Thinking of moving to LA from the UK. (Los Angeles, San Francisco: hotel, house)

[patlike]

Hi all,

Myself, my wife and our young daughter may be moving to LA in the next year because of my job. There may be an option to move to San Francisco instead, but I'll definitely be living in California if certain things come to fruition at work. Obviously, LA has a reputation for being a dangerous city. I've visited many time in the last 10 years, and have never had any problems whatsoever, but I've always stayed in Hollywood, Santa Monica, and so on, and have never experienced "living" in LA, as such.

So. Firstly, is it a good idea to bring my young family to LA? Secondly, given the choice, would you suggest living in LA or SF?

Cheers in advance!

Pat
x

[Perdu]

There are a lot of threads on the L.A. forum addressing the concerns of British relocators, which I suggest you seek out.

In the meantime, this really depends upon your financial situation. Los Angeles translates very specifically as: wealthy or upper middle class- good life because you can cocoon your family and yourself in the safer neighborhoods with better schools, and your major concern will be traffic; not rich- a pretty abysmal set of trade-offs: high cost of living, overcrowded, underfunded schools, dangerous neighbors who don't speak English, but plenty of sunshine!

Please ask the same questions on the S.F. forum. Every city has pros and cons, but Los Angeles is Gang Central for the whole US, and has far a larger percentage of unsafe areas. If you've only traversed the West side of LA or Hollywood studios, this is only a true picture of the rich West Side and Hollywood studios, not exactly the rest of the city.

[UB50]

I disagree on the "gang central" thing. Many areas of LA are completely safe. You need to tell us what areas you are looking at moving to, then we can tell you what we think.

Where would your job in LA be located at?

[jayjay543]

This is really interesting to me. You all seem to think that living in L.A. is so expensive. Obviously you will all know better because, while I go to L.A. A LOT, I don’t live there full time and live for most of the time in Scotland. This country (Scot) is, apparently, one of the most expensive places to live in the world. Something like £8 just to be living with basic needs satisfied (tax on high earners is around 40%). Yet, the way some have described L.A. makes it sound like a third world country (rich and poor and no inbetween). I have heard all these horror stories about how expensive it is and I don’t know enough about it , yet when I go there gas is about a third of the price, clothes are far cheaper, food is really cheap, although I don’t know about housing. All I know is that here it is beyond ridiculous (eg. A house worth £250k 8 yrs ago - now worth £1.5m) I was just wondering exactly what is it that causes the middle class to either sink or JUST swim? I was seriously considering moving there for the rest of my life. Any advice?
P.S. I know this sounds weird and no insult is meant whatsoever but some places in L.A., the buildings just seem cheap and old and damp (such as the Four Points LAX hotel…there would be nothing like that here in Scotland.) Even like some shops and something. It’s weird I cant explain it. Like it was said in another comment - L.A. has something incredibly unique for being in a so-called, "first-world country."

[JerZ]

It rather goes without saying that actually living in a place is far different from visiting.

Are you sure that the *majority* of homes in Scotland are up over 2.5 million (US dollars...you said over a million in GBS?)?

LA has its share of homes in the millions as well. And many people who bought several years ago now have homes worth twice their price easily.

What sort of salary do people pull in your area? I wasn't sure what the 8K reference was. Eight thousand dollars for what? If you do the math, one must make quite a bit to support a home worth several million dollars. Also, I notice you referencing the high cost of gas in Scotland. Gas is far cheaper here than in Scotland, but you also have to consider being on the road and burning that gas for quite a long time in rush hour here (my husband commutes about one and a quarter hours each way daily, for example), as well as the grinding costs of car upkeep since the car is being overused so much just to get to work. ETA: Not you personally if you're planning on living central to the city proper, but for many people here, who have children and want them to be in a safe area.

I don't think LA is a third world country.

If you feel you'd like to live in LA, then move to LA. Check out salaries v. price of homes and you will easily see why it's hard for people. I mean if the money isn't there, well, it just isn't...

[JerZ]

Originally Posted by jayjay543

All I know is that here it is beyond ridiculous (eg. A house worth £250k 8 yrs ago - now worth £1.5m)

Oh, you know what, I didn't read this clearly at first. My husband saw exactly that situation here (in SoCal)...the house he grew up in had been worth, I think, $80K-ish? Maybe $100K? I can't remember the exact number...and sold a decade later for $800K. That was a few years ago and my husband's mom had checked into the place out of curiosity because it was being re-sold, and now indeed it is up at the million dollar mark. This is a three-bedroom house in the suburbs.

Again, check out salaries, realistic salaries, and do the math and if it's better here economically than Scotland, then by all means move if you feel the climate will also agree with you. That's why people within the U.S. move around as well--to try to get a good quality of life and be able to afford that quality of life.

[fastfilm]

Jayjay, I'll jump in with what my husband said about the basic differences between living in the UK and Los Angeles, of which he has first hand experience. For example, if you're not wealthy in say, London, you get up in the morning from the only place you can afford, your small bedsit in a rundown but reasonably okay area, take the public transportation and go look for a job. If you're not wealthy in Los Angeles, you get up in morning from your studio apt. in a horrific gang-infested, poor and dangerous area, discover your car's been stolen outside, and you might look forward to being assaulted that day because you look "different" to the locals. My husband used to laugh out loud at what Londoners considered "gangsters," small-statured teen toughs with a chip on their shoulders instead of the heavily armed, buff, malevolent psychos here.

The middle class in L.A. is being pushed out for just a few reasons: unaffordability of even reasonably safe housing for families or individuals; poor public education due to most schools peopled by non-English speakers, so all learning remains anchored to a perpetual cycle of catching up; over-taxation of property and business taxes to support programs that the general public never receives any benefit from, i.e., illegals all receive free medical care whereas our citizenry do not, in our topsy turvy world here where signage fequently has no English anywhere to be seen; and the illlegals and non-naturalized citizens are very, very insular to the point of rudeness to anyone not from their original home country.

L.A. has 26% middle class, a tiny % of rich and the rest poverty (say, 70%), as opposed to other major U.S. cities averaging a tiny % rich, and the remainder equally divided betwixt middle class and poor, say, 45% for each.) This should speak volumes to you about the problems facing our middle classes. The housing cost is so far above average wages as to be inapplicable. Granted you will always "win" in the expensive petrol prices. But middle class quality of life still remains viable in other parts of our country, just not in Los Angeles.

[Sorcerer68]

Pretty much all people from the UK I know who have relocated love it here. If you use true comparisons (Manhattan or Chicago), L.A. stands up well. I lived in L.A. on a meager 15k or less salary for years and lived comfortably in nice neighborhoods. I didn't get involved in "keeping up with the Jonses", just observed it as passing scenery. Now my financial situation has changed and I guess I'm still not rich but I live a good life.

I've lived many places and traveled the world and love it here. Los Angeles has the great mix of culture, vibe and sunshine that I love.

[Rats]

LA is one of the safest big cities in the country, maybe even the world.