Calling Porsche-o-Phile and anyone else in the Long Beach, CA area

[Hugh R]

My 23 y/o daughter is interested in buying a townhouse in Long Beach/San Pedro. She found a nice condo at 1073 West 9th Street in San Pedro with a great view of the bridge and the harbor. Didn't see much if any graffiti, what can you tell me about this area? Going up, going down, gang trash, car breakins, etc.

[TechnoViking]

I lived in Long Beach for a year or so in the mid 90's. Only heard a few gunshots.

[campbellcj]

I have a couple of relatives in Pedro (near 3rd and Bandini) and they seem to like it. I have been there quite a few times and it seems like a quiet neighborhood.

My grandparents (deceased) lived in LB for nearly 50 years and it was very sad to see their area degenerate from a quiet, safe, working-class family neighborhood to gang-banger-infested crowded-rundown-apartment hell.

I know LB and probably Pedro have wide ranges in housing quality/pricing/safety and personally I would research and explore extensively before thinking about locating there.

[vash]

23 and interested in buying? you have done good. nice parenting dude.

[Hugh R]

Thanks Chris

She has a local realtor who showed us six properties today and the realtor took us by a few houses in areas where she said my daughter definitely should not consider. I think the realtor is pretty good. She recognizes that my daughter may be looking at something for a few years and then moving on. She's pointing us towards locations that are definitely not going to get worse. The property she's looking at is a fourplex townhouse type unit. The adjacent identical unit sold five years ago for $480K. The identical unit my daughter is looking at is asking $389K and I think they'll bite at a bit less, like $360K. Good time to buy.

I'll be helping her out with the down and closing costs for a piece of the equity.

23 years old and buying a low six figure place, not too shabby. At 23, I was still a dumb***** in college with no real clue what I was going to do. She's on partner track at the big accounting firm KPMG.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by vash

23 and interested in buying? you have done good. nice parenting dude.

A few months ago she went into the local BMW dealer and made a sales manager cry as she wrung him out on the price of a new 328is. The dumbass sales manager then asked her if she wanted to call her dad to co-sign the loan. She said to him "One more comment like that and I'm out of here". Credit score of 780 and had been pre-approved by her credit union. Yeah, I couldn't be more proud. No drugs, little alcohol, she controls the boys, they don't control her.

[12own911]

SP is nice but I would move up a couple of blocks... closer to 1200 block or greater...

[campbellcj]

FWIW - I just learned yesterday that my cousin (with wife & young child) in Pedro like the area enough to be moving to a bigger place around 1/2 mile away. I haven't heard the details yet though. He works in the South Bay and we have quite a bit of family in the vicinity so I'm sure that weighed heavily into their decision.

Sounds like your daughter has a solid head on her shoulders. My wife and I are LA natives and didn't get our finances or "stuff" in general together enough to buy our first place until we were 35. However we did have a sweet rental deal via a family friend for ~9 years to help us lay a foundation so to speak. No question, it is brutal to be a young person trying to start an independent life in this area.

[aigel]

My general impression with San Pedro is not very good. Lots of "interesting characters" in the public places (stores, gas stations, streets), payday loan stores, window bars ... all the indicators of "not so good neighborhood".

Buddy of mine rents a place 3 blocks north east from the address you post. Heading west and up hill is definitely getting to the better areas of San Pedro. I think your address of interest may be a bit too far east and low in elevation. Here is what I know / think:

My pal has had some issues with vandalism to his street parked vehicles. Driving to and from his house, I can not say I am impressed with the immediate area. In the evening, the streets are packed, and I mean PACKED with cars. Most vehicles are older beaters and contractor work rigs. Whoever is out in the streets would not impress me in a positive manner if I was a real estate investor. Houses are very small with very small lots and upkeep is average at best. I think there are a lot of rental properties. Some of the bungalow style homes are neat and there are some well kept little homes here and there, which would indicate owner occupied homes.

I would live in West San Pedro on top of the hill. But only renting and only if I had a fenced yard and no kids. I think San Pedro can go both ways from where it is now. The nice areas could expand, or they could contract ...

In the current economy, my bet is on nice area contracting. I would be afraid to invest in this area. Long Beach harbor can't be having a lot of business these days, for example. And how about those contractor guys that live there? On average a blue color area will get hit a lot harder than a white collar area in this economy. (Currently unemployment for college grads is about 1/2 that of the overall unemployment rate).

I would steer your daughter to a place that is a safer investment and a safer place to live. There are areas further away from the ocean that are better and just as affordable. Good schools are a must if you are buying. If it has to be San Pedro, get as far up in elevation and west as you can afford.

I am sure you are familiar with www.lalife.com. Check out the data in there (zoom the map) and you will find it supports my San Pedro impression. A very poor 3.5 (out of 10) safety rating.

Good Luck!

George

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Hi Hugh,

San Pedro in general is a pretty gritty area although (like anyplace else) there are some places that are nicer than others.

I've got a 40-miler scheduled tomorrow on the road bike, so I'll make my route run through that area to check it out first-hand for you. I'll report back with my impressions.

I'm sending you a PM too.

[dipso]

I don't know how to spell it but, Isn't there a Scottmando that lives in San pedro?

[Zeke]

Why does she want to live here? Job? Can she get to it easily from Seal Beach or Belmont Shore? Downtown LB is trying to be like loft city, but it's a small patch surrounded by blight. Daylight travel only in and out of DT (with maybe the exception of east on Ocean Blvd).

I don't know anything about SP. It's there. But wherever prices are down near 300K (homes) is in the badlands.

I worked on this place when it was built in the '70's. There are others in the area. Gated with shopping/restaurants within a short walk. I'd take a quick look as long as you are looking.
http://www.marinapacifica.com/

[sammyg2]

Uggghh, Is she really tied to that area? One of my coworkers just moved from that general area to seal beach after his car was broken into once and stolen once (from a security garage no less). San Pedro borders up to Wilmington which is almost as bad as Compton. I know, I work in Wilmington.

If she was willing to commute from the other side of the orange curtain she could do much better than san pedro.

[kycarguy 935]

I lived near Marina Pacifica for nearly 20 years and went to high school with many kids that lived there. Nice place and location, freeway close.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

The adjacent identical unit sold five years ago for $480K. The identical unit my daughter is looking at is asking $389K and I think they'll bite at a bit less, like $360K. Good time to buy.

I'll be helping her out with the down and closing costs for a piece of the equity.

23 years old and buying a low six figure place, not too shabby. At 23, I was still a dumb***** in college with no real clue what I was going to do. She's on partner track at the big accounting firm KPMG.

I'm not sure that it is a good time to buy. I think SP is an area that likely will have more drop left in it.

Is she at the downtown KPMG office? If so, why does she want to live in SP? Is she going to take the blue line to work? Where is she living now? The other thing to consider is that I assume she has only been at KPMG for a year or maybe two. How stable are they at the moment and are they expanding or contracting?

If I were working downtown I'd rather live in Pasadena or South Pas and take the gold line in. Or if you want to roll the dice a bit on regentrifying neighborhoods, buy in Highland Park or Eagle Rock.

[Zeke]

Todd, I given a lot of thought to what you say. Yes RE is still falling, but at a lesser rate. Young professionals with a good income and some prospects should look towards property ownership at this point. As long as there is an income tax deduction for mortgage interest, she will be ahead of the game and own a home when prices move up.

[campbellcj]

Originally Posted by aigel

I am sure you are familiar with www.lalife.com.

That's a really cool site - thanks for the link! Definitely validates my decision to live where I do.

I will pass it along to a new guy at work who just relocated here from Florida...

[Zeke]

That website is cool. If you look at a little blue area at the LB/ Lakewood line, it's a small area that somehow never got incorporated by LB or Lakewood. Lakewood has the LA County Sheriff and I assume they patrol and service that little island.

The houses there are no different than ones a half mile in any direction. I find this fascinating.

Otherwise, I pretty much disagree with the zip code by zip code assessment of LB. No way are we all green.

[campbellcj]

Milt - I live in a similar unincorporated 'strip' out here. The borders of both Agoura Hills (city) and Calabasas are literally just a few houses away and kinda zig-zag through the neighborhood. I have no idea how these seemingly bizzare decisions are made by the powers that be...

[aigel]

Thanks to lalife.com I found a 9.5/10 (both safety and schools) area that we like a lot. We would have been steered to some 7-8/10 areas just going with what coworkers, friends and realtors would tell us. Trust me, there is a difference between a 7 and a 9 in this rating.

Another great site you should check out (nationwide) is www.city-data.com They combine census results with a lot of other data to give you very good picture of the community. I looked for a carbon copy of my old area's data when we were moving, and it is fascinating how much the towns feel the same (due to similar population ethnicity, income, home prices, schools and safety).

George