relocating, good college and location?? (Los Angeles, San Diego: apartments, rental, credit)

[valencia7kp]

hey everyone,

I am 19 years old and curently living in the Boston area. My dad and I have been seriously thinking about relocating to southern California. I would like to know what state colleges are afordable/good and what cities would be affordable to start off. We would be looking to rent a 2 bedroom apartment for now, what is the most affordable, safe, not to far from the beach location with a good college nearby. I have a uncle living in costa mesa and I love that area. Any feedback will be a great help, THANKS!!

[Capt. Dan]

What do you mean by affordable? Closer to the beach = more rent $$$

[Charles]

Originally Posted by valencia7kp

...not to far from the beach...

Have you applied or been accepted yet?

Why Southern California?

When do you plan on relocating?

What do expect to study?

What are your career goals?

What is your rental budget?

Regarding colleges:
What does affordable mean?
What does good mean?

[valencia7kp]

I'd like to leave for next semester or in the next year. I have been looking at schools online but havent applied to any just yet, i think the sooner the transfer the easier. Claiming residency after one year will make school also much, much more cheaper and transfering credits will be easier if i only have one year in MA

Looking for a state school around $13,000 the max for out of state fees

I am currently a art/advertising major so i would like to do something in the art/graphic design/advertising indusrty

looking for a apartment around 1,000 dollars, that doesnt have to be right near the beach but NOT a hour away drive

[Charles]

Originally Posted by valencia7kp

looking for a apartment around 1,000 dollars, that doesnt have to be right near the beach but NOT a hour away drive

For two bedrooms?

[valencia7kp]

yeah 2 bedrooms

[waggie]

an hour drive isn't much in LA. look at cal state fullerton, it has pretty good program for what you're interested in, and its close enough to the sewer outlet, er, i mean, beach

[missionhome]

Good luck finding a two bedroom apartment in an area people actually want to live on $1,000 a month. Possibly look into the Inland Empire, but it is hot, far from the beach, and has lots of smog.

[valencia7kp]

what is the average cost for a decent 2 bedroom apartment in cali?

[missionhome]

You can't make the average to all of California to determine rent in metro areas like So Cal. There are cheap areas of California and expensive ones. The cheap ones tend to be undesireable areas or deserts where most people would rather not live like Palmdale, Lancaster, Victorville, etc... that are far away and very cheap. If you want to be in So Cal, I assume you mean the greater Los Angeles area (Ventura County, LA County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County).

Here are examples of how many $1000 or lower 2 bedroom apartments are on the market in some nice cities on cragslist.org, which usually has lots of value priced units.
In Los Angeles County:
Glendale-0
Burbank-2
Pasadena-1
Duarte-0
Santa Monica- 0
Redondo Beach- 3
Culver City-0
Woodland Hills-0
Los Angeles, a city of over 3 million people only has 22 listed for your requirement! Most of these are probably in very bad neighborhoods, you have to share a unit, etc...
Long Beach-14
That is just a sample of a few Los Angeles County cities and how many units they have that meet your criteria. There are only a few units in these cities for you when these cities populations add up to over 4 million. Who knows if you would like the units, if they are in safe areas where you won't get shot or live next to neighbors on crack, and it is very likely the few units that did make your criteria are not safe.
Here is a link to craiglist for you to do your own research, http://losangeles.craigslist.org/apa/

The point is that $1,000 won't buy a nice, even decent 2 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles and Orange County which are the two most desireable of So Cal and closest to the schools.