at. Sorry.

[YogaPants]

HHMMM as an Aptosian...
Top 10 Positives:
1. No Malls
2. No Police
3. Crazy Mountain People
4. Fog
5. The Village
6. The Ocean
7. Lots of micro climates ( less fog )
8. Organic Farmer's Market
9. Hidden Garden Nursery
10. Quiet, sort of

[LT_Dan]

If you are still interested in more information I live in Aptos.

About 75% of the information in the earlier postings is correct.
I was born in Watsonville
Raised in Santa Cruz
and live in Aptos.

However
-Aptos and Santa Cruz areas ARE distinctly different and VERY separate.
-Aptos does not have much of the funky, hippy, druggy, homeless set as Santa Cruz and its area do.

-Santa Cruz County is growing rapidly as are many other areas

-Housing prices tend to be high, but not prohibitive for middle income people.

- there ARE police in this unincorporated area. Sheriffs Deputies.

- There are lots of eating out options. Both casual and upscale.

- There are lots of shopping options; not the BIG stores.

- The climate is cooler within a mile or so of the shore than southern california. Lots of hilly areas and scattered pockets of warmth also.

- Summer pattern is a week to a week and a half of warm/hot days and then alternates with less than a week of cooler or foggy days.

- Winters are cool to cold and sometimes very rainy. Long rainy winters are rewarded by tremendous spring flowers all over.

-Schools are OK and scattered through the area.

Web search for other info at

Aptos Chamber of Commerce
and
Santa Cruz County Visitors Bureau

I'm an electrical contractor.
If you would like more general info email me or
some names of honest agents which are
sometimes hard to come by here email me.

I think the host should list my email address.

[astrosona]

hello every body,

your texts where very useful, thank you all, thank you so much.

i am transferring to Cabrillo College and i was worry about renting an apartment. that was why i was thinking if it make sense to rent an apartment in near by cities like Santa Cruz or not that i some how think that is possible now.

now i need to ask do any body know how can i rent an apartment for 2 months from here (san antonio, tx) in there before i move there? i know no one in there and i need to find a place before i move there.

i would be more than happy if you help me in this.

[LT_Dan]

Cabrillo will have a housing office and it will have local info.
There are some apartments just up or down Soquel Dr near Cabrillo.
Summertime you should be able to find what you want easily.

At a stretch you might call the Aptos Chamber of Commerce.
It is a very small place but with nice helpful people just down the road from Cabrillo. They may have some apartment listings.

The Univ of Calif at Santa Cruz also would have a housing office but might not help you. And it's focus would be on the Santa Cruz area.

If you are not in a great rush and you would like some names of a few local apartment complexes I can let you know in a week or so. If Cabrillo is your main focus then you may look for locations in these unincorporated adjacent communities that are within 3 miles of Cabrillo. They will show up on any maps or Mapquest.com.

Aptos 95003 Cabrillo lies between Soquel and Aptos
Soquel 95073
Seacliff 95003
Rio Del Mar 95003
Capitola 95010 is close too (a little father than these others) but it is a fully incorporated small city.

Consider Santa Cruz to be 15 to 30 minutes away from Cabrillo because of the traffic commonly found along the route. On really bad days it could be worse.

If you have the time you also could call AT&T and order a phone book and look for apartment listings. Or a web search could turn you up some leads. I would think however that apartments with web sites or listings might be on the rich side. Who knows.

I graduated from Cabrillo many years ago. Best of luck.

Daniel.Bronson@comcast.net

[astrosona]

Thank you so much LT-Dan, your reply is very very useful for me, i am in rush some how! actually i am planning to move in August so i need to do some thing. I appreciate your time and help so much and i will check them all and i would be happy if i could contact you for more information in the case i need help.

do you know which high school in the best in that area?

regards