Is Thousand Oaks a good place to live? (San Jose, Santa Cruz: house prices, school district)

[puffle]

I have lived around T.O. for over 12 years and it is a very family oriented area with lots of recreational activities for kids and good schools. I personally prefer Westlake Village or Oak Park as far as schools go. There is a small Hispanic population in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Newbury Park, just about everywhere but we live in a peaceful community with relatively low crime compared to the rest of Los Angeles...in fact, it is a haven compared to Los Angeles. We have lived in other states as well and couldn't wait to get back to Westlake Village. We rent a modest townhouse next to the lake and can walk to shopping, movies and restaurants which you can do in T.O. as well. They are expanding the T.O. Mall which will be very upscale by 2008 with theaters, Nordstrom, etc. The air is clean as is the area and is policed very well. Welcome.

[SoCalMomma]

I have lived in Thousand Oaks for about 30 years and I love it. My husband and I are raising our kids here, and I cant think of a better place. It is expensive, but its worth it to us.

• The schools are great, consistently high test scores.
• The crime rate is low, we are always ranked as one of the safest cities (of this size) in the US
• Economy is strong. Lots of higher paying jobs (Amgen, Dole, Countrywide and other companies are here).
• Lots of shopping (mall being renovated), restaurants.
• Centrally Located - easy drive to the beach, to the desert, to the mountains, LA isn't too far. Santa Barbara 45 min away.
• Weather is great 95% of the time!

There are hispanics in Thousand Oaks, but for the most part they are fine! A large portion of them are middle class, english speaking, Americans! There are some who are more recent immigrants, and do work in mostly service positions, and are hard workers. They are polite and try to communicate in English. Of course there are some who cannot communicate well, but I think they want to.

Thousand Oaks is a very nice, safe place to live. If you can afford to move here, I'd recommend it to anyone!

[Christine Joan]

Originally Posted by NorCalGuy

Our family lives north of San Francisco and we've been contemplating a move to someplace north of LA, but we're a little put off by the number Mexicans coming over the border and the anti-American attitudes they bring with them. We'd like to move to a place that isn't 50% Mexican, where we can be assured that employees in the stores where we shop speaks English, and where the Mexican demonstrations are nonexistant. I've been told Thousand Oaks might fit the bill...Any thoughts?

The demonstrations held recently in LA were by unions who represent workers in the hotel service industry. They were demonstrating to seek public support for higher wages. My recollection is that the workers who were demontrating were employed at hotels near the airport; thus, they had to produce documentation to obtain their jobs. It is illegal for any business in the United States to employ an illegal immigrant from anywhere. Of course, there were also others demonstrating along with the workers who were there for other reasons.

Thousand Oaks is a lovely community that many of us only dream of being able to afford. However, Thousand Oaks employs service workers of all ethnic backgrounds. It is illegal to discriminate anywhere in the state of California based upon a person's race. No one can predict whether workers will demonstrate in Thousand Oaks sometime in the future; however, it is unlikely because the businesses in Thousand Oaks generally pay their service workers higher wages than they can earn elsewhere.

The bigger problem for you and your family, if you decide to relocate to Thousand Oaks, may be that if your children do not learn to speak Spanish, they will not meet the criteria of many Southern California employers who require their employees to be bilingual. There isn't enough space here to detail all the wonderful employment opportunities I missed out on because I can't speak another language.

[puffle]

To NorCalGuy, Please don't worry about what foreign language your children should learn to determine their future in Southern California, at this stage in your life! What a thing to even suggest at this point as if anyone would know when our kids are in elementary school if they will even stay in California as adults in the workforce and if they don't take Spanish, which most kids take anyway by middle school or high school, that they will have a hard time getting a job when they are adults! Let this guy find a suitable home and location for his family without any addition "issues" that aren't even issues!

[teddybear1929]

Why living in 99% white population not make someone racist?????? You are wrong in saying that is not a racist comment but certainly it is. Culture? what culture, you mean american culture? every state has their own culture as Texas, Utah, New York, whats the problem that hispanic people try to keep on their traditions as fas as I know americans that go to live to Spain or France keep their traditions and thats fair enough,...

You dont do anything wrong keeping your culture, and thinking of learning spanish as something wrong ....is the idea of someone that doesnt know anything about culture.

Racism is everywhere and thats very sad, what difference us is our langauage and culture, at the end all are human beings with pains and dreams. The moment we stop thinking about color or culture we will grow as human being and our children will make a better love, dont judge people by their origin, tahter than what they are, there are good and bad people in all cultures and thinking of living a good live because are not close to any latino is wrong and racist....Maybe he will need one day help and a latino is the one that give the helping hand...

[thettpfam]

Originally Posted by SoCalMomma

I have lived in Thousand Oaks for about 30 years and I love it. My husband and I are raising our kids here, and I cant think of a better place. It is expensive, but its worth it to us.

• The schools are great, consistently high test scores.
• The crime rate is low, we are always ranked as one of the safest cities (of this size) in the US
• Economy is strong. Lots of higher paying jobs (Amgen, Dole, Countrywide and other companies are here).
• Lots of shopping (mall being renovated), restaurants.
• Centrally Located - easy drive to the beach, to the desert, to the mountains, LA isn't too far. Santa Barbara 45 min away.
• Weather is great 95% of the time!

There are hispanics in Thousand Oaks, but for the most part they are fine! A large portion of them are middle class, english speaking, Americans! There are some who are more recent immigrants, and do work in mostly service positions, and are hard workers. They are polite and try to communicate in English. Of course there are some who cannot communicate well, but I think they want to.

Thousand Oaks is a very nice, safe place to live. If you can afford to move here, I'd recommend it to anyone!

Knowing that you can get a bit more for your money in the areas surrounding T.O., would you recommend looking there, in, say, Camarillo, Moorpark, Newbury Park, or Simi Valley? My husband may have the opportunity to work in T.O. and we'd like to live as close as possible to where he would work to avoid any long commutes, but aren't sure if it would be worth what we'd save in housing costs if it equates to a long commute. How are the schools in each of those areas I mentioned? Or, would you say you can't go wrong in Ventura County with the public schools? We would be moving from Douglas County, Colorado where the public schools are excellent, so I really am worried about the schooling options starting with elementary school. Thanks!

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by puffle

...Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Newbury Park, ... peaceful ... with relatively low crime compared to the rest of Los Angeles...

It should be noted that these cities (Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Newbury Park) are not in Los Angeles.

[Roma]

Thousand Oaks is a very nice area. The schools are excellent, the area is nice and safe. I would highly recommend it.

[walkabout]

I have lived in TO for over 13 years. When we first arrived here it was a picture-perfect, beautiful, serene and crime-free community. We moved from LA and, immediately, it was apparent that this was SOOOOOOO different from LA ---- in a very nice way! No graffiti, gangs or street people. The problem is that as TO has grown, so has traffic (still not as bad as LA) and population.

Everything in TO is very expensive because real estate values are sky high (avg. house is still about 675K). Since businesses also have to pay rent, everything that you buy has a "rent component" in it i.e. everything is jacked up! You want to move here? That's fine. Only be SURE that both spouses plan on having jobs. Chances are you are not going to make it on a single salary, even if you make what the median household income here is i.e. 103K.

I love it here, but long for the day when I could sell my house and and move to Colorado or Idaho where I could live on a five-acre lot house for less than half of what my house goes for now. So, welcome to TO ---- just bring plenty of ca$$$$h!

[brendabie]

I grew up in Thousand Oaks, graduated Westlake High School in 1981. It was a town of about 45,000 people then. I go back to visit my parents, and sadly, can't afford to move back there to be closer to my family, though now that I am part of a mixed race family, I'm not sure I'd want to raise my daughter there.

I live in Boise, Idaho now (also a very white community), which is growing like crazy due to people like one of the previous posters who can buy a big McMansion along the river for 1/2 price they can sell their tract house in T.O. for. I"m not sure where to next--I moved to Seattle just before it boomed in the mid 1980's, now it's Boise's turn. I think I'll move to the midwest--surely the rest of CA won't follow me there, either!