shoveler, LA County really does have lots of land. It’s just that its leaders had the foresight to leave it preserved as open space …. as it should be.
As well all know, SD County and its cities’ leadership systematically all sold out to Big Development beginning five years after the passage of the Mello Roos Community Facilities Act (of 1982). The lure of the eventual incoming property tax revenue (from teeter funds) was just too great for our (greedy) elected officials. In doing so, they sold out their constituents’ future quality of life with their votes.
Show me ONE community in LA County which lies within a CFD and has Mello Roos. Post it here, please. I want to see how far-flung it is, which trash dump it was built on or which island it’s on.
Therein lies your answer. The formation of CFDs has essentially decimated the livability in many areas of the City and County of SD.
SFRs (and condos in most) in nearly all the cities mentioned here are NOT affordable for a worker-bee single or couple or buy-and-hold investor. The more affordable LA Co cities lie east and southeast of downtown LA.
And there’s really nothing wrong with nearly all of them. The LaVernes, La Puentes, Rowland Heights, West Covinas and Baldwin Parks (etc) of the world are SoCal’s version of Leave it to Beaver and Mayberry RFD (as is dtn Chula Vista) with their mature tree-lined sidewalks, block walls with decorative brick, monthly antique car shows and weekly farmer’s markets, etc. ALL of these cities (and their “brethren” out there) are extremely livable, fairly close-in (and reasonably-priced) with average lot sizes of 7500+ sf and “real” red oak hardwood floors, among other mid-century features!
Yes, the crime rate has vastly improved in nearly ALL of LA County as it has in SD County (mostly due to “neighborhood policing” policies adopted in the ’80’s and early ’90’s).
Except for AC being a necessity part of the year in most communities east of I-605, I see no other drawbacks to living in that area or even raising a family out there (many of the public schools out there are rated 8-10)!
Yes, most of these communities have a very high population of Asian immigrants, including (mostly US trained) doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Most of this population (or their parents) immigrated from China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Phillipines in the last 35 years.
Folks, you won’t find these well-built houses in SD County built to this magnitude …. ANYWHERE! For example, in tiny Normal Heights and Talmadge (SD), where some do exist, most of them are heavily mixed in with multifamily bldgs on the same street and are mostly situated on 5000-6000 sf lots. And they cost a LOT MORE than the current $350K to $475K listing prices in the San Gabriel Valley (LA Co) cities mentioned above.
LA is far from a “hellhole” but I do agree that the western portion of it is essentially unaffordable to buy into for the vast majority of homebuyers and investors. In any case, there are many, many more “job centers” in or near LA County with a much wider variety of jobs available than in SD County.
