Good Areas of Van Nuys... (Los Angeles, Burbank: real estate, apartment, to rent)

[trav07]

Can anyone tell me what the good areas of Van Nuys are.
How bad is does it get once you go north of Victory Blvd?
And does anyone know what is the general demographics of the Van Nuys area?
Thanks

[Charles]

Originally Posted by trav07

Can anyone tell me what the good areas of Van Nuys are.
How bad is does it get once you go north of Victory Blvd?
And does anyone know what is the general demographics of the Van Nuys area?
Thanks

What does "good" mean?

General demographics can be found here
American FactFinder

[trav07]

Good as in low crime, nice area, ect.
Basically areas you wouldn't mind living in.
Thanks

[irvine]

Originally Posted by trav07

Good as in low crime, nice area, ect.
Basically areas you wouldn't mind living in.
Thanks

The nicest neighborhoods in Van Nuys have been annexed into wealthier neighboring communities like Sherman Oaks over the past few years.

Van Nuys 25 years ago was a much different and much larger area. What's left of it is a bit gritty, but there are still some nice pockets. You should take a drive out there.

[LaoTzuMindFu]

There is a small pocket of really nice homes in Van Nuys that is bordered by Victory blvd on the south, The 405 fwy on the west, Sepulveda on the east and I believe its Vanowen on the north.

Nice quiet neighborhood with homes on lots that are no smaller than 12,500 square feet. All homes are nicely kept and there is probably 0% hispanic homeownership or occupancy in the homes in this area. Almost all white families with very well kept lawns, homes, driveways, cars etc. I like it because there arent any sidewalks. Probably the ONLY area in Van Nuys I would consider. There are some fairly decent homes on the west side of the 405 as well but the proximity of apartment buildings makes for some less desirables.

If you have ANY kids I would stay away from Van Nuys.

[JohnG72]

Why Van Nuys?

FWIW, I think this is now an important question to ask if someone asks about Van Nuys specifically. Home prices have dropped drastically in the Valley and I think people asking this question are responding almost exclusively to the notion of the lower real estate prices without doing any other research. If it was for job purposes, any very simple search would lead to areas nearby that are much safer/better schools(Sherman Oaks, Toluca Lake, Encino, et al.)

But in the interest of answering OP's post directly on point.........

Originally Posted by trav07

Can anyone tell me what the good areas of Van Nuys are.

Since you defined "good" as:

Good as in low crime, nice area, ect.
Basically areas you wouldn't mind living in

There is not a lot. The area south of Burbank is all ok, but as another person pointed out, its now Sherman Oaks. Parts of Valley Glen and Valley Village are ok(East of Woodman/South of Vanowen). There are small streets North of Sherman Way between Woodman and Van Nuys that are pretty decent, but in general I can't stand that area due to the extreme level of transient traffic. Its ridiculous really. As someone pointed out, the area between Sepulveda and the 405 south of Sherman Way is very nice. Unfortunately there is also way too much transient traffic there and you run the risk of slipping on a used condom when you step out your front door in the morning. Some of the area east of the 405 is ok, particularly around Lake Balboa.

Originally Posted by trav07

How bad is does it get once you go north of Victory Blvd?

Depends where. There are ok patches of houses between around Kester and Fulton north of Victory and south of Sherman Way. North of Sherman Way and between Sepulveda and Van Nuys is pretty sketchy IMO.

Originally Posted by trav07

And does anyone know what is the general demographics of the Van Nuys area?
Thanks

Probably latino majority or plurality. Large caucasian minority. Maybe 10-15% african american, same thing for Asian. The area between Sepulveda and 405 has a pretty large russian speaking population. Valley Village has a large Jewish population and Valley Glen has a large Armenian population.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by LaoTzuMindFu

There is a small pocket of really nice homes in Van Nuys that is bordered by Victory blvd on the south, The 405 fwy on the west, Sepulveda on the east and I believe its Vanowen on the north.

Nice quiet neighborhood with homes on lots that are no smaller than 12,500 square feet. All homes are nicely kept and there is probably 0% hispanic homeownership or occupancy in the homes in this area. Almost all white families with very well kept lawns, homes, driveways, cars etc. I like it because there arent any sidewalks. Probably the ONLY area in Van Nuys I would consider. There are some fairly decent homes on the west side of the 405 as well but the proximity of apartment buildings makes for some less desirables.

If you have ANY kids I would stay away from Van Nuys.

That area roughly corresponds to (with the exception of the SE corner near Sepulveda/Victory) Los Angeles County, census tract 1277.10, block group 2.

(census 2000)

29% of units are owned
71% of units are rented

47.4% of householders are Hispanic
36.1% of householders are White

Hardly what you describe.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

That area roughly corresponds to (with the exception of the SE corner near Sepulveda/Victory) Los Angeles County, census tract 1277.10, block group 2.

(census 2000)

29% of units are owned
71% of units are rented

47.4% of householders are Hispanic
36.1% of householders are White

Hardly what you describe.

If you discard Sepulveda Bl, it changes the demo of that area to exactly what he stated, the exception being there is probably a sizable minority percentage of latino home owners there he is unaware of.

I remain with my assertions that the houses are nice, but there is transient traffic and you might slip on a used condom when you step out of your house.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

If you discard Sepulveda Bl, it changes the demo of that area to exactly what he stated, the exception being there is probably a sizable minority percentage of latino home owners there he is unaware of.

I remain with my assertions that the houses are nice, but there is transient traffic and you might slip on a used condom when you step out of your house.

I looked into the stats further, some (like 2 or 3) of the 12 blocks of that tract fit his description, but there are heavily owner-occupied tracts that also have a large Latino-householder population, which isn't quite the 0% he stated.

As if Latinos owning homes is a bad thing.

[trav07]

Hi, thanks for the responses.
I'm looking for a place in van Nuys because its the only area I can afford.
I will have to live there for a year or so because I will be going to LAVC.
I was looking for places to rent in Sherman Oaks but its a lot more expensive.
After that I'm going to try to transfer to Northridge, where I can stay at their student housing.