Is it possible to live in LA for 110K in a safe, good school area? (Long Beach: apartments)

[Eucalyptuz]

Hi All,
Our little family is thinking of making the move to LA. My husband has been offered a job paying $110,000 before taxes and I am not sure at this stage whether I'll have a work permit or not so it is best not to imagine any other potential earnings. We have a 7-year-old girl so we would like to live in an area with decent schools. My husband will be working in Hollywood but will not be working a 9-5 job and so his commute to the job will start at midday and he'll return home long after the evening rush. That said, he would loath to be in the driver's seat for more than 30-40 mins each direction.
To be clear we would embrace a multi-cultural neighbourhood but I need to feel safe. I have lived in many cities around the world but up until now our accomodation has been provided and I'm not sure the one wage will stretch to afford rent/mortgage in a good area of LA. We would bring our furniture and so we need a 3 bedroom, 1+ bath - we don't need luxury or mod cons or granite kitchens. Just a modest, clean home in a nice community!
We have started our research...we like the on-paper statistics of Pasedena, Altadena, parts of Long Beach and some parts of the SF Valley.
Are we crazy? Can it be done? Any advice/ideas/life-planning tips?

[thefunkyone]

I'd recommend getting cheap reliable cars (read: no car payment) and renting an apartment in Brentwood. As long as you guys don't like to go hogwild with spending and don't carry a lot of debt with you it can be done easily. Brentwood is also not too far of a commute from Hollywood and it can be done without having to get on a highway.


For example....

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/apa/1920850106.html (broken link)

[bhcompy]

Long Beach and Lakewood will work if you're looking in that direction already, but you may have trouble finding a rental house depending on your budget. My family makes slightly under yours and we're stuck in a 2bd apt in order to live in an area with great schools

[sausa]

If your husband is working on the west side of LA, and if you don't want to pay for private schools, you should live in either Beverly Hills or Pacific Palisades....otherwise, you won't find a decent public school. You didn't say where your husband is working...LA is a huge sprawl and 10 miles driving can take an hour...so you want to live close to where he works. There are plenty of affordable rentals (based on his income) in B.H...not so much in PP.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by sausa

You didn't say where your husband is working..

..

Originally Posted by Eucalyptuz

My husband will be working in Hollywood

[JohnG72]

On that salary you can live in all but the most affluent areas provided you are willing to rent. People run into problems because they want to buy and mortgages run 2-3x rent in the safe neighborhood great school areas.

So based on that work will be in Hollywood, Studio City and Sherman Oaks are very nice areas and have good elementary and intermediate schools...high schools are problematic. Burbank is also nice with good schools. South Pasadena is great and has great schools though I think you're looking at a townhome or apartment there.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by sausa

If your husband is working on the west side of LA, and if you don't want to pay for private schools, you should live in either Beverly Hills or Pacific Palisades....otherwise, you won't find a decent public school.

I think you mean Santa Monica not Pacific Palisades (which is part of LAUSD). Culver City's decent, too.

If you live in an LAUSD area, however, you won't find a decent public school that's not a magnet or charter.

And FORGET about Brentwood for public schools, Uni is not what it was when I went there. It's LAUSD. Non-LAUSD will be better than LAUSD regardless of location.

You didn't say where your husband is working...LA is a huge sprawl and 10 miles driving can take an hour...so you want to live close to where he works. There are plenty of affordable rentals (based on his income) in B.H...not so much in PP.

Not too many affordable rentals in BH. PP I really don't know about as my recent trips to SoCal haven't involved going out that way ; SM has some affordable rentals in the southeast, and CC has even more (although it has fewer apartments than the rest of the westside being one of 2 westside areas that's got a majority of homeowners, Westchester's the other).