Phelan housing Market.... (Orange, Victorville, Hesperia: section 8, 2015, foreclosure)

[Desertrose34]

...Is anyone here very familiar with it?

[Twinkle Toes]

Yes - I know they didn't name their highschool Phelan High - they named it Serrano or something like that. I have family in Hesperia, so I am somewhat familiar with Phelan. It's pretty rural still.

[Wayneb]

I live in Phelan, you have large lots and lots of Joshua trees.
If you are interested in the home prices you can do a search here.

http://vvmls.rapmls.com/scripts/mgrq...Qu3E=&KeyRid=0

[Desertrose34]

Thanx you two. Yeah lots of dirt roads and lots of property, much lower crime rate.

I have found quite a few I like there.

Wayne what do you think of the area as a resident? Are you happy? I keep looking at Victorville and there is no room, crime rate is high and lots of section 8's. I hear 79% of Phelan is owner occupied.

[Wayneb]

Originally Posted by Desertrose34

Thanx you two. Yeah lots of dirt roads and lots of property, much lower crime rate.

I have found quite a few I like there.

Wayne what do you think of the area as a resident? Are you happy? I keep looking at Victorville and there is no room, crime rate is high and lots of section 8's. I hear 79% of Phelan is owner occupied.

I like the wide open spaces and the small town feel but the last few years we have had people tagging everything that stands. I would not leave a house unattended without a fence around it and with a dog in the yard.
The crime on a whole is low but with the houses so spread out you have opportunists taking advantage of fact that nobody is around to see them breaking in to your house, of course the downtown area you have a lot more neighbors.

I like the weather for most of the year but summers get very hot, from the end of June to Late September or early October you can have temps over 100 degrees. The hottest temps I have measured on my weather station in the 11 years I have lived here was 107, but it usually is very dry heat and does not feel as bad as 90 does in in Orange County.
At night in the summer the temps drop a lot so it is not too bad when the sun goes down.

The spring and fall are nice and Winters are usually mild with over night temps in the 20's or 30's, all though I have measured temps as low as 5 degrees since I lived here. The lowest temps I have measured this winter is 18 degrees 3 times in December. It snows here but not that often, that being said we did get 25" of snow in December this year but that is a rare event. In the 11 years I have lived here it has snowed 3 times in May, yes I said May, last year we had snow flurries in Phelan around May 21st.

The houses range from very nice ones that would cost $1,000,000 plus in Orange County to single wide mobiles that are run down so you might want to check the area around where you are interested. House prices have fallen quite a bit but not as much as Victorville, the large lots are usually 2.5 acres and up so it helps keep the prices higher.

If you like to ski or snowboard you are very close to Wrightwood.

The first few years I lived here were El Nino years and some of the roads flood to the point I would not try to cross them, we don't get a lot of rain most years but when we do the dirt roads can be a nightmare.

Lots of people have horses around here so if you want to live where you can ride horses this is a great area, back when I first moved here I even saw horses in the drive up lane at the local Burger King.

The area has grown a lot since I moved here but that all stopped with the economic downturn.

The schools here are supposed to be pretty good compared to the other areas of the high desert and many people like this area for that reason.

If I were buying today in this area of the high desert, the only areas I would consider are Oak Hills, Phelan or Pinion Hills, the other areas like Victorville, Apple Valley and Hesperia are not as nice as they used to be and have higher crime rates. If I could keep this area the way it is right now I would gladly live the rest of my life here.

The view out my front window.

[booz30]

Originally Posted by Desertrose34

Thanx you two. Yeah lots of dirt roads and lots of property, much lower crime rate.

I have found quite a few I like there.

Wayne what do you think of the area as a resident? Are you happy? I keep looking at Victorville and there is no room, crime rate is high and lots of section 8's. I hear 79% of Phelan is owner occupied.

One of the main reasons why Victorville has a so called high crime rating is we have Phelan,Pinion hills,Adelanto,Wrightwood,Apple Valley,Hesperia,maybe even Barstow all come to Victorville to shop if all those city's had there own mall best buy, etc etc etc things would be a little different I bet on that

[Desertrose34]

Thanx for you opinions booz30. That is exactly what I think helps the crime rate for phelan, there is nothing there so why go there? But I currently rent in adelanto.

It is a small town too, 28,000 or so vs. 16,000 in phelan vs 100,000 in victorville.

Adelanto didnt even have a grocery store til recently. lol Yes still the crime rate here is very bad. I think it has to do with maybe a higher than average renter occupied. Not sure but no matter what it is there.

Yes people from all over come to shop in Victorville so lots more foot traffic.

Wayne B that is gorgeous!!!! I live in the next town over so I am familiar with the high desert in general, just wanted to get a closer persepctive. Thanx so much for your review. That was great. Pretty much what I fugured, mainly safe, but it could get really bad if you are completely isolated and have no dogs.

The property we are looking at has neighbors close in all directions. Everyone seems to have about 2 acres or so. SO there would be people and we would get a few dogs. The property is fenced.

The house we are loooking at is very nice.

4/2 + family room, fireplace, 2015 sq ft., 1.9 acres already fenced. It was built in 2006, sold for $365,000, asking price is $175,000.

There is a twin to it on another street and our realtor is pretty sure it just sold for $154,900.

That seems like a pretty fair price to me.

WHat do you think about the current market though? it has already dropped quite a bit and I don't want to wait here for a year throwing money out the window to cont. renting either.

So I am trying to think what is a fair price considering the market is falling.

We did look up and seen it was on the market for 3 months in feb - may of 2008, asking price $199,00. It looks like it sold for $171,000 in Dec 2008, but then it went right back up on the market come Jan 2009. Very strange. The realtor says maybe it fell out of escrow?

I know it says its a foreclosure. SO not sure exactly what is going on.

thanx for your advice.

[Wayneb]

I read home prices are supposed to keep falling this year and next year, but if they get low enough people will start snapping up bargains. Once the foreclosure homes get sold the housing prices should go back up but I don't know fast, I doubt they will go up anywhere near as fast as before.

[Desertrose34]

Thanx wayne. Yeah there is still more room to fall but we do need a home now. It is already at 50% off thhe peak price of $365,000

[Twinkle Toes]

Do any of you visit the Wrongwood forum? My brother and I are on there and every 2-3 months we get together with all these other forum people from that forum and meet up at a pizza place in Phelan. I can't remember the name though, but it's on the main drag. Then, if we're really brave (okay, if we don't have to work the next day) we travel the extra 15 minutes to Wrightwood and go to the Yodeler or the Wrightwood Inn for a nightcap and maybe some dancing. Lots of nice people up there!