Reviews
What's it like to live in Moreno Valley?
Moreno Valley is cheap because of several factors: 1) Land Speculation: The area has historically been the fastest to boom and the fastest to bust. The city has ranked as both the nation's fastest and sixth fastest growing cities (1989 and 2006). So, speculation is huge. Thus, the crash was HUGE… 2) Stigma: For whatever reason, there is a stigma attached to the town. When I was a kid it was because it was too suburban. Then the base closed down. The city also did go through a bigger demographic shift compared to other cities in the region. Thus, there was a little culture clash that taints its reputation. When you compare it to other inland cities, it score average in crime, slightly above average in terms of average income, and slightly below average in home price. So, really Moreno Valley is truly average for the region. For SoCal it scores average in crime, average in come, and far below average in housing prices. It's really an average town. 3) Jobs: The base closed down. Now there are plenty of blue collar jobs, but hardly any white collar jobs. This model resembles Orange County and other suburban SoCal regions. Just avoid Central Moreno Valley and Edgemont. The rest of Moreno Valley is very suburban. The NW and NE end are nice as well as SE end.
niche- Full Review
Just learned something that makes Moreno Valley even worse.
Moreno Valley was a growing city until… the Base Closure and Realignment [BRAC] III Act devastated March AFB in the mid 90's. That's been all she wrote since then. Too many houses not enough good paying jobs.
Around this time (the mid 90's) during the height of the crack and gang epidemic in LA, a lot of well meaning but ultimately foolish inner city families (read black and hispanic) tried to flee to exurbs to keep their kids out of gangs. They sold their paid off houses in the inner city, places like South Central, and bought houses in places like overbuilt Moreno Valley, Victorville, Hesperia, etc. It didn't work. All they did was bring the gangs with them, and to a sleepy places will small police forces, that were woefully unprepared to handle the influx of gang members and accompanying crime, drug trafficking, etc.
Throw in a recession and the continuing transfer of units away from March (now reserve AFB.) And you have a recipe for what you have now, an overly urbanized, overbuilt, suburb full of inexpensive rentals and absentee landlords, with little industrial base.
If it wasn't for the warehouses that you lament the situation would be even worse.
reddit- Full Review
Are you going to move your job with you to Moreno Valley? All that money you are "wasting" on rent, will be wasted on commuting and all the "fun" that comes with that, if you still have to work in LA. In that scenario, the money you'd save on rent by living in MoVal would be directly thrown into commuting. MoVal is cheap, because there aren't as many jobs out there, and it has a less than favorable reputation compared to other cities in the IE. MoVal gets hot and smoggy. I believe true Valley Fever can occur most anywhere in So. Calif. If your job is coming with you, go for it. People always say north of 60 is better, but take that with a grain of salt, of course.
- niche
- Full Review
I am very glad that you mentioned that, and I didn't want to go there but since you did, thank you. What is so sad is that, a poster who pretty much worships Temecula listed the top ten niciest cities to live in Riverside County and she included Lake Elisnore and Hemet, leaving out Moreno Valley. Moreno Valley may be too dark for some people, but I would have to say, that Moreno Valley is just as equally nice, if not to many people nicer than Hemet and Lake Elsinore. I just found her choice of cities interesting without her realizing her own bias against a city that probably has the same amount of crime as Hemet and Lake Elsinore. In fact, Lake Elsinore and Hemet when I mentioned those cities to people who live in Menifee, Murrieta, and Temecula are sorta places they wouldn't even want to live in. Menifee, in my opinion has nothing yet to make it nice. It seems to me when I tell people that I live in menifee, they go how nice it is. Have you seen parts of Menifee on the west side of the 215, that used to be parts of Sun City? To me, it appears that people have allowed that part of town to go. But again now that Menifee is a city, they replant the green belts that have died. I was born and raised in Compton, moved to Menifee to offer my children a better life without having to deal with gangs and drugs, then my son who went to Paloma High told me all of the things that were going on there, and so I realized that you can run but you can't hid from it. I Know what it feels like to grow up in a town that has become not only notorious for its high crime, but has become worldwide famous by gangsta rappers who grew up in Compton just to capitalize off of the city's bad image. Most of these CA towns are OVERRATED anyway, and I have tried to point that out many times, but some who are on the defensive about their precious cities attack me for stating the truth.
- niche
- Full Review
Moving to Moreno Valley California Pros and Cons
youtube- Full Review