You cannot afford a decent living in Santa Barbara area?
See what people
think of Ventura County!
We
moved from Santa Barbara to Ventura.
And
we never regretted it!
--- Clients’ Opinion ---
A family of two physicists, parents of five children,
believes that many things in Ventura are better
than in Santa Barbara,
particularly for children.
Since our family moved from Santa Barbara to Ventura in July
2006, our friends, neighbors, relatives, friends of our friends and co-workers
have asked us the question “why?” so frequently that we decided to write this
article to answer to everyone at once and in greater detail.
It so happened that our family, consisting of six people at
the time – mom, dad and four daughters, ages 3 to 15, moved from Moscow, Russia,
to the United States in the year 2001.
The first American city that welcomed us overseas was Santa Barbara. Our old friends, also Russians from Moscow, lived there, having moved to America a few
years earlier. They accommodated us in their house in Santa Barbara and guided us through our new
life for the first few months.
Needless to say, we enjoyed the beauty and remarkable
climate of Santa Barbara
and happily spent six years of our lives in that paradise city… Years went by,
and at some point in the spring of last year all of us realized a very
important thing: we understood that we were finally ready, physically and
spiritually, to stay in America
for the rest of our lives. We obtained US citizenship; our older daughters
graduated from high school and went to their respective universities. Besides,
we were expecting a new family member: we were to become parents of a little
son, and our daughters were waiting for their little brother impatiently.
The apartment that we had been renting had gradually become
too small for us and was about to get even smaller! So, little by little, a new
place to live became the main topic of our quiet family conversations. We
assessed the rental market in Santa
Barbara and came to the conclusion that renting a
larger apartment would be too expensive for us and not smart at all. That is
why our attention turned from renting a place to buying one.
We quickly understood that, given our financial situation,
buying a place in Ventura or Oxnard
would be a much better option than in Santa
Barbara. This was a sad realization. And, with no
intent to offend any resident of Ventura
county, we feel that we had a reason for our emotions. After all, we came to America from Moscow,
one of the larger cities of Europe. Moscow is a significant
center of European culture, architecture, art, music and science. It is a city
of hundreds of colleges and universities, scientific conference venues,
exhibitions, dozens of museums, theaters and art galleries, concert halls and
TV studios. Cultural life in Moscow
is blooming, giving people the opportunity to explore the most beautiful things
in life: art, music, dance, opera, theater, literature and science. In Moscow
there are many international festivals, exhibitions, conferences, concerts and
shows with the participation of the most celebrated performers in the world.
We missed all that somewhat, even in cute little Santa Barbara. However,
the wonderful climate, the unique atmosphere and the fact that Santa
Barbara was known worldwide compensated for
that, and we felt comfortable there.
When we started thinking about our possible relocation to Ventura, our hearts
sank. As former residents of Moscow, then of Santa Barbara,
we thought: what is the city of Ventura,
actually? We had never heard the name Ventura in
Europe…
Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that another Russian
couple, also originally from Moscow, who were
our friends since our university days, had moved to Ventura a few years earlier. They were quite
content with their lives there. We knew that, but the sadness about leaving Santa Barbara would not
leave us.
Nevertheless, we had to find a nice place to live. Our
friends introduced us to Julia Ovod, a real estate broker. Julia had lived in Ventura county before, and in addition, she still owns
some real estate in Ventura
county. Julia’s awareness of the real estate market and knowledge of real
estate law and practice is outstanding. See for yourself:
Julia began her communication with us by educating us for a
few nights, telling us what real estate in the United States was all about: how
the market worked and why it was smart to buy real estate, and why prices go up
and down, and how to properly evaluate different properties at different
locations, what kinds of loans exist and what interest rates, margins and
closing costs meant… Since we had studied for many years, we listened intensely
to the new topic of investing in real estate. We quickly realized that the
importance of buying a home should not be underestimated by any person, especially
in the ever-changing life and
labor environment in California.
But when we actually went to look at the properties, the
tour Julia gave us went far beyond all our expectations. We saw so many
properties with such attractive architecture and floor plans that we could have
never imagined it all. We are in our mid-forties, with university educations
and successful work experience in a number of countries. We have seen a lot in
our lives, but what we saw in Ventura and Oxnard was not only
unique but completely different from any of our previous experiences.
For instance, the Silverado development appeared very airy,
roomy and peaceful to us. Imagine a huge bright-green lawn of oblong shape. Big
mature trees with wide shady crowns grow in the middle of it. Under each of
those trees, a small summer café could have been opened, as is done in Paris or Budapest.
The houses are distributed evenly on the edge of the large
beautiful lawn. Most of the town homes we saw were large in size. Moreover, it
would be possible to add one or even two more rooms. We exchanged
glances and understood each other: we imagined right away that our daughters
would be sitting in the shade with their textbooks, preparing for their final
exams, and that we would be drinking our morning coffee with our friends at a
white outdoor table, in front of the porch….At Silverado, one would love to reside and enjoy the beauty at all
times.
A two-bedroom condo in Port Hueneme
also impressed us. The discovery that every room in that condo, even the
restrooms, had a triangular shape was quite astonishing for us. We thought that
a couple of young show-business professionals or rock musicians would love to
live there. Or a designer preferring an unusual
style could have a nice studio in that condo.
The Lighthouse development in Oxnard also deserves a special mention. We
fell in love with its beautifully landscaped common areas, its light pink duplexes with three-level
floor plans. The rich-looking, well-tended homes and the landscape with plenty
of blooming plants and bushes with a view of the swimming pool surrounded by
full-grown palm trees reminded us of a San
Diego resort hotel.
There are many conveniently located parking spaces in the
gated community, and people walking from their cars to their homes had
absolutely happy faces.
We started to plan how well all our desks, the piano and bookcases would fit
into all these three-level floor plans, remaining visible and accessible for
all family members while providing enough privacy for study, discussions, or
watching TV at night.
We also fell in love with the good-sized homes at Strawberry
Fields.
The big area of newly-built homes between Rose Avenue and Oxnard Boulevard became our favorite. We
thought we would love to own and enjoy one of the big homes there. By the end
of our tour, we felt so overwhelmed with the bright and unexpectedly endless
diversity of the things we saw that we could barely make a decision. For a few
days we discussed, compared, computed, analyzed the information and went
through the pictures.
As a result of this complicated
process we realized that in addition to the investment value of a house, the
reputation of the school district was extremely important, too. That is why we
decided to buy a nice three-bedroom town house at Melody-Harmony community in Ventura built by Lennar
Construction Company. It is located not too far from Telephone Road and Thille Street and belongs to the Portola Elementary school district, which we
consider one of the best elementary schools in the area. The conclusion was
based on our own research of data available from official sources, the
Internet, and on the opinions of private individuals we talked to.
We also found that the drive from
Hwy 126 to Melody development was very pleasant. We passed beautiful office
buildings, parks, then made a turn into attractive looking Thille Street with neat and well-kept
apartment houses with nice
landscaping and tall trees, and drove through to the Melody-Harmony
development. Driving farther, we could see a new park for children, and beyond
it – another condominium community, named Regatta.
No high voltage lines, no shabby
corners, no views of industrial objects or any other unpleasant things that
would damage the whole beautiful picture. Besides, the proximity of a few
shopping malls, Chuckie Cheese, and Shore
Lake educational store
that we like so much added some additional positive points to our impression.
So we made the decision and went
into escrow. Since it was our first real estate purchase in the US, we had a
lot of questions. Julia, our broker, answered them for us practically any time
of day or night. Besides, Julia helped us very efficiently with the payment of
our closing costs. With all sincerity we can say that Julia Ovod’s assistance
was really above and beyond our greatest expectations.
Almost a year has passed since we
moved to Ventura.
Our youngest son Ivan was born here, in Ventura,
and brought into our new home in Melody community, 5563 Coltraine Street. Our youngest
daughter Anastasia goes to Portola School, which we believe is the best one in Ventura.
We still go to visit our friends in
Santa Barbara,
the lovely city that we will always keep in our hearts. But not only have we
stopped being sad about the fact that we left Santa Barbara. Instead, we are finding
more and more attractive features in Ventura
that people do not have in Santa
Barbara.
For instance, the closeness to Los
Angeles and Thousand Oaks where we often go to concerts or ballet performance,
and the possibility of making frequent visits to Chucky Cheese, as well as the
opportunity for us, born and raised in a northern country, to go ice-skating in
Oxnard. The Shore
Lake store is close by
and it is a great source of educational materials and developmental toys and gifts
for children…
And we could go on and on.
Needless to say, we are lucky that
our life in Ventura
has turned out to be so stable and peaceful. We were always proud of our
outgoing family, of the fact that we are skilled professionals
with university degrees and happy parents of three “straight-A” college
students. Presently, we take pride in owning our beautiful home at 5563 Coltraine Street
in Ventura.
And, most important, we feel both proud and really happy
that we are residents of the city of Ventura, a beautiful, convenient and warm
American city on the shore of the Pacific Ocean.