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I am in my early 30's, married, with two young children (9 mos and 2 years). My wife and I are both professional and rent a 3 bedroom condominium in West LA.
Lately, I have been mulling over the idea of whether or not staying in LA long-term or moving to another city would be a good move for my family. In my line of work, I often see alot of opportunity in other major cities (San Fran, NYC, Chicago), so if an opportunity arose where I might be able to accept a job for a significant step-up in salary in one of those other cities, I want to be able to at least consider the option of relocating.
My main concerns of staying in LA are cost of living and the schools. Granted, to live in a nice home in the Bay Area or Chicago will cost a pretty penny as well, but I have often heard people say that LA is much more superficial (in general) than the other cities I listed.
I very much enjoy living on the west side, and my goal is to purchase a home in either Brentwood, Santa Monica, or Pacific Palisades at some point in the future. I enjoy the "yuppiness" of those areas. We enjoy the shopping, eating out on the weekends, the good weather, the Sunday morning walks down to Coffee Bean on Montana, etc. We aren't huge into outdoor activities, although we do enjoy being outside, going to the beach, taking walks, etc.
That being said, I wonder if places like Marin County or Chicago's North Shore would offer the same type of upscale living with better schools, etc. Or would we find ourselves longing for LA if we ever left here?
Just curious for those who lived in LA and decided to move, what were your reasons and did you find yourself regretting the move afterwards?
Based on what you wrote, it sounds like you will be getting little in return for worse weather, potentially more distant from family (you don't mention this critical piece of information), and the learning curve of becoming familiar with a new place. I doubt those other places are significantly more or less superficial than the same socio-economic layer you now live in. I think those behaviors are more related to economics (income, house values, education levels) than they are to location. You will be rubbing elbows with similar people. Sure, there is probably more homogeneity in those towns versus the anonymous culture in LA due to so many transplants, but is it worth such a big move?
I moved from LA to Austin. Mistake. The heat, alone, was just awful.
Then from Austin to Boston (where I'm from originally) to be closer to my family. Mistake. The horrific winter, horribly hot & humid summer, driving, rude people, etc... all are making me long for LA. And so we're moving back.
Incidentelly, my husband is from Chicago and would NEVER move back. All everyone does in Chicago (and in Boston) is complain about the weather. His mom & sister both hate it there and yet will never leave. Sure, the schools are better both on the east coast & Chicago, but trust me... not worth it.
As for LA being more superficial... I haven't really found that to be true. That's what people on the east coast tell each other to comfort themselves on cold winter nights. "People in Boston are more REAL than in LA."
Bullcrap. People in LA are certainly NICER than Boston, sure. (i.e. when you ask someone here how they're doing, they usually sigh and say something like "Well, I haven't killed anyone yet!" people are MISERABLE here!)
I left for Arizona and regretted it but after about 5 months I learned to be content.
I am moving again b/c of the cost of living. I can honestly say NO PLACE compares
to the beauty of California. I am from the south and have lived on three continents so I say this with all sincerity. I already KNOW I'm going to be sad and may even shed a few tears when it's my turn but if you already have family here and love it why move?
BTW there's a long thread someplace of people who moved away and regret it. I'll see if I can find it for you.
I am in my early 30's, married, with two young children (9 mos and 2 years). My wife and I are both professional and rent a 3 bedroom condominium in West LA.
Lately, I have been mulling over the idea of whether or not staying in LA long-term or moving to another city would be a good move for my family. In my line of work, I often see alot of opportunity in other major cities (San Fran, NYC, Chicago), so if an opportunity arose where I might be able to accept a job for a significant step-up in salary in one of those other cities, I want to be able to at least consider the option of relocating.
My main concerns of staying in LA are cost of living and the schools. Granted, to live in a nice home in the Bay Area or Chicago will cost a pretty penny as well, but I have often heard people say that LA is much more superficial (in general) than the other cities I listed.
I very much enjoy living on the west side, and my goal is to purchase a home in either Brentwood, Santa Monica, or Pacific Palisades at some point in the future. I enjoy the "yuppiness" of those areas. We enjoy the shopping, eating out on the weekends, the good weather, the Sunday morning walks down to Coffee Bean on Montana, etc. We aren't huge into outdoor activities, although we do enjoy being outside, going to the beach, taking walks, etc.
That being said, I wonder if places like Marin County or Chicago's North Shore would offer the same type of upscale living with better schools, etc. Or would we find ourselves longing for LA if we ever left here?
Just curious for those who lived in LA and decided to move, what were your reasons and did you find yourself regretting the move afterwards?
Way back when, we left Los Angeles and moved to the bay area (it was a job transfer and promotion. We were probably about your age, maybe a little younger. After a few years we missed L.A. and got transferred back. We hated it after we came back, Eventually hubby left that job (after 12 years) we sent to Sac and then to Eureka, only to move back to Los Angeles. Partly job related, partly Eureka wasn't for us. The last move back was the final one. We left and would probably never move back. Does this mean L.A. isn't a good place to live? No, it just wasn't for us.
We are currently moving from the North Shore area of Chicago to the LA area. Before we moved here we lived in the Detroit area and last year my husband worked in Irvine CA for about 6 mos. We plan to rent for the first year when we move to the LA area, and we are currently renting in the North Shore area (when we moved here we knew it would be a temporary location), however I have noticed that rents for the areas we are looking in (Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, etc) are similar to what we are paying, however the place we will most likely rent will be a bit smaller without the convenience of a basement.
We have had a bit of a hard time meeting people here, however, since we knew this was a temporary location we didn't try as hard as we would have if we knew we would be staying. There are many areas in this area that are very snobby, materialistic, however you find those everywhere, especially in the more affluent communities.
The weather here is TERRIBLE! We had at least 100 inches of snow last winter and the entire month of July has been HOT and extremely HUMID. This is one aspect of the midwest I will not miss.
Although I have no idea what to expect when we move to the LA region, I was suprised to find how many restaurants and shops close early around here - for example the Saks Fifth Ave in Highland Park closes at 6pm during the week and many restaurants in the area close at 9 - 9:30 during the week (we often don't get home from work until 7 or 7:30) and 10:30 on weekends. We were very surprised to find this as most of the stores in the Detroit area are open until 9 except on Sundays and most restaurants are open until 10 or 11 during the week and 11 or 12 on the weekends.
Another thing we have noticed here is that the beaches along Lake Michigan are close often due to bacteria levels - so we haven't spent alot of time at the beach as we thought we might (Lake MI beaches in MI are never closed and are goregeous). We were pretty disappointed to learn this is common. Some of the North Shore neighborhoods have private beaches that you need to be a resident to get to (or pay $10) and I am not sure if those beaches have been affected, however I would hesitate to go if the beach 1 mile down is closed.
There is plenty to do here and the state does a great job leaving green spaces - designated a Forest Preserves all over the suburbs of Chicago. The city is great and clean with tons to do. We take the train downtown once a month or more.
Not sure if this helps, but thought I'd share some of our experiences.
I moved from LA to Austin. Mistake. The heat, alone, was just awful.
Then from Austin to Boston (where I'm from originally) to be closer to my family. Mistake. The horrific winter, horribly hot & humid summer, driving, rude people, etc... all are making me long for LA. And so we're moving back.
Incidentelly, my husband is from Chicago and would NEVER move back. All everyone does in Chicago (and in Boston) is complain about the weather. His mom & sister both hate it there and yet will never leave. Sure, the schools are better both on the east coast & Chicago, but trust me... not worth it.
As for LA being more superficial... I haven't really found that to be true. That's what people on the east coast tell each other to comfort themselves on cold winter nights. "People in Boston are more REAL than in LA."
Bullcrap. People in LA are certainly NICER than Boston, sure. (i.e. when you ask someone here how they're doing, they usually sigh and say something like "Well, I haven't killed anyone yet!" people are MISERABLE here!)
Funny about Austin, we loved Texas but like you, hated the weather. For that reason we would never go back. As for back to Ca, you need to give it a shot to see if that is what will work. I will say it is hard to go back.
We have a granddaughter here who is recently divorced, was raised in Texas and can't wait to go back. I have a gut feeling she will get back and if she is honest with herself, will be miserable. She remember Texas when she was in high school. Most of her friends are now married, have kids or are starting families. A couple are in grad school etc.
I will say that the nicest people in the WORLD were in Austin. And, dear god.... the men! I would drive by the hot, sweaty, fit, shirtless men running along the river on the way to work every day. Talk about eye candy!
It's pretty much a single woman's paradise, in my opinion. I would probably move there and deal with the heat (double entendre, hee hee) if I were single, heh.
I really liked being single in LA, though, too. (Boston is pretty much the worst place in the world to be single. UGH!)
And, I feel that I should add this, being married is pretty awesome too, heh. (although having an understanding husband in Austin was priceless. We would drive around... I'd start turning bright red. My husband would say "Just say it! I know you want to! The guy running by was 'hot'." and I would yell "Did you SEE him? I mean, DID YOU SEE HIM!" hee hee)
Well, this really depends on the person and their family. A lot of people migrate from LA to different parts of the state as well as other states. We moved from LA (South Bay) where I grew up. With the birth of our third child we were ready to explore some place new as LA had changed too much for us. So we moved to CO which was better in many ways and much more affordable.
But the one realization you come to once moving somewhere new - it has it's own set of unique pros/cons. Initially it's like paradise found. But after several years you will not only discover the cons but determine if they are something you really want to live with longer term. For us the answer became more and more obvious. While we enjoyed our Colorado adventure it just wasn't for us longer term.
Then we moved to Monterey which has the best of both worlds for us - low crowds, light traffic (less than CO), wide open spaces, close proximity to beautiful nature (Big Sur), great CA weather with close enough proximity to the Sierras when we want to experience mtns., snow, etc... Plus SJ & SF are 1-2 hours away in case we want to visit these larger cities.
We also have family that moved from OC to Sonoma County (Windsor, Santa Rosa, Petaluma). They don't plan on returning to SoCal.
So no, we don't regret moving away from LA and actually and do not plan on returning unless to visit. We do like that we can drive down and visit family and friends there as well our old stomping grounds. It's a good balance because we can appreciate those things a few times a year without the traffic, crowds and other less desirable things which wear on us day in day out.
My recommendation would be to give it a try. Life is an adventure. Why wonder what it might have been like when you and your family are still young. I don't think you will regret this experience and it will help you determine if LA is really where you want to live and raise your family looong term.
Just make sure if/when you make a move that it is stategic for your career. That way no matter what happens you can pretty much enjoy the ride.
Derek
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