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Our price range for a home is 700-900,000 (we're hoping for 5 bedrooms and 3000-3500 square feet) and we're considering the following towns.
1. Westlake Village
2. Agoura Hills
3. Calabasas
4. Thousand Oaks
5. Oak Park
Our wish list for a town includes:
1. Great public schools
2. True community vibe where people feel like they live in a home town
3. Friendly and family oriented and welcoming to new families
4. Safe environment for young children
5. Good community resources like public libraries, parks, etc.
6. Some young families
Consider:
Calabasas, Agoura and 1/2 of Westlake (it's divided in the middle) are in LA County. The other places are Ventura County. BIG differences. Downtown LA is a pain to go to for LA County issues. It's a massive county with a lot of problems. By contrast, going to Ventura is easy. You can talk to a human on the phone. No lines at the County offices. Also, property taxes and sales taxes are slightly cheaper. IMO official workers are nicer to deal with.
Oak Park has sections of homes, but there is a lot of condos and apartments. Same with Agoura. All the areas have houses with a large number of bedrooms.
All the cities have good freeway access to the 101 Fwy. Only TO has access to the 118 Fwy via the 23 Fwy. This is a real advantage if you need to commute to LA.
Grade schools are good in all areas. Westlake and the TO high schools are the best.
Thousand Oaks is by far the prettiest (no billboards, utilities mostly underground). It has extremely low crime and great police response.
Thousand Oaks has the best library. It's only for TO residents, and not a county library. It's fantastic. TO has the best shopping, by far. It has a beautiful city hall, performing arts center, adult school, senior center, teen center, etc.
These areas are all good options for what you are looking for, so I would suggest you start with Calabasas to shorten your commute. The other areas may seem close on paper, but if you live on the east side of Calabasas, you will be 10-25 minutes closer than any of the other locations each way, every day, without traffic. That really makes a difference over time. Calabasas has a beautiful library, Commons shopping area, weekly Farmers Market, and tons of community sports and activities for kids. The schools are top notch.
Calabasas may be technically in Southern California, but it is not really of Southern California. Why does this matter? Housing, utilities, and transportation are very expensive compared to LA, Calabasas is remote and isolated with few if any amenities, and the climate is atrocious by LA standards. On the flip side, crime is low and it is sort of a good place for families that don't mind the fact that there is little, if anything, to do.
This said, consider the following observations from a recent Miami transplant:
Calabasas is not sunny warm Los Angeles. On any given winter night, the temperature in Calabasas is 15-20 degrees colder than metro LA (On January 13, 2013, NWS reported Calabasas recorded a low of 20f, whereas the low in LA was 35f, and officially a record low of 37f, record lows in Calabasas are 23f/Nov, 20f/Dec, 19f/Jan, 18f/Feb).
On any given summer afternoon, Calabasas is 15-25 degrees hotter than metro LA (NWS reports avg August temp in Calabasas of 97f, LA 83f, records in Calabasas are 101f/Mar, 103f, April, 113f/May, 115f/Jul, 116f/Aug, 115f/Sep, 110f/Oct).
Why does this matter? Energy costs. Simply stated, on a cold winter night or hot summer day, your HVAC system will have to work 15-20 degrees harder than your neighbor's just a few miles away to maintain the exact same interior temperature. All things equal, your energy costs will be significantly higher than almost everyone else in metro LA.
But all things aren't equal. On the contrary, if you live in Calabasas, your electricity is supplied by Southern California Edison (So Cal Ed). California uses a "tiered" electrical rate system. At tier one, your So Cal Ed electric bill is double what your neighbors in LA are paying for power from LAPWD.
By the time you pay to cool your home to the comfortable temperature your neighbors in LA are enjoying, your electric rate with So Cal Ed is TRIPLE that of LAPWD for the same kilowatt hours. And, to be clear, we are not talking about your friends at the beach, we are talking about your friends in the hills of Sherman Oaks and Studio City (actual compared bills). So, while your friends just down the valley are looking at $100 electric bills in the summer, your bills for a 3/2 town house in Calabasas will be will over $300 (true story). With an Enron event, your summer electric bill could be over $1000 (as actually happened to a Calabasas neighbor).
The same is true in the winter. While your neighbors in LA are dealing with maximum low temps in the mid to upper 30s, you will regularly contend with a hard freeze in the teens to around 20. So while your neighbors in LA are looking at a $75 natural gas bill, yours will approach $200 (and much higher if you like your home above 65 degrees).
Sadly, this also applies to water. The cost to simply have a Las Virgenes Municipal Water District pipe connected to your Calabasas home is $135.00 per water bill before you draw the first drop of water (seeLas Virgenes Municipal Water District : Home). Here again, your water bills will average more than double the usual LAPWD bill. Be prepared for the fact that pipes freeze in Calabasas. A burst pipe will costs you hundreds in extra water bills, and LVMWD will only allow one leak adjustment every 10 years. If you like grass, be prepared for $400 water bills in the summer to cool your lawn on those frequent 100+ degree days.
On the topic of lawns (and gardening), be prepared for big landscaping, lawn care, and plant replacements costs here as well. As you may imagine, plants that do well in LA don't grow well in Calabasas where it normally falls into the 20s at night in the winter and is over 100 degrees at least 75 days in the summer. Those nice king palms, pigmy date palms, bougainvillea, hibiscus, and other sub-tropical ornamentals that form the lush pool-side landscaping in LA simply will not survive the horrendous climate in Calabasas. If you drive around Calabasas this week (the first week of February, 2013), you will see plenty of dead plants. Drive a few miles east and notice that the exact same plants are alive and well in metro LA.
As for amenities, forget it, they're aren't any. The closest name-brand gym is 8 miles away and has a very poor "Yelp" score. There are few restaurants, and no pubs. You will have to drive several miles for a gallon of milk, and pay about 15 cents extra for the gallon of gas to get you there (compared to gas stations just a few miles away). As I understand from my single friends, Calabasas is painfully isolated. Quality gathering spots are at least 15 miles away and very few people from LA would ever consider actually driving to Calabasas on purpose- and this is telling given that LA is a car culture. Note to single people: unless you want to start talking to your house plant, Calabasas probably isn't for you.
Finally, consider that Calabasas is distant and remote. If you travel frequently for work, LAX is nearly 50 miles away down the 405 (the most highly congested freeway in the United States) and is over an hour on the best days. Burbank Airport (BUR) is over 20 miles away down the also very heavily congested 101, and also easily an hour in traffic. Downtown LA (along with the zoo, museums, Dodger Stadium) is 31 miles away and 45 minutes in light traffic to near two hours in rush hour. The nearest mall is 7 miles in one direction and the other is 8 in the opposite direction. The closest museum (the Getty) is a 30-40 minute drive. One of the top ten botanical gardens in the world, the Huntington, is nearly 40 miles away. Disney Land is a 70 mile road trip in each direction with the kids...
To be fair, Calabasas does have some good points. If you can stand frigid mornings in the winter and 100 degree plus days most of the summer, the biking is second to none. Malibu Canyon is one of the single most spectacular rides anywhere in North America. Malibu beach is 9 miles south. Also, if you have a family, there is a quaint little theater in the Calabasas Commons that shows family films early enough to get the kids to bed. In fact, Calabasas may be a great place for families (particularly, families of coyotes, spiders, and rattle snakes). Also, there is almost zero crime (probably because there are so few human beings).
In conclusion, unless you have some extremely important reason for suffering Calabasas, such as a specific school or extreme close proximity to a job, there are much better communities that are truly in and of Southern California worth considering. In the valley, Sherman Oaks and Studio City are outstanding provided you are south of Ventura Boulevard. Pasadena is like a metropolitan Mayberry with palm trees, a fantastic sense of community, and is on a clean, safe transit line to LA.
Bottom line, if you are looking for the true Southern California experience, avoid Calabasas.
T
In conclusion, unless you have some extremely important reason for suffering Calabasas, such as a specific school or extreme close proximity to a job, there are much better communities that are truly in and of Southern California worth considering. In the valley, Sherman Oaks and Studio City are outstanding provided you are south of Ventura Boulevard. Pasadena is like a metropolitan Mayberry with palm trees, a fantastic sense of community, and is on a clean, safe transit line to LA.
The idea that Calabasas isn't "Of Southern California" is rather strange, Calabasas is connected to Los Angeles. Perhaps you mean to say "of Los Angeles".....but even there its connected. The weather in Calabasas isn't much different than the rest of the San Fernando valley, indeed, its even a bit more mild.
The weather in Pasadena, being in a valley, is similar to Calabasas as well.
Regardless, Calabasas neighbors Los Angeles and is most definitely a "Southern California experience". But its not an urban area, so if that is what one is looking for then its not a good choice. Its a safe suburban community with good schools that is well connected to Los Angeles and you have a good selection of restaurants, malls, movie theaters within a 10 mile radius.
30 miles from the heart of the second largest city in the US...is remote?
dbg117's post doesn't make any sense. If Calabasas is not in "Southern CA" then where is it? It certainly is not in Central CA or the Bay Area. Its in Los Angeles County!
Wow, Calabasas has really gotten slammed by dbg117! Although I see his/her point on a few things, those issues (high water/electricity costs, etc.) are not exclusive to Calabasas.
It IS tucked away & on the west end of the San Fernando Valley - certainly, like the rest of the San Fernando Valley, it has higher summer temps than the rest of L.A. but they're consistent with temps in neighboring Woodland Hills.
The truth is, summers in the Valley are HOT. CA summer temps are HOT... this isn't Seattle, peeps!! The alternatives offered by the poster aren't ideal considering your specific criteria - Studio City & Sherman Oaks have housing prices equal to/greater than Calabasas yet offer horrible schools (there are pockets of awesome elementary schools, but you're out of luck with middle & high schools unless you go private or can gain entry into a lottery charter school). I love Pasadena, but their smog is atrocious as are their schools - pretty much all the parents I know in Pasadena who can afford to buy in the demographic we're talking about send their kids to private.
Don't know how you've come along in your decision-making process, but I hope you're not scared away from Calabasas because of the above poster - it's not MY ideal location (for a number of different reasons) but it is a lovely community.
Last edited by socalmommie; 03-11-2013 at 09:52 AM..
Reason: typo
When someone rants as much as dbg117 (especially with little factual basis) , I think most people write it off as a disgruntled person. Who knows, he may have received a parking ticket there and is pissed.
I don't hate Calabasas, but the people who live there always seemed snobby to me. All I have to do is just head into Encino, Winnetka or Woodland Hills to find more down to Earth people very close-by in the San Fernando Valley.
The schools in Calabasas are supposed to be excellent, though.
Apologies to all as the above post was intended to be in a different forum. However, I stand by the citations as presented (the information provided by those sources was current at the time of posting). The information posted is intended to benefit future potential transplants to the area who, upon considering the totality of the viewpoints expressed on this forum, may make a fully informed decision as to whether Calabasas is right for them. Had I been in possession of this information prior to investing in Calabasas, I would have made a different investment. And no, I did not get a parking ticket.
Apologies to all as the above post was intended to be in a different forum. However, I stand by the citations as presented (the information provided by those sources was current at the time of posting). The information posted is intended to benefit future potential transplants to the area who, upon considering the totality of the viewpoints expressed on this forum, may make a fully informed decision as to whether Calabasas is right for them. Had I been in possession of this information prior to investing in Calabasas, I would have made a different investment. And no, I did not get a parking ticket.
Thanks for being real and speak your mind. I rated your post as positive. Don't worry about the zip code sheeps.
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Look at Calabasas first
