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Old 11-11-2015, 03:00 PM
 
5,381 posts, read 8,630,690 times
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Here are a few dated videos related to Aliso Viejo since I have time on my hands and I happen to like videos.
Aliso Viejo's Town Center

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaqHklpy4kI

Aliso and Wood Canyon Wilderness Park - Wcities


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-HbJ5QWctQ

Soka University's Performing Arts Center (Aliso Viejo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0vbDr56KA
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Old 11-12-2015, 11:25 AM
 
Location: Orange County, CA
807 posts, read 891,135 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Englishrose123 View Post
Thank you so much for your thoughtful responses. They will make a great addition to the huge spreadsheet I'm compiling!!

Just out of interest- if we took wanting to be near the coast out of the equation where would you recommend? It's going to be a little tough persuading my husband to pay out more $$$ just to be nearer the beach
Let me repost your preferences again. It might help if you organize your priorities and rank them:

- Urban characteristics that are easily accessible
- Proximity to airport
- Husband has no commute but will occasionally work inside LA and SF (no specifics but LA is a big place)
- Nice place (using a generic, universal definition of relatively low crime, decent shopping, well kept town)
? Beach town (optional now)

Definitely give MtnSurfer's latest response some thought for both the points that he made and the possible cities. Pasadena is a nice place, urban characteristics in the downtown core, pricey but interesting town, about the max distance from BUR I would recommend.

Without the beach requirement, the areas around BUR should be raised higher on your list. Pasadena, Burbank itself, North Hollywood maybe (not West Hollywood, not plain Hollywood). Glendale itself isn't terrible for an L.A. suburb but has a notoriety for having terrible drivers.

Not sure how important proximity to your husband's L.A. area worksite(s) will be. If you can live farther away, retaining proximity to airport as the most important item:

SAN - Consider downtown San Diego, as mentioned by MtnSurfer. You'll get proximity to the ocean as a bonus. Rule of thumb, stay west of the train tracks.

SNA - There's downtown Anaheim and the nearby Platinum Triangle region for urban elements, but it's getting a tad far from SNA. Traffic is not as bad as going to/from LAX for an equivalent distance. Downtown Santa Ana is worth considering for its urban core but it has a heavy Latino ethnic flavor that, like spicy foods, different people will handle well or poorly. pacific2 mentioned Aliso Viejo, which I would say is about the southern limit for the range from SNA and is less affordable than it used to be. It is definitely suburban but of the newer variety that has quasi-urban attractions/shopping that is within easy driving distance. Good proximity to the ocean for an inland city. If Aliso Viejo suits your taste and budget then look into Irvine, which is right next to SNA. Irvine lacks the proximity to the beaches but drive wouldn't be that bad.

LGB - Minus the beach requirement, consider Cypress. Some parts are nicer than others though, relatively affordable. Very suburban in the classical sense, not too interesting of an area that I'm aware of.

ONT - Removing the beach requirement opens up this airport. LA/Ontario International Airport is quite inland and the area is noticeably more affordable than the places mentioned in the whole thread so far. However none of their characteristics match any of your other requirements. You only get proximity to an airport and proximity to the eastern cities of L.A. County which I don't even know is part of your husband's work coverage. Not recommended for your needs.
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Old 11-12-2015, 03:37 PM
 
Location: Under the Redwoods
3,751 posts, read 7,631,788 times
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Having lived in both LA and SF areas....I prefer SF. Not the city itself, but the wider geographical location. Both have big traffic issues, but I think SF/Bay Area has more options to get around the traffic.

Airports- San Jose has been the easiest airport I have been to in a big city.
Anything around San Jose would be a easy drive to the airport. There is also San Francisco airport, which is actually not in San Francisco but is quite easy to get to.
The surrounding cities, Millbrae, Burlingame (very nice), San Mateo. Without heavy stop and go traffic, it's between 15-20 minutes into SF. But there is also the option of taking the train, even from San Jose.
If you want to get a little further out and have some beach, check out Santa Cruz and surrounding areas. From here the San Jose airport is still an easy drive.
Across the bay from SF is the Oakland airport. I personally don't care for driving in the east bay. But there are really nice parts of Oakland. This takes you further away from the ocean.
If a trip to the beach would be just an occasional thing, you might want to look in the Sacramento area. There is an airport there as well.
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Old 11-13-2015, 03:04 PM
 
Location: Palo Alto, CA
901 posts, read 1,159,336 times
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You get far, far more for your money in Southern California than you do in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unless one is in technology and on a high earning trajectory, or has tons of cash in the bank. I don't recommend the Bay Area at all.

BTW, Bay Area traffic is rapidly getting atrocious, even in just the last 4 years. Still not at LA's level, but it is inevitable we will get there, sadly. I give it less than 15 years.

The major downside with SoCal is vehicle traffic. It's bad. However, it looks like you have the flexibility to deal with that.

I am fond of SoCal, I like to say that as a NYer and a recent SFer.
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Old 11-15-2015, 04:24 AM
 
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Thank you all so much for your time. SO much to work with now.

We've just booked flights and hotels for a recce in Feb/March. We're doing 3 nights in San Fran, flying to SD, 3 nights in SD, 2 nights in OC, 3 nights in LA.

To clarify my husband will work from home but he's in sales, so he will travel to client's offices all over the SouthWest. His client base is largest in LA and SF. His clients are banks and Fortune500 companies and he tends to spend just an hour or two with them and does up to 5 meetings a day. So the only priority is proximity to a good airport, or being based within an hour of SF/LA.

@cardiffKook we're moving for my husband's career, not the beach

@mtnsurfer thank you for all these suggestions. Will definitely look into LA westside and Pasadena thanks.
I'm so surprised that prices don't necessarily go down when you go inland!
Yes- Carlsbad is a bit of an anomoly in there- part of the problem is probably that we're moving on to a new stage of our lives and I'm a bit confused about what I want...

@drivenotcommute- thank you for helping me sort my ideas. Airport should def be my number 1 priority. We're currently 20mins from the airport and that's perfect.

@OwlkaMyst I think we're priced out of San Francisco!! But Millbare and Burlingame have been recommend by other too, def going to check thanks.

We've hired a car and here are the neighbourhoods we plan to visit so far:

SF:
Sausalito, Marina, Mill Valley : Burlingame, Millbrae
cow Hollow, Marina and Russian Hill.

SD:
La Jolla, Carlsbad
Encintas, la mesa (downtown la mesa and mount helix), kensington
Point Loma, Mission Hills, Mira Mesa, north park, hillcrest

OC (Think these will be too suburban, but as we'll be driving through we'll check it out)
Newport Beach, Laguna, Dana Point,
Long Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach

LA:
Venice Beach/Santa Monica, Brentwood, bel air, westwood
Redondo, Manhattan, Hermosa, Torrance Beach
Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Pasadena

Last edited by Englishrose123; 11-15-2015 at 04:25 AM.. Reason: Explain OC
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Old 11-15-2015, 05:23 AM
 
5,381 posts, read 8,630,690 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Englishrose123 View Post

OC (Think these will be too suburban, but as we'll be driving through we'll check it out)
Newport Beach, Laguna, Dana Point,
Long Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach \
Just to clarify, Long Beach is in LA County. If by "Laguna" you mean Laguna Beach, it's very small, but hardly what one thinks of as being typically suburban.

Don't let the "OC" label fool you since many of Orange County's coastal "suburbs" really differ from one another. What's more, many of them are not like the stereotypically insular burbs found in some other areas of the country.

Last edited by pacific2; 11-15-2015 at 05:36 AM..
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Old 11-15-2015, 05:42 PM
 
Location: Palo Alto, CA
901 posts, read 1,159,336 times
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You've chosen great towns and neighborhoods in the SF area. But they are also among the most expensive. You might or might not get something satisfactory (i.e. not amazing) for your stated budget in those areas. That's why I said Southern California offers much more value for you. FYI, Sausalito might be your best value (not in a view home, though) because it does not have good schools.

Note that Marin county is not convenient to any airport. They do have airport buses, but why add 60+ minutes to any air trip unnecessarily when you can choose to live anywhere?
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Old 11-15-2015, 07:26 PM
 
4,536 posts, read 10,577,162 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DriveNotCommute View Post
A rule of thumb here is that the more urban a place is the worse the schools will probably be. It's a very general rule though so there are probably

Los Angeles (LAX), Los Angeles International - Big, always crowded, nasty traffic. Needs no intro. Not so great neighborhoods nearby unless you go a little further south to Manhattan Beach (which has good schools) or maybe north to Culver City, both of which have urban (for California) areas to them.

Long Beach (LGB), Long Beach Airport - Small airport, usually light traffic and quite convenient for domestic flights. Probably don't want to live too close by but many decent neighborhoods within reasonable driving distance.
what are you taking about? El Segundo, Playa Del Rey, and Westchester are the communities adjacent to LAX and all three are nice areas. And a 4bd house in Manhattan Beach will rent out at more than $4-5k per month. OP will be hard pressed to find that in the cities I said, let alone one of the most expensive places in the entire country.

And the area to the south east of Long Beach airport is the best part of Long Beach so not sure what issue you'd have with that area.
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Old 11-16-2015, 09:19 AM
 
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Yup- Chuck5000 I have pretty much decided that we're priced out of San Fran... going to go and have a look just in case we fall in love with it and can find something that will work.

I haven't heard of those three JohnG72, but I have found that Manhattan Beach even a 3 bed will be just out of our price range. We can stretch to 6k (a crazy amount of money!) but even for that we don't get anything particularly glamarous. Brentwood made me very happy as it is actually in our price range and the places look half decent!

Thanks for the heads up Pacific2- the OC is the only area I haven't researched properly hence the mistake.

In conclusion I agree that SoCal will suit us a lot better from a budget point of view- it just means that my husband will be home less so we need to decide which is a priority, a larger property or more time together.
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Old 11-16-2015, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Orange County, CA
807 posts, read 891,135 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnG72 View Post
what are you taking about? El Segundo, Playa Del Rey, and Westchester are the communities adjacent to LAX and all three are nice areas. And a 4bd house in Manhattan Beach will rent out at more than $4-5k per month. OP will be hard pressed to find that in the cities I said, let alone one of the most expensive places in the entire country.

And the area to the south east of Long Beach airport is the best part of Long Beach so not sure what issue you'd have with that area.
I generalized things fairly broadly and OP has a reasonably generous budget.

The area immediately surrounding LAX is pretty industrial/commercial, which is especially true for El Segundo. For example, El Segundo's coast has the water treatment facility and the power plant. There was also a concern for airport-related noise which should be significant for one the size of LAX, which is also expanding. I therefore recommended places further out to add insulating distance while also considering the specification for urban styled points of interest. Setting that aside, you do have a good point regarding Playa Del Rey though since it's good enough for Google and Yahoo to build offices there.

My general view of Long Beach is that the nice places are often in close proximity to less nice places. I still mentioned LGB because it's a great airport, very convenient compared to larger airports.
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