SoCal Cost of living?

[pozican]

Help me out a little here guys.

Thinking about moving to socal (ventura).

I need a general idea of how expensive utilities would be.

2 bdrm apartment or studio, 2 people living there, a computer or two.

Anyone in a similar situation have a general number I can use for budgeting? (granted I'll add 100 or 2 just for kicks)

Thanks guys,
-Alex

[Alantic]

Of course it depends on where you want to stay. I am in LA and kind of familiar with prices here.
For your situation, I'd say that living in nice area, but not too expensive (Santa Monica, Venice, Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Hollywood - Melrose Area), you should expect to pay around $1800 for a 2 bedroom.
I recommend Melrose area - it is clean, save and beautiful. Plus you can walk to places (and have many beautiful people working around). Get a little duplex-house with garage and drive way parking. Here you'll get the most bang for the buck!
Utilities are not too bad here - maybe $100/month.

[Sonic dB]

2 bedroom apt = $1500 cheap nasty area, to $2500 for decent area.
Food will be about 10% higher. Gas is %33 percent higher in CA.
Pay for parking everywhere. Ventura is quite a little drive from LA
so you will be gassing the car up all the time.

[the]

Ventura isn't really So. Cal.

[stevepaa]

By my reckoning it is still part of nor cal by about 15 miles.

[Nostril Cheese]

Ventura has sucked since they "revitalized" main street.

[craigster59]

Originally posted by the
Ventura isn't really So. Cal.

"Bakersfield by the sea" Ventura is a nice town, I grew up in the area. A 2 bedroom can be had for $1700 with another 150 for utilities. The weather is mild so not much in heating or AC bills. Car insurance is a lot cheaper than L.A. area by 5-700 dollars.

Good beaches and restaurants, camping and fishing close by. Not bad for job opportunities either.

[Rick Lee]

With all the guns I own and would have to sell because they're illegal in CA, I'd have a few mos. living expenses as soon as I moved there.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Rick Lee
With all the guns I own and would have to sell because they're illegal in CA, I'd have a few mos. living expenses as soon as I moved there.

Have turned down several job offers due to the idiotic laws there, and the "fruits and nuts" living there, not to mention the cost of housing and living.

Beach aint worth it to me, Arizona is close enough until the 'quake happens, then we may have beachfront property for the same price!

[Hugh R]

Living and working in Ventura could be very nice. Wonderful town. Used to own a beach house there, sorry I sold it. Can't really help on pricing.

[Don Plumley]

Depending on from where you are moving, you might want to look at our State income tax rates and sales tax. Odds are car insurance might be higher.

[Alantic]

How much lower can insurance be somewhere else?

I pay $287 for 6 month for $30k/$100k/$50k and theft (Comprehensive with $2500 deductible) for a 1991 Porsche 964.
That is not bad! You just have to do some research!

I agree to "pay for parking" and "outrageous gas prices" though!
Ventura sounds boring - what's out there?

[Kevin G.]

Living in Ventura county, I can tell you that life here is quite nice. Being somewhat older than most of you, our views of what to do would likely be quite different.

On Porsche related things, we have some of the best canyon and country road driving opportunities literally at our back doors, and the German Auto Fest (now known as the Ventura Show) is held each Sep. at the county fairgrounds.

Here in East county near the LA county border cost of housing is very, very high although rental occupancies have taken a dive lately and you can probably find a somewhat decent deal short term. Housing purchase prices have dropped, but not anyway near making much of a dent in the price runup from the last few years. They will probably continue down, but should still level out quite a bit higher than what they were before the runup.

On a related front, the company I work for is actively expanding in other parts of the country due to the difficulty in finding quality people willing to move here - the cost of living difference is so much different.

Regular gas is currently around $3.15/gal. Food costs are not much different here, but decent restraunts are limited and the costs are about 15% higher than outside of SoCal.

Great place to raise a family - much better than LA unless you are within walking distance of the beaches.

[Howard Agency]

+1
Ventura county may be the best Porsche place to live in the US. That's just my opinion, but hey, I know it all.
City of Ventura rents a bargain compared to LA. Large German-American population, leans to the right quite a bit. Boring, but Malibu is just down the road, dude.

[JavaBrewer]

And Ventura is only a hop skip jump from Santa Barbara - God's land

[ZAMIRZ]

Ventura's like the nicer version of Pomona, ain't ***** going on, but only about 20-40 minutes from everything.

[fingpilot]

Craigster has it right on. I commute on a bike to the valley when I am off from flying. Is exactly an hour / 49 miles from Ventura to Van Nuys Airport. On either 118 or 101.

I grew up in Ventura County. Fairgrounds there is named after my grandfather. Lots of family still up in Ojai. Very coastal weather (marine influence), but also suffers the east wind the most.

You might want to brush up on your mexifornian.

[tonypeoni]

Off topic, but what would a 3000 sq ft house run within about 6 miles of Century City? I stay at the Century Plaza when on business there and like the feel of the area. After 6 theres very little traffic or maybe I wasn't paying much attention.

[fingpilot]

Plan on a mil, if you could find one.

[tonypeoni]

Originally posted by fingpilot
Plan on a mil, if you could find one.

While thats out of my league if thats true its more reasonable
than I thought. BTW that mall I think its the Westfield? They have a ROLEX store that is unbelievable I could spent hours in there just salivating.