Moving to Santa Clarita: how the neighborhoods differ when you are buying

"Santa Clarita" is used loosely for the whole Santa Clarita Valley, but the City itself is four communities that incorporated together on December 15, 1987: Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country. Valencia is not a separate city, even though it has its own name on many addresses.

Several of the valley's communities are outside the city limits and governed by Los Angeles County, including Stevenson Ranch, Castaic, Val Verde and Agua Dulce, along with the newest master-planned development on the west side. For a buyer that mostly changes who levies special taxes and who provides local services. Either way the county transfer tax is the same $1.10 per $1,000, and the City of Los Angeles's Measure ULA does not apply anywhere in the valley.

Valencia was planned as a whole community by the Newhall Land and Farming Company from the 1960s onward, and it still reads that way: tracts built around a network of paseos, pedestrian paths that run separately from the streets, with the Valencia Town Center at its commercial heart. Because it was built over decades, a buyer can find condos, townhomes and detached homes of very different ages within a short drive. The newer the tract, the more likely a special tax, so check each home's tax bill; see Mello-Roos in Santa Clarita.

Saugus covers the north-central part of the valley, and its housing spans several decades of tract building. That range is its practical appeal for a move-up buyer: the same area offers older homes on established streets and newer tracts, often with different special-tax and HOA situations a few blocks apart. Compare them on total monthly cost, not list price.

Canyon Country is the eastern side of the city along SR-14, and it has the widest mix of housing types in the valley, including a large share of the condos and townhomes. That often makes it the entry point for buyers coming from the Antelope Valley, and the SR-14 side is the shorter drive back to Palmdale and Lancaster. The City's Vista Canyon district is a reminder that newer developments here can carry special taxes too.

Coming from the Antelope Valley: Palmdale to Santa Clarita and Lancaster to Santa Clarita.

The newest large master-planned development in the valley is on the west side, along SR-126 west of I-5, in unincorporated county territory. New homes in master-planned developments are among the most likely to come with a special tax, and a builder is required to give you a notice of special tax before the sale. Read it before you compare the base price with a resale home.