The Conejo Valley Guide "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, highlights of local things to do, compilations and other items. Focus is on information relevant to Ventura County and surrounding areas, including Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark, Somis, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Barbara and Moorpark.
The Conejo Valley Guide® "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, local things to do, holiday event compilations, announcements and more.
Sherwood Homes in the delightful new community of Newbury Hills offered 3 and 4 bedroom homes in 1969 with pass thru service bars, ceramic tile kitchens, double door entries and more. Starting at $21,820. Walter Avenue and Wendy Drive. See you there!
Today (2021) these homes are in the $700K to $800K range. That outpaces the inflation rate over that period by a five!
Casa Conejo is an unincorporated Ventura County community located in Newbury Park. Effectively Casa Conejo is a rectangular shaped island within Thousand Oaks city limits. So to summarize, Casa Conejo is part of Newbury Park. Newbury Park is part of Thousand Oaks. But Casa Conejo is not part of Thousand Oaks. There will be a quiz on this tomorrow.
Casa Conejo has a population of approximately 3,200 residents, some of whom serve on the Casa Conejo Municipal Advisory Council.
This first planned community of Newbury Park premiered in 1960, four years before the City of Thousand Oaks was incorporated.
Back in 1960, these brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom homes on 1/3rd of an acre lots in Casa Conejo were going from $14,995 and up, with a $295 down payment.
“Whole new horizons in spacious living are yours…just minutes from the sun-drenched beach, inviting picnic areas at beautiful Sherwood Lake (which is now privately owned and not open to the public) and complete golfing facilities.” But best of all, these homes came with acoustic textured ceilings! :)
Through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Ventura County Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) makes federal funds available to local residents who are homeless or about to be evicted. County and city government have joined efforts to operate HPRP, ensuring that eligible County residents receive help when they need it most.
Basic eligibility criteria includes:
Eligible HPRP applicants may receive various types of assistance, including eviction prevention rental payment, rental deposit, short-term rental payment, credit counseling, utility deposit/payment, moving and storage costs and case management. Payments go directly to vendors.
Case managers work closely with clients to develop and implement a service plan to ensure that they receive full benefits. Through HPRP, clients are stabilized in housing and assisted comprehensively to help ensure that they do not face homelessness again.
Visit www.vchsa.org/hprp or call 805.385.8585 for additional information.
Other resources for low income residents of Ventura County:
Free cell phone service from Assurance Wireless
Ventura County shelters and meal programs for those in need
The August 2010 issue of MONEY Magazine published its annual list of "100 Best Places to Live in America." I have subscribed to MONEY for years and each year my wife reviews the list and tells me 3 other places she would like to consider moving to. To which I reply:
I LIKE IT WHERE WE LIVE!
Curious, I reviewed MONEY's 2010 list and there was not a single Ventura County city on it.
MONEY's methodology was to start out with the 746 U.S. cities with a population of 50,000 to 300,000*, remove median incomes greater than 200% or below 85% of the state median, retirement communities, large job losses and poor education scores, then rank the remaining cities based on housing affordability, education, arts/leisure, health care, safety and other factors. *This methodology eliminates fine cities like Agoura and Moorpark from consideration.
Then they whittle down the list based on economic factors and visit 30 of the cities to select the winner.
Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo and Oxnard, all cities between 50,000 and 300,000, are nowhere to be found on the list.
I looked back at MONEY's Top 100 lists going back to 2005 and only once, Simi Valley in 2006 (#35), has a Ventura County city been included on this list. Something ain't right here!
Well it should be noted that Newbury Park, albeit not officially a city (it is part of Thousand Oaks), made it to #71 on the 2005 list. But that was 5 years ago!
Why is it that cities like Piscataway, NJ, Centreville, VA, Roswell, GA and Stillwater, OK made the list but not a single city from Ventura County has made the list going back to 2006!?
MONEY, are you reading this? Come visit Ventura County why doncha and check out what we have to offer! Yah, all right, it is still a bit pricey to live here, but we have hundreds of things to do and all sorts of local events year round, kids' activities and plenty more!
No offense, but I'm not leaving the Conejo Valley for Owensboro, KY, Gilbert, AZ, O'Fallon, MO or Millcreek, PA any time soon. I'm staying put right here in America's #1 county, Ventura County! :>
For the record though, here are the top 10 cities on the 2010 list: Eden Prairie, MN, Columbia/Ellicott City, MD, Newton, MA, Bellevue, WA, McKinney, TX, Fort Collins, CO, Overland Park, KS, Fishers, IN, Ames, IA and Rogers, AZ.
Conejo Valley Guide covers events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County and surrounding areas.
Conejo Valley Guide® covers thousands of events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County, California and surrounding areas.
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