re: Anyone ever lived in/very familiar with Los Angeles?

Sherman Oaks Closest out of all to UCLA.
Studio City
Palms
Toluca Lake
Encino


Traffic is everywhere so no getting away from it, just lessening the time depending on how close you get to work.

Safety in Los Angeles requires being aware of your surroundings, time you are in a location, and security at home. Some places are better than others but it is L.A. and millions of people. Be aware, but don't live in fear.

Taxes- Be sure to account for the higher taxes when thinking about take home pay. Cali and L.A. Government loves your money more than you do.

Born and raised but will not return. A beautiful state ruined by shitty politics and too many people. Love to visit still though. Good luck and hope it turns out the way you are hoping.

Rent in Silver Lake near downtown. 30 minutez drive to UCLA via Sunset.

There are some pretty cool lofts southeast of downtown LA that are cheap for the size. The downside is you are kind of close to Skid Row. That may be part of the appeal though.

I thought Los Angeles had a loop?

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I will be working near UCLA, if that helps any. Our budget for a home would be 300-400k

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I lived out there in the early 90's. In fact, I lived just a couple of blocks from from the UCLA campus on Wilshire. At the time, I was paying $850/month for a small one bedroom apartment. I hate to see what those apartments are going for now.

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I will be working near UCLA, if that helps any. Our budget for a home would be 300-400k,


Good luck.

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Spot on. Try about 40 miles out OP and that's pressing it.

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lived out there in the early 90's. In fact, I lived just a couple of blocks from from the UCLA campus on Wilshire. At the time, I was paying $850/month for a small one bedroom apartment. I hate to see what those apartments are going for now.

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I had a good sized one bedroom apartment about 2 miles away from there in 2011 and it was $1500/month. I think it's about 2200/month now for the same units. 1 bedroom, maybe 700 square feet, maybe 650.

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Houston has some positive attributes that L.A. doesn't have:

really nice people
safe affordable neighborhoods
areas with great public schools

I was more saying the L.A. has the downsides of all of those metro areas with few of the upsides.

The only good things about L.A. is:
great food
unbelievably great weather
lots of jobs
beaches
hot women
endless entertainment options

Which are all really great things. But the negatives are pretty glaring too:

Hilariously incompetent government
endemic crime
bad schools
unaffordable housing stock
massive sprawl
hideous traffic
outright terrible people (like New York area bad)
bland architecture (strip mall city)
natural disasters like mudslides, earthquakes, and forest fires.

For some, the drawbacks outweight the benefits. For others, the inverse is true just like with any city. I didn't like it. I feel like there are far better places in So Cal that have most of the same advantages with far fewer downsides. It has San Francisco's insane housing prices, smog, and crazy liberal wackadoo's. It has New York City's f&%k you personalities and atrocious public schools. It has Houston's sprawl, traffic, lack of walkability, and bland architecture. It has Miami's insane consumerist and drug culture.

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Where can you find a house for less than $300k in a safe neighborhood with great public schools near enough to L.A. to commute into town? That straight up doesn't exist there.

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Where can you find a house for less than 300K in Houston with great public schools that is less than a 2 hour daily commute?

Houston is certainly better bang for the buck than LA. No doubt about that. However, you assign negative traits to LA but lack the critical approach to Houston.

Massive sprawl for LA, sure. But that is a valid criticism of Houston. Natural disasters...LA proper hasn't had anything in a while. Probably the last thing was the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. I don't think any forest fires have come into a 10 mile radius of Westwood. Certainly an issue for people out in the San Gabriel Mountains, but let's remember that Houston has had 3 huge floods in 3 years. TS Allison was in 2001, more recent that the Northridge quake.

Strip Mall City for LA... I mean Houston is one of the ugliest cities in America. If that's a complaint for LA, it's definitely a complaint for Houston.

Houston is a great value if a) You have a job in the Woodlands or Sugar Land or b) You don't lose a bit of your will to live every day you're in an endless traffic jam.

I actually had less city traffic in LA than Houston but it was probably close. However, I fully realize that if you are living out in Encino or Tarzana or further out, the commute will be soul crushing for LA, too. And the homes will be triple the price and smaller than what you get in the suburbs of Houston.

I live about two hours away from LA. It’s a pretty fun city to visit. My favorite parts are the numerous beach towns as well as the cultural enclaves and authentic Asian food (namely Korean and Japanese) that are readily available. It’s a very diverse city in a good way. Plus, you can kind of do what you want to do (ie not grow up) without getting judged.

That being said it would be hard to live there. The traffic is god awful and you will sit in it no matter how much money you have. It takes forever to get anywhere. It’s run down in a lot of places and there are homeless and tents everywhere. And you need to be ballin hard to live comfortably. I’m guessig like 20-30k a month if you want to live in a decent space in a neighborhood like Santa Monica and still save some money.