What kind of salary would need a family of 4 to live in the LB/LA Area?

[calieuropean]

This depends on so many factors.

Have you been to Los Angeles before?
Where exactly is your work going to be located?
Are you more of a "downtown" or "suburbs" person?
How do you feel about ethnic & demographic diversity?
How important is it to live by the beach?
How far are you willing to drive to work each day?

Generally speaking, for a family of 4 setup, and coming here from Europe
(I did the same years ago but sans family), I would expect a job offer of at least 100K. 120 would be better.

This may seem relatively high for some places but here, you will need it just to lead a "middle class" life in a relatively nice area.

Best of luck with your plans!

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by Jasper 004

Thanks a lot again, I appreciate a lot your answers and advices, it is very helpful...

We'll definetly consider Belmont Park and Belmont Height as well and have a look to what we prefer...

About the money they will be offering, we will know it next week.

At this time, I will certainly come back to the forum to get some more of your expert advices...

So far, to have an idea of possible houses to rent, we are looking at craiglist, would you advise any better websites?

Cheers,
Jasper

FYI, I'm not sure you are going to be happy with the rents on houses in Belmont Shores. It's a pricey area, and while apartments are not too expensive, stand alone houses are. I would expect a 2bd 1ba house in the area to run $2K+ per month whereas the same size apartment might be had for $1400-1600/mo.

[Jasper 004]

Hi,

Thanks again for your answers.

So to answer the various questions,

1- Yes I already went to LA a lot of times but mainly for work. I thus begin to have a pretty good idea of the local geography however I do not have precise ideas yet about how it is exactly to live in this or this place...

2- The work will be located in Brea in OC

3- We are definitely more downtown-type however with the children now, we would like to find the best compromise between "good and easy life with the kids" and proximity to various urban hubs such as LB or LA. It is actually for this reason that we more or less focused our research around Belmont Shore and so on....

4- We feel pretty good about it as we are used to popular areas with a lot of diversity. We actually like this mixity and therefore would like to avoid any kind of ghettos (in both sense...)

5- Living by the beach would for us be a bonus but not a necessity. The walkability of the area if the most important for us.

6 - If this could be situated between 30 min without traffic and 60 min with, I think that this would be nice... Do you think that Belmont/LB would fit in this? I would have the possibility to adjust my hours to some extent...

7- COncerning the salary, I'll do my best ;-)) and well heard what you advised...

Taking into account the commute to/from Brea and our will to live in a walkable and kid-friendly atmosphere, would you recommend anything else that the BElmont/LB area?

Thanks to all again for help, it is GREAT to have such forum,
Great day,
Jasper

[bhcompy]

Belmont Shore or Seal Beach would work. Seal is a lot more family friendly while still retaining excellent walkability