Single Family Home in West or North LA

[Social Democrat]

Check out Mar Vista which is adjacent to Santa Monica - would reduce the commute! It may or may not fit your lifestyle but is worth a look. The attached example is within your budget but not of the architectural style you may be looking for. Good luck with your search!
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...45642942_zpid/

[American_Renaissance]

Originally Posted by mustardeer

Woodland Hills is a nice quite, boring suburb area but keep in mind it gets insanely hot there. You can get a gorgeous house there though and stay under budget.

And the drive through TOpanga to PCH can be brutal. All it takes is one accident and you're screwed as ther aren't many alternatives other than Mulholland or Sunset or some screwy canyon route.
Also, Woodland Hills is LAUSD but most of the kids in Woodland Hills are smart kids so most of the schools are high performing.

[Cloudwalker]

You have a reasonable budget, but in this area, you can have a larger house or a shorter commute, but you can't really have both straight away. Personally, I'd be trying to keep the commute as short as possible, and buy with a view to trading up or expanding what you buy in a few years.

I agree with KemBro's boundary suggestions, but I'd also generally try to stay west of the 405 if you can, just for traffic reasons. I would try to stay east of Lincoln as well, for price reasons and homeless issues. Calabasas and Topanga are beautiful, but I agree that it's not a great commute. Woodland Hills is fine, but it's still not really a great commute.

With your budget, you should be able to find something in the Mar Vista area as Social Democrat suggested. This would give you a much better commute than virtually anywhere else on your list, other than SM itself. You are young, no kids, look for a smaller fixer on a bigger lot, it will be way more affordable than something move-in ready and give you many more future options - rebuild, remodel, put in an ADU or Junior ADU, etc. I'd also look in Culver West and Del Rey, which are a little closer to Playa Vista and Playa del Rey. Basically anything in the 90066 zip code, or the westerly parts of 90230. The elementary schools in the area are generally pretty good, even though they are LAUSD.

Also, if you find something, maybe come back on and ask for advice re traffic. It's hard to tell at the moment because of Covid, everything is relatively quiet, but some streets seem very sedate during the day, but are bumper to bumper during peak times, e.g. Pearl St in SM and Walgrove in Mar Vista. You wouldn't know it without local knowledge.