Glendora/Claremont/Rancho Cucamonga area vs. Fullerton/North OC Area (Los Angeles: for sale, real estate)

[scythemk]

Hello everyone,
This is my first posting on this site, I decided to register after I saw how many well informed, intelligent and helpful opinions there are.
I wanted to ask everyone for some advice:
My family (parents with my two sisters, twins, both age 13) would like to buy a house in the coming months as they think real estate might start getting more expensive again. Our budget is around $400,000, which I know perfectly is not a lot for a house in the L.A. area. Even though only they will live in it (I need to find an apartment closer to my work in El Segundo), they have charged me with conducting the house search for them.
The must-have's are:
-Good schools (my sisters will begin attending high school next year). At least an 8 on Great Schools.
- Not overly far away from downtown L.A. My father works at USC, right by downtown and currently takes the Metro to Union Station. So preferably this city would have a Metro or Metrolink station nearby. Trip time would ideally be an hour or less.
- 3 or more bedrooms. 4 would be amazing. At least 2 bathrooms.

Upon browsing around for what meets these criteria, I singled out the Glendora/Claremont/Rancho Cucamonga area and the Fullerton/Placentia/Yorba Linda area. I would LOVE to hear what people think/advise on these cities, bad areas to avoid within these cities, thinks to look out for or be aware of, or if anyone has alternate cities to explore I would like to know.

Upon exploring more it seems most of the houses in our price range in Glendora and Claremont are situated by freeways or railroad tracks, which I assume knocks down the property resale value significantly? Perhaps I should stick to evaluating Rancho Cuc. vs. the north OC?

Thank you all very much!

[Charles]

Your question is well put together. We have a lot of good info from it. Unfortuntealy, I don't know too much about either place but what I've read it sounds like you are on the right track. I've also read good things about south Pasadena.

All I can point you to are tools such as

www.schoolperformancemaps.com
Find All the Homes for Sale & Experienced Real Estate Agents | Redfin
Sigalert.com Los Angeles Traffic Map

and also a bunch of tools here:

//www.city-data.com/forum/orang...ing-tools.html

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by scythemk

Hello everyone,
This is my first posting on this site, I decided to register after I saw how many well informed, intelligent and helpful opinions there are.
I wanted to ask everyone for some advice:
My family (parents with my two sisters, twins, both age 13) would like to buy a house in the coming months as they think real estate might start getting more expensive again. Our budget is around $400,000, which I know perfectly is not a lot for a house in the L.A. area. Even though only they will live in it (I need to find an apartment closer to my work in El Segundo), they have charged me with conducting the house search for them.
The must-have's are:
-Good schools (my sisters will begin attending high school next year). At least an 8 on Great Schools.
- Not overly far away from downtown L.A. My father works at USC, right by downtown and currently takes the Metro to Union Station. So preferably this city would have a Metro or Metrolink station nearby. Trip time would ideally be an hour or less.
- 3 or more bedrooms. 4 would be amazing. At least 2 bathrooms.

Upon browsing around for what meets these criteria, I singled out the Glendora/Claremont/Rancho Cucamonga area and the Fullerton/Placentia/Yorba Linda area. I would LOVE to hear what people think/advise on these cities, bad areas to avoid within these cities, thinks to look out for or be aware of, or if anyone has alternate cities to explore I would like to know.

Upon exploring more it seems most of the houses in our price range in Glendora and Claremont are situated by freeways or railroad tracks, which I assume knocks down the property resale value significantly? Perhaps I should stick to evaluating Rancho Cuc. vs. the north OC?

Thank you all very much!

wow, unfortunately both areas are quite a distance from USC. Claremont and Rancho Cucamonga are out of the question, Glendora migh be a consideration if he doesn't mind a long commute. Glendora has great schools, I think the price range can get you something and it is a wonderful family community. Fullerton is nice but a much older neighborhood, the other areas you are considering in OC, again will be one heck of a commute. If you can swing the commute or if your dad can, my choice would certainly be Glendora, but I am partial to the area. It isn't quite as conjested as say, Fullerton.
Nita

[missionhome]

Go with Fullerton or Glendora if you can find a house in the price range. And if he is gong via Metrolink is is 40 minutes to Union Station from each. Rancho and Claremont are too far.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by missionhome

Go with Fullerton or Glendora if you can find a house in the price range.

The thing is, $400,000 will probably not buy you a home in the Glendora Unified School District. You may be able to find something in the city of Glendora that's in the Charter Oak school district (Covina) at that price.

I don't think real estate is going to start going up any time soon. Here's a recent link about the increase in expected number of mortgage delinquencies statewide this year, which won't help anyone's current property values.
California mortgage delinquencies expected to rise through 2009 -- latimes.com

[Charles]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

The thing is, $400,000 will probably not buy you a home in the Glendora Unified School District. You may be able to find something in the city of Glendora that's in the Charter Oak school district (Covina) at that price.

I don't think real estate is going to start going up any time soon. Here's a recent link about the increase in expected number of mortgage delinquencies statewide this year, which won't help anyone's current property values.
California mortgage delinquencies expected to rise through 2009 -- latimes.com

Through 2009? A lot of people think the Alt-A and Option Arm loans will keep house pressure down for longer than that - especially in those price ranges. The subprimes have reset. The Option Arms and Alt-A haven't really started resetting yet, and those are the loans taken out by the higher priced homeowners.

Right now we're in the "eye" of the hurricane, between the subprimes and the Option Arm and Alt-A loans.


YouTube - The Mortgage Meltdown

[scythemk]

Thanks for the advice everyone. So am I to understand we certainly shouldn't be in a rush to buy and prices might dip lower? I was becoming worried that prices were beginning to swing up in some areas. In addition, with the Fed printing money there comes the issue of inflation and protecting your money by investing in real estate. Thoughts?
Also, we visited Glendora, Claremont and Rancho today. Glendora seemed very beat up, at least the areas with houses we could afford. Dry, unkempt lawns, peeling paint, cracked pavement. Didn't leave the best of impressions. Claremont was absolutely beautiful, but all the nicer houses are out of our price range I think. Rancho was actually our family's favorite, and if there wasn't the issue of the commute, we'd be 100% set on it. My dad teaches, so he only needs to commute 3 times a week. Still, a 1.5hr commute is no joke. The only thing is, it doesn't seem like there are many communities that are closer that offer good schools and are in our price range, unless anyone has any ideas? I was also looking at Torrance, which is a bit closer, but our budget would at best get us a townhome I think.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by scythemk

Thanks for the advice everyone. So am I to understand we certainly shouldn't be in a rush to buy and prices might dip lower? I was becoming worried that prices were beginning to swing up in some areas. In addition, with the Fed printing money there comes the issue of inflation and protecting your money by investing in real estate. Thoughts?
Also, we visited Glendora, Claremont and Rancho today. Glendora seemed very beat up, at least the areas with houses we could afford. Dry, unkempt lawns, peeling paint, cracked pavement. Didn't leave the best of impressions. Claremont was absolutely beautiful, but all the nicer houses are out of our price range I think. Rancho was actually our family's favorite, and if there wasn't the issue of the commute, we'd be 100% set on it. My dad teaches, so he only needs to commute 3 times a week. Still, a 1.5hr commute is no joke. The only thing is, it doesn't seem like there are many communities that are closer that offer good schools and are in our price range, unless anyone has any ideas? I was also looking at Torrance, which is a bit closer, but our budget would at best get us a townhome I think.

I don't know what part of Glendora you were in, but I would guess it must have been the southern section or maybe there is a water restriction this year. Certainly Glendora isn't beat up but you may be right about your housing allowance not allowing you the better parts. Glendora is a wonderful place to raise kids, not as upscale as say, Arcadia but similar with great schools. I have a hunch you may have been seeing south Glendora which isn't even Glendora schools. Yes, Claremont is charming but yes, prices and Rancho C is probably a little too long a commute.

As for property values even decreasing, I would just keep my eyes open. I am one that feels they have about bottomed out, but may slip a little more before they head back up.
Oh, you mentioned Torrance, be very careful there as well. Though it is a great community, they have more than one school district as well. Some parts are L.A. schools and the Torrance school district is quite expensive with some really crappy areas. You talk about over-priced housing.

Nita

[RobE]

scythemk, please look at the following website for some real insight into what is going on in Orange County, CA real estate (though this one focuses on Irvine, but still, the lessons are good):
Irvine Housing Blog

You can hold off for at least a year since the market tends to overcorrect before prices rebound. There is still shadow inventory out there that will have to be released, putting more downward pressure on the market. So take your time and please ignore the media's real estate cheerleaders.

As for where you should live, you need to be closer to USC than that. Look into Torrance. Should be a much easier drive than coming from North OC or somewhere way out there like Claremont.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by RobE

As for where you should live, you need to be closer to USC...

What about renting a house in South Pasadena? The schools are good, the city is family oriented, and it's not too far a commute to USC.