Broadening search. How about Long Beach? (San Jose, Torrance: rental, high crime, home)

[EastCoastRefugee]

I am looking at a few areas of sunny california. The central coast is my favorite area of research for housing, but I keep hearing things about the Long Beach area.

I ask you all, what do you think about life there? Crime? Affordability? Diversity of population? Work force? Volunteer-work opportunities?

Is Long Beach so different than Santa Barbara and Monterey areas and how---besides wealth?

thanks for your input ahead of time.

ECR

[EastCoastRefugee]

I have a time line for moving which is dictating I look around and not get stuck. I gave up a lease on a rental ending September. I am looking to rent.

[MtnSurfer]

Long beach is a very large beach city which has everything form really nice areas near the coast (Belmont Shore) to really bad sections with high crime. Because it is near LA and OC there are a lot of job opportunities in and around LB.

LB is very different from Santa Barbara. And Santa Barbara is very different from Monterey. Of the three I would pick Monterey hands down.

We moved out of the LA area which is where I am from to CO several years ago. I have worked in Long Beach on several occasions and know the area pretty well. But even though I worked there I much preferred living in the South Bay just to the north west - (Torrance, Hermosa, Redondo, Manhattan beach, Palos Verdes). That is the nicest part of the LA coast IMO. There are a lot of jobs near all these LA areas if you have any skills whatsoever.

Santa Barbara is more of place for the wealthy with much fewer jobs than anywhere in LA. The coastline is nice there and it has some good colleges. I surfed that coastline a lot growing up. It is not going to have the same level of crime as you will find in LA. But crime still happens everywhere. And the downtown area is small and just seems to lack personality IMO.

The Monterey area is one of the crown jewels of the state IMO with Big Sur just to the south and Santa Cruz and San Jose to the north. And that is also why it is one of the most expensive places to live in the nation. This is one of the places I said to my wife I would want to move to if we ever moved back to CA. And I was just offered a really good job in Monterey. So we are excited about heading back to CA now. We really don't like the crowds of S. Cal. any more. Even though Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach are crazy expensive, prices haver dropped a lot recently. And rents are surprizingly much less than home prices.

Anyway everyone has their preferences and I am sure some will say Santa Barbara or Long Beach are the best. But after living in CA for over 40 years and having a choice to essentially live anywhere, Monterey is our first choice.

Derek

[EastCoastRefugee]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Long beach is a very large beach city which has everything form really nice areas near the coast (Belmont Shore) to really bad sections with high crime. Because it is near LA and OC there are a lot of job opportunities in and around LB.

LB is very different from Santa Barbara. And Santa Barbara is very different from Monterey. Of the three I would pick Monterey hands down.

We moved out of the LA area which is where I am from to CO several years ago. I have worked in Long Beach on several occasions and know the area pretty well. But even though I worked there I much preferred living in the South Bay just to the north west - (Torrance, Hermosa, Redondo, Manhattan beach, Palos Verdes). That is the nicest part of the LA coast IMO. There are a lot of jobs near all these LA areas if you have any skills whatsoever.

Santa Barbara is more of place for the wealthy with much fewer jobs than anywhere in LA. The coastline is nice there and it has some good colleges. I surfed that coastline a lot growing up. It is not going to have the same level of crime as you will find in LA. But crime still happens everywhere. And the downtown area is small and just seems to lack personality IMO.

The Monterey area is one of the crown jewels of the state IMO with Big Sur just to the south and Santa Cruz and San Jose to the north. And that is also why it is one of the most expensive places to live in the nation. This is one of the places I said to my wife I would want to move to if we ever moved back to CA. And I was just offered a really good job in Monterey. So we are excited about heading back to CA now. We really don't like the crowds of S. Cal. any more. Even though Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach are crazy expensive, prices haver dropped a lot recently. And rents are surprizingly much less than home prices.

Anyway everyone has their preferences and I am sure some will say Santa Barbara or Long Beach are the best. But after living in CA for over 40 years and having a choice to essentially live anywhere, Monterey is our first choice.

Derek

D., thanks for the input.