Palmdale, Rosamond or Lancaster? (Bakersfield, Burbank: apartments, foreclosure, rental)

[bradyischamp]

I may be getting a job at edwards air force base. closest to edwards is rosamond, then lancaster, then palmdale.

id like to rent for a few months, then buy a house.

should i rent in rosamond?

and buy a house in palmdale?

[california5]

Check out Tehachapi. It's about a 45 minute drive to Edwards but it's so much nicer than the Antelope Valley. We spent 8 years living in Rosamond, it's not a nice area at all. Lancaster and Palmdale have their good points, but there is a lot of crime and gang activity. Where ever you decide to go, rent first before buying. You don't want to buy and then find out it's not a good area. Good luck with your decision.

[bradyischamp]

i checked out tehachapi after your recommendation but its just too far from edwards afb. more than 1 hour commute one way. what about california city? my plan so far is to rent in rosamond for a couple of months while i look for a house to buy.

[elousv]

Good idea to rent. You need to go into stores around areas you are interested in. I think there are still a couple decent neighborhoods on the east side of Lancaster. My boss lives in one between J and K at 40th E. The reason I bring that up is going to the south gate of EAFB is quick from there.

[streetscenes]

This is the 3rd or 4th thread recently about somebody relocating to Edwards. I wonder what they are building up there. Maybe it's time to invest in some property in Rosamond.

There are not very many apartments in Rosamond. You may be able to find a good house to rent, maybe even one of the newer homes that went into foreclosure and was bought by an investor as a rental property. Lots of those properties also in Palmdale and Lancaster.

[california5]

If you have children, don't put them in school in Rosamond. The schools in Rosamond are horrible, seriously. Most people who work at Edwards and have children enroll their kids in school on base. I wouldn't live in an apartment in Rosamond either, check the sex offender list, the apartments there are full of sex offenders. Honestly, there isn't much good to say about Rosamond. Have you visited the area yet? I would highly recommend it, before you make a decision.
California City is a reasonable commute, I haven't been there in years so I couldn't advise on whether to live there or not.

[kcyclean1]

I lived in Palmdale for 5yrs, thats where my daughter was born. As with any city there is bad area. As for life it was great there ! I made A mistake moving back to LA/SFV ! I grew up in Burbank. I love Plamdale. The only downfall is that htere is alot of chain resturants missing like Ca Pizza Kitchen to name one. As 2010 aot of retail is closed in Palmdale. Even empty stores in the AV Mall ! Rent is cheap, you can buy a house now for under 100,000.00 ! Food is cheaper there ! Very family like in Palmdale. Theres also jobs up there !!!! But I am thinking of buying a hime up there ! So I want to go back !

[kellystiefel]

Originally Posted by bradyischamp

I may be getting a job at edwards air force base. closest to edwards is rosamond, then lancaster, then palmdale.

id like to rent for a few months, then buy a house.

should i rent in rosamond?

and buy a house in palmdale?

Hi my name is Kelly, I am with Century 21 Yarrow & Assoc. in Lancaster.
how is your transfer going? give me a call and I can help you with finding a place to live or even in your home buying process. prices are great and interest rates are super low.
cell 661-390-0160 email kelly.stiefel@century21.com

have a great day
Kelly Stiefel
Century 21
Yarrow & Assoc
lic 01886708

[MEB1977]

We live in Rosamond because we are military. There are several new communities west of 14. This is where the military families, government contractors, and policemen live. If you look on the Meghan's Law Map Lancaster and Palmdale are one huge red dot. There are currently 26 registered sex offenders out here and pretty much all live East of the 14 in apartments and mobile homes. If you want to rent, houses on the West side go fast because of the military. I feel safe because we are in the middle of nowhere and all of us military folk are armed for Armageddon. The shopping is in Lancaster or Palmdale which is 15 minutes away. Both of those cities have major crime, a maximum security prison, and a large homeless population. I try to shop at Costco, the Commissary and the Palmdale Target. All public schools in California stink. I recommend private school, home school, charter school, or the K-12 public charter school online and home based. The state of California will pay for K-12. Since we have lived all over the world, pretty much nowhere in the Antelope Valley is desirable. Our concern was for safety and education when we moved here. Since we would have to drive for their school regardless, we decided to go with safety. Antelope Acres is also safe if you want a couple of acres of barren desert. Anyway, I hope this helps!

[yuccabrevifolia]

I lived in the area from 1998 to 2012.

I lived in Tehachapi for several years (Oak Knolls and Golden Hills East) and my wife commuted (vanpool) to Edwards. It was about an hour to the flight line on a good day. A little more when there was traffic at the North gate. Tehachapi is good weather and a long commute. We had both of our sons in the private school there "Carden" with excellent results. It has something of a small town feel, which we liked a great deal, and the variety of weather was to our likiing. There are a number of good restaurants there. You would find that having Bakersfield close is a better option for shopping than going to Palmdale or Lancaster. I'm sure that if my wife were to do it again we would move back there despite the commute. I'm on the fence, it has it's advantages, but so does Rosamond.

We also lived in Rosamond in the housing tract off of 30th West for a few years. That was about a 40 minute commute. Housing is fairly inexpensive, but as someone else mentioned, the better housing on the West side is fairly hard to come by. If you are a social type, there is a lot less interaction with neighbors in Rosamond. People tend to keep to themselves. It is hot and even in December you can count on 70 degree plus days. You do have the advantage of being closer to LA and everything that entails if you want.

We didn't even consider Lancaster or Palmdale. Lancaster is a little closer to the south gate at Edwards, but the communities seemed a little too run down, at least to me. Caveat: My brother in law lived in Lancaster while working at Edwards for a few years and had no trouble. He lived in neighborhood near the community college in Lancaster. Nice enough in 2009, but I have no idea what the area is like now.

Then there is Cal City. We looked at buying out there about ten years ago. It has little to recommend it except proximity to the north gate. They were going to get a supermarket finally a few years back, if they did not, the closest would be the Stater Bros. in Mojave, though there was a small market in town. If I remember correctly there are only two gas stations. At least as of 3-4 years ago even the better areas by the golf course were looking pretty rundown. Not a good town to walk around after dark. There is a private prison to the East of town.

Mojave is also a possibiliity, but when I was through there a few months ago (selling our house in Tehachapi) it looked pretty bad.