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Oxnard and Ventura have homes in the $300,000 range. You can get a new town home with 4 bed 4 bath within that range. You can also get a 3 bed 2 bath single family home built in the late 1970's to early 1980's for between $280 and $320,000. Even cheaper in the south side of Oxnard, but although safe, you may not already speak Spanish. The drive is long but many do it everyday. Many take the metro train into the LA area. Port Hueneme where I grew up also is within that range. We have condos near me selling in the $150,000 range. It all depends on how far you want to drive. Although that may not be a consideration if you get a job closer to the area. This is a big part of the nations Bio Tech corridor, with Amgen and many others in the area.
I bought a house in Carson which is around 20-30 miles from Los Angeles.
In 1996 I bought an old house for $135k 3bd/1ba.
In 2006, sold the old house at $490k.
In 2003 I bought a new development for $465k 4bd/3ba.
In 2006, refi the new house with estimated $750k value.
In 2009, property tax assessment house value is down to $420k.
I suggest to look at the statistics of the Cities: Carson, Torrance, Lomita, Wilmington, Harbor City, and San Pedro. There are within the "South Bay" cities which is south of LA, and north of Long Beach.
Traffic consumes time if you will commute to work, which means you will need a car to conveniently move around.
Santa Clarita (Valencia or stevenson ranch), Burbank, or La Canada are all great areas with great schools. Commute might be the only negative part, depending on where you work. Good luck!
My wife and I moved from back east to Glendale (rented a condo) about 25 years ago. Glendale is a nice town in many respects. However, my wife couldn't handle the smog (her eyes turned red) and so we looked elsewhere when we purchased a home. Also looked elsewhere because of the cost of homes in Glendale's nicer areas. We looked from LAX north into the valley (San Fernando Valley) and simi Valley to Rancho Cucamonga. East of Glendale was too expensive, too smoggy or too urban for us. Anything on the west side of LA was too expensive or too crime filled. (All IMHO folks) And so we ended up in Santa Clarita. Housing was affordable by LA's standards. The city is family oriented and about every other car on the road seems to be a police car at time. It is one of the safest cities inthe USA. (in it's size group) It has grown because of all of these things. There is now a mall and plenty of shopping vs. long drives to the valley back 25 years ago. Most of the housing is newer and not 75 year old wrecks in need of total overhaul like in many older parts of LA. There is also a large industrial park if a new job is necessary.
It is hot in the summer since it is not near the ocean. However, most AC bills are not all that high since it is a desert and the air cools much at night (also low humidity) plus newer homes have good insulation and better AC units. The skys are often blue vs. foggy when you cross over into the San Fernando Valley and LA.
Traffic in town has become bad on weekends and commuting into LA is an early morning wakeup to beat the traffic on the I-5 freeway. However, there's rapid transit trains to downtown LA and they go close to Glendale.
It purchasing in Santa Clarita Valley do ask about Mello-Roes taxes. Some newer developments have bonds to pay for roads and schools etc. that the developer have not paid and so have passed the cost on to the home owners. If you purchase in Valencia, Saugus, Newhall or Canyon Country sections vs. Stevenson Ranch you can often avoid these extra costs.
Ditto for any place in LA - do ask about the HOA (home owner assoc) and Mello-Roes fees and taxes.
We are about to move the other direction (to the N.E.) because of job relocation and may wave as we go pass you at some point.
I only skimmed this thread and I may have missed it, but I think an important question was missed...Do you have kids? Is it just you and your husband? Will schools be a factor? Your best bet is to figure out how large of a down payment you can make, figure out based on your credit, what kind of loan payment it would cost, factor in insurance and taxes, double check your budget from there.
ll be honest, I find LA housing prices ridiculous which is why I am moving to North County, San Diego area. In a good neighborhood of Oceanside you can find close to what you want for 400k, though you will have to commute 50miles into San Diego for work. However there arent as many jobs in SD as LA.
As another poster mentioned, Oxnard, Port hueneme, and Ventura is an option, if you wanna stick to 4BR 3 bath etc, but if its just you and your husband there are some really nice LOFT developments in downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo etc starting from the mid 300k you can even get a 3 bedroom unit less than $500. Now I wouldnt say it was a safe neigborhood to walk around in at night, the building itself offers a nice bit of safety & security, plus with the redevelopment of Downtown project, if youre intending to live there for some years, you could possible see a large upswing when you sell it eventually.
Lots of wealthy artsy celebrity types live in these developments although as you can imagine they have a rather posh unit. (e.g. Jake Gyllenhaal live in a loft off of SKID ROW, where all the bums live - I wouldnt recommend that area in spite of this.) The biggest knocks, dont expect to go jogging at night, can get smoggy, you may have to deal with traffic getting home, and you may have to drive 15-20 mins to get to a grocery store, since some of the basic amenities havent been built yet (downtown was previously only a commercial district and not residential at all).
I just cannot believe how expensive it is to live in the LA area. It's the one thing people tell me (in person and on this forum). I mean, I knew it would be much more expensive than South Carolina, but I had no idea just how much.
I am trying to paint this picture to my husband, about how expensive it is, and how hard it will be to bring our South Carolina middle-class income to California and raise a family in a house the size we're used to. He seems to think it's easy...his response is always, "well, people who work at McDonald's can do it. We certainly won't have any problem."
I'm also concerned about the commute times. Someone in an earlier post on here, indicated that driving times were like 2 hours one way sometimes! At the most, where we live now, we drive MAYBE 30 minutes in heavy, heavy traffic in one way to or from work. He seems to think we can raise a family in a nice house in the LA area with him still being able to be part of my and a child's life...HAHA that sounds almost impossible!
These are just things going through my head right now. But since he seems pretty hell-bent on moving on there in the future, I'm still sticking my feelers out to get as much as a feedback as I can, to possibly show him the various responses I've gotten. Keep those comments coming, both good and bad!
Oh, and another thing -- people have been asking where we'd be working, and I haven't been quite sure since it's not nailed down yet. Plus, it entails a whole new line of question that I'm sure is in some other forum on some other site...BUT...
My husband seems to be positive he's going to get a job working for a studio (either Dreamworks or Rhythm and Hues, etc); whether he actually GETS a job at one of those, is another whole story, no doubt. I have no idea where they're located, but if that helps narrow down the location, then run with those two ideas in case you come up with living location suggestions.
"well, people who work at McDonald's can do it. We certainly won't have any problem."
People who work at McDonalds:
young people who live with their parents
people who live in homes with many other people - several families together, extended families, a bunch of single people - but the point is, several incomes
people who get government help of some sort (with food, housing, medical)
retired people
college students
spouses of main bread-winners
people who share little apartments with roommates, rent rooms in houses, or live in converted garages
Unless the McDonald's income is a second or third income, these are not people who live in the sort of family neighborhood you envision.
However, if your husband gets the kind of job he is thinking about, this will not be your situation. It just won't be the kind of housing you see in SC.
In 2007 we sold our 3/2.5, 1550 sq ft condominium in El Monte (loved El Monte) and bought a 3200 sq ft house on 8 acres in NC for $125,000 less.
It doesn't have to be a disaster; it could be an adventure. However, it will be different. Extremely different.
I think I said this before, but I'll say it again: don't buy far away from your husband's work just because the housing/neighborhood seems nicer. Don't sacrifice your marriage and family for a house. (Message for your husband - or for a career.)
Can you take a trip to Los Angeles before making a decision about moving? There's really no other way to know what it's like.
I just cannot believe how expensive it is to live in the LA area. It's the one thing people tell me (in person and on this forum). I mean, I knew it would be much more expensive than South Carolina, but I had no idea just how much.
I am trying to paint this picture to my husband, about how expensive it is, and how hard it will be to bring our South Carolina middle-class income to California and raise a family in a house the size we're used to. He seems to think it's easy...his response is always, "well, people who work at McDonald's can do it. We certainly won't have any problem."
I'm also concerned about the commute times. Someone in an earlier post on here, indicated that driving times were like 2 hours one way sometimes! At the most, where we live now, we drive MAYBE 30 minutes in heavy, heavy traffic in one way to or from work. He seems to think we can raise a family in a nice house in the LA area with him still being able to be part of my and a child's life...HAHA that sounds almost impossible!
These are just things going through my head right now. But since he seems pretty hell-bent on moving on there in the future, I'm still sticking my feelers out to get as much as a feedback as I can, to possibly show him the various responses I've gotten. Keep those comments coming, both good and bad!
I appreciate all the help so far!
Driving commutes don't have to be two hours; they easily can be, however, for people with middle class salaries (we're not talking McDonald's level here) who want to live in the kind of house you have in SC (or for many people who want to be able to afford to buy even a modest house). You can live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood near your job in LA even if you're not millionaires, but you probably will have to reconsider exactly what "nice" means. Most people have to compromise on some things, and some people (those who are working at McDonald's) have to compromise a great deal. McDonald's and "middle class lifestyle" don't go together in LA, and in general I think "middle class lifestyle" is also quite different in LA than what it is where you're living now.
Dreamworks is in Glendale, isn't it? In that case you could rent a nice place in Glendale, or in Burbank (popular with families), or, depending on budget, buy something that was probably less nice. In any case, he's wildly optimistic to think that you won't have any problems. Maybe you'll both get very lucky (although in this economy that's increasingly difficult), but a middle class income is not going to get you anything near what it sounds like you have right now. My neighbors in my South Pasadena neighborhood were probably making somewhere in the mid- to upper-six figures, and their kids shared bedrooms.
I agree with the suggestion to visit LA. At least see if you like it (and check out the neighborhoods with housing in your possible price range) so that if (and that's a big if) you can line up a job/jobs anytime soon you'll know if you really do want to move, and if you like it enough that you'll be possibly willing to sacrifice some of what you have now in terms of space, etc., for the sake of living in LA.
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