Any good areas in Oxnard? (Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley: real estate, apartments, rental)

[Frank_Black]

We will be moving to Ventura County and planning to rent a house for at least a year before buying. My job will be in Ventura. We have been looking at rental properties in Ventura, Camarillo, and Oxnard. I know Oxnard has a bad rep as far as crime goes, but are there any nice, safe neighborhoods in Oxnard. How about near Mandalay Beach, Hollywood Beach, Oxnard Beach, or Channel Islands Harbor? Our budget for a rental is around $3000-$3500.

[24hr7]

there are good areas. most of the nice areas are in the perimeter of the city. drive around and make a decision for your self. You can always use this tool to identify the good and bad areas.

Crime data map going back 6 years of data collection.
City Of Oxnard California | Oxnard Police Department

You are right about there are bad and good areas in Oxnard. I have been Oxnard for 2.5 years now and I did a lot research prior to settling into my neighborhood. Good research will pay off.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Your rental budget looks good for most parts of Oxnard including the beach areas. You may not be on the ocean but you would be near it. Beach neighborhoods have ocean front homes running the leangth of the beach and beach homes on roads heading inland away from the beach. Many do have ocean views though. Also places like Oxnard Shores or as they call it now Mandalay Shores do have pockets of condos (Small 4 or 5 unit buildings) that would easily fit your budget.

Your Oxnard beach communites are:

Oxnard Shores which many people requested that the name be changed to Mandalay Shores. They installed new signs and the old timers like myself didn't like it. The signs were changed to say "Mandalay Shores an Oxnard Shores Community". The Shores are the furthest north livable beach in Oxnard and truly Oxnards only beach.

Oxnard State Beach Just north of Oxnard Shores and across from Mandalay Bay a nice community of homes built on the waterway. They have boat docs in the back, Which if you live there is the front. Just next to Oxnard State Beach is the Colony Home Owners association, a gated condo community.


Hollywood Beach which is under county controll is south of the Shores and next to Oxnard State Beach. Hollywood lies between the ocean and the Oxnard Harbor. Most places have a water view. As you drive down Harbor heading south you will find Condos and apartments lining the road with more of a Harbor view, still nice if you ask me though. They have some nice shops and local eating places there as well.

Oxnard Harbor Penisula Not so much a beach community but close to the lifestyle. Peninsula (The name of the road) has plenty of apartments and condos to choose from. Martin V. Smith who built most of Oxnard including the Harbor used to live at the end of the Penisula in a 4 unit apartment. He owned all the apartments so it was a very differant living condition for him lets say. He also kept his little boat, The Dry Martini, docked near his apartment. (If you can call a 83 ft boat little.)

Silverstand Beach If you are at the end of Hollywood Beach near the entrance to Oxnard Harbor you can look across the water to Silverstrand. To get there you will need to take a boat, or drive back to Channel Islands Road heading East and then south of Victoria. Drive to the beach from there past the many fishing boats and personal water craft. I grew up hanging around Silverstrand. The beach has a reputation as being teritorial. That is not as bad as it was in the past though. I have so many great memories of the Strand. The beach is a mile long with Ocean front homes and streets that head toward the ocean. All the streets are names of cities in California. Legend has it that when people moved to the Strand they would name the street after what ever city that they came from. Back in the old days many people had a second home, a beach house and what ever other home that they owned.

A lot of well known people have called the Oxnard area beaches home. Sonny and Cher lived there when I was much younger. Eric Estrada lived there after chips ended. Today many writers within the entertainment industry live there.

When it comes to crime as being bad in Oxnard, ask yourself what you are comparing that to? Oxnard has a big problem in that it is in the same county as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and even Moorpark. Those are very low crime cities nationally. Even Camarillo is low crime. When most people say that crime is high they are comparing it to a place that holds normally the top 5 and many times the top 2 cities nationally for low crime. Oxnard on a national level has low crime for cities within its size. What you may want to do is compare it to where you are living now. Remember though that many areas of Oxnard are better than average and parts of Oxnard are far worse. I live in the North side and crime has had little effect on my part of the city.

[Garden gal]

I like the historic district. Beautiful, diverse homes, walkability to parks, downtown, restaurants, a boxing gym. There is also a feeling of community. People have kids riding bikes on the sidewalks. I asked neighbors about the area before buying and someone told me "everyone takes care of each other here- it's like back in the old days". Also there are less sex offenders in this zone that when I searched the beach zones (of course this depends on exact address) so for people who care about that, it is a benefit.

[Frank_Black]

Thank you for all the useful info! I will definitely check out these areas in Oxnard next time. Do those of you who live there think that home values are lower in Oxnard just because they are in the city of Oxnard? The last few times I visited the area, all I heard from people were negative comments about Oxnard. Of course they were coming from people who live in other parts of Ventura County.

[24hr7]

Originally Posted by Frank_Black

Thank you for all the useful info! I will definitely check out these areas in Oxnard next time. Do those of you who live there think that home values are lower in Oxnard just because they are in the city of Oxnard? The last few times I visited the area, all I heard from people were negative comments about Oxnard. Of course they were coming from people who live in other parts of Ventura County.

I'm glad people that don't live in Oxnard continue to say negative things because it keeps the homes reasonable with middle class income index.

A few years ago when I was 29 years old I wanted buy my first house and my budget was around $350K. I work in investigation for the largest Homeowners insurance company in the country so I know all the risk of buying a piece of crap old home in an overpriced zip code. I grew up in Thousand Oaks Westlake Village area, and if I wanted to stay in town my budget would have gotten me a sh*tty home in a sh*tty neighborhood that has soil issues, foundation issue, need a new roof, needs new piping, not earthquake ready, no central air/heat, non insulation, need new better windows. I know have seen my share of insurance claims from Homeowners and Home inspections in the last 7 years. I left town and bought a 10 year old house in an awesome neighborhood in Oxnard. I dont have kids so school is not an issue plus we still own a house in Thousand Oaks/Westlake border. Anyway people may be talking crap about Oxnard and all but it is where the future is at in the next 2 decades. Think about Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park housing market 30 years ago and you will get the point. Certain areas of Oxnard will have exponential gains in the future. Oxnard as a metropolitan has hit its low in the early 90's and quality of life has been rising steady ever since. For all the people that live in the surrounding cities in Ventura County that think Oxnard is bad, some days in the future their kids won't be able to afford Oxnard. My gross income is over $90K and I don't feel like I'm too good for Oxnard. How many children of the current Homeowners in Ventura County can afford a home in the future in the affluent area and guess where they are gonna go ? Wherever they can afford a decent first home and they would be lucky to stay in Ventura County.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by 24hr7

Think about Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park housing market 30 years ago and you will get the point. Certain areas of Oxnard will have exponential gains in the future.

Or....they could further decline in value. It all depends what happens in Oxnard and there is nothing today that would guarantee "exponential gains".

There are only two ways Oxnard real estate is going to rapidly appreciate: 1.) It becomes an enclave for the wealthy like Santa Barbara, 2.) High-value businesses relocate to the city. #1 isn't occurring, in fact the opposite. And #2 isn't occurring either.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

user_id, What would constitute high value businesses?

[24hr7]

The city will grow and the haters are going to die before they get to see it. Too bad...

[user_id]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

user_id, What would constitute high value businesses?

I'm referring to businesses, or rather business operations, that provide large number of good paying jobs. Most businesses in Oxnard provide low/mid wage jobs as evidence by the fact that only 15% of adults 25+ have at least a bachelors...that is far below the state average of 30%.

Originally Posted by 24hr7

The city will grow and the haters are going to die before they get to see it. Too bad...

Oxnard will more than likely grow in population, but whether that growth translates into the sorts of changes that would be needed to see "exponential gains" in real estate is a different matter entirely.