good choice
 

My wife teaches in one of the best school districts in the nation and my three sons attended elementary, middle, and high school there. My kids got the best – there are also great private schools locally, but the return on investment can’t be compared to a top notch public system. A family I coached in baseball selected this area to relocate based on state test scores in the public schools.

I have recommended to friends outside of the district to rent within the district and not send their kids to private schools.

There are horror stories of the worst public schools but there are also many districts for which it is worth relocating.

Good choice nostatic.

Hi Dean, checking in. I don't really have any input. I live in the San Fernando Valley and although I have been everywhere in the greater L.A. area, I tend to stay in The Valley. Traffic is horrible and these days it seems there is traffic at all hours of the day. I really don't like to go into 'The City' for this reason. There is also a different vibe over the hill (Santa Monica is more like The Valley), also a very expensive night out.

I really don't know anything about the areas you are looking at. You're in for a bit of culture shock though! As you are finding out, property is expensive. Hopefully, your company is adjusting your salary for the COL out here.

There are trade-offs to living here, but it really is not as bad as people make it out to be. Crime is not rampant and believe it or not, there are some gang members that are actually nice - just don't look them in the eyes ;). We have a written sunshine clause, guaranteeing no more than 14 days rain a year - not to be successive. Teeth whitening is not a requirement for living here either. Tattoos, piercings or a bit of plastic are nom-de-rigueur though.

L.A. is a gateway to the world. As for California, where else can you surf, snow and water ski, all in the same day and be home for dinner?

Dean:

Commute from the San Fernando Valley to Santa Fe Springs is about 45 minutes, from personal experience. I'd imagine living in Glendale would knock about 10 minutes or so off of that. But one sig alert on the 5, and it could take days to make the same transit.

I'd be surprised if you could find a stand-alone house you'd like for $300K. Of course, when the foreclosure moratorium expires in mid-September, there may be a small glut of houses that will drive down real estate values. Well, except for maybe Santa Monica, which apparently is immune from all negative market forces.

You couldn't pay me enough to live in SM. Between the traffic, the noise, the overcrowding, the homeless guys pissing on the sidewalk, the nazi parking enforcement 24/7, the getting aggressively bummed for spare change every time you turn around, no thanks. Yes there are upsides, but I'd appreciate them more if I weren't just so "done" with urban living in general.

I'd probably take Malibu, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and one or two other places way before SMO.

I've worked in SMO - twice. It was enough to make me want to not go back there anytime soon except maybe a casual afternoon visit for coffee or to visit someone. Flight instructing out of KSMO was pretty fun though - interesting crowd.

C'mon dude, you're in Carmel?

From someone who lives not far from where you are taling about, have you considered Mornoriva. Great residential, civic and religious communities there. Plus, old skool CA........

I always kinda' liked Fillmore too. Very neat vibe out there.

Me considered Monrovia? I work in Marina del Rey. No way in hell I'd do that commute. From where I am now in west LA it is 10-15 min when the freeway is light or at worst 30 minutes of surface streets. The move to SM won't change that much.

I used to live in Pasadena (love it). But my ex did the commute from Pasadena to the west side - between 2-3 hours a day in the car. That's why we moved in the first place.

Living in LA is all about minimizing commute time. SF Springs is not a very nice place, but there are decent areas around it.

Jeff, I have extenuating circumstances so I'm making the best of it. I can't just pick up and move anywhere. I wouldn't move at all but the bump in school quality is significant and the SM public schools are as good as any private in the area. Lots of places I'd rather live, but none of them have as good a school and still maintain reasonable distance from the ex.

And not all of SM is like the 3rd St promenade...

PM'd you...

I've worked in Santa Monica (28th Street) for 20 years. I used to live nearby on Montana but bailed to the 'burbs when it came time to have a kid and get some elbow room. Lemme know if I can be any help re. SaMo stuff although I don't know beans about the schools there.

I know Malibu pretty well. Have known it for over 30 yrs. These days, some of the biggest self-centered pricks on the face of earth live there. I mean, to show how petty they are, if you meander from the public beach to the classless multi-millionaires' private beach, they're immediately on the phone to the sheriff with the notion you're trespassing.

The beach isn't for everyone, particularly when it's under ownership. :rolleyes:

That's why the downtown lofts are doing pretty well now - no one wants to drive to downtown.

The lofts are different than they were in they 1980s. Now they're big like Manhattan apartments, and stylish. Oh, and pretty pricey.

Just finish a loft for an artist in the Little Tokyo arts district. He paid 650K for it and just closed escrow 1 1/2 months ago. for those of us who grew up here, who would have dream of living Downtown. Crazy.

Deanp,

What is it that you want? A place near shopping were you can walk to like a real city, then Monrovia might not be what you want. If you still want a small town feel, then it should be good. 300k is not looking real good for a single family home. condo maybe. You should check out the nothern part of San Gabriel, parts of Montebello, Pasadena, and certain area of LA like Eagle Rock. Santa Fe is a real b*itch to get to during traffic hours specially on that 5 fwy. Let us know the kind of enviornment you like to live, then maybe we can help suggest some place.

when I was younger, I wanted to leave LA, glad I never did. This is a beautiful place beside the traffic and overpopulation. Many of us over look that and enjoy the beauty of the city and everything else.

I love downtown. There's more entertainment and culture there than a person can shake a stick at. What's cool about it is it's fairly unpopulated because no one wants to go there. What more could anyone ask? Museums, theaters, concerts, restaurants, clubs. Meanwhile, the Westside is a congested mess I avoid like the plague unless I'm on my bicycle. Secondly, there seems to be more whacked out drug addicted homeless on the Westside than even Skid Row, which is beginning to go through a renaissance, for the better mind you.

If I had to leave where I am now, my choices would be:

1) Downtown -- convenient, less populated, quiet on the weekends, cleaner than one thinks. Lots of history --- just check out Olvera street to see that.

2) Burbank -- cute little houses, less populated, Toluca Lake is very nice, quiet.

3) Pasadena -- though it's cost prohibitive. Gigantic homes, Craftsman, maybe a couple Neutra, lots of history.

For Deanp:

What about Riverside or Claremont? It might seem far, but he'd go against traffic, right?

Riverside has some very nice old Victorian homes. Claremont strikes me almost as a college town because of the Claremont Colleges.

I absolutely loved James Ellroy's description of L.A. and L.A. County in "My Dark Places." How he writes it is how I remember at least the Westside and Mid-Wilshire area when I was a kid.

Not exactly sure what we'd be looking for yet, that's part of the problem. Right now we're in a small town and walking to anything is not possible. Have about an acre of land and mowing/trimming/gardening isn't one of my favorite tasks. Would probably lean towards "small town feel".

I am expecting a pay bump, but that hasn't been defined yet and will help to define the budget. We're expecting to take a hit since my wife works and would have to find something once we transitioned out there. I don't think we'd be opposed to a condo or townhome if that made our money go further in a better area. Our trip in Sept is for fact finding, details about salary and relocation package would follow, if our experience is positive.

California Chicken Cafe on Wilshire.....my brother in laws place. Tell him I said Hi....

He also runs the place on Lincoln in Venice Beach....

I obviously cannot contribute anything to the SoCal discussion, but I would add that Google maps streetview is invaluable for checking out areas. If you find a place you're interested in, look it up on streetview. You might find that the next door neighbors have a house on blocks and bars on the windows.:)