Moving from MA to Thousand Oaks. (Los Angeles, Pasadena: to rent, home, neighborhoods)

[victorma]

Hello,

I will be moving from Massachusetts to TO, CA with my family (9 and 4 year-old kids) My job would be in TO and my salary around 200 K. I am looking for a safe town, good schools and with a walkable downtown. I am sick of the Norh East suburbs. If no walkable downtown is feasible, maybe a place midway between TO and Pasadena or Santa Monica. What is your opinion on Calabasas? I guess that living in TO would be pretty boring. Any other liveable town between TO and LA that you could recommend?

Thank you

VicMa

[DowntownVentura]

Vic, welcome to California. I think what might be best is to rent in Thousand Oaks for 6 months or so. That will give you a chance to see all the surrounding communities and see what works for you.

[victorma]

Thanks for your prompt reply. Yes, that is a part of the relocation package. Anyway, I would like to know the opinion of you guys rather than from the real state agent (relocation specialist.) A salary around 200 K gross, is ok for this area?

Thanks so much,

Victor

[Charles]

Originally Posted by victorma

Thanks for your prompt reply. Yes, that is a part of the relocation package. Anyway, I would like to know the opinion of you guys rather than from the real state agent (relocation specialist.) A salary around 200 K gross, is ok for this area?

Thanks so much,

Victor

What is your housing budget?

What are you looking for that isn't boring?

Thousand Oaks is typically high on the list of preferred places for families to live: excellent schools, safe, family amenities.

For some, renting first is a luxury.

The downsides of renting first, then buying:

You have to move twice; maybe not a big deal for some single dude who can fit all his belongings in the back of a pickup - but it is a big deal for a family of four with four or five bedrooms worth of stuff, a garage full of stuff, and all the other stuff in closets, living, dining, and family rooms and the kitchen.

Your kids might have to adjust to new schools twice. This isn't as easy as say, a ground ball to Buckner.

You have to go through all the hassles of address changes twice.

Also, if a person has a pretty tight set of parameters for example, no more than 10 miles from employer, X bedrooms, Y car garage, narrow price range, narrow range of years built, top Z% of schools, etc then it really boils down to a few neighborhoods.

Places to consider near there are Thousand Oaks (includes Newbury Park and Dos Vientos and the western half of the Westlake community), Westlake Village (the eastern half of the Westlake Community), Oak Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, and Moorpark. Stretching it would include Camarillo. Ventura is quite aways out but it has more a more interesting, varied community and culture. I can't imagine going any farther east than Calabasas.

I built this thread of some useful tools:

Useful Househunting tools

on it are

www.schoolperformancemaps.com
and
www.redfin.com

[DowntownVentura]

Originally Posted by victorma

Thanks for your prompt reply. Yes, that is a part of the relocation package. Anyway, I would like to know the opinion of you guys rather than from the real state agent (relocation specialist.) A salary around 200 K gross, is ok for this area?

Thanks so much,

Victor

The reason I responded the way I did was I am not sure what a walkable downtown is to you. I know what it is to me, what I like is Santa Barbara, Downtown Ventura, Santa Monica, Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. None are particularly close to Thousand Oaks,

Unless your job is Amgen (Newbury Park) then Ventura is very doable.

But none of them are suitable to kids 4 and 9. So, I just don't know

Calabasas is a great town. It has one street that has a few restaurants etc but even then, it is not really easy to walk to. Once you are there it is nice. It is a good family town with great schools though.

Oh and of course Thousand Oaks is great too to raise a family.

[BRinSM]

calabasas won't be anymore exciting than thousand oaks, except for that it is closer to LA. the closest walking area to TO might be Encino along Ventura Blvd, but that is not especially close and traffic that direction can be tough, not to mention pricey. TO isn't really walkable nor does it have a downtown, but there are some nice "lifestyle" centers (a fancy name for a newer outdoor mall) with nice little shops and restaurants, however they are almost all national chains.

[hsw]

Upside to working in TO is many newer suburban areas are nearby, so one can enjoy a rather short commute to office, unlike the awful LA traffic of older, inland parts of LA region (or the even more awful commutes from NYC suburbs into Manhattan)

CA is land of car-centric suburban corridors, so won't find walking downtowns of older NYC/Chicago suburbs, but Calabasas/TO area has newer outdoor shopping centers for a CA version of walking from one's car to do shopping...realistically, most leafy NYC/Chicago suburbs have people driving from their home to shopping area, parking and walking, so not all that different, except CA weather is far more conducive to walking (or driving)

Would figure out where $200K+/yr scientists and execs at Amgen choose to live and send their kids to school....perhaps the most highly educated, affluent population in the TO corridor

Very few competent public HS in LA region; and most avoid inland LA Valleys like Encino/LaCanadaFlintridge corridor b/c of smog, traffic hassles, and hotter weather

LA's Westside (Brentwood, Palisades) offers superb coastal weather and air quality (has crappy public schools but nearly everyone in those areas opts for private schools anyway), but, logically, has much higher housing prices than inland LA...and an onerous commute to TO

[user_id]

There are no real "walkable downtowns" that are commutable from TO, Ventura has a downtown that is walkable you can see the whole thing within minutes!