New College Grad Living in LA...Terrified/Need Help

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by beancounter88

Seattle is MORE expensive than LA? Isn't the average house price higher in LA along with food, taxes, etc.? Are you sure about that?

I think you are 100% right, but not being completely sure, I didn't want to debate this. of course there are parts of Seattle that can get very pricey, overall Los Angeles is going to cost you more. The part that is correct, San Francisco, SFO is very expensive.

Nita

[uptown_urbanist]

If you don't have to travel to offsite offices then you don't need a car. You might want to get one or rent one from time to time, but it's not an essential. You won't miss out on life by not having one, unless it turns out that all of your friends live in far-away, difficult-to-access places. Given that you work downtown and work long hours, I'd just rent a place downtown. Otherwise stick along a subway/light rail route for ease: Los Feliz is a nice choice, or maybe Hollywood, and while Pasadena is a nice choice (and much of it not very suburban in the least) it's a longer ride. I'd probably start with downtown, though, and make life easy!

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by beancounter88

Any suggestions? I'd really like to make LA work, but I'm just worried that, because I'm not a CEO or a Hollywood star, I'm going to drown in the COL.

We have a relative who worked for Ernst and Whinney and lived in Alhambra a few years back. He did fine. You can get to downtown L.A. easily and Alhambra is a lot less expensive than some of the other cities mentioned.

[nickdahammer]

Funny, my friend is a auditor and lives at 7th and Spring, downtown. He loves it. I think a nice rental downtown is certainly doable, considering the market has tilted toward rentals and leases, versus buying down there due to the economy. Lots of places renovated for sale are now very nice rentals. There are lots of safe places to live (you can find a good spread here- just scroll down to the bottom of the page: DLD - Downtown Los Angeles Directory - lofts art food bars news education recreation history music clubs). I have friends who live near the LA Live! complex and love it. Lots to do, and very safe yet adjacent to the City.

That said, I agree with many who recommended Eagle Rock, So Pas, Highland Park (around Highland Park train station, in particular). There are apartments for lease right next to Union Station for that matter, though I'm not sure if they would fit your budget.

Originally Posted by beancounter88

Seattle is MORE expensive than LA? Isn't the average house price higher in LA along with food, taxes, etc.? Are you sure about that?

[nickdahammer]

I know these are restaurants, but they DO stay open quite late.

Pete's Cafe (open until 2am - 4th and Main); The Pantry (24 hours), Suehiro Cafe (late nights in Little Tokyo- open until 1am), Weiland Brewery (1st and Central: open until 1am), etc. Actually, there is alot going on in LT.

Open late night Little Tokyo Los Angeles

And don't forget the Art Walk (2nd Thursday of every month).

With or without Lakers/Clippers games, LA Live! is open late as well.

Originally Posted by fatmancomics

There's plenty of buildings in the dowtown area that are either refurbished old buildings or new ones (built in the 90s) that have lofts and are secure. Downtown is pretty much closed down after 5 o' clock every day (though there is still lots of traffic until around 7) as far as stores are concerned but there are still some pretty nice restaurants around there. I was surprised to find buildings near Pershing Square that had plenty of young professsionals, single and married, with and without children. That's just a few blocks from Bunker Hill and not too far from Little Tokyo so there should be plenty to do and eat on a modest budget.

There's also the area immediately surrounding FIDM. There's lots of new lofts and apartments there and even a Ralphs (it may seem like no big deal but, having grown up near downtown, it was strange for me to see a Ralphs so close to Staple Center) but it is near FIDM so I can't guarantee that the crowd won't be too artsy fartsy for you.

Same goes for the artist district. Now THAT is a nice area to live in. It seems ominous because it is so close to skid row and most of the lofts are what I call "true lofts" (meaning that they are in refurbished factory buildings) so the streets don't seem like a residential area but it's a very tight knit community. They will DEFINITELY be artsy fartsy though; it is the artist district after all.

There's also "lofts" and apartments in Little Tokyo that I've seen young professionals living in every time my wife and I go to our favorite sushi restaurant.

Sorry I didn't give you prices but at least now you have plenty of areas in downtown that meet your criteria (safe, walking distance from work, places to eat and things to do and public transportation) to look up.

While you're searching online don't forget to check reviews on the apartments that you get interested in. Stay away from the Medici or any of their other projects. Stay away from the Belmont tunnel apartments also. They look cool but are in a very inconvenient (traffic wise) location and surrounded by questionable apartment houses. I've also read bad reviews on them.

Hope that helps.