Where is the cheap safe neighborhood in or around L.A.? (Los Angeles: houses, buy)

[LA Fan]

Originally Posted by linden52

Long Beach. Near the beach, good transportation, decent schools. You would probably have to settle for a 2 bedroom but you could get lucky and find something bigger. Like any city Long Beach has its good parts and it's bad parts. On your budget you can't afford the best but wouldn't have to settle for the worst either.

I've lived here 36 years and think it's a good place to live. I don't know which are the best real estates websites for buying just renting. Here is a website geared toward visitors, but I guess if someone wouldn't want to visit here then they wouldn't want to live here.

Long Beach California Vacation & Travel Center : Hotels, Attractions and Vacation Travel Planning

Hope you can one day find something you can afford and like out here!

I can vouch for this as well, I have lived in downtown Long Beach near the ocean for 13 years. Of course it's not the best neighborhood as compared to Belmont Shores/Heights but it's affordable and fairly safe, and very walkable. There are two fairly new supermarkets in the area, plus it's close to numerous attractions (movie theater, Performing Arts Center, waterfront dining, restaurnats/coffeehouses, farmers market every Friday at CityPlace, nightlife, shoreline village, East Village-Arts District, 4th Street Retro Row, beautiful waterfront scenery withing walking distance, routes for riding your bike around downtown grade separated as well as a bike path on the beach, there is also decent public transportation in Long Beach with a transit mall in downtown to get you to most destinations around the city. Then we have rail service to downtown LA, and to LAX. Long Beach in itself is a decent size city in the LA Metro with a population of around 500,000 within about 50 square miles.

You can probably find a two bedroom condo in downtown a few blocks away from the ocean in your price range in a decent building. Perhaps some even in buildings built middle 1980's or 90's with a pool. Still you better hurry because they are going back up fast. I remember just 7 or 8 years ago units in my building were selling for $300,000 and more.

[PDF]

Originally Posted by LA Fan

I can vouch for this as well, I have lived in downtown Long Beach near the ocean for 13 years. Of course it's not the best neighborhood as compared to Belmont Shores/Heights but it's affordable and fairly safe, and very walkable. There are two fairly new supermarkets in the area, plus it's close to numerous attractions (movie theater, Performing Arts Center, waterfront dining, restaurnats/coffeehouses, farmers market every Friday at CityPlace, nightlife, shoreline village, East Village-Arts District, 4th Street Retro Row, beautiful waterfront scenery withing walking distance, routes for riding your bike around downtown grade separated as well as a bike path on the beach, there is also decent public transportation in Long Beach with a transit mall in downtown to get you to most destinations around the city. Then we have rail service to downtown LA, and to LAX. Long Beach in itself is a decent size city in the LA Metro with a population of around 500,000 within about 50 square miles.

You can probably find a two bedroom condo in downtown a few blocks away from the ocean in your price range in a decent building. Perhaps some even in buildings built middle 1980's or 90's with a pool. Still you better hurry because they are going back up fast. I remember just 7 or 8 years ago units in my building were selling for $300,000 and more.

Is Long Beach really that much cheaper than say, downtown LA or something? Certainly for a beach area it is.

The other day I was in downtown Long Beach and Belmont Shore. Is the latter supposed to be the white/rich area? I liked the area, rode the Long Beach transit system which was pretty good.

People in the area were friendly, however places seemed kind of dead and the area had sort of an empty feel to it. I guess it's supposed to be like that since it really is its own medium-size city.

Are people put off by Long Beach since it is close to some dangerous areas? Not sure I would want to live there, but it seemed OK.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by PDF

Is the latter supposed to be the /rich area? I liked the area, rode the Long Beach transit system which was pretty good.

fyp

They are just rich areas here.

[LA Fan]

Originally Posted by PDF

Is Long Beach really that much cheaper than say, downtown LA or something? Certainly for a beach area it is.

The other day I was in downtown Long Beach and Belmont Shore. Is the latter supposed to be the white/rich area? I liked the area, rode the Long Beach transit system which was pretty good.

People in the area were friendly, however places seemed kind of dead and the area had sort of an empty feel to it. I guess it's supposed to be like that since it really is its own medium-size city.

Are people put off by Long Beach since it is close to some dangerous areas? Not sure I would want to live there, but it seemed OK.

Depends on where you live, I would say the highrises on Ocean will probably be slightly more expensive than downtown LA. Belmont Heights which by the way is a beautiful neighborhood would be less expensive than a comparable area in the city of LA such as perhaps the Miracle Mile/Mid-City. To me I find these areas look very similar, but IMO Belmont Heights is a but less congested, but yet less hostile to pedestrian since they don't have wide boulevards like over in LA.

As far as being dead, I wouldn't say it's dead, but compared to LA, or downtown LA then it would be. There is always something going on in the city through out the year. Pine Avenue in downtown LB is active at night on weekends, and has it's fair share of the business lunch crowd during the week. Overall it's more laid back than LA, and even Santa Monica, it certainly has a different vibe than it's bigger sister city in the area. To me LB style is a cross between urban, then you have your typical beach culture, college kids(Belmont Shores 2nd Street), Retro/Rockabilly types, and gay/lesbian culture but slightly conservative as compared to West Hollywood. There is no part of the city that reminds me of style/culture of lets say west LA/Venice/Santa Monica, Long Beach is a bit more down to earth.

As far as crime, there is no area in Long Beach that compares to the worst parts of LA. Yet there are some rough spots, but the are tame in comparison. They may look gritty and poor but not really all that bad. I think some people see the gritty parts and buy into the whole gangsta rap scene and think all of the Long Beach is like this, this is far from reality. Remember the movie Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank? True story about some of the kids, but way over exaggerated. Wilson High is in a decent neighborhood, and is a pretty good school where many parents who kids live outside the neighborhood are on a waiting list to get their kids in. These kids just happened to be from some poorer areas around they city, but believe me they were only a few, it's hardly a bad area, its pretty nice around there.

[nobody067]

i would suggest Baldwin Hills or Ladera Heights. those are very nice areas and if you have a car,close to both downtown LA and LAX. also close to a lot of beaches.

[jm1982]

Regarding the Chicago properties. I confess ignorance about the areas they are in...but it's interesting that their prices are still 4 or 5 times lower than the height of the market...and places in L.A are back to the height already..

Were the areas really not "bad areas' when they were 200k+ ? We all know the reason they went high (cheap/free money)

Nonetheless...i'm pretty sure you should be able to find some properties in decent areas with bigger returns than L.A

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by allenk893

None of your criteria exist in LA. Your expectations are unrealistically high with a small budget. I would think about renting if I were you.

24 hours in LA taught you that?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by C. Maurio

I am thinking about someday moving there. I have always wanted to go to California but the real estate prices I see on line there are down right scary and I live in Chicagoland and thought this was about as high as they get. Surely there are decent places in or around Los Angeles for less than $300,000! I am looking for something around maybe $170,000 in a decent fairly safe area with decent schools in case my grandkids might want to come for a year or so someday. Prefer someplace on the bus/train system there. Either a condo or house prefer 3 bedrooms and a community pool would be nice too. Where might one look?

In Southern California, Affordable, Close, Desirable: Pick Any Two.

If it is affordable and close, it isn't desirable
If it is affordable and desirable, it isn't close
If it is desirable and close, it isn't affordable.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by C. Maurio

I am thinking about someday moving there. I have always wanted to go to California but the real estate prices I see on line there are down right scary and I live in Chicagoland and thought this was about as high as they get. Surely there are decent places in or around Los Angeles for less than $300,000! I am looking for something around maybe $170,000 in a decent fairly safe area with decent schools in case my grandkids might want to come for a year or so someday. Prefer someplace on the bus/train system there. Either a condo or house prefer 3 bedrooms and a community pool would be nice too. Where might one look?

How close to LA do you need to be?

Redlands in the IE has exactly what you are looking for, except the train into LA is a bit far away(San Bernadino...probably a 10-15 minute drive.). Its about 70 miles from Downtown Los Angeles...an untenable drive at rush hour, probably an hour and a half total morning commute by metrolink, and probably about the same time to drive to the OC beaches. Its at the foothills of the mountains where Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead are, probably an hour and 15 minute drive to Big Bear.

Schools rank between 6-8 on the California school performance map, which makes them above average to good, and basically excellent for the area. And its safe.

Theres just not a lot listed right now as the market is very tight with inventory(and IMO leading to temporarily inflated prices).

Theres four listings at the moment in Redlands under $200K and all look like they need work.

Theres several listings in the $200-300K range and some look nice and are located in the part of town where the better schools are:

124 PARKWOOD Dr, Redlands, CA 92373 | MLS# EV13032386 | Redfin

IMO its an excelllent opportunity to rent and get familiar with the area before committing to a purchase.

Drawbacks are that its very hot in the summer and the smog can get bad. Of course, you can always head up into the mountains on the smoggy days.


You may want to post into the Inland Empire forum if you are interested in learning more.

[loloroj]

Catalina.