Avalon is probably one of the most spacious apartment complexes in Davis you can find. Located in South Davis, it is a block or so from the shopping center, which includes Safeway, Rite Aid, Office Max, and Round Table, just to name a few. It is also conveniently located a block away from the M and W Unitrans lines.
Living here for 2 years, I now see the luxury I was living in compared to other apartments in Davis, or your average apartment complex in say Berkeley. Everyone who came to visit would always be shocked at how big and roomy it was. But with that lavishness comes a hefty price. With myself and 4 roomies, our monthly rent was easily beyond 2K for our 4 bedroom apartment. I think I paid around $600 just for my room.
As Lori mentioned, the parking is pretty ridiculous here. I used to live in the complex directly adjacent to the clubhouse. Therefore, we did not have our own designated parking spots like some of the more fortunate Avalon residents. Generally we each could find a parking spot right outside of our place without a problem. However, there were also numerous instance where we had to scramble around the whole apartment driveways just to find somewhere to park. This usually occurred in the later evening hours, after coming back from the ARC or something. It was a pain in the a**! When worse came to worst, I had to park outside on the streets a few times as well. That's how bad the parking was here. We took it up with the management before, and they said they couldn't do anything about it.
In regards to the management, I don't believe they liked my household very much. There were times where my roommate would come home, telling us all how he got into a heated argument with the landlord lady over some random or petty stuff. I myself got into an altercation with them once, complaining to them that they had lost my deposit check I had put down to rent out the clubhouse for my birthday. They had said I would receive it back after they inspected the place following my event, but they said they must had misplaced it. I know it didn't matter since my check was never cashed out (or so I think), it was still unprofessional for them to do such a thing.
As far as the clubhouse goes, I think that was one of the best facets of Avalon. Not only was it big enough to host a party or get together, but there was also a little exercise room with a TV, treadmill, exercise bicycle, and one of those in-home gym sets. Like I mentioned earlier, I hosted my birthday here and it easily held over 150 people or so..Crazy right?! Also, my friends and I held a few of our annual Thanksgiving potlucks in here. Unfortunately, the main door to the clubhouse was very poorly secured, requiring only a sudden tug of the handle to open it. Thus, we often had random Davis citizens invading our area, more specifically the swimming pool. They were usually Latinos with their 1093483 kids, just taking over the property with their fiestas. That is one of the reasons why I think I only went in the pool twice over my whole 2 years there. Although it looked clean superficially, I knew that with all of the kids infiltrating it, it was bound to contain lots of bacteria and other nasty stuff.
Another cool thing to keep in mind is that if you go down a bit on Valdora, right past Avalon, then you can go directly onto the Bike Path that leads you straight to campus in about 10 minutes. The path allows you to avoid that very tall overpass on Cowell (near the Applebees area) and bike behind Jamba Juice and the parking lot near Shields. I wish I had discovered this sooner than the summer before I moved out!
All in all, Avalon was a nice establishment to live in for 2 years, but their steep rent, deficient parking, and poor management induced my roommates and I to move to another place for our final year. read more
