L.A. is the most unaffordable city in the nation for buying OR renting! (Los Angeles: how much, neighborhoods)

[oping00]

Originally Posted by jamills21

I like Atlanta a lot, but your kidding yourself if ATL doesn't have serious issues as well.

You think I love atl, originally from Chicago. If LA fixed their issues I rather be there than here.

[moonsparkle]

The "wages" argument gets a bit overdone sometimes. It's really only those in specialized industries that already pay well regardless that incessantly quibble over a possible 15% salary increase in XYZ city.

Also, NY & SF are cities for business in the 9-5 traditional sense. More people "have it together" in those cities than LA.

[marilyn220]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Excellent points. I grew up in NY and was shocked to learn it costs something like $10 now for the honor of crossing the GW bridge.

You can do much better in LA.

Have friend of the family whose daughter took a job in Manhattan after college and of course had to live in Manhattan(Queens was beneath her).

She has a very good paying job but shares a 5th floor walk up with two other young women that is a one bedroom, sounds like something out of 1952.

In LA she would have one roommate living in a two bed/two bath apt. Or could even afford a decent one bedroom on her own.

I think what is driving this thread is the high cost of buying a home in the LA area, not the day to day living expenses. Rent is lower in LA, utilities are lower, food is less, entertainment costs less, and there are plenty of high salaried jobs.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you on this. There are no high salaried jobs in LA for those who are not connected or specialized in something.

This isn't something I'm making up either. Most jobs pay under $13 an hour and many of these have the NERVE to ask for a degree!

But I will say this too about NYC, since I've been back here (two years), the salaries are just like those in LA now and so is having "connections". I wouldn't have the job that I have now, if a friend didn't "hook me up". I'd probably still be unemployed or begging for a retail job.

The last 12 years under ex-mayor Bloomberg, wages went down considerably, especially for the natives. Transplants are the ones getting the "high salaried positions" over the locals. Temp work is garbage just like it is all over the country.

LA is a place that when you move with no job, then you need to have some sort of independent side biz that will keep you afloat. It seems like this is how it's becoming all over the country though.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by oping00

You think I love atl, originally from Chicago. If LA fixed their issues I rather be there than here.

Fix the issues? Why would they? There's no incentive in it for the politicians, they can keep doing the same old same old and nobody really cares. Very few pay attention to local politics here or care.

[jen5276]

Originally Posted by marilyn220

I will have to respectfully disagree with you on this. There are no high salaried jobs in LA for those who are not connected or specialized in something.

This isn't something I'm making up either. Most jobs pay under $13 an hour and many of these have the NERVE to ask for a degree!

But I will say this too about NYC, since I've been back here (two years), the salaries are just like those in LA now and so is having "connections". I wouldn't have the job that I have now, if a friend didn't "hook me up". I'd probably still be unemployed or begging for a retail job.

The last 12 years under ex-mayor Bloomberg, wages went down considerably, especially for the natives. Transplants are the ones getting the "high salaried positions" over the locals. Temp work is garbage just like it is all over the country.

LA is a place that when you move with no job, then you need to have some sort of independent side biz that will keep you afloat. It seems like this is how it's becoming all over the country though.

I was going to say, it's just as bad here in NYC (where I live also), but you beat me to it!

My BF was out of work for a year and a half....couldn't even find a crappy office job. Thank goodness my friend got him in her hospital, now he's in the union and making decent money.

My BF has a lot of family out in LA though, and they all do just fine with regular jobs, no one is making six figures either...

Hope we can eventually make it out there....

[West of Encino]

Could the local government be why LA is expensive or is it the landlords?

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by marilyn220

I will have to respectfully disagree with you on this. There are no high salaried jobs in LA for those who are not connected or specialized in something.

This isn't something I'm making up either. Most jobs pay under $13 an hour and many of these have the NERVE to ask for a degree!

But I will say this too about NYC, since I've been back here (two years), the salaries are just like those in LA now and so is having "connections". I wouldn't have the job that I have now, if a friend didn't "hook me up". I'd probably still be unemployed or begging for a retail job.

The last 12 years under ex-mayor Bloomberg, wages went down considerably, especially for the natives. Transplants are the ones getting the "high salaried positions" over the locals. Temp work is garbage just like it is all over the country.

LA is a place that when you move with no job, then you need to have some sort of independent side biz that will keep you afloat. It seems like this is how it's becoming all over the country though.

This is a trend that is happening in lots of places. Example of the middle class falling out.

Only reason I could think of that transplants would get the higher salaried jobs is because they can come from anywhere in the country and world.

It does seem that NYC is more for those with 'regular' careers.

In L.A it seems everyone has a side type gig , even those that are professionals. People seem more willing to get into different careers,etc.

The benefit of being in L.A seems to be if you can hustle or do things on your own - own business,etc and benefiting from it that way.

For example if you are in the restaurant business, there is a demand for pretty much any type of food in L.A , not the same in a lot of other places.

The actual jobs or gigs that people move to L.A for are the ones that you can't really do in too many places . Such a stylists , wardrobe designer, or some other entertainment industry jobs.

Spoke to a bartender the other day that was a stylist on the side and were talking about why people move to L.A and she she felt it was one of the only places where "creative" people could live in.

You hear that a lot, but then there are also scenes of creative people in other places. I guess it just depends specifically what one is looking for.

I'm not in that scene, but I think it would be more interesting to be in a growing/new scene where one could be a bit of a pioneer rather than an already super established city like L.A and NYC.

I've read a lot of criticism about the NYC art scene in that it's just so saturated at this point. It's become pretty much the domain of the wealthy .

Then you hear about people that doing things in places like Detroit and actually being able to live there and do their art , without just struggling and dreaming about it.

This is an interesting recent article about this , and starts off with this Patti Smith quote I read once

Cultural Projects Revitalizing Detroit

___
“New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities,” Patti Smith told a crowd of students on a 2010 panel with Jonathan Lethem at Cooper Union. “Detroit. Poughkeepsie…. New York City has been taken away from you…. So my advice is: Find a new city.”
___

[HappyinCali]

Housing Woes Worse in L.A. Than New York, San Francisco - Bloomberg

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by oping00

Housing Woes Worse in L.A. Than New York, San Francisco

Housing Woes Worse in L.A. Than New York, San Francisco - Bloomberg

Anybody who thinks LA quality of life is better than other big cities should read this.

What a dumb article.

"About half of area households spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing, including costs such as utilities and property taxes, the highest proportion among 381 U.S. metropolitan areas, according to a report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Housing costs of 30 percent of income or less are “the traditional affordability standard” and those paying more are “cost burdened,” the study’s authors wrote."

OK, but why fail to mention that the statistics are basically equal in New York City and San Francisco? And if you just google this and look at other studies a higher percentage of NYC and San Fran residents fall into this cost burdened" category.

This is "reporting" with a goal, not a relaying of objective facts.

[jm1982]

Article starts with.. Jeanette Cross took out a payday loan to cover her May rent of $1,600 in South Los Angeles.

I wonder if Jeanette realizes she can buy a nice place in a nicer area than South LA for probably 1/2 or less of that $1600.

The writing is on the wall, L.A isn't for low wage earners anymore unless you are in a SECTION 8 or low priced rent control unit or bought when prices were much cheaper.


The sad part is some of this could be solved...except for this...

A dearth of funding for subsidized housing, community resistance to new projects and a decentralized power structure - - the county is divided into 88 separate cities -- contribute to the shortage of living options, particularly for renters, according to Ong, the UCLA professor.
Homebuilders have delayed, downsized or dropped plans for projects as residents thwart development using regulations such as the California Environmental Quality Act, established in 1970 to require environmental-impact reports, said Chris Thornberg, principal at Beacon Economics LLC, a Los Angeles-based research company.



So instead we people living in crappy housing in crappy neighborhoods for top dollar .


What a mess....