west palmdale/west lancaster (Los Angeles, Santa Clarita: real estate, apartments, foreclosure)

[tommylori2001]

I was wondering if anyone might have pictures or know where I can find some of w. palmdale or w. lancaster I did a google search and really couldnt find anything. Are these area really that bad? Are any of the high schools good there? Anything would be helpful!!!

[sue-z]

Sorry I can't help you out with any pictures. If you look at RE listings for the the areas you can probably get a general idea what the neighborhoods look like? Virtually all the new tracts are two story cookie cutter houses on small lots, some are nicer looking than others but most are boxy and way too close together for the size of the houses. Most tracts have walls around the perimeter. Older tracts have one story houses, some areas still look very nice but there are bad houses mixed in with good in virtually every neighborhood. When we were the "foreclosure capitol of the US" many houses went to HUD and it's only gotten worse since then. Some areas of west palmdale, notably the older area known as "white fence farms" has some stunning houses on large lots like 2.5 acres, they are $$$$ and many are zoned for horse keeping. There are smaller old houses mixed in that area, even some rundown ones, but still expensive because of the big lot size. You don't want to get too far out on the westside of Lancaster near the very large prison around Aves J-K around 5Oth. St. West. Rancho Vista has nice houses but already there are some problem people locating there. Lancaster is more out in the middle of the valley while Palmdale is near the foothills so if you are interested in climate I think that's the better choice, nearer the mountains gets a little more rain (the years it does rain), some fog hangs over the mountains and Palmdale foothills sometimes still get snow.
Looking south, west or north you will see low mountains,they do not have trees, except at the very tops, but have a lot of scrub brush chapparal. Pretty sunsets. Looking far east past the towns it's still a lot of open desert except for scattered low rocky buttes and lots of Joshua trees. Ana Verde Hills area of west Palmdale overlooks a large reservoir, there is a Palmdale webcam, maybe linked from city of Palmdale website, but don't know the address, it overlooks the lake. Unfortuanetly it sits right on top of the San Andreas fault.
As far as I know, none of the high schools here are any good, two are worse than others, namely Palmdale and AV high schools. Highland is on the westside of Palmdale and Quartz Hill is on the westside of Lancaster, probably more "middle class" than the other two? There's a new HS on the eastside of Lancaster, looks like a barracks and trailer camp, I'm not impressed. But I don't have kids so maybe not as bad as I have heard?? Lot of racial tension in the schools too and bad performance scores from what I have heard. There's a couple of Christian schools that seem to have better reputation. Hopefully someone with kids in school will answer? Hope this helps. sue-z

[la quinta family]

Originally Posted by tommylori2001

I was wondering if anyone might have pictures or know where I can find some of w. palmdale or w. lancaster I did a google search and really couldnt find anything. Are these area really that bad? Are any of the high schools good there? Anything would be helpful!!!

You can find pictures of the area by typing in Antelope Valley
instead of lancaster and palmdale in google search. You'd
really have to be there to get the whole feel for it. If you
go do rent as we are on the verge on collapsing home prices
and rents are are about half of what a mortgage would be.
If you HAVE to move to that area... maybe you should
check out Lake Elizabeth area. It seemed alot nicer to me..
but we only visited there. It's not far but the road was a windy
2 lane to get there. If I HAD to live in the Lancaster Palmdale
area and wanted to be close I'd probably that area... or Santa
Clarita or Acton if I didn't mind braving the freeway!

[la quinta family]

I map quested Lake Elizabeth to Palmdale and it was 19 miles
and 30 minutes to Palmdale/ Lancaster. It is definitly in the
country and as such for big shopping you'd have to come into
the Lancaster Palmdale area. Again, it's a two lane windy road
also but it's was very beautiful area and although it's small
and I couldn't find the crime statistics it HAS to be a lot lower
than Palmdale Lancaster and my bet is it has low crime stats.
Here's a description of the area I found on a realor's website.
You can also find pictures of that area on google lake hughes california
or lake elizabeth california. Hope this helps.

Bordered by mountains on the south and Angeles National Forest on the north, the beautiful and picturesque Santa Clarita Valley thrives. Each one of the communities that encompass the valley has a unique character of its own. The four communities of Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country collectively incorporated in 1987 to form the city of Santa Clarita . Just outside of the city limits are the adjacent communties of Stevenson Ranch and Castaic. Only 35 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles and minutes from LA's San Fernando Valley to the south, Santa Clarita Valley residents enjoy cleaner air, an incredibly low crime rate, top rated schools and affordable housing. Plus, the FBI reports Santa Clarita as one of the safest cities in America! Northeast of the Santa Clarita Valley are the Mountain Area communities of Lake Elizabeth, Green Valley and Leona Valley featuring abundant National Forest recreation and housing that's even more affordable than Santa Clarita!

[sue-z]

All of these areas are indeed very scenic, they are narrow valleys with large lots, many people have horses and live there for the agriculture zoning. There are orchards, a golf course, houses on smaller lots overlooking the golf course and Elizabeth Lake (which is actually a sag pond on the San Andreas) part is private and part open to public. There is one main road through the valley areas, two lane, windy, once in awhile snow/ice in winter, traffic can be bad with people trying to pass on curves and hills. There are a couple other roads, all also two lane that lead south to Santa Clarita area and a couple that go over hills to western side of Antelope Valley. I have heard that the ones to Santa Clarita are bad during drive time but have not actually seen this myself. There are also sometimes bad wildfires in the hills and when that happens it's gridlock getting in or out of the valleys. None of these places are actually "towns", the houses are spread out and shopping is limited to a couple of mom and pop restaurants,feed store,small hardware store,mini mart, that type of thing. Major shopping is in Pamdale.The two lane road into Leona Valley leading from Palmdale runs through areas that are already being heavily developed into housing tracts or are slated to be in the future (Ritter) and personally I believe traffic is going to be a huge problem and "country" quality of life severely compromised in Leona Valley, many residents there are very opposed to the development. Prices there are HIGH, it has always been considered a highly desireable area, and there are virtually no rentals and definitely no apartments or condos, unless they have been put up within the last year, which I doubt. The area still has a very nice family oriented rural feeling and small town atmosphere. Other than the nasty development creeping in from Palmdale and the cost of real estate being expensive I consider it to be one of the nicest premium areas left here. I don't imagine they keep crime statistics since this is unincorporated but I am guessing that crime is relatively low, and what does occur would be due to imported elements from Palmdale/Lancaster? I used to fish and picnic at Lake Elizabeth (its 10 degrees cooler in the mountains than in the AV in summer) and it is running down with more of what I consider "lowlife" using the lake. Certainly there is rarely, if ever, crimes like murder or gang shootings etc. which are common in the adjoining Antelope Valley. The mountain valley area is on a par I would say with Acton, Juniper Hills, Agua Dulce, all still rural feeling and middle/upper class, I don't believe HUD has worked its magic in these areas yet? Hope this is helpful. Sue-Z

[tommylori2001]

laquinta family I got to see some pics...It's a desert right? I've read alot of your posts on the area and told my husband that this is not a good area and he seems to think i'm being paranoid. I have 5 kids to worry about and I've just heard so many bad things..I really havent heard anyone with nice things to say. THANK U LAQUINTA AND SUE-Z FOR YOUR POSTS!