Moving to LA/job in downtown/family neighborhood with good schools, some diversity?? (Los Angeles: best neighborhoods, to rent)

[mimideede]

Hi. My husband and I and two children (ages 3 and 5) are considering moving to Los Angeles. My husband would be working downtown. I am self-employed and work at home.
We might be able to afford a house for as much as $1.5 million.
Our kids are adopted and mixed race and we'd like to live in a community that is not entirely white and has at least some diversity. Ideally, we'd love to send our kids to public school at least through elementary school.
And -- maybe I'm asking too much -- I'd' like to live in a community that feels like a neighborhood and where we could find a house (3+ bedrooms) in a walking area --ie, I'd love to be able to walk the kids to a park, walk to a coffee shop, library, bookstore, etc. Or at least some of these things.
Thanks for any thoughts!

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by mimideede

We might be able to afford a house for as much as $1.5 million.
Our kids are adopted and mixed race and we'd like to live in a community that is not entirely white and has at least some diversity.

Money doesn't buy happiness but in your case it should come pretty close! That $1.5M should go a long way towards getting you into a very nice home in a very reasonable neighborhood. Very nice houses are widely available for $600-$900K in many areas. It's even better that you prefer an ethnically mixed, diverse community as some folks don't like this and the less diverse areas are often the more expensive areas. Depending on how nice you want that $1.5M may be overkill or you may prefer to spend it all and get a really beautiful dream home. (One thing: property houses are falling right now. You might be better off to rent for 1-2 years, make sure you like LA, and then buy at probably a lower price. Of course the rent offsets the gain.)

We have many ethnically and racially diverse communities in Los Angeles and you will surely be able to find one that suits you. Most of Los Angeles is diverse at least to some degree. If you have a preference to exactly which ethnicities that may influence which neighborhood you will be interested in. I'm not sufficiently versed in areas around downtown to help you with the specifics. I'm a valley guy, San Fernando Valley (NW part of LA) and more familiar with my own area.

Good luck!

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by mimideede

Hi. My husband and I and two children (ages 3 and 5) are considering moving to Los Angeles. My husband would be working downtown. I am self-employed and work at home.
We might be able to afford a house for as much as $1.5 million.
Our kids are adopted and mixed race and we'd like to live in a community that is not entirely white and has at least some diversity. Ideally, we'd love to send our kids to public school at least through elementary school.
And -- maybe I'm asking too much -- I'd' like to live in a community that feels like a neighborhood and where we could find a house (3+ bedrooms) in a walking area --ie, I'd love to be able to walk the kids to a park, walk to a coffee shop, library, bookstore, etc. Or at least some of these things.
Thanks for any thoughts!

"Los Angeles" and "good schools" generally do not go together. The schools are generally better in the "less diverse" neighborhoods. Hmmm...

[BRinSM]

I've heard that the elementary school (Ivanhoe?) in Silverlake is very good. Silverlake is also located just north of downtown and has much of the environment you are looking for. A lot of people there are classified as hipsters, but regardless, everyone I've met that lives there has been cool and open minded. Other areas to consider might be Pasadena, South Pasadena, Larchmont Village and Los Feliz. There are more of the expensive areas in the city (yet much less exclusive than Bel Air and Beverly Hills), so less diverse, but diversity is everywhere in LA.

You may also like Santa Monica, but it is further away from downtown (45 minutes to an hour each way). I would atleast check it out though, has everything you mentioned plus the beach!

[calipoppy]

IMO you would love the Pasadena area(Pasadena, South Pasadena or San Marino). Very family friendly yet still sophisticated and trendy. The area is fairly diverse even in the best neighborhoods. You get big city convenience with a semi-small community feeling. You should be able to get a great house in a great area in the Pasadena area with $1.5M

You will be ok with elementary age public schools in the Pasadena area but you will need to switch to a private school for kids 12 yrs old & up

I have commented in a few other threads on here regarding joys of the Pasadena area.

Originally Posted by mimideede

Hi. My husband and I and two children (ages 3 and 5) are considering moving to Los Angeles. My husband would be working downtown. I am self-employed and work at home.
We might be able to afford a house for as much as $1.5 million.
Our kids are adopted and mixed race and we'd like to live in a community that is not entirely white and has at least some diversity. Ideally, we'd love to send our kids to public school at least through elementary school.
And -- maybe I'm asking too much -- I'd' like to live in a community that feels like a neighborhood and where we could find a house (3+ bedrooms) in a walking area --ie, I'd love to be able to walk the kids to a park, walk to a coffee shop, library, bookstore, etc. Or at least some of these things.
Thanks for any thoughts!

[katenik]

Originally Posted by calipoppy

IMO you would love the Pasadena area(Pasadena, South Pasadena or San Marino). Very family friendly yet still sophisticated and trendy. The area is fairly diverse even in the best neighborhoods. You get big city convenience with a semi-small community feeling. You should be able to get a great house in a great area in the Pasadena area with $1.5M

You will be ok with elementary age public schools in the Pasadena area but you will need to switch to a private school for kids 12 yrs old & up

I have commented in a few other threads on here regarding joys of the Pasadena area.

i second this advice. south pas has better schools than pasadena, and san marino, better still. lots of large, beautiful old houses with perfectly manicured lawns in south pas and san marino, so $1.5M might only get you in on the low end. however, even you have to sacrifice space, it would be worth it to live in one of these cities.

[missionhome]

I would move to South Pasadena (a separate city from Pasadena) or San Marino. Both have charming traditional homes, often craftsman style that are in you price range. The cities have pretty wide streets and homes on fairly large lots with lawns. The biggest plus is the great schools and their diversity. The schools are good through high school too.

South Pasadena Unified:
South Pasadena High is rated a 10/10 with an excellent API of 842. In addition to excellent performance, the school is fairly diverse too (for a good school). Asian 37%, White (34%), Hispanic (17%), Multiple (6%), the rest is other. The elementary schools are just as good of course since they feed this high school.

San Marino Unified
San Marino High School
Again, an outrageous API of 911/1000, which is almost unheard of at the high school level, making this one of the highest performing schools in the state. The con- Not as diverse as South Pasadena High with 67% of the students being Asian, 27% white, 4% Hispanic, the rest other.

South Pasadena is located about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles and the Gold Line is an option.

[CESpeed]

I'll chime in with Pasadena as a good area and throw Culver City into the mix as well.

[Macross21]

Agreed, South Pasadena is tops on my list. It's a family city but not suburn that you have to drive to get to places. Many people walk here and lots of great places to shop. The cities around South Pasadena with Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia, Temple City, Alhambra, San Gabriel are all great cities to live in too.

But I'd say that it was much more diverse 10-15 years ago then it is today. Seems most of the people moving in are either White or Asian. The Black and Latino populations have decreased in many of those cities, unlike the rest of LA which is seeing a significant increase in Latinos.

Also housing has sky rocket in this area and still has a strong market, unlike the rest of the Southern California. A million dollar home is avg for many of the neighborhoods there, if not multi-million.

[mimideede]

Thanks for these suggestions. My only hesitation about South Pasadena is that it's so far from the westside of LA where we know people. Any thoughts about Hancock Park/Larchmont Village and housing (prices) and schools there?