Moving to the Area - Calabasas,CA

I live in Calabasas. It is a great place to live. The Calabasas Tennis Club has lots of activities for children. They call it a tennis club but is really a fitness and sports center with a large pool. Families get together there. There is also a circular that comes around each semester with all the activities for children. People gather at the commons every week-end with their kids. TO is great but more rural. Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westalke are all close and inter change with various activities. Shopping is better in TO, Westlake Village but it only a few miles from Calabasas. there are plenty of Mommie and Me classes too. We also have very little crime and the schools are great. plus we are close to Malibu beaches. Dont expect people here to be as friendly and down to earth a Texas though.

According to some of my family, the Thousand Oaks area is more family oriented. Calabasas is fun for adult date night - especially as it's smoke-free. =-)

Thousand Oaks has Family Movie night at the town center in the summer, family geared areas, etc.

Have a safe and smooth move and transition!

Hi A.

Lucky for you there is no wrong spot from these three areas. It would be great if you could drive the areas to see which suits you best. I live in Thousand Oaks however have clients in Calabasas and Westlake as well. I have met some wonderful people here. All areas seem friendly and family oriented to me, with lots of varied activities.

On a side note, I am very involved in the community and local Chamber of Commerce. If you need help with connections to local services or realtors, I would be happy to provide you with some excellent referals. Also I am an interior designer and would love to help you with your home if needed. (No charge for the initial consultation.)

Warm welcome and wishes to you!

J.

My husband and I lived in Agoura Hills for a few years, and recently moved to Westlake Village. Out of all the cities mentioned (Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Thousand Oaks) Westlake Village is my favorite. Calabasas is more expensive and....more image conscious -- think moms with breast implants and spiky heels at Coffee Bean on Saturday morning. (No offense, just my impression.) Agoura Hills is definitely more family friendly and pretty diverse. Westlake Village is a small town, but really nice, and about as new as Calabasas (at least, the rental units are, from what I've seen.) Thousand Oaks is very family-oriented and possibly more affordable.

Either way, any of these areas are pretty win-win, because they're all super safe, very family friendly and in a beautiful area -- I can't think of any other area in Southern California where the hills are actually green with grass and trees and not built out to the hilt. The only drawback is that its far from most of Los Angeles, but that's a consideration only for me since my husband and I both work in L.A.

As for family and mommy activities, I wouldn't know too much, since I work full time and have an hour commute. But I've heard of quite a few! Subscribe to Jen's List for leads on that, and sometimes the list includes units for rent and sale.

Hi A.. We were also looking in Calabasas, Agoura Hills, and Thousand Oaks when we wanted to move and there some good and bad points to each one. I personally wanted a more culturally diverse crowd, which you don't really get north of Calabasas. If it matters to you Westlake and especially Thousand Oaks is very white. My kids are biracial so it was important to me to have a bit more flavor, if you will. So we ended up in Calabasas. As for the "implanted" moms in "spiky heels" at Starbucks, if you saw me you would see differently. A lot of the women who live in Westlake Village and T.O. say that about Calabasas moms. Sure there are some serious milfs here but that doesn't bother me and it doesn't mean that they aren't nice people. I've met some hardcore frumpy ones in Agoura, and Westlake Village that were very unfriendly and cliquey and not inclusive at all. I like Calabasas because I'm a native NY er and I like being a few minutes away from some of the best shopping(food and otherwise) in Woodland Hills, Encino, Tarzana and if you wanna go out to dinner you have way more choices. Just a different point of view.

I have lived in the Conejo Valley area for almost 20 years and all of the cities (Calabasas, T.O., Westlake, Agoura, Oak Park) are family friendly. There are many, many opportunities for sports and for mom's programs in any of those areas, and the public schools are generally all quite good, with more consistency in this regard in Westlake, Oak Park and Agoura. My experience has been that Westlake, Agoura, Oak Park and T.O. are a little more down to earth, in terms of the neighborhoods and people, so you may want to consider that. If you were to live in one of these other cities, and not Calabasas, your husband would have anywhere from a 10 to 20 minute commute, with no traffic to speak of, so from that perspective it wouldn't be bad at all. Good luck with the move and welcome to the area!