Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > Ventura County
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-09-2012, 09:10 AM
 
Location: San Tan Valley, AZ
2 posts, read 6,664 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

My husband has a job offer in Santa Barbara and we are intimidated about moving our family to California. Arizona native here!! Right now we live in San Tan Valley, AZ and he commutes 45 min -1 hour to work. I've been doing research for several days now and I have a list of so many things I could use some help with.

While his job will be paying him more, the housing prices are double in Santa Barbarba than what they are here in San Tan Valley and its freaking us out. I have a list of 20+ cities to look at surrounding Santa Barbara. I'll put the list of those cities at the end of my post. I'll concentrate on Lompoc right now because that seems to be one of the places most comparable to where we are currently living. From what I read, it seems people either really love it or really hate it there.

1. What would the commute from Lompoc to Santa Barbara be like?

2. We are a large family of 7, looking for a 5 bedroom home. What would utilities be like for us?

3. What shops/stores are there?

4. Is there a YMCA? Little Leagues? Dance Studios? Movie Theatre?

5. Gas Prices?

We currently pay $1,200/monthly mortgage for a home $170,000. 5 Bedroom/3 Bathroom, 2,400 sq ft. Looking for something comparable to that in "Santa Barbara" language....Where should we be looking? I'm thinking with his pay raise we can afford double that...up to $2,400 a month in the California housing market. We will look for a place to rent for the first year at least before committing to buy a home.

CITIES ON MY LIST TO INVESTIGATE...Yay or Nay? Further than 45 minutes from Santa Barbara?
1 Goleta
2 Montecito
3 Anta Ynez
4 El Rio
5 Oak View
6 Buellton
7 Solvang
8 Orcutt
9 Nipomo
10 Oxnard
11 Ventura
12 Santa Paula
13 Camarillo
14 Thousand Oaks
15 Fillmore
16 Simi Valley
17 Moorepark
18 Aguora
19 Lompoc
20 Santa Maria
21 Newbury Park
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-10-2012, 05:33 AM
 
Location: Bike to Surf!
3,080 posts, read 11,043,593 times
Reputation: 3022
Whoo, I'm so jealous! We're stuck in Boston and would LOVE to move to Santa Barbara. The coastal towns north of LA are real gems!

Quote:
Originally Posted by mogujoy View Post
I'll concentrate on Lompoc right now because that seems to be one of the places most comparable to where we are currently living. From what I read, it seems people either really love it or really hate it there.
Oh no! Why would you move to California to live inland!? Stay on the coast. Lompoc is far, you'd be looking at an hour commute a day and gas prices are only going to rise.

Quote:
1. What would the commute from Lompoc to Santa Barbara be like?
Far. A nice drive, but far. Especially if you're doing it 5 days a week. Plus you'll probably want to drive in to SB on weekends for fairs, food, fun, beaches.
Quote:
2. We are a large family of 7, looking for a 5 bedroom home. What would utilities be like for us?
Higher in Lompoc. Lower on the coast. You won't need A/C if you are in SB or Ventura; the ocean keeps things pleasant in the summer, and you won't need much heat either most of the year. Utility rates aren't that different in CA.

Quote:
3. What shops/stores are there?

4. Is there a YMCA? Little Leagues? Dance Studios? Movie Theatre?
Don't know about Lompoc. Yes to all for Ventura and Santa Barbara (SB). There are more community activities than you can shake a stick at in SB and Ventura. Plus the cities are quite walkable/bikable with good weather year-round. There are plenty of local shops catering to every need, while I know of several outlet malls and the full range of big-box stores in Oxnard/Ventura.

Because Ventura county is full of cash-crop farms (strawberries, leafy greens, etc.), the local discount stores (99cent stores) carry a variety of fresh fruits and veggies from local farms. It changes with the season, but you can't beat a 10lb watermelon for $0.99! Plus you're not eating chemically-ripened food or stuff that was picked before it's prime.

Quote:
5. Gas Prices?
High and only going to get higher. Live where you work and cut this expense out of your life. This also allows more time with family and the chance to improve your health by walking or biking to work. Get the smallest car that will fit your family. You don't need 4WD, the roads are in great condition.

Quote:
We currently pay $1,200/monthly mortgage for a home $170,000. 5 Bedroom/3 Bathroom, 2,400 sq ft. Looking for something comparable to that in "Santa Barbara" language....Where should we be looking? I'm thinking with his pay raise we can afford double that...up to $2,400 a month in the California housing market. We will look for a place to rent for the first year at least before committing to buy a home.
Good idea, renting, but don't wait too long. Rates and prices are low. You can still get into the market. For 2400/month you can probably swing a 500-600K house which is what you'll need for 5beds in a good area. Expect to downsize. The point of California is to get out in the good weather, enjoy the weekly festivals, go to the beach, go to the movies, etc. Unlike a lot of the rest of the US, you don't need to have a castle/home with all the modcons in which to cloister yourself, only coming out to drive to soulless big box stores, tasteless chain resturants, etc. The city is your back yard. Why install an entertainment center when you can stroll down to the local movie theater? Why build a giant backyard BBQ when all the beach parks have grills, tables, and a view that can't be beat?

I'll list the ones I know:

1 Goleta: YAY-Close.
10 Oxnard: Nay - Far, not that great.
11 Ventura: YAY! - Best place in SoCal by far! Especially near downtown. A great city! A bit of a drive, but a beautiful one up and down the coast every day. Take up surfing.
13 Camarillo: Nay - Far. A pleasant place but very suburban.
14 Thousand Oaks: Nay - Very far.
16 Simi Valley: NAY. Boring place. The cost of California with none of the benefits.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2012, 05:43 AM
 
16,235 posts, read 25,134,028 times
Reputation: 27047
My daughter lives in Oxnard...She loves where she lives and is 5 minutes from downtown Ventura, about 1/2 hour from Santa Barbara. I second Ventura....If you love interesting truly So. Cal type towns this is my favorite place to spend an afternoon...Close to everything So. Calif. Check the home listings etc. Or, go for a weekend and check open houses. Santa Barbara is beautiful....I don;t care where you are, so many beautifully landscaped properties, even near the medical centers...I took pictures of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen while my grandson was having his arm checked last summer....and this was a neighborhood of doctors offices...I adore Santa Barbara...Love the Zoo there too.
Sounds like you don't want to move...You and your hubby should talk about what if's...lots of factors to consider, promotions are nothing to sneeze at in this economy...but be sure.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-10-2012, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,338 posts, read 93,563,234 times
Reputation: 17830
Quote:
Originally Posted by mogujoy View Post
1. What would the commute from Lompoc to Santa Barbara be like?

2. We are a large family of 7, looking for a 5 bedroom home. What would utilities be like for us?

3. What shops/stores are there?

4. Is there a YMCA? Little Leagues? Dance Studios? Movie Theatre?

5. Gas Prices?

We currently pay $1,200/monthly mortgage for a home $170,000. 5 Bedroom/3 Bathroom, 2,400 sq ft. Looking for something comparable to that in "Santa Barbara" language....Where should we be looking? I'm thinking with his pay raise we can afford double that...up to $2,400 a month in the California housing market. We will look for a place to rent for the first year at least before committing to buy a home.

CITIES ON MY LIST TO INVESTIGATE...Yay or Nay? Further than 45 minutes from Santa Barbara?
1 Goleta
2 Montecito
3 Anta Ynez
4 El Rio
5 Oak View
6 Buellton
7 Solvang
8 Orcutt
9 Nipomo
10 Oxnard
11 Ventura
12 Santa Paula
13 Camarillo
14 Thousand Oaks
15 Fillmore
16 Simi Valley
17 Moorepark
18 Aguora
19 Lompoc
20 Santa Maria
21 Newbury Park
I worked in Goletea for about six months last year. I was on TDY so my company put me in a hotel.
Most of my colleagues lived in Lompoc Santa Ynez Valley and Ventura, Oxnard Plain. Not too many lived in Goleta or Santa Barbara. I'd say most of them were six figure employees. Traffic from Ventura backs up in the morning once you hit the Montecito area BUT when I was there last, they were widening the 101 through there. Check sigalert.com for real time traffic (and google maps too) to get an idea what traffic patterns are like.

Agoura and Thousand Oaks are excellent places to live but minimum one hour and not cheap. Camarillo is nice too, closer, not cheap. Ventura is probably the best bang for the buck, but not cheap. Five bedrooms is going to be $500K minimum:

Real Estate Search | Redfin
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2012, 07:49 AM
 
Location: San Tan Valley, AZ
2 posts, read 6,664 times
Reputation: 10
Wow you guys really have been incredibly helpful! Hubby leaves today to continue a couple of his interviews this weekend. Both of us don't want to make an uniformed decision which is what has made this scary. He and I just don't know California well. I LOVE the idea of no A/C. Our A/C bills in Arizona can be $480 during the summer months here. I'm looking more closely at Ventura, a little higher home pricing but actually makes sense if we'll be saving on A/C bills and cutting back on the gas to commute.

Quote:
Expect to downsize. The point of California is to get out in the good weather, enjoy the weekly festivals, go to the beach, go to the movies, etc. Unlike a lot of the rest of the US, you don't need to have a castle/home with all the modcons in which to cloister yourself, only coming out to drive to soulless big box stores, tasteless chain resturants, etc. The city is your back yard. Why install an entertainment center when you can stroll down to the local movie theater? Why build a giant backyard BBQ when all the beach parks have grills, tables, and a view that can't be beat?
I actually really love the idea of this too. In Arizona from October - April the weather is really pretty good. For summer you have to have a pool and forget that you even have a BBQ grill outside. Its nuts to BBQ in 110+ degrees. Summer months is when we walk from A/C house, to A/C car, to A/C wherever you're going. You all just made me very excited to move to California now!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2012, 09:12 AM
 
Location: Bike to Surf!
3,080 posts, read 11,043,593 times
Reputation: 3022
I'm happy you're excited. California is not good for everyone and the people who don't like it shouldn't go. Just like the Midwest or Boston are not good places for us, so we need to leave! Haha!

Ventura really is a gem. It is my goal to move back there, as I've stated in the Ventura thread. The commute up to SB will be a minor annoyance, but it really is a beautiful drive along the coastal hills. In Ventura, you can find cheap houses in the west end valley, but that is not the best area, so you'll probably want to steer clear. Everything from downtown Eastward (E Main St. is the downtown strip) is fair game, maybe east of Plaza Park. If you can find a place you can afford within walking distance (1 mile or so) of downtown, jump on it!

I think most houses do not have/need AC. Ventura schools had pretty high ratings the last time I checked. There are a few dog parks, and Ventura beaches allow dogs (on leash, but there are some empty stretches of sand where you can probably let them run out by the powerplant near Oxnard Shores.) It seemed like every weekend main street was filled with tents for some festival or other.

There are other commercial centers scattered around Ventura, like the Pacific Mall, but I don't know them as well. We used to live by the pedestrian overpass over the freeway. Surfing in the morning before work, strolling downtown in the afternoons and weekends, there was even a dance studio where we took swing lessons right next door. Everything just a little walk or very short bike ride away.

Hollywood/Downtown LA/Venice Beach/Malibu and LAX are all 70-90 minutes away down the 101/405 with no traffic. Long Beach/Ferries to the channel islands (you'll see them out on the ocean horizon) and San Diego are 2-3 hours south. Vegas and some great skiing are 6-7 hours East through the desert. San Francisco is a gorgeous 6-hour drive north along the coast with Big Sur as an essential stop. Hawaii is a pretty cheap, short hop from LAX. Though, honestly, once you live in CA, you don't take vacations farther than you can drive; you (grudgingly) fly to visit the relatives if they won't come to you.


Ok, now the negatives: Ventura does have a sizeable population of homeless living in the wooded area near the fairgrounds (West end), known as the "Hobo Jungle". You might occasionally be asked for change on the downtown strip. However, the homeless are pretty permanent members of the community, are known to the police, and are not dangerous. Ventura is safe to walk around day or night.

Well, I can't really think of another negatives. Can you tell that I like Ventura?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2012, 01:31 PM
 
Location: Living on the Coast in Oxnard CA
16,289 posts, read 32,254,549 times
Reputation: 21890
1. What would the commute from Lompoc to Santa Barbara be like?

Not sure about Lompoc to SB but from North Oxnard or much of Ventura you may be looking at 45 minutes or so. Also the area has the VISTA bus service that picks up in Oxnard and Ventura and goes to the Santa Barbara Goleta area. Cost is $1.50 I think. The Gold Coast Transit service in Oxnard / Ventura area will take you to the Ventura Transfer Center at the Pacific View Mall and Vista will take you into SB and Goleta. The SB area has another bus system that will take you to your job. It is an option anyway.

2. We are a large family of 7, looking for a 5 bedroom home. What would utilities be like for us?

We are a family of 8, living in a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 car garage home. We average $28 for electric, $26 for gas, and $115 for water, Sewer, and trash. Our cable, phone, and internet come from Time Warner cable and cost about $120 a month although they do have a $99 bundle package for the first year of service. Something to consider for your budget that the coastal communities are cooler and mild year round. Humidity will be more hear than in Arizona, kind of like Monsoon season in the Phoenix area. Still it is much cooler hear, beteen low 60's to mid 80's year round. Further inland, Thousand Oaks, Simi, Agoura, and other places it will be much warmer and AC could be an issue. We don't even have an Airconditioner in our home.

3. What shops/stores are there?

Ventura has 2 Targets within 3 miles of each other. One is at the Pacific View Mall and is a 2 story store. Both are Super Targets with supermarket included. Oxnard has one Target and a WallMart. Oxnard also had a Lowe's and Home Depot while Ventura has just a Lowe's. The Pacific View Mall has a great selection of shops. They used to have a Coach store but that has consolidated with the Camarillo store. Just about any national chain is present in the area.

4. Is there a YMCA? Little Leagues? Dance Studios? Movie Theatre?

Oxnard and Ventura have YMCA. This is Little League country. Every city around here has lots of little league and Adult co-ed Softball as well. You pick the dance and a studio is somewhere for you, including performance dance for young kids, mostly girls, but you get the idea. Ventura has a 10 screen down town, a 16 screen on the east side and an older 5 screen. Oxnard has a 16 screen opening this month and a 10 or more screen downtown.

5. Gas Prices?

Out of this world. About a dollar more than in the Phoenix area. (Using that as a reference for you anyway.) $4.69 to $4.99 in Oxnard and Ventura. Lucky us.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2012, 01:36 PM
 
Location: Southern California
3,455 posts, read 8,323,202 times
Reputation: 1419
I live in Ventura, it is nice except for the mentioned homeless problem and to some lesser extent a general undesirables problem (gangs in the general area, probably not noticable if you are from this area but very noticable if you come from another area where there are none). I have had no problems with either though (for the most part) living downtown and I walk around alone at night.

All that said, if you are working in Santa Barbara STAY there!! I am looking at rents now, there is no discernable difference between Ventura and SB EXCEPT!!! I am actually finding more and cheaper rents in Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.

Look at Carpineteria (I think better for a family than Ventura and much closer to SB) and I believe the college kids looking for housing is what keeps Santa Barbara rents more reasonable.

My guess is there is just more rental options in Santa Barbara than Ventura, plus the college kids just makes more choices and more range in rents. I'm looking now too so I know this to be true. I'm finding a lot too in Carpinteria which are just slightly less expensive than Ventura but a different kind of offering than you'd find in Ventura too.

For buying a house Ventura might be a better option, but for renting it makes no sense to me for you to look in Ventura since you will cut commute costs in SB and Carpinteria and find housing for just about the same price or even less when renting.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2012, 01:38 PM
 
Location: Southern California
3,455 posts, read 8,323,202 times
Reputation: 1419
ps. I drove through Lompoc recently and found it to be one of the scariest places I've been to in California, and I expected it do be somewhat nice. I at the McDonalds and couldn't wait to get out of there! Isolated too...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2012, 03:12 PM
 
Location: Bike to Surf!
3,080 posts, read 11,043,593 times
Reputation: 3022
Yeah, the only reason I don't rave about SB is because it was too far from work (in the SFV) for me to live there. We would drive up from Ventura for some of the big festivals in SB and the art walk on sundays along the beach boardwalk. Never surfed there, for some reason, I guess because there's no reason to pass Rincon for SB breaks.

SB is a nice town, but it seems more gentrified than Ventura. A little too upscale for our tastes (and budget, haha).

Seriously, I'm so jealous. We're considering moving to San Bernadino, which is pretty much the armpit of LA, just to get back to the area. I'd give my right arm for a job in SB or Ventura! Well, maybe not an arm, but a lot of blood, plasma, and bone marrow, at least.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > Ventura County
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top