Santa Clarita, California

Santa Clarita is technically not in LA County, but you might call it a satellite community—so close that it is worth mention when thinking about when you’re looking for a great place to live in the LA Area. Santa Clarita is actually a very old community, having been founded by a successful SF investor way back in the 19th century. It took a hundred years though for it to officially become its own city.

If you live in the San Fernando Valley, you probably only know Santa Clarita as the home to Six Flags Magic Mountain, this city’s main claim to fame and biggest employer. However, if you are looking for a great community that is just far enough away from the problems that plague LA County, but still want to be close enough to LA to commute to work or enjoy what LA has to offer, then Santa Clarita might be just the solution. Now, I would not recommend it if you work south of say Westwood or in LA itself, the commute might be a killer then. But if you have a job that allows you to telecommute on some days, or if you work in the Valley, Santa Clarita might be a great place to set down roots.

Although it is an old community, you would not know it from big rancho style houses here that all seem to date from the 90’s or newer. These are beautiful well-kept neighborhoods with green lawns and lots of open spaces. You are literally in the middle of the mountains here, so you have that as a backdrop and also as a bit of a barrier against the worst temperatures of the Valley. Air quality is also much better here than in LA whose smog belt you can see from the freeway as you head south.

There is a commuter train line that connects Santa Clarita to the rest of LA, so you might keep that as an option for commuting to work. You can use commute time to work on a laptop and thus increase your efficiency. Santa Clarita also has a strong business community as well—Princess Cruises, for example has their HQ here.

This is also a great place to raise kids. Not only will they always be able to find employment at Magic Mountain, but the schools are good and well financed. Santa Clarita also has three business oriented colleges, the College of the Canyons being only the most prominent.

The city is just developed enough where it has everything you could want from a suburban area: nice malls and good restaurants. In addition, I imagine that you can’t beat the hiking and outdoor life around here.

In a nutshell, Santa Clarita is a great little underappreciated gem, just north of LA County.

Canyon Country essentially 5 main roads. The population consists mostly of middle-age families with children going to local schools. The school system is excellent. There are about 2 junior high schools and 2 high schools and a variety of elementary schools for children to go to. The school spirit in the community is big as that is mostly what kids have going on in their lives. The businesses arent that great. There really is no place to go shopping in the city, unless you're going to a grocery store which are all overpriced because they can be. Cell phone reception in the area depends on where you are. Canyon Country borders canyons and the Angeles national forest, so reception can cut in and out throughout the tips of the city.