Commute to Culver City (Santa Clarita, Santa Monica: to rent, townhouse, neighbourhood)

[Sunshine_Cat]

Our family of 4 will be relocating from the Bay area to a job in Culver City and we're trying to decide where to live. We started by looking at Santa Monica, Culver City, El Segundo and Redondo Beach as possibilities, but we'd be in the same financial situation we are now (house poor, no savings), so we're considering something farther away.

I'd like to know how the commute-times and public transit routes compare for these 3 areas:

Culver City (near Kindred Hospital) to/from:

East San Gabriel area
Santa Clarita
Westlake Village

I've looked at the traffic site Sigalert, and it's moderately helpful, but it isn't as useful as a native who can tell us (for example) that no sane person would attempt to drive back and forth to San Marino every day.

If it helps, we're looking to rent a house/duplex/townhouse with 2-3 bedrooms and a fenced yard and garage, and our budget is $2000-$2300. With 2 young children, safety is our #1 consideration.

Thanks!

[Miss Pip]

Westlake Village will be torture. I work in Culver City and use to live in Encino, which is a lot closer than Westlake but still far from Culver. I would give myself an hour and a half and I would get to work 15mins early but sometimes I could be 15mins late if there's been a major accident on the freeway. Luckily with my job I could be an hour late and no one would care. I recently moved to Culver City because I just couldn't take the commute any longer. I remember once it took me 3hrs to get home because of an accident on the 405. Oh and getting on the 405 North is even more ridiculous especially with cars cutting in line and all sorts of nonsense.

An old colleague of mine bought a house in Gardena. I don't know that area too well but the housing seems to be affordable and her house is amazing. You might want to research that neighbourhood as it's a lot closer to Culver City than Westlake Village but there will still be traffic of course.

I cannot speak for the rest of those areas.