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Would a $700k house really be lower middle class in the areas I defined? I thought it would be a solid middle to upper middle class type of neighborhood.
Also, how is the San Fernando Valley in terms of diversity, entertainment, etc? Does it compare to more vibrant places like West Hollywood?
The Valley is more SFH's except on the big streets. Once more suburban, but now metro. Not as hip or hot as WeHo, but you would never need to leave it for your needs.
We are moving in July from Queens. Have lived in this area for over 50 years and are sick and tired of it for basically the same reasons you mentioned. I am lucky to be retiring, also no kids, so it's a no brainer for us.
However, we visited the LA area for four summers, staying for a minimum of 6 weeks each time. We used vacation rentals from VRBO and lived as locals as much as we could. Being teachers we had the time in the summer.
Strongly recommend you visit for an extended period of time if you can. At least a month, if possible. You will get a chance to see the reality, explore housing options, and explore neighborhoods.
Check out Apartments.com, Westside Rentals, and Craigslist to see what rentals are like. You are right in that the apartments in most areas are better than anything you will find the NYC/NJ metro area. Newer, cleaner, more up to date. We actually looked at a few rentals and were stunned with what we saw. The $1200 budget is a little tight, except maybe in some areas of the San Fernando Valley from what we have seen.
Also, be aware that real estate agents do not get involved in apartment rentals for the most part. Seems like a few high end condos and the like only. You are basically on your own to search and find what what you want.
I can tell you we have no doubts at this point. Due to my wife's job search we are looking at a number of different possibilities including Santa Monica, Pasadena, Studio City and Irvine. The only one we haven't explored in detail is Irvine but even that is acceptable for us compared to NYC.
From what I'm seeing online, the apartments below $1,200 near Van Nuys & Hollywood are much more posh and spacious compared to the ones here! It's pretty promising.
Would a $700k house really be lower middle class in the areas I defined? I thought it would be a solid middle to upper middle class type of neighborhood.
Also, how is the San Fernando Valley in terms of diversity, entertainment, etc? Does it compare to more vibrant places like West Hollywood? Sorry for the stupid questions. I've never been to LA myself. I only know what I heard from friends that have visited there before.
Van Nuys is probably equivalent of living in Jersey City 20 years ago. Not really a place you want to live if you can help it. Much of Hollywood is the same way.
Downtown, Koreatown, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz are all better options depending on what type of entertainment you want. All have nightlife of some sort.
Sherman Oaks, Studio City and North Hollywood are all popular ares in the valley that have lot's of bars, restaurants and young singles and couples. North Hollywood does get very sketchy in some areas closer to Panorama City.
Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale are worth looking at depending on lifestyle you want
Hey! I recently moved here 2 months ago and I am from Fair Lawn! I know exactly where you are coming from. Those pictures you posted I know. The first is by millers ale house. (How Paramus allowed a gigantic BAR to be built off a main highway is beyond me)
Your comment about driving in NJ is true, but the traffic here is MUCH worse in terms of just how much there is. But I have found it to be alot less stressful here, even though there is more. The drivers are alot calmer here. There is a habit here of driving under the speed limit even when traffic clears up. It sounds bad but you get used to it. Just be prepared to drive slowly most of the time. The weather, and scenery make up for it. The plus side of LA traffic in LA is that here is plenty of time to just kick back and relax in your car listening to music. Your car is your second home in LA.
OP is also right about apartments here. there are apartments in rougher LA neighborhoods that look ALOT nicer than rough apartments in NJ. Here are apartments in a lower class nieghborhood nearby Paramus:
Those prices are god awful if you knew the area. Who would want to pay those prices only to live in those disgusting ugly brick shoe boxes? Even the homes in Compton, inglewood and Crenshaw are nicer than that crap, and I've driven around those areas just out of curiosity.
Move out here. You'll love it. Granted I am a single 27 yr old enjoying a more "youthful" LA experience out here. For only a little more You will be living with great weather, around beautiful beaches, surrounded by enormous mountains, gorgeous coast lines, twisty winding canyon roads, views nearly everywhere, bars, concert venues, restaurants everywhere, many different cultural neighborhoods, homes that arent boring cape cods, but unique spanish styled homes, sometimes on hills (silverlake, echo park being more "affordable"), an expanding dowtown scene, and even the Valley if you dont want to live in LA proper. It amazes me how NJ has the balls to make living that expensive for how ****ty it is, it should be a crime.
About your above comment: Van Nuys is very nice the further south closer to lets say Victory blvd blvd west of the 405, other than that its OK. But it apparently has more crime than most areas in the valley. I live in North Hollywood and havent seen any crime anywhere in the valley so far though.
Hey, neighbor! Small world. Thanks for the advice. Yes, I agree with you that the overall road system in NJ sucks. When I first moved here, I was surprised at how many parkways, toll roads, and highways there are in just one square mile. It's kind of annoying. I also can't believe so many people willingly pay so much money to live in a boring, humid, stressed out suburb.
LA must be pretty laid back if people actually go below the speed limit. That's a shocker. My husband and I often drive 75+ mph in 45 mph construction zones and we're not even the fastest people on the road! We aren't "lead foots" by any means. The Garden st. parkway and NJ Turnpike are what I like to call the "American Autobahns"- People go up to 95 mph at some points
Is there anything that you miss about the east coast? I doubt anything will change my mind about moving, but I'm curious to know if there's anything you miss at all!
Maybe you miss the faster pace, the straight forward people, color of the fall leaves, being so close to Manhattan, etc.?
Forgive me for sounding petty, but I have heard some people comment on how north NJ people can come off as rude to "outsiders" due to their lack of small talk and rude/blunt attitude. I haven't noticed this in myself, but I'm hoping that LA natives don't notice it on me when I move there. Any tips with that?
Last edited by newjerseycouple; 04-08-2016 at 08:25 PM..
The Valley is more SFH's except on the big streets. Once more suburban, but now metro. Not as hip or hot as WeHo, but you would never need to leave it for your needs.
Those apartments and houses are absolutely beautiful! Housing in LA is definitely an upgrade from the housing here. I'll have to bump up my rental budget though and check out some of the places you linked. As of now, I haven't applied to jobs in LA yet, so we'll have to see where I end up landing a job.
We are moving in July from Queens. Have lived in this area for over 50 years and are sick and tired of it for basically the same reasons you mentioned. I am lucky to be retiring, also no kids, so it's a no brainer for us.
However, we visited the LA area for four summers, staying for a minimum of 6 weeks each time. We used vacation rentals from VRBO and lived as locals as much as we could. Being teachers we had the time in the summer.
Strongly recommend you visit for an extended period of time if you can. At least a month, if possible. You will get a chance to see the reality, explore housing options, and explore neighborhoods.
Check out Apartments.com, Westside Rentals, and Craigslist to see what rentals are like. You are right in that the apartments in most areas are better than anything you will find the NYC/NJ metro area. Newer, cleaner, more up to date. We actually looked at a few rentals and were stunned with what we saw. The $1200 budget is a little tight, except maybe in some areas of the San Fernando Valley from what we have seen.
Also, be aware that real estate agents do not get involved in apartment rentals for the most part. Seems like a few high end condos and the like only. You are basically on your own to search and find what what you want.
I can tell you we have no doubts at this point. Due to my wife's job search we are looking at a number of different possibilities including Santa Monica, Pasadena, Studio City and Irvine. The only one we haven't explored in detail is Irvine but even that is acceptable for us compared to NYC.
Best of luck!
Thank you for the advice. However, I don't think we have the time to visit for a month! It's pretty hard to get PTO for that long. My husband also works 5 days a week and I work three 12 hour shifts a week.
The best we can do would be about two weeks off form work which is not enough time to see anything. It's not cost effective either because we would have to pay for flights, hotel, rental car just to see LA for a few days
I'm not expecting LA to be a utopia so I definitely won't be let down by a couple bad experiences once I move there. I just know that it's most likely better than Northern NJ so there's no need to visit! I know that LA is just a regular city like Chicago or Houston, so I won't have extremely high hopes when I get there. I'll just be looking forward to more things to do and better weather.
Last edited by newjerseycouple; 04-08-2016 at 08:30 PM..
Hey, neighbor! Small world. Thanks for the advice. Yes, I agree with you that the overall road system in NJ sucks. When I first moved here, I was surprised at how many parkways, toll roads, and highways there are in just one square mile. It's kind of annoying. I also can't believe so many people willingly pay so much money to live in a boring, humid, stressed out suburb.
LA must be pretty laid back if people actually go below the speed limit. That's a shocker. My husband and I often drive 75+ mph in 45 mph construction zones and we're not even the fastest people on the road! We aren't "lead foots" by any means. The Garden st. parkway and NJ Turnpike are what I like to call the "American Autobahns"- People go up to 95 mph at some points
Is there anything that you miss about the east coast? I doubt anything will change my mind about moving, but I'm curious to know if there's anything you miss at all!
Maybe you miss the faster pace, the straight forward people, color of the fall leaves, being so close to Manhattan, etc.?
Forgive me for sounding petty, but I have heard some people comment on how north NJ people can come off as rude to "outsiders" due to their lack of small talk and rude/blunt attitude. I haven't noticed this in myself, but I'm hoping that LA natives don't notice it on me when I move there. Any tips with that?
The reason people drive below speed limit is because you can't speed when you are in gridlock with cars on every side of you. You can visit the surface roads of Glendale if you want to experience the autobahn
Hey, neighbor! Small world. Thanks for the advice. Yes, I agree with you that the overall road system in NJ sucks. When I first moved here, I was surprised at how many parkways, toll roads, and highways there are in just one square mile. It's kind of annoying. I also can't believe so many people willingly pay so much money to live in a boring, humid, stressed out suburb.
LA must be pretty laid back if people actually go below the speed limit. That's a shocker. My husband and I often drive 75+ mph in 45 mph construction zones and we're not even the fastest people on the road! We aren't "lead foots" by any means. The Garden st. parkway and NJ Turnpike are what I like to call the "American Autobahns"- People go up to 95 mph at some points
Is there anything that you miss about the east coast? I doubt anything will change my mind about moving, but I'm curious to know if there's anything you miss at all!
Maybe you miss the faster pace, the straight forward people, color of the fall leaves, being so close to Manhattan, etc.?
Forgive me for sounding petty, but I have heard some people comment on how north NJ people can come off as rude to "outsiders" due to their lack of small talk and rude/blunt attitude. I haven't noticed this in myself, but I'm hoping that LA natives don't notice it on me when I move there. Any tips with that?
Anything I miss about NJ? My friends, my family. I do not miss anything about NJ so far. The people you are leaving behind are far more important.
There are some, but few people that arent used to my sometimes blunt attitude. Befoe moving here people gave me all of these stereotypes about LA or Cali people and I found them to be ridiculous. People are people for the most part, those stereotypes aren't necessarily true. I have came across a couple "easy" girls here so far, and the natives seem to be more outgoing in general, but its not like they cant deal with some sarcasm or bluntness. Without a doubt the stereotype that they are all laid back and not hard workers is so far from the truth where I work. They hustle at my job just as much if not maybe more than the east coasters. It's a competitive city.
There are speeders here, and tailgaters. But its alot more rare than NJ. Just get used to the only time being able to steadily go 75 mph is late at night.
The reason people drive below speed limit is because you can't speed when you are in gridlock with cars on every side of you. You can visit the surface roads of Glendale if you want to experience the autobahn
So not true. It depends on where you go and the time of day.
Glendale as you know first hand has a population of people who like to drive crazy. What I don't understand is why you remained there? You had a rental house in Glendale you said the owner sold it, and than you rented an apt. in Glendale which you're still in for years. Perfect opportunity to say "enough of this we can move just a few miles away and not have to deal with it".
You could have moved to Montrose, Pasadena, Burbank, etc. yet you stayed. Kind of like moving by JFK airport and than complaining about jet noise.
John Marts, you seem like a nice guy but you're new to LA. You live in the Valley and work on the westside, so you set yourself up for a long commute. Again this nonsense that the freeways are only moving after 11pm is just that, nonsense.
So not true. It depends on where you go and the time of day.
Glendale as you know first hand has a population of people who like to drive crazy. What I don't understand is why you remained there? You had a rental house in Glendale you said the owner sold it, and than you rented an apt. in Glendale which you're still in for years. Perfect opportunity to say "enough of this we can move just a few miles away and not have to deal with it".
You could have moved to Montrose, Pasadena, Burbank, etc. yet you stayed. Kind of like moving by JFK airport and than complaining about jet noise.
John Marts, you seem like a nice guy but you're new to LA. You live in the Valley and work on the westside, so you set yourself up for a long commute. Again this nonsense that the freeways are only moving after 11pm is just that, nonsense.
Good news!! I just bought a condo in Santa Clarita.. I'm finally getting out
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this is not a wide search) 
