What makes Pasadena so desirable? (Los Angeles, Arcadia: new home, buy, school district)

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by yowps3

What's the price range of houses in Pasadena/S.P..?

True Freedom's correct....huge range of house prices.

A search on Redfin shows sales in the last 3 months in Pasadena ranging from $194K into the millions for SFR.

Keep in mind that most people consider the Northwest area of Pasadena to be ghetto and unsafe.

Real Estate Search | Redfin

[yowps3]

Originally Posted by True Freedom

Double thumbs up here. Of all the places I've lived in California (many San Diego communities, Bay Area), Pasadena has the friendliest neighbors and sense of community. It reminds me of where I grew up in Texas. I know neighbors from several blocks away, because folks are interested in building a community and knowing their neighbors. I really like that.



There is a HUGE variation. You can get a small house in the bad parts of town for $200k or you can get a mansion in the Oak Knoll area for $26M. Most homes in good neighborhoods will run $750k and up. Figure roughly $400 to $650/sq ft in better areas.

Yeah that's crazy..

[yowps3]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

True Freedom's correct....huge range of house prices.

A search on Redfin shows sales in the last 3 months in Pasadena ranging from $194K into the millions for SFR.

Keep in mind that most people consider the Northwest area of Pasadena to be ghetto and unsafe.

Real Estate Search | Redfin

Nice site..

[SalParadise]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet but Pasadena is also home to one of the top private research universities in the world: Cal Tech. And that is no exaggeration.

California Institute of Technology

[DynamoLA]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

For the most part its safe.

It has an actual downtown.

Theres a ton of entertainment and cultural stuff to do there....restaurants, nightlife in OldTown, museums....Huntington Library is gorgeous...., theatre, comedy, etc.

Very very close to outdoor activity in Arroyo Seco and San Gabriel mountains.

If the schools there were above average, you would see insane home prices in Pasadena.

The streets in some areas are amazing...very green and lined with trees.

Large parts of the city have very old beautiful mansions.

This is what surprised us the most when looking at houses in Pasadena. You'd think that it would have great schools, but the school district is mediocre at best.

Take a look at SOUTH Pasadena if you want to see what home prices would be like if Pasadena had great schools.

[SalParadise]

Originally Posted by DynamoLA

This is what surprised us the most when looking at houses in Pasadena. You'd think that it would have great schools, but the school district is mediocre at best.

Take a look at SOUTH Pasadena if you want to see what home prices would be like if Pasadena had great schools.

South Pasadena is like a tiny, weathly hamlet compared to Pasadena.

Much easier to have good schools with demographics like this:

South Pasadena:
Total Pop: 25,619
Median Income: $80,000
% Pop Below Poverty Line: 5.3% (2009)
[40% of households earn $100,000 or more]

Pasadena:
Total Pop: 137,000
Median Income: $66,000
% Pop. Below Poverty Line: 14.1% (2009)

[yowps3]

What's a comparable area to Pasadena?

[DynamoLA]

Originally Posted by SalParadise

South Pasadena is like a tiny, weathly hamlet compared to Pasadena.

Much easier to have good schools with demographics like this:

South Pasadena:
Total Pop: 25,619
Median Income: $80,000
% Pop Below Poverty Line: 5.3% (2009)
[40% of households earn $100,000 or more]

Pasadena:
Total Pop: 137,000
Median Income: $66,000
% Pop. Below Poverty Line: 14.1% (2009)

I would argue that it's the school quality that drives the demographics. Quality schools drive home prices up, thus requiring more wealth to live in the area.

[CaliSon]

Originally Posted by JerZ

It's absolutely adorable, town is uber-walkable and many of the neighborhoods are "classic USA"...you'd be shocked how many movies and shows are shot in Pasadena for their "outdoor shots" and how many specific Pasadena homes are used over and over and over again because Pas ironically seems to show "mainstream good old heartland USA".

ETA: For an example (one of about a bajillion), the movie "Halloween", which was supposed to take place in the midwest and had a tremendous amount of neighborhood and a few town scenes depicting "heartland America," was shot in Pasadena.

Yea here's some of that, start at 5:00

Halloween [1978] Part 2 - YouTube

[yowps3]

Originally Posted by DynamoLA

I would argue that it's the school quality that drives the demographics. Quality schools drive home prices up, thus requiring more wealth to live in the area.

Are schools the main driver of the price in LA?