Relocating Boston to Los Angeles (Empire: 2014, renting, buying a house)

[inquisitive2]

Anyone from Boston who has relocated to Los Angeles?
How do salaries and cost of living compare? Job applications and hiring process easy or difficult? Is Los Angeles as youth oriented as it is made out to be making it harder for people in 40s and 50s difficult to find jobs?

[ryanms3030]

Moved from Boston 10 years ago. Cost of living and salaries are similar. Housing market is probably a little tougher here. I think business everywhere are skewed towards younger employees for obvious reasons but plenty of people in 40s and 50s working here. Just start applying and try to find a job before moving. If you can't find a job before relocating then that's a sign that you might not easily find a job here.

[RockyRoadg]

It all depends on what your skills are, do you have a trade?

[Lablitz]

Moved 1 year ago from Boston. Salary and cost of living are same as Boston.
Good luck

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by inquisitive2

Anyone from Boston who has relocated to Los Angeles?
How do salaries and cost of living compare? Job applications and hiring process easy or difficult? Is Los Angeles as youth oriented as it is made out to be making it harder for people in 40s and 50s difficult to find jobs?

Have you even been to LA? If not come visit first.

FYI, there are older people here and even obese people.

[adr3naline]

The answers to your Salary & Ageism questions will be dependent on your field of discipline.

For example, I work in tech. Tech salaries are generally higher in LA than Boston (we have employees in Boston and their salaries are ~7% less), and ageism is very real but swept under the rug.

So what field are you in?

[hken]

Boston native here who spent 2001-2014 in Los Angeles - truly the best decision of my life to make that move. From a COL perspective if you are renting it is very comparable. If you are buying a house, different ballpark as homes are more (but in fairness much less maintenance costs). Gas is more costly in LA and you end up driving a ton whereas in Boston you might not use your car much.

BIG issue is work and where to live. You can EASILY get stuck doing commutes 2 hrs each way if you don't line up your job and housing in the right proximity...quite frankly moving to LA to be miserable 5 days a week in traffic is a recipe for disaster. It is VERY hard finding a job cross country so really it all starts with the job...if you end up with a job near the Inland Empire you are living near the Inland Empire an quite frankly that's a lame place to live. So don't assume LA is all the same.

I think it can be a lonely city too. When you are older in life it s harder to make friends. LA does have more older single people around but it's so sprawly so finding those connections can be hard. Can't beat the weather and people way more friendly than the M*******s.

[radiolibre99]

COL and wages the same in both cities? I lived in Boston but didn't work I was a student but that surprises me as I figured the salaries and wages would be a bit higher in Boston. Outside of a few industries I've found LA wages to be a bit low relative to the COL.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

COL and wages the same in both cities? I lived in Boston but didn't work I was a student but that surprises me as I figured the salaries and wages would be a bit higher in Boston. Outside of a few industries I've found LA wages to be a bit low relative to the COL.

according to this, cost of living is about 2% more in Boston

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not ok

Avg salaries for similar jobs are also slightly higher in Boston. But basically there will not be much difference

[radiolibre99]

Cool thanks.