Help! Where to live if working at USC?? (Los Angeles, San Diego: apartment, rentals)

[pureid]

Hi,

My wife and I are moving to L.A. to work at USC's University Park Health Center and we have no idea where we should live.

We are hoping to rent a house/condo for no more than $3000/month, and we would definitely prefer to live close to the beach.

What would the commute from Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, or Long Beach be like?

Where else would you suggest we look for a place given our preference for being close to the beach and the commute to the UPHC?

Thanks a million for your help!

[motoman]

Commutes from any of those places will be an hour or more. Long Beach might be slightly less.

Since you want to live close to the beach and UPHC is a good 15 miles or so from the nearest beach, you'll either have to live with a 2+ hour per day total commute, or decide to live further away from the beach.

[LuckyGem]

Originally Posted by pureid

We are hoping to rent a house/condo for no more than $3000/month, and we would definitely prefer to live close to the beach.

What would the commute from Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, or Long Beach be like?

Where else would you suggest we look for a place given our preference for being close to the beach and the commute to the UPHC?

Thanks a million for your help!

Living in Los Angeles is all about the commute. Long Beach is going to be a 60 mile round trip drive every day. Traffic is not predictable.

Santa Monica is around 14 miles away from USC (28 miles round trip). There will be traffic if you need to drive during rush hour. Maybe living near the beach and driving to USC during off peak rush hour times won't be nearly as tough especially if you work late shifts or early shifts.

Apartment Rentals in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego

Check this website for apartment rentals on the Westside of Los Angeles, including Marina del Rey and Santa Monica.

[ejonestexas]

USC's University Park Health Center is in Alhambra?

Is this the one on 10 & 710?


Is so your best bet would be to livein South Pasadena. One of my favorite places in LA because of Busters Coffee stop on Mission. By the way I looked at new condos accross the street from Busters and a new condo was $800,000 LOL

[Rats]

Since you and your wife can carpool, the commute from Long Beach wouldn't be bad at all since the 110 has a beautiful carpool lane. From Santa Monica, I presume you'll be going east on the 10 in the morning, which isn't nearly as bad as going west, so your commute will be bearable... 20-60 min. depending on accidents and weather. I think Santa Monica is the better choice since you'll probably find more people of your professional/intellectual caliber there.

[motoman]

Originally Posted by Rats

Since you and your wife can carpool, the commute from Long Beach wouldn't be bad at all since the 110 has a beautiful carpool lane. From Santa Monica, I presume you'll be going east on the 10 in the morning, which isn't nearly as bad as going west, so your commute will be bearable... 20-60 min. depending on accidents and weather. I think Santa Monica is the better choice since you'll probably find more people of your professional/intellectual caliber there.

20 minutes would be at 6 am with zero traffic. If I leave at 6:30 am, it's 20 minutes just to downtown. And I am 2 minutes from the freeway. If they were to live off the freeway, they would need to add 5-10 minutes at a minimum just to get to the freeway.

If you live in Santa Monica and commute during normal times, I would figure a good hour. Off-peak times would be before 6:30 am and after 7-8 pm.

[pureid]

Thanks for the input everyone. I appreciate your help. It sounds like I need to figure out whether living close to the beach is worth the hassle of being stuck in traffic for a couple of hours each day. Thanks again.

[DawnW]

It does depend on the time of day you travel.

My husband commuted from Pasadena to Beverly Hills daily but was able to commute to get to work at 10am and work until 7 or 8pm and miss the heavy traffic alltogether.

I commuted from Pasadena to downtown LA for 17 years and had to get to work at 7:30am and was off at 3:40. I avoided quite a bit of traffic as well.

You might also want to consider the cost of gas too. 60 miles per day just for commuting may add up very quickly. Living closer to work (like in S. Pas or Temple City) and visiting the beach on the weekends would be more cost effective.

Dawn

Originally Posted by pureid

Thanks for the input everyone. I appreciate your help. It sounds like I need to figure out whether living close to the beach is worth the hassle of being stuck in traffic for a couple of hours each day. Thanks again.