Buying a House in Ventura (Bakersfield, Vista: real estate, school district, restaurants)

[rumpletskin]

My wife and I are planning to move to Ventura this summer along with our two pre-schoolers. I was hoping someone could give us some valuable input with regards to the following:-

1) Which part of Ventura would you recommend. We would preferably like to have a house which is +1500 sq.ft with a back yard. Our budget is approximately $470K.
2) A good school district for our little monsters
3) A good real estate agent to work with.

Our jobs are actually both in Bakersfield,CA - but the nature of our jobs don't entail us to be there more than a couple of times a week. Worth the drive (gulp!) I think. We're actually moving for 'health' reasons and have put a lot of thought into this.

Thank you for your time-I appreciate all the help.
Cheers

[Charles]

School Performance Maps

Probably the east side.

[DowntownVentura]

I suppose I would start in the section bounded by:

Main St on the west
Kimball on the east
in the area north of Telegraph.

I know you said you have put a lot of thought into this but I am curious, which route did you plan to use to Bakersfield? If 33, I will say it won't move along very quickly. No traffic but it is a windy narrow mountain road and it really gets desolate out there. And you can get snow occasionally. It is a rather nice drive, very pretty back there. The other is 126 east to 5 north. It will generally move along quicker albeit more miles. I don't know which is quicker, I suspect 126/5.

Everybody has their level of tolerance for long drives and it may work for you.

Don't get me wrong, Ventura is great. If it were me, I would try some of these roads before I committed.

[rumpletskin]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

I know you said you have put a lot of thought into this but I am curious, which route did you plan to use to Bakersfield? If 33, I will say it won't move along very quickly. No traffic but it is a windy narrow mountain road and it really gets desolate out there. And you can get snow occasionally. It is a rather nice drive, very pretty back there. The other is 126 east to 5 north. It will generally move along quicker albeit more miles. I don't know which is quicker, I suspect 126/5.
.

Thanks for your reply. We were planning to use the 126E. The 33 as you indicated is scenic but painfully slow. We've made the commute down the 126/5 several times and the commute is a tick over 2 hours. A 4 hours+ commute in a day is a rather long and I'm glad we won't have to do this more than a couple of times a week.

[DowntownVentura]

Ok, glad you understand the commute. You said you did and I had no reason to doubt you it is just some people do all their planning from a map. It is good you gave it a real drive test.

Welcome to Ventura.

[HSP1161]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

I suppose I would start in the section bounded by:

Main St on the west
Kimball on the east
in the area north of Telegraph.

We just bought a place in this exact area that matches your parameters (actually a few dollars less).

4 bed, 3 bath and remodeled with a big yard, feeding Loma Vista, Cabrillo and Ventura High and walkable to school, shopping, restaurants and a couple of parks.

It definitely can be done.

As far as schools go, we used this tool religiously for our search:
School Boundaries

Although VUSD has open enrollment, there are no guarantees - this tool was essential for identifying which homes feed which schools. In some cases, the rules seem arbitrary so it was crucual.

As far as a Realtor, PM me for a great reference. She was actually the listing agent on the home we bought (not our agent) and is highly professional and experienced.

Good luck on your search!

[HSP1161]

Originally Posted by Charles

School Performance Maps

Probably the east side.

Charles, the School Performance Maps website is long in the tooth. Much of the data is 3-5 years old.