I am toying with the idea of relocating from cold New England to Southern CA. I am a single mom with a teenager and was hoping someone from CA could give me some advice on coastal towns maybe an hour or two outside of LA. I want someplace that is reasonably priced, safe, and has a great school system. My job would not be an issue as I do consulting work from home.

Thanks for the help!!

Define reasonbly priced??

Absolutely nothing is reasonably priced here in SoCal

Ventura has pretty decent schools from what I've heard from friends of mine (I live in Ventura Co- Simi Valley - NW corner of LA)

Santa Barbara has excellent schools- but rentals and buying homes is pricey due to it being a BIG tourist and retirement town on the beach

Some of of the other coastal towns up the 101 are nice but I have no idea about the schools or prices.

Shawn is absolutely right ... there is nothing reasonably priced in any part of CA. Expect to earn the same but pay out twice as much for everything. I would see if you can find a cost of living site on the web - I think the state or US government page may have one. Good Luck!

Talk about california dreaming!

If the schools are great you wont find reasonably priced housing, you can count on that.

Thats what drives housing prices in most places, the quality of the school district.

If your finances are unlimited, just surf the web for the school scores comparisons, and go where the scores are highest.

Talk about california dreaming!

Thats what drives housing prices in most places, the quality of the school district.


Quality of school district has not much effect on quality of housing.... Quality of nieghboorhood (ie infrastructure, housing (prices and taxes), quality businesses and population have everything to do with quality of school.

The overpopulation (of SoCal) and demand for housing (close to the beach, nice weather) is what drives the ridiculous housing pirces.

There are many fine schools here in SoCal that reside in absolute slums of neighboorhoods

Thanks for the tips. I had looked on a couple of sites and it seemed everyplace claims to have good schools, a safe town etc. Only visiting the area a couple times doesn't really give a good sense of whether or not the schools would be good. And I guess by that I mean quality and engaged teachers, well behaved kids, active parents, and of course a strong PTO. The town I am in now has a history of not funding the school system and waiting until we are in danger of losing accreditation at the high school level before they do anything about it. But it has a beautiful coast, nice homes, involved parents, and great kids and that is the part I want to mimic.

I guess reasonably priced homes was a bit silly. A girl can dream can't she.....