Areas of Santa Clarita (Valencia, Canyon Country, Stevenson Ranch, Saugus, Newhall) (Irvine: for sale, real estate)

[NickelDime]

Hello,

We are looking closely at the Santa Clarita Valley and are interested in the communities in that area.

I believe this is the complete list:

Stevenson Ranch
Valencia
Fair Oaks Ranch
Canyon Country
Saugus
Newhall
Castaic
Val Verde
Agua Dulce
Acton

We love the setup of the paseos in Valencia, and the location is a do-able commute to the Woodland Hills area (I have driven it a few times in traffic taking De Soto - 118 and also Balboa - range from 40 mins to an hour each way).

Having lived in urban areas for some time, we are scoping the exurbs as a good place to raise our little ones.

Beyond a few drive-throughs and wikipedia articles, we don't know much about the differences between the various communities.

Can someone articulate a bit about the stereotypes of each area, feelings on long term value, pros/cons of each community, etc?

Thanks much...

[marimari123]

We live in Valencia and before that we lived in Canyon Country. The only neighborhood you didn't mention was Sand Canyon which is usually considered part of Canyon Country along with Fair Oaks Ranch.

Stevenson Ranch--Newer Homes, excellent schools (only has elementary schools), home prices hold good long term value, close to shopping, nice parks--SR has mello roos taxes about $200 per month. I think the MR taxes end when the house becomes 25 years old. Also, this area being west of the 5 freeway is not part of the city of Santa Clarita so the city charges these residents (along with other non-resident areas) a surcharge for some parks/recreation.

Valencia--Similar to Stevenson Ranch, mostly newer homes though some are older neighborhoods. Master planned community, mall and hospital are both technically in Valencia. Good schools overall. Some areas of Valencia are out of the city boundaries yet are still called Valencia.

Fair Oaks Ranch--Outside the city, it's part of Canyon Country. New homes built by Pardee Homes. Good elementary school. Shares a zip code with Sand Canyon which means the homes tend to cost more than other parts of Canyon Country. Sand Canyon has very large homes, kind of a rural feel, but it's a little far from the freeway. It'll take about 10-15 minutes just to get to the freeway in the morning. Sand Canyon has 1 public elementary school and it's considered good.

Canyon Country--Lots of older homes and newer homes mixed. The school test scores are not as high as scores in Valencia or Stevenson Ranch. I've heard that crime is higher in CC than Valencia. We lived in CC for 4 years and never saw any crime. I think the areas with the newer homes/single family homes have less crime (like off of Whites Canyon at Canyon Crest) compared to the apartments (near Jakes Way).

Saugus--Mostly older homes though Plum Canyon has a lot of newer homes. Pretty good schools. The drive to get to the freeway can be long. Saugus is kind of in the middle of town so whether you choose the 5 or the 14 it'll take you a while just to get to the freeway.

Newhall--Schools are surprisingly good considering lots of children are first time English learners which can be a difficult adjustment if your children already speak English. But the curriculum is the same as the rest of the district so technically the children in Newhall learn the same stuff as Stevenson Ranch Elementary which is the top school in town (as far as test scores go). Homes in Newhall tend to be older, not as safe from crime as Valencia. There are some nice homes in Circle J Ranch and other pockets of neighborhoods but the stereotype for Newhall is that it's not the best place to live (you asked for stereotypes).

Castaic--Lots of newer homes, schools are pretty good. So far only elementary schools in town so older kids have to commute down to Valencia. In winter, sometimes the grapevine gets shut down due to snow which occasionally becomes difficult for residents of Castaic.

Val Verde--Kind of out of the way, west of Castaic, not really ever talked about. I don't know much about it at all.

Agua Dulce/Acton--More rural, you can get a big house with lots of land. Great if you like having a ranch, horses, etc. It's about 20 minutes from Santa Clarita so you'll be adding an additional 20 minutes to your commute to Woodland Hills. Morning commute on 14 South can get pretty ugly. On Dec. 17th this area got about 3 inches of snow and the freeway was shut down along with Sierra highway. This is very rare though. I don't know anything about schools in this area.

Here's a link to the API index and you can compare test scores. I have young children too and I understand how important schools are.

Academic Performance Index (API) (CA Dept of Education)

Hope that helps.

mari

[NickelDime]

mari

Thanks so much! Do you have any insight on the areas within Valencia?

[marimari123]

We live in Westridge (91381). Almost everything is a pro (great schools, elementary through high school right here) including being right on the golf course. The major con would be that home prices are high. We got in early before the prices went up. Even with the market down now, many homes are still pretty expensive (of course I have no idea what your budget is). But there are some good deals with short sales and foreclosures. Tesoro Del Valle is in North Valencia. Lots of really nice newer homes, schools all closeby, no golf course (zip code 91354). Northpark/Northbridge are slightly older established neighborhoods with good schools and mature trees (91355). People there go crazy during the holidays with amazing holiday lights. Bridgeport is really cute, near the mall (91355) with a manmade lake. Very convenient for walking to shopping and restaurants. The elementary school is very good. The north and west side of Valencia have the newer homes and schools. The older side of Valencia would be the south side, near the hospital. Those neighborhoods are called Old Orchard (I and II). That area borders Newhall.

I like ziprealty.com when looking to buy a house. It helps give you a good idea of home prices by area and size. Also, if you're not sure about buying right now, you can rent a house. With the housing market in its current state, a lot of houses are on the market for rent. We rented a house in Canyon Country years ago through a local property management company called SCREM (Southern California Real Estate) and they were very fair towards us as well as the landlord.

[elousv]

You can go to schoolperformancemaps and 91354 for a zip and get a quick look at scores. Then try say 93535. I think you will find that the blue areas will also provide the best quality of life overall. We looked for 6 months in a 50 mile radius and ended up in Valencia. As far as areas that are considered Valencia, the first one is just down from Stevenson Ranch and is called Westridge. A bunch of people whose houses we were looking at moved into that area about 4 years ago. Mostly gated, it is at the intersection of Old Road and Valencia Blvd. The "main" part of Valencia though is to the east of the 5 freeway along McBean Pkwy. As you come down McBean, the community to the left I refer to as The Summit. We really liked that area as it was close to everything and very well kept up. We just could not find the floorplan we liked at our price range. To the right of McBean I call Old Valencia. Paseos are very nice here, not many houses were for sale when we were looking and many were small. If you keep going you pass the mall area and shopping and restaurants, over the wash then you get to Bridgeport. This community is built around a man-made lake and is very nice. All kinds of events are held at the park there. We often walk around the lake with our dogs. For a long time anything north of the wash (well it is the Santa Clara River but I have only seen water in it once) was just desert, but it kept growing. We live in the next community down McBean called Northbridge. It is about 15 years old now. Helmers school is rated quite high, there are nice trees now and we really like it. Keep going and you hit Northpark, yet another nice area. Finally, you will reach Copper Hill Dr. This too was the end of civilization, but progress marched on. Tesoro went up and has some enormous houses and is pretty new. Just when we thought it was over West Hills went up right next to it if you want a brand new house. Another new one is going up at Newhall Ranch Road and Bouquet called Riverpark I think. Getting around can be a challenge sometimes. The intersection of Bouquet/San Fernando and Soledad/Valencia can be nuts. There is a plan though for a "cross-valley" connector that is mostly done and purportedly will ease congestion a bit. We go for drives often through the entire area and would not hesitate to live in any of them. At least in my area, I see lots of comraderie. You can drive around now and see the involvement in the decorations for Christmas and people having bonfires and potlucks.

[ShanesG]

MariMari is basically right on point!!!

[00molavi]

Not to hijack the post, but great info since we are also looking into the area too, keep it coming.

marimari123, when we were in Stevenson Ranch we drove by West Ranch High School and were told this is a newer high school, I want to check since you mentioned no HS in SR.
Also the zip 91381 in redfin gives you Stevenson Ranch and another tiny area more to the Northeast, is that Westridge?

On a different note when you say the houses are expensive, our other choice is La Crescenta and the price and quality comparison is unbelievable. My job is going to be in Van Nuys, so the commute from La Crescenta is much nicer, but still coming from OC that area seems to be in need of major upkeep.

[NickelDime]

My wife was born and raised in Irvine and we have lived in SFV for a year -- we're ready to be "back in the bubble" as she says. We can't find anything close to being new in the valley and Thousand Oaks is not an option due to distance from the rest of our family.

We would never have considered Valencia but on a whim went for a drive to the new River Village community up Newhall Ranch Rd. There is a floorplan we like, but agree with the previous post on potential traffic issues with Bouquet Canyon. So we're looking between new in River Village vs. BridgePort, which looks similarly priced. Interesting on River Village - there will be four total developments, which will mainly have larger (3000+ sf) stucco boxes. Thing is, with the housing situation what it is, who knows if Lennar will build it all ... so buying there is a bit of a gamble. Heck, a "phase" is now something like 4-6 homes. In the 'good ol' days' a phase was much more substantial.

Anyhow, this is great info on this thread. After extensive searching on these forums, it's good to see more current info on SCV. The Los Feliz/Burbank/Downtown/SFV threads were getting redundant...

[elousv]

In the old days, that place would be full already! Buying an established place was part of the decision matrix. I did not want to start from scratch again with dirt and live in a construction zone for years. It does look like they are working the road though which is good. The last piece is the bridge over to Golden Valley which already has access to the 14 freeway. Probably take another year at least to finish, baring some spotted frog problem. In the morning though the southbound 14 can be very slow at this point. Actually all the way back to Sand Canyon even.

[elousv]

Originally Posted by 00molavi

West Ranch High School and were told this is a newer high school, is that Westridge?

West Ranch HS is at the top of the hill on Valencia Blvd. which cuts right down the middle of Westridge and the golf course. It is technically Stevenson Ranch though.