need Chino info (Santa Ana, Anaheim, Riverside: apartments, rent, condo)

[jellybean3009]

Would you recommend Chino as a nice city to live in? Is it safe, good restaurants, shopping? Is housing reasonable?

Thanks

[rammi43]

I feel Chino is good place to live,(other than smell not every day). I am looking some properties in College park community, they are very good (all new streets and new homes) and nice park. Now D R Horton selling home for less than 350,000. I live in Monrovia, now I am planning to move to Chino.
Why I am considered Chino – College Park.
1) Chino - Good School District.
2) It’s close to Orange County and LA County. When compared to Riverside.
3) There is good neighbor hood in College park
4) It s affordable homes. And nice park for Kids.
5) There is lots of development going on Euclid and Emerald street ( Like Home depot and other mall is coming soon)
Please post u r opinion, so it helps every body who is willing to move to Chino. Any advice is most welcome.

[daisy1]

is there a grocery store and apartments in Chino? How many miles to the beach is it?

[GirlsRUs]

Originally Posted by jellybean3009

Would you recommend Chino as a nice city to live in? Is it safe, good restaurants, shopping? Is housing reasonable?

Thanks

No, no & yes. Chino Hills, maybe.

[rammi43]

Originally Posted by GirlsRUs

No, no & yes. Chino Hills, maybe.

WHY ?

Can u put some light on that.

[GirlsRUs]

Originally Posted by rammi43

WHY ?

Can u put some light on that.

Sure thing. While Chino might be a step-up from Monrovia (no disrespect), it has a shady reputation as far as gangs & crime go. Also, Men's Prison is in the heart of Chino. It isn't "high security", but a prison is a prison, you know?

In my opinion, there are a lot of other nice, affordable places in California to plant your roots.

If you'd like any more advice/ opinions, let me know more about you & your lifestyle, desires, expectations, etc.

[rammi43]

Originally Posted by GirlsRUs

Sure thing. While Chino might be a step-up from Monrovia (no disrespect), it has a shady reputation as far as gangs & crime go. Also, Men's Prison is in the heart of Chino. It isn't "high security", but a prison is a prison, you know?

In my opinion, there are a lot of other nice, affordable places in California to plant your roots.

If you'd like any more advice/ opinions, let me know more about you & your lifestyle, desires, expectations, etc.

Thank you for your quick response, I am renting now in Monrovia where my wife works and my self I am working in Santa Ana (I commute). So I thought Chino is middle point for me and my wife to commute.
I started looking for homes in Monrovia and Arcadia area. But for $400,000 I am getting just 2 to 3 bed room condo or 1000 sq.ft home which is built in 1950. So I started looking for homes in College Park – Chino. Those are new homes, and affordable price (less than $330,000 u will get 1800 sq.ft) and good community.
So based on my situation what do you think which is best place to start without commuting more that 25 miles.

[chuck22b]

Hi rammi43 and jellybean,
my wife, my two year old daughter, and I just moved to the preserve at chino, on the south side of chino in November, and so far its been pretty nice. We were renting a 800sqft condo in Diamond Bar for about a year, and have been pricing and waiting to buy a house for about 2 - 2.5 years. I work in Anaheim, so I had a commute from DB, as well as from Chino now. I'll just give you a quick list of pros and cons of why we moved, and our experience so far.

Pros:
- Quiet new neighborhoods, with new homes (hopefully less maintenance problems, and lower utility bills)
- Parks and walking friendly neighborhoods
- Our neighbors are very diverse, with most of them being new families
- The drive to nearby shopping isn't bad, and new commercial and office buildings are in the plans hopefully bringing more jobs to the region and not just residential
- Community Living (The Gym, Swimming pools, facilities, tennis courts, community events) - some people like, some people don't.
- Less People and less traffic (which we liked, we actually looked at new developments in Orange that has dropped down to our price range but we didn't like the crowdedness and what we can get)
- Prices have dropped over 15% from the highs, and builders are very judicious with incentives. (although recently it's been looking like builders are smarting up some, not building until they get a deposit or sign a contract). Best bet is to get a house that's sitting inventory while they last.
- School district i heard is alright, but my daughter's not old enough yet, and the preserve has a k-8 that should open up eventually.
- Eastvale has a lot of shopping, as well as chino spectrum, and chino hills is opening up new shoppes at chino hills

Cons:
- Housing market may drop more (although for me personally, i think if your renting, it'd probably be better to pay a mortgage vs rent and build up equity, but to each their own financial situation)
- The commute is so, so, and the 91 freeway can be horrible!! (although, Metrolink is a possibility (West Corona Station), and taking carbon canyon from brea to chino hills is a possiblity). But eventually I hope to work in the Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario area in the future if more companies move into the Inland Empire. Anyways the drive from Monrovia to Santa Ana is probably pretty bad too.
- Recent crime increase? (hearing news of developments having appliances stolen and robbery in the eastvale area). Having an alarm system or service is a good investment. Although, looking at the chino pd crime statistics show a lowering level of crime
- A little Higher taxes with CFDs (but, you get what you pay for with new roads, facilities, and public services)
- Cow smells, but i think we've gotten used to it, and it's not everyday that it smells
- Likewise, Flies in the summer months (we got electric fly swatters which we compete on who gets the most :P)
- Prisons (like people say there are 3 of them men, women, and child), but they aren't really really close to the Preserve, although College Park has the Men's prison next door.
- Downtown Chino area seems like it might not be as nice
- Uncertainty, and risk - as all new developments have


Well, I hope this helps. My view is a little skewed since I live here now, and would like the nice developments to continue. But, anyways Good Luck on your house search!

[trapspeed]

Chuck22b,

Thanks for your input on the Preserve as that is an area that I am also looking into. Which development did you purchase if you don't mind me asking? Also are the flies "that bad". I hear mixed answers at times. How about the airplanes at the Chino airport...are they noticable throughout the day?

[chuck22b]

Hi Trapspeed,
We live in the Mulberry Cottages, which are smaller single family homes with no driveways. We picked the Mulberry's because we liked the development by Brookfield called the Vantage in Diamond Bar, but of course couldn't afford the "Vantage" price tag :P. The Cottages basically have the same floor plan as those in the Vantage. It's not the biggest home at about ~ 1460sqft, but it's enough for our small family and definitely better than the 800sqft condo we were living in.

Anyhow, that's our community... as for the noise from the Airport, the Mulberry's are actually across the street from one of the hangers, so occasionally you will hear the whining of jet engines when they test them. It's not annoyingly loud (since most new developments have double pane windows and some insulation) or persistant, but, if you choose the Mulberry Casita's right accross the street it might be a bit louder. Although they do perform engine tests during the weekday mornings around 7ish that may last around 20-30 minutes or so but im already up and heading out the door. Overall though, having the airport north of us is both a good and bad thing. We get to see some pretty cool older planes (since they have the Planes of Fame museum there and airshows) fly around occasionally which is pretty cool when your walking around the neighborhood with your kids... but likewise they do the engine tests occasionally too (good thing though, is that Chino Airport I think is just a municipal airport and doesn't really have any commerical airliners so mostly small planes fly in and out of there).

As for the flies, it can be scary. When we first moved in around November, we were pretty shocked at how many flies there were! Because moving required all our doors to be open, many, many flies came into our house. The weird thing is that they tended to like to cling on to the ceiling, so when we looked up at the ceiling it was covered with flies (~ a hundred or so of them). So, at that point we were getting a bit of buyer remorse (we traded the condo with swarms of ants to a room full of flies). But, after putting out some fly tape, getting a fly zapper, and our electric fly swatters we were able to combat the problem and basically eliminate all the flies (also through attrition, if there isn't anywhere for them to lay eggs, they tend to just die off in a few days - so a BIG thank you to my wife who is super tidy and clean). Also, I think the seasons matter as well because right now since December we haven't seen any flies around or have any flies on the ceilings.

So, I hope I answered your questions. Overall we're very glad we moved into the Preserve. We no longer have that buyer remorse (except maybe if we keep on seeing prices going down - but of course all home owners are feeling that right now and I'm glad that the Mulberry's are completely built out). We like living in our own house, we love the neighborhood and the future plans, the community and people are great (in fact this moring [Sunday] is donuts and coffee morning at the Parkhouse! ). Hopefully things will continue to grow, and more good people move in.

Just a note, if your looking, for the prices we paid a few months ago, you can get close to one of the bigger homes at the ends of the Preserve (ie, Shady Lane, Enchanted Forest, Hidden Hollow). Likewise if your budget conscious the homes we're in are a lot more affordable than when we bought them, doah! (but im in for the longer haul, so oh well?)

Take Care,
chuck22b