HELP! Moving to LA area and need some advice

[smithk3933]

My daughter is being relocated to the LA area for her first job and we know absolutely nothing about the area.

Her job will require her to go into an office in the La Palma area once or twice a week with somewhat flexible hours and the other days she will work from home.

She is trying to decide where to live, and thinks she wants near the beach (imagine that). My question is, would the Santa Monica, Redondo Beach area be an impossible commute once/twice a week? Other areas I guess would be the Long Beach, Irvine area?

When I look at sites like Google Maps/Traffic and sigalert.com they show travel distances of around 32 miles and I've seen anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Are these close or am I kidding myself?

Also does anyone know of a good Realtor to use for helping with looking for a 1 bedroom apartment.

Any comments would be helpful.

 

[LMR]

It will depend on how flexiable her hours will be to how long it will take from the West LA to La Palma. During rush hour(s) it could easliy take an hour or more. From Long Beach would not be to bad but from Irvine it could be 45 minutes to an hour. But if she can commute during non rush hour then it probably won't be to bad from any of those locations.

 

[mcano]

Long Beach and Seal Beach are your best bets. Seal Beach is nice, but is much smaller and therefore has less housing opportunities. Seal Beach may also be more expensive as a result.

 

[Hapa88]

Flexable hours would be good. Traffic will generally be horrible on weekdays from 6:30am to 9:30am and from 3:30pm to 7pm.
Use Google Traffic to get an idea. Note that on Google Maps you can change the "Live Traffic" to any day and any time to get an estimate of what the traffic will be like.

For places close to the beach, easy commute and "lower" priced beach living, look at Long Beach, Seal Beach, or Huntington Beach.

Santa Monica & Redondo Beach will significantly increase your commute times and apartment prices (in general). Santa Monica will have a lot more to do, but with that you have more people, increase in housing prices and the commute could easily be over an hour to La Palma during certain times.

The best places to find apartments in SoCal are Craigslist.org (sometimes shady) and WestSideRentals.com (which costs money, but is cheap and generally worth it).

 

[JCC]

The L.A. area is huge. Traffic is a nightmare almost everywhere and at any given time. Distance wise, the Long Beach area is closer to La Palma. There are some very nice communities in Long Beach that I am sure she will like. Santa Monica is gorgeous and many of my friends live and work there but traffic in and out of SM is crazy. My wife commutes to/from Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica and at peak traffic hours she will spend 1 hour to 1 hour and 45 minutes just to travel 18 miles. Its insane!

However, if she has a flexible schedule and will not be going to La Palma that often she may be ok, however the long commutes and traffic due take a toll quickly.

Good luck.

 

[Big_D]

PM Ediddynsx. I believe he is a realtor.

+1 on the Seal Beach area

 

[L_RAO]

Seal Beach or Long Beach are your best options. Like someone else said, Seal Beach is going to be pricier.

A warning about Long Beach: it is a very big city, and has both very nice neighborhoods, and some downright scary neighborhoods.

Beach cities in LA County are cramped; parking is poor and you live like sardines. But it's a great place to try out if you're young, like to party, and have money.

 

[s2kNSX]

Long beach is good so long as your by the water
Those who have lived in long beach know very well that within a mile, if not a few blocks, the area can go from safe to ghetto and unsafe.
Outside of the waterfront I wouldn't live in long beach even of u paid me to
It's ghetto and filled with gangs.....no I am not racist and yes I lived there before as well as Chicago and new York so I know urban life quite well.

 

[coreyco]

I'm a Redondo Beach/Torrance Realtor & General Contractor. Let me know if I can be of assistance.
Corey Cohn
Home Team Realty
310-374-1749

 

[audax]

Long Beach and Seal Beach are your best bets. Seal Beach is nice, but is much smaller and therefore has less housing opportunities. Seal Beach may also be more expensive as a result.

QFT

Add Huntington Beach to that mix. Those are your winners IMO.

 

[Hapa88]

Long beach is good so long as your by the water
Those who have lived in long beach know very well that within a mile, if not a few blocks, the area can go from safe to ghetto and unsafe.
Outside of the waterfront I wouldn't live in long beach even of u paid me to
It's ghetto and filled with gangs.....no I am not racist and yes I lived there before as well as Chicago and new York so I know urban life quite well.

I live in Long Beach (well Signal Hill), but I can tell you for a fact that this is NOT true at all. I've been here over 6 years.

Yes, there are areas by Downtown that are ghetto, but the area of Long Beach by the airport, Bixby Knolls, Belmont Heights, Belmont Shore, by CSULB, Los Altos, Park Estates, etc are all nice.