Lake Elsinore is a great place for a family with l
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8/23/2013
8/23/2013
To someone thinking of moving to Lake Elsinore I really want to write this to you because I was in you position a year and a half ago. I was living in Delmar NY, a small town outside of Albany NY. Delmar was somewhere in the tip 25 places to live based on loc crime, school rating, libraries, parks, low work commute time, little traffic etc. For 10 years i left the key in ,my cars, house unlocked, bicycles outside, you name it. It is a very nice quiet town. Keep that in mind when you read my posting.
I visited southern California on our search to find a place to live without the harsh upstate NY winters, and lots of outdoor things to do, without the south east coast humidity. On then trip spending a couple days looking north and south between San diego and L.A., from the coast as far inland as Palm Springs. We found lake Elsinore right between San Diego and L.A. and about an hour inland. On a smaller scale right between temecula and corona (which were nice but too crowded for us).
lake elsinore is beautiful, come see for yourself! Don't just listen to the people trashing it on the internet.
We fell in love with the smaller feel, more space, stunning views, good traffic, plenty of shopping and wonderful neighborhoods with affordable homes. We were sold, after nearly dropping the idea of California after sitting in traffic everywhere north of riverside, dripping our jaws at the pricing of orange county, and never being able to just relax anywhere in between. I lined up a job, set up the 3000mile move, and bought a 2200 sq foot 4 bedroom 3 bath 3 car garage home with mountain views, spiral staircase, granite counters, and a recreation area that has a neighborhood pool for $210,000 (needing work now valued at about $300k)
After living here a year we are happier every day with the choice on Lake Elsinore. We are always finding new things to do here, and nearby.
One of my favorites is the 45 minute scenic drive over the Ortega highway to some of the nicest beaches around.
An hour to San Diego and everything there, 45 minutes to Disneyland and Anaheim, an hour and a half to big bear skiing or summer mountain get always, an hour to palm springs.
Just west of the lake in the Ortega mountains there are miles and miles of hiking trails in the San Mateo wilderness.
There is sky diving and hang gliding right here
Boating fishing jet ski's kayaking and all watersports on the lake, and you can rent if you don't own like me.
Lake Elsinore Storm baseball, a far, team for the Sam Diego padres here for entertainment
The Lake Elsinore motocross track just received a 1 million dollar face lift and is a great place to ride competitively or with kids on the junior track, watch pro races, and they are sponsoring the Lucas oil truck series which is great entertainment and getting a lot of national recognition. If your not into that kind of thing don't worry, the track is far far off the main roads and you can't even tell its going on.
The lake has had a recirculation system installed to help with the ecosystem and is looking better every day (although i came apparently after the smell and green algae problem was fixed according to locals) looks fine to me and it has a bunch of boats and swimmers on the weekends.
If you desire expensive fine dining, it is true that there is not a ton here, but why not drive 20 minutes to Temecula wine country and old town front street, it is there, along with with the night life (but watch out for traffic in Temecula, winchester specifically)
There is a bunch of camping and off highway vehicle ohv trails in the Ortega mountains off main divide road as well. You can even see catalina and San Clemente islands from the high spots at times.
Hour and a half drive to big bear skiing, or summer mountain get always.
Please do your own up to date research, I have seen no crime, again left my keys in cars and garage door (with a small fleet of dirt bikes and ATV's) open all day when we left for the beach, bicycles in the driveway, etc. With no problems.
I see kids walking to school every day
What I don't see are the things that I read on the internet before i moved including: gang activity, prostitutes, drug dealing, and I have never heard a gunshot. If those things were true why would anyone continue to live here? If you read a post from someone who hates lake Elsinore, and has lived here for many years, and still lives here.... consider the source.
The weather, it is true the summers get hot, take it from somebody who lived 2 hours from Canada for 25 years. That being said the heat is an inland empire California thing, not just lake elsinore. If you can afford the beach you get the beach weather, its double the price or more. One thing that we have done is taken advantage of the low to mid 60 degree nights in the hotestr part of summer. Or bill got to be $350 with the a/c in July. We bought 2 fans and put them on opposite sides of the house next to windows which we open at night. One blows cool air in and one blows hot air out. This got our house into the low 70's at night with the a/c off and dropped our bill to $220 for august, the hottest month.
In fairness Lake Elsinore does have some less desirable parts, lakeland village could use some fixing up, hopefully some of the miserable people will leave so new people can come in with a better attitude and do some upgrades to their homes, but I don't see any safety issues here.
Depending on your budget the best neighborhoods in my opinion are : Tuscany hills, canyon hills, the north side of the lake, and rosetta canyon. I personally live in Tuscany hills and if you are looking for a quiet area for a family, I can guarantee you that you will be happy here.
paul | Lake Elsinore, CA