320k salary, nice place to rent? (San Francisco, Glendale: real estate, apartments, rental)

[madridfan12345]

I am currently living in San Francisco, CA.

My daughter is starting college in Claremont, but my wife is working in Woodland Hills starting end of September... I want to be at most 30-45 minutes away from both areas (I would rather be closer to wife's work because she has to commute everyday, my daughter will only come on the weekends). I have a son going in Kindergarten, so a good public school system would be nice, but it wouldn't be horrible if we had to send him to private school. (I have a few in mind)

I also want to be at most 45 minutes away from the beach with good surfing and some nice malls.

Any suggestions?

[bigdumbgod]

With that kind of money, wouldn't you want to buy?

[Those Who Squirm]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

With that kind of money, wouldn't you want to buy?

I can't speak for the topic starter, but I can think of lots of reasons why not. Maybe he's only planning to be down here for a few years, in which case buying a house would probably be not worth the hassle.

[Those Who Squirm]

madridfan12345, is the plan for your daughter to come home every weekend, or just every so often, like a couple of times a quarter or a few times a semester? Will she have a car or will she need to use some kind of public transit? Either way, Woodland Hills and Claremont are 55 miles of soul-sucking, traffic-clogged roads apart. You won't find a place that's going to be totally convenient for both of your prerequisites.

It'd probably be easier for all of you if you consider that your daughter is "away at college", because if you think of Claremont as being just down the road, you'll die of frustration. If your daughter needs to use public transit, I believe there's reasonably frequent train service between Claremont and downtown L.A.; this would be on Metrolink, and you'd have to meet her at Union Station. I found train travel to be perfect in my student days because I could always get a lot of reading/studying done.

[JohnG72]

Sherman oaks and use private schools. More like and hour from Claremont though(exactly what you are looking for does not exist in terms of practical drive.

And it's more like a 45 minute drive to the South Bay beaches on weekends(or Malibu).

One thing you could do is live in Woodland Hills, calabasses or agora hills, leaving the daughter with around an hour to hour and a half drive but work close and around a 30 minute weekend drive over the hills into Malibu.

FYI, $5-6k gets you a 3000 sq ft 4 bd 4 BA McMansion in most of LA.$8-12k gets you the most chi chi neighborhoods.

[Ceece]

Your daughter will come home on weekends? WHY? You will be surfing at the beach anyway . Take the "close to college" requirement out of the equation and concentrate on the other stuff. 2-3 hours away for a college kid is close enough, trust me.

[Csonka]

This is sort of a tricky puzzle because the two places are far apart. The good thing is that you can take the 118 Freeway to the 210; these are two of the less busy freeways in the region (the 210 when it hits Pasadena does jam up quite a bit during rush hours).

Looking at a map, it looks like Pasadena is more or less the geographic midpoint between Woodland Hills and Claremont. If you want to be closer to Woodland Hills, then you are looking at places to the west of Pasadena. There are literally hundreds of great neighborhoods between Pasadena and Woodland Hills.

These include:

Pasadena itself. Glendale proper is okay, but then you have North Glendale and La Canada areas which are well to do and semi-rural in parts but mostly suburban and along the 210. All you would want, typical suburban living in terms of grocery stores, shopping, etc.

Heading further west, Burbank, is nice and a family town, nothing too eventful happens there. But you also have some very good amenities, places to eat, grocery stores, etc. Plus an Airport (the value and appeal of this airport cannot be appreciated until you live here; it is a small national airport and very easy to get in and out of, you deplane directly onto the tarmac, etc). Then just to the southwest, you have places like Toluca Lake, Studio City. All of these areas are very convenient to the core of L.A. which lies to the immediate south on the other side of a mountain ridge. These areas are served by the 134/101 Freeway, which runs east-west, and this freeway gets pretty jammed. (the 134 merges into the 210 in Pasadena).

If you want to hug along the 118 for convenience's sake, there are very nice areas like Porter Ranch, which is pretty close to Woodland Hills. Also within Woodland Hills are lots of good quality apartments, rental houses, etc.

And if you want to go WEST of Woodland Hills, you are then into some very nice and exclusive suburbs or "ex-burbs" but then this places yet further from Claremont.

Basically, if you describe the type of place you would all want to live in (do you like horses and semi-rural estate living? shopping? nightlife?) I could give you a better reference.

[smokingGun]

just a tip: don't be one of those helicopter parents who needs to keep close tabs on their ADULT kids while at college (or even grad school!) The gf of my younger cousin had her lawyer mom call her poli sci prof about the critique and grade he gave her on a constitutional law paper. HUH?

If you're independently wealthy or telecommute, my suggestion would be Calabasas or Topanga/Palisades. You can take Kanan or Topanga to either Malibu to surf or Woodland Hills for work. Hate to say but the best surfing spots are further away in south OC or up past Ventura.

[Csonka]

Originally Posted by smokingGun

just a tip: don't be one of those helicopter parents who needs to keep close tabs on their ADULT kids while at college (or even grad school!) The gf of my younger cousin had her lawyer mom call her poli sci prof about the critique and grade he gave her on a constitutional law paper. HUH?

If you're independently wealthy or telecommute, my suggestion would be Calabasas or Topanga/Palisades. You can take Kanan or Topanga to either Malibu to surf or Woodland Hills for work. Hate to say but the best surfing spots are further away in south OC or up past Ventura.

You can find killer deals in Calabasas, Westlake Vlg, Agoura too right now. I live in the east Valley, and the amount of house you can get in Calabasas, etc for the same price of Studio City, etc. is amazing. Much of the reason is because most of the jobs are to the east, so people in Woodland Hills, Calabasas etc. have to commute the 101, plus it is way hotter. But if you work already in Woodland Hills, wow, you can get a great piece of real estate and be close to work, etc. I realize the OP is wanting to rent, but if he wants to buy....

[CRESTICO]

Try Pasadena area.