# Housing in LA



## happening to us (Sep 25, 2010)

Hi
My husband has been offered a position with a company based in Westwood LA. Going by the real estate sites this looks like a seriously expensive area and yet there is a lot of advice to try to live as close to work as possible due to traffic. 

Any other suggestions of areas where we can look? We are a family of three and will be looking for an elementary school for our 9 year old within whatever area we decide.

Many thanks


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2010)

Living in LA means traffic. It's always a balance between your time versus housing costs. You might look at Santa Monica. UCLA is also close, so there may be resources from UCLA to use (student newspaper, etc) for rental listings.

Ask the company's HR department if they have a good real estate resource who can help direct you. At the L.A. Times website, in the top right corner, they also have a good section for apartment rentals. You can specify the area and your price range, bedrooms, etc in your search.

A good way to find a safer area is to check on crime statistics. If you go the the Los Angeles Times webpage, then scroll over the "Local" heading on the black bar, then click on "Crime", that page will come up. There is a large posting called "The Homicide Report", and you can enter either a city or a zip code below the photos. This will show you the locations of all homicides since 2007, so you can also plan accordingly.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

Enrollment in public schools is based on residence. Unless you want to send your child to a private school you have to make a decision on which school before looking for a home/rental.


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## happening to us (Sep 25, 2010)

Thank you kindly for you advice.

Would it be best to rent for a while before we make a move to buy a property?

Is the Santa Monica Area relatively safe? On the whole are the rentals there generally a little less than Westwood?
Thanks


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2010)

Everything is relative, and you haven't given enough information.

As anywhere in the world, 99.5% of the time, it's generally a good thing to rent before committing your money to buying a home in a strange place. That way, you can discover the good and bad points of a prospective area before plonking down a significant amount of money to buy a property. It will be hard to tell anything about a specific property without being there in person, but it will give you an idea of the rents in that area before your visit.

When renting, they will also consider your income, and you may not qualify to rent if the rent exceeds about 35% of your gross monthly income. Lack of a US credit rating might create problems.

In case you haven't kept up on the news, California has had some small economic problems, so it is a renter's market right now.

Use the search functions at the website I mentioned before. Chances are, if there are a bunch of homicides in a particular area, other types of crime rates are also elevated in the same area. The US uses Zip Codes to identify specific areas, so if you use Google and enter for example "Santa Monica Zip code map" you will get a map showing streets in that zip code, and can cross reference with rental listings.

What else are you doing on this Sunday afternoon - get cracking !! hahaha


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## Zoom (Jul 7, 2008)

Westwood Village (right next to UCLA) used to be a fantastic place back in the day for Restaurants, Shops, Cinemas - an ACTUAL walking area in Los Angeles (watch the DVD "American Gigolo" with Richard Gere. A lot of that film was shot in Westwood or nearby. Gives you a good feel of the area). There's tons of high rise Apartments along Wilshire Blvd very close to Westwood Village. Or you could go further west on Wilshire, (between the 405 Freeway and Santa Monica Beach) and I'm sure there's plenty of houses or condo's to rent (or buy since I'm sure there's many foreclosures - it's a buyers market if you have the cash and /or good credit). Santa Monica Blvd (between the 405 Freeway and Santa Monica Beach) is also a good bet (and all the little streets that connect Santa Monica Blvd and Wilshire Blvd) 

OR you can go down the 405 freeway and get off on Sunset and head west. Very nice winding roads and neighborhoods that lead to the ocean eventually. These places/homes are not cheap (but they'll probably never be as affordable as they are now considering our little "housing problem" in the USA). I haven't been in that area for a long time (used to have an ENT Doctor there) but I'm sure it hasn't changed much. Check out THIRD STREET PROMENADE, another nice walking shopping area.

Santa Monic Third Street Promenade
Visitors - Downtown Santa Monica - Third Street Promenade

Here's a nice one for Westwood Village
Westwood Village (WV) Los Angeles California's Original Village Community

My STRONG advice is to live close enough to one of these places so you can do a lot of walking. This is still a car culture and it really is a big pain and the parking can be VERY expensive (as can keep up/repairs on your car, the insurance, etc., etc) and hard to find. It can get to a point where the only walking you do is from your house to your car to work to your car - not healthy at all. If you have to live in L.A. these are some of the better places IMHO. AND, you'll have more sun than you know what to do with... Zoom


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## NORM123 (Jul 10, 2009)

Check "westsiderentals.com" for all areas of L.A. It costs about $50 for 2 mos. but it is by far the besy way to find a place. Forget Wishire Blvd. near Westwood unless you don't mind spending $5000 a mo for an apt. Two bedroom in Santa Monica starts at about $2000 The Westside is just plain expensive! You can try "over the hill", maybe Sherman Oaks, rents are cheaper in "The Valley", but in morning traffic and leaving work expect about a one hr commute


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## Zoom (Jul 7, 2008)

NORM123 said:


> Check "westsiderentals.com" for all areas of L.A. It costs about $50 for 2 mos. but it is by far the besy way to find a place. Forget Wishire Blvd. near Westwood unless you don't mind spending $5000 a mo for an apt. Two bedroom in Santa Monica starts at about $2000 The Westside is just plain expensive! You can try "over the hill", maybe Sherman Oaks, rents are cheaper in "The Valley", but in morning traffic and leaving work expect about a one hr commute


But then maybe the price can be offset somewhat by having one car instead of 2 due to the ability to walk to places that you would normally have to drive to. I'm an example of that myself by having 2 cars in LA (one that's my Girlfriend's) but having NONE at our little apartment in Paris because in our very charming neighborhood (7th) we can walk to everything within 5 to 10 minutes (can even walk to the Eiffel Tower in 10 to 12 minutes). From tons of open air street markets (and standard and late night markets) to dozens of restaurants, to our Doctors office to the post office to plenty of shops. 

No cars - we save tons of cash, aggravation and headaches - I've come to almost hate cars when high speed trains, metros and buses (talking about France more than Los Angeles here - we're behind a couple, or more, decades, maybe half a century) are so much more convenient and low stress (plus LA drivers are notoriously Horrible and/or driving Drunk/High/Stoned/Stupid so good luck - make sure you have a good attorney).

The Valley? Are you kidding. Besides being America's Porn producing Capital (more porn is shot "in the valley" than anywhere else in the US. Not that I really care but it's a fact. Maybe they'll be shooting a feature film poolside next door, you never know - don't let all the noise - giggling, moaning, etc., etc. - get to you, everybody needs to make some extra cash in this down turned economy). 1 hour to Westwood MINIMUM - the traffic is HORRIBLE (+ the beach is far away, a Deal Breaker IMHO - might as well live in Bakersfield - well, maybe not that far but.... you get my point). 

I think the whole point is not turning the move to a new country & home/condo/apartment into a NIGHTMARE. When you move to an expensive area one thing you can do is scale down (that's what we did with the Paris apartment). Go for a smaller size - don't need McMansions with 5 bathrooms and 7 bedrooms. Go from Home to Condo, get a Major fixer upper (if you're good at fixing up places) drop all the cars and only have one (and maybe one scooter/vespa - the weathers so good in LA that scooters are great for short hops). 

Gotta think outside of the box these days with the middle/upper middle class being strangled to death. There's trade offs one can make. Living far away from work is just slipping into the very unhealthy lifestyle LA is known for with all it's millions of cars and pollution and accidents. Get clever, figure out how you can make cuts on unneeded garbage. Do the math a find out how much each car REALLY costs (especially with a long commute everyday). It can be done but it's the new normal we're now living in and one must think, think some more, and than pre/post - plan. Simple as that - it can be done but one must use mucho Brain Power these days (oh, and learning a bit of Spanish won't hurt either). Zoom


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## NORM123 (Jul 10, 2009)

Zoom said:


> But then maybe the price can be offset somewhat by having one car instead of 2 due to the ability to walk to places that you would normally have to drive to. I'm an example of that myself by having 2 cars in LA (one that's my Girlfriend's) but having NONE at our little apartment in Paris because in our very charming neighborhood (7th) we can walk to everything within 5 to 10 minutes (can even walk to the Eiffel Tower in 10 to 12 minutes). From tons of open air street markets (and standard and late night markets) to dozens of restaurants, to our Doctors office to the post office to plenty of shops.
> 
> No cars - we save tons of cash, aggravation and headaches - I've come to almost hate cars when high speed trains, metros and buses (talking about France more than Los Angeles here - we're behind a couple, or more, decades, maybe half a century) are so much more convenient and low stress (plus LA drivers are notoriously Horrible and/or driving Drunk/High/Stoned/Stupid so good luck - make sure you have a good attorney).
> 
> ...


The Valley being the porn capital? Do you think anyone comes in contact with this? I lived in the Valley for over 50 yrs and this is by far the stupidist comment I've heard about the Valley! San Francisco no good because of the "gays"? Las Vegas full of "sin"? Texas too many horses?


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## Zoom (Jul 7, 2008)

SAN FRANCISCO? Fine city, I'm straight sexually but very pro gay rights - It's AMERICA, we're all SUPPOSE TO BE welcome and equal.

LAS VEGAS? A big PLASTIC city, Always hated it - especially since they put a copy of the Eiffel Tower and Venice, Italy in there - is nothing sacred? Maybe they'll build a reenactment of the Crucifixion next, whatever brings in more customers and more $$$

TEXAS? Much ado about nothing - less than nothing - except for Austin (a shinny spot in a near dead and dusty land)

The Valley IS the porn capital of the USA, but like I said, who cares, I don't give a rat's ass personally (the "Moaning/giggling" comment was a bit of a joke, not meant to be taken 100% seriously). What I do care about is it's just another less-than-charming, never ending suburb. Sprawling cookie cutter homes, Malls, Chain Restaurants, and traffic, traffic, more traffic. You're very far away from the beach on top of that - why even bother??? Scale down and live in Santa Monica.... Zoom


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## NORM123 (Jul 10, 2009)

Zoom said:


> SAN FRANCISCO? Fine city, I'm straight sexually but very pro gay rights - It's AMERICA, we're all SUPPOSE TO BE welcome and equal.
> 
> LAS VEGAS? A big PLASTIC city, Always hated it - especially since they put a copy of the Eiffel Tower and Venice, Italy in there - is nothing sacred? Maybe they'll build a reenactment of the Crucifixion next, whatever brings in more customers and more $$$
> 
> ...


I'd take S.M. over the Valley in a heartbeat, but it is more expensive. But traffic on S.M. Blvd or Wilshire Bl. (the 2 streets connecting S.M. and Westwood) at 5 in the afternoon is now the most conjested corridor in L.A. The biggest problem with the Valley SUMMER HEAT the biggest problem everywhere else in L.A. TRAFFIC


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