[Porsche-O-Phile]

$3k-$4k a month for an apartment is just plain stupid (not directed at you per se, just at the notion of paying that kind of coin). I don't care if you are in the People's Republic of Santa Monica - that's just plain crazy - unless said apartment is about 3,000 sq. ft., has a view of the beach, four parking spaces and comes with complimentary escort service visits every night.

Granted SoCal is a weird enclave unto itself that somehow fancies itself immune from the laws of common sense with respect to RE pricing (and you all know how well that's worked out...) but even as a point of comparison, our place in Long Beach was literally across the street from the beach (as in, go out my front door, face left, look across the street and see sand, water, bikinis, etc.) Two garage parking spaces, 2BR. We paid about $1200/mo. Admittedly we did pretty well and our prices was "below market rate" right up to 2009 (when literally about 1/3 to 1/2 the neighborhood residents moved out due to the economic crash, unemployment and god-knows-what-else, "for rent" signs went up all over the place due to a supply glut and rental prices crashed). But for the majority of our time in that area one could pay around $1500-$1800/mo for a very nice, well-appointed, 2BR/2BA or larger apartment right on Ocean Boulevard.

$3k-$4k is a sucker price. Seriously. Especially in this market a person would have to be seriously insane to entertain that... Unless things have changed dramatically in the last couple of years, there are going to be a lot of people in big trouble on their "fixer-upper" or "quick flip" properties that are desperate to get bodies in there to cut their losses. My suspicion is if you look around you can probably find some great deals.

SoCal is tricky - definitely not "family friendly" in many respects so that will probably limit your options somewhat, but I still bet you can get a good (if not spectacular) deal. Good luck!