Tell Me About Central Valley? (Los Angeles, San Diego: apartments, crime, motel)

[Searching-01]

Hi All,
Was continuing my search for a place to buy a home. Hit on Bakersfield, Shaftner, and more broadly, the Central Valley.

What are the pros / cons of the region?

Any places to avoid? Any places to gravitate towards?

[Des-Lab]

Pros:

Relative to the rest of the state, comparatively bargain priced housing. You can find new or recent build SFH's 4br/2ba 1800 sq ft ± for under $300k all day long. And those are the nice ones. Older but still fairly nice can also be had for around $200k. Often times less. Strictly speaking in terms of quality and size of the home itself, the prices are unheard of in most of the rest of the state. That is by far the single largest advantage to living in the Valley.

Open and no concrete jungle. Pretty much anywhere in the Valley, you can go from city center to out in the country in as little as 20 minutes. Heck you can drive five minutes in one direction and be surrounded by Target, Wal-Mart, Chevron, McDonalds, etc and five minutes in the other and be surrounded by orchards or vineyards. Traffic, while it does exist, is nowhere near as bad as the cities. Lots of scenic little backroads if you know where to find them and are into that sort of thing.

Generally has the four seasons.

Generally a slower pace of life. "B" type personalities by far rule the region. Which means this can also be a huge negative if you happen to be a hardened "A" type. Lots of very slow drivers, people take their time, and anything resembling schedules and punctuality is pretty much nonexistent. If you are a Big City type, prepare yourself for this huge culture shock. Lots of "bubbleheads" in this regard.

Within fairly easy driving distance to the mountains, ocean, deserts, and big cities. Granted, nothing is close in the sense that it's an hour drive. But the tradeoff is that you can see pretty much anything the state has to offer within four. Neither SoCal nor NorCal can really make that claim.

Generally very Conservative. This can also be a double edged sword. Although Valley folk are overall a nice and cordial bunch, they are also very tightly knit. Basically a "Good Ole Boy" club. Outsiders are generally not welcome when it comes to business, religion, or politics. Good luck breaking into pretty much anything. You can. But it will just take a lot of time and patience.

Cons:

Very dirty air pretty much year round. Mid winter and late summer seem to be the worst, and some days are simply gorgeous, overall, the skies and views of the mountains aren't anywhere what they should be.

Very heavily stigmatized. The people in the coastal cities absolutely LOVE to remind the Valley folks how they are our cultural, intellectual, financial, and existential superiors in every way. Basically Valley people and Coastal people pretty much can't stand each other. If this doesn't bother you, then come on in. But if what others think does matter to you, forget it. LA/Bay, like I said, love to dump on the Valley purely for the sport of it.

Summertime gets hot. Very hot. Expect very high electric bills.

Relative lack of entertainment. Again, this could be a plus. Or minus. Depending on what your tastes are. If outdoorsy type stuff is your cup of tea, there's plenty to see and do. If you're more of an indoorsy, Mongolian art museum type, you'll go out of your skull with boredom.

Poverty, ghettos, and crime is rampant pretty much everywhere. Just some places are worse than others.


I'm sure there are others (pluses and minuses) that I've overlooked, but I think I hit the main bullet points that should give you a good starting snapshot. Others will chime in too.
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Pretty much all of the cities in the Valley have their good areas, marginal areas, and horrible areas. Just like every other city on the planet. Bakersfield, Tulare, Visalia, Hanford, Porterville, Fresno, Clovis, etc all can be nice places to live. Even the second tier towns like Kerman, Shafter, Exeter, etc can be great places to call home if you look in the right place. But they can also be hell on earth. About the only places I would suggest you really do avoid entirely would be the third tier, tiny towns. These are the places like Earlimart, Orosi, Orange Cove, etc. They are, pretty much, without exception, total hellholes.

[2sleepy]

Personally I don't like Bakersfield and wouldn't live there or any place near it, it's hot dry and ugly. Clovis is nice but I'm not sure how cheap it is anymore. I prefer the northern part of the state. I live in Sacramento county and love it. It's still possible to buy a home in an older neighborhood on a quarter acre for under 350k, in Folsom or Roseville you could probably find something for around 400K. Another place I would recommend except that they are now overwhelmed with camp fire refugees is Chico. I don't know what your budget is so it's hard to give you much more information than that.

[Mr5150]

Most People who actually live in Bakersfield seem to like it

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

Most People who actually live in Bakersfield seem to like it

They probably do, my experience is somewhat limited to four horrible nights in a motel named after a cowboy, maybe Roy Rogers? It was in September and miserably hot.

[JB316]

I don’t have a whole lot of experience with Fresno, but Bakersfield has really grown on me. The reputation of the area is really bad, but it has its nice areas for sure. The air is really a non-starter for me, but I’m a person who puts a lot of stock in air quality. I would not buy there for that reason, but I would (and am currently) considering a short move there for perhaps a year or so.

One thing about Bakersfield (and likely Fresno) is it’s not like these other population hubs; it isn’t an endless sea of town/city/suburb into one huge area like LA or the Bay Area. It is truly a small city of about 300-500k. I think this is a perfect size for a city. You get a lot of amenities and services of larger areas but you don’t deal with the horrible traffic or insane housing prices.

It’ll be really interesting to see how the area progresses with these new Amazon and Wal-Mart distribution centers set to be built, and of course, the high speed rail will be beginning in that area before just about anywhere else.

I also know people who have or do live in Bakersfield, they all generally like it. If the air were better I may actually consider buying there. It’s an area that’s growing for sure.

[Searching-01]

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

Everyone seems to mention the air quality.

What's behind that?

Is it because it's a valley, or agricultural, something else?

[BeauCharles]

Originally Posted by Searching-01

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

Everyone seems to mention the air quality.

What's behind that?

Is it because it's a valley, or agricultural, something else?

Its a combination of geography, agriculture, cars and wood smoke. The ozone and particulate matter has improved by 80% since the 1980s, even with substantial population growth. The valley has some of the most stringent air quality regulations in the country. That said, there's only so much that can be done because its ringed by mountains and there aren't regular winds to clean it out. As my mother used to say, the San Joaquin Valley is like a box with a lid on it. The only region in the state that is usually worse is the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles.

I was raised in Stanislaus County and I enjoyed growing up in Oakdale. Whenever I went to San Francisco it as a relief to drive over Altamont Pass and get out of the rat race (although Modesto's population is twice what it was when I was a kid).

[Californiaguy2007]

Hey there...Bakersfield has an urban population of around 500,000 and like every other mid-sized city,It has it's Older and Newer Areas,as it has it's Nice Parts and Unattractive Parts as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakersfield,_California

Bakersfield does not feel crowded and traffic is minimal compared to other Larger Cities,and they continue to build more new housing developments,and the newest freeway is The Westside Parkway which is part of a planned Beltway that is to be built around the City which will eventually connect Highway 99,Highway 58 directly with Interstate 5 once completed.

As Bakersfield continues to grow..Shopping,Dining and Entertainment Options also increases on a yearly basis.

Summers in Bakersfield is Hot and Dry,but not as extreme as either Phoenix or Las Vegas,and occasionally the Marine Layer spills into the Valley and moderates the summers temps a bit.

Winters in Bakersfield are more pronounced than either L.A or San Diego...Winter temps during the day in Bakersfield are usually around the 50's,but sometimes the high can be in the 40's with Fog,and Winter Lows do occasionally dip into the 30's and 20's with frost occurring at times...So it is noticeable chillier than down South...The outer rural areas feel even more colder.

Shafter is a nice small community with a population of around 19,000 and the main town is about 15 mins from Bakersfield...Shafter also has it's Older/Newer Areas and Nice and Unattractive Parts as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafter,_California

Like others have said,most people like living in Bakersfield,and the major issue is the poor air quality,but this is mostly a concern for those with a sensitive respiratory problem.

You were wondering what parts to avoid...To be honest just looking out your car window as you drive around will give you an idea of what parts are not so desirable or safe in my opinion,but in Bakersfield the newer ares are typically the Northwest and Southwest,while Northeast Bakersfield is more Hilly and has a mix of Older Nice Neighborhoods and a New Housing Community further east on Highway 178 heading towards The Kern Canyon with great views...Southeast Bakersfield tends to have the Older and not so Nice Parts,but honestly in some areas of Bakersfield the neighborhoods can be sketchy where you'll have a mix of Nice Neighborhoods then Ugly Ones then Nice Ones again if you know what I mean.LOL.

Another reminder...Just by driving along Highway 99 you will not see the nicer parts of Bakersfield.

Originally Posted by Searching-01

Hi All,
Was continuing my search for a place to buy a home. Hit on Bakersfield, Shaftner, and more broadly, the Central Valley.

What are the pros / cons of the region?

Any places to avoid? Any places to gravitate towards?

[Radaghast]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Another place I would recommend except that they are now overwhelmed with camp fire refugees is Chico.

Yeah I wouldn't bother coming to Chico, we're far too overcrowded as it is and there aren't enough homes to go around. CBS News just did a story today about housing here in Butte County. CBS' Jamie Yuccas did a story on that today in fact, and she spoke with the Executive Director for the Butte County Housing Authority who said, "As of the date of the crisis there might be a thousand units in Butte County that were available. All of those units are spoken for now."

At this point I'm even wondering if incoming college students are going to have places to live since evacuees are desperate for housing to the point of snatching up homes and apartments in typically college neighborhoods. It's going to have a negative ripple effect on the economy if it gets to that point.