Family relocating with commute to BH - under 1M

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by Ingenere

Driving from Burbank to beverly hills will be an absolute nightmare. You might get a small house in hollywood hills.

Really? An absolute nightmare? Really?

While its not totally ideal, but I've drive. Barham to 101 to highland to Santa Monica into Beverly Hills at rush hour and it was about a 35 minute drive. GPS right now(754am) show that from basically the furthest part of Burbank to BH is 11.5 miles and a 34 minute drive using the following route:

Olive
Barham
Cahuenga
Highland
Santa Monica

I've had this disagreement with another person and that person just had a very odd misconception of how long a distance it was if you used surface streets instead of freeways. Granted 11 miles of LA surface streets is not ideal. But it's not all stop and go traffic either.

[Cloudwalker]

I wouldn't really agree about the fortress mentality, or at least, that hasn't been our experience. We live in Santa Monica but our sons often play soccer at the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center and we've made friends with quite a few families in the area who live in Rancho Park, Westwood, Cheviot Hills, Culver City. All are much closer to Beverly Hills than Burbank - 2-4 miles, as opposed to 11miles. If you lived in those areas, you could realistically anticipate being able to attend some of your kids' school events because it's so much closer, but you just couldn't do that with Burbank or Pasadena. Those are lovely areas with great communities, but, if it were me, I would consider them to be too far away. For your sanity and family harmony, you should try to make your commute as short as possible while still meeting your school and community criteria. The best thing to do is check out all your options before you make a decision.

[Magisan]

May be a bit late to reply to the OP, but for others browsing on city data, I'm going to have to strongly 2nd Cloudwalker's thoughts about living closer to BevHills (or one's job location.) And for the poster that claims Cheviot Hills, Rancho Park, Westwood, WLA, CulvCity communities have fortress mentalities, I very much disagree to such a blanket statement. There is much "community" found in these neighborhoods if you so choose to be part of. Not only do these nabes have strong neighborhood voices, rallying together to protect their community, there is also intimacy found by way of ones interests. Also, these areas have great public elementary schools, and their middle and high schools are working towards better options by way of Charter and Magnet. Pasadena, Burbank, Valley all too much for a daily commute to Bev Hills.

[2013_LA]

If you willing to go up to 1M, go buy a house in the South Bay (Manhattan Beach, El Segundo, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes)