BUY - SELL - RENT - LEASE Hesperia Homes
Hesperia is located in the High Desert of Southern, CA approximately 90 miles northeast of the Los Angeles area. Incorporated in 1988, Hesperia is a rapidly-growing high desert city of approximately 80,000 people in 2005 sitting at an elevation of about 3100 feet with prime recreational opportunities in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains. The real estate market in Hesperia has seen drastic shifts in the last few years. Hesperia is bordered by Apple Valley, Victorville, Oak Hills, Summit Valley, Silverwood Lake, the San Bernardino Mountains, Marianas Ranchos, the Ord Mountains, Spring Valley Lake. The California Aqueduct runs through Hesperia.
Some history of Hesperia, 1980 to Present
In the early 1980's, Hesperia was a large town with a low population density, there was one main market located on Main St in the building now occupied by the Salvation Army. This was Owen's market. Within the next few years, the Stater Bros shopping centers were built at E Ave and 11th Ave. The shopping center at the 11th Ave store was shared with a Thrifty's. Around the same time, Safeway came into the location now occupied by Vons at the corner of I Ave and Main St. This shopping center was shared with a TG & Y at the location of the new True Value Hardware. In the early 1980's there were few traffic lights along Main St., most intersetions had stop signs and a left or right could be easily made at Main and 3rd. Traffic on main street was spotty at best with "rush hour" being a car here and a car over there. Traffic of any sort was not something residents were accustom to. Most residential intersections did not have stop signs. Annual events were July 4th fireworks and the Hesperia Days parade and Rodeo. The fireworks has since moved to Hesperia Days held in September. The dominant population groups in Hesperia in the early 1980's were young families and senior citizens. Hesperia was not a commuters town; it was it was a community of proud desert citizens. In the late 1990's builders were struggling to sell 3 bed 2 bath homes on a half acre for $69,995 with $1000 move in. Today (June 2005), these same houses are selling for around $300,000
1980's-1990's weather of Hesperia
The weather in Hesperia has changed too. Hesperia used to be a dusty place with whirlwinds, duststorms, blowing sand, stronger more regular wind, summer thunderstorms, crystal clear blue skies, clean air, colder & snowier winters, icy winter streets. All of these things have since changed.
Popular opinion of Hesperia?
Views of Hesperia have changed over the years. Most of the old-time residents have moved out of state to find communities more like the the rural Hesperia of the 1980's and earlier. Most of the folks still here strongly oppose the growth and increasing population, decreasing views and desert lifestlye, poor air quality, traffic and overcrowding. The influx of a largely city-type population from other more populous areas of Southern California has changed Hesperia from a calm, quiet desert town to just another Southern California city, with crime, smog, high prices, and every other bad thing that comes along with a city. The views have decreased, intead of seeing mountains, in the distance, one now sees rooftops. Concrete communities (housing-tracts) are rampant and are helping to demolish what is left of this once-beautiful desert town. Developers are coming to Hesperia with no regard for the citizens or desert environment and mowing down old growth junipers, altering drainage patterns, and helping to increase air and population pollution.
Population types in Hesperia
Hesperia has seen shifts in the types of residents. In the early 1980's, Hesperia was a nice town with hardy, friendly folks. Over time, Hesperia saw increases in the spanish-speaking population and welfare population. In the 1990s, the city became overrun with a welfare population that degraded the city as a whole. There was an abondoned HUD home on about every block. In the early 1990's, Hesperia and the high desert area was hit with a punk-music phase and increase in widespread illegal drug use. Around 2001 things began to change again for Hesperia with an upswing in the economy and the beginning of rapid growth that continues today. Most of the longtime residents of Hesperia who remember the way things used to be do not like the current shifts in the city. Many have left California to return to the more rural setting similar to the pre-incorporated Hesperia.
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