Is there a way for me to not be working poor (relo)? (Los Angeles: rentals, mortgage)

[huno]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrepeMan

Thanks for the many replies. The 3 bedroom requirement is really one of those mandatory items. There's a non-negotiable need for a dedicated home office, and we're planning on having a kid in the near future. We're coming from a 5 bedroom home with over 4000 square feet on a 10,000 square foot lot now, so we're already lopping off 2 rooms and half the living space in our projections, which is a pretty significant concession. Our pooch is also not apartment friendly, she has energy and needs to be able to move around a bit. And she's family, so we're not giving her up.

If I have to commute for an hour or so, so be it. But I'm getting wildly varying answers as to whether Granada Hills is 1 hour from Santa Monica, or Thousand Oaks, or Culver City. Some say yes, some say no way. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test run it during primary commute hours while there.

To address commute times: not long ago I worked in Santa Monica (I currently live in West Hills). My commute, leaving at 10am, was about an hour; leaving at 5pm, my commute was 1-1.25 hours. I promise that you will NOT get to and from Granada Hills in an hour, unless you are driving when the sun isn't out–that involves taking the 405 and it'll be an hour to get from Santa Monica to the 101/405 interchange alone. You also cannot get to Thousand Oaks in an hour from Santa Monica during rush hour.

If a 3-bedroom house with a yard is a hard requirement, with your finances you are renting... You should look into Culver City (not sure what rents go for there but your commute should be roughly 30 minutes); if that's out of your price range look at the San Fernando Valley (Encino, Sherman Oaks, or perhaps Woodland Hills or West Hills, from which you can take the 27, onto the PCH into Santa Monica) or the South Bay (Redondo Beach, Torrance). I have been looking at renting in the South Bay and there are rental homes with your specifications for around $3k.

[BRinSM]

At your salary, you should also be eligible for some sort of equity stake in your company. My advice would be to rent in a fun neighborhood in/near Santa Monica for your first year and wait until you start vesting in your company stock before considering buying a place. In that time, you can get the lay of the land. The westside of LA is a fantastic place to live if you can afford it. The valley isn't a bad backup option, but the commute does suck and it will oppressively hot in the summer. As a pricing reference for the valley, I own a home not far from the 101/405 interchange that is in a nice, but far from fancy neighborhood. I could probably sell the 3/2 1600sf home for $750k right now. I'm currently renting it out for $3300. The commute from this house to Santa Monica is at least an hour during commuting hours (even more if you need to get all the way to the coast).

Back to the rent/buy conversation, you don't even know if you're going to like the area. I wouldn't commit myself to buying for at least a year. Prices will likely go up in that amount of time, but hopefully your savings will go up drastically in that amount of time as well.

Good luck!

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

At your salary, you should also be eligible for some sort of equity stake in your company. My advice would be to rent in a fun neighborhood in/near Santa Monica for your first year and wait until you start vesting in your company stock before considering buying a place. In that time, you can get the lay of the land. The westside of LA is a fantastic place to live if you can afford it. The valley isn't a bad backup option, but the commute does suck and it will oppressively hot in the summer. As a pricing reference for the valley, I own a home not far from the 101/405 interchange that is in a nice, but far from fancy neighborhood. I could probably sell the 3/2 1600sf home for $750k right now. I'm currently renting it out for $3300. The commute from this house to Santa Monica is at least an hour during commuting hours (even more if you need to get all the way to the coast).

Back to the rent/buy conversation, you don't even know if you're going to like the area. I wouldn't commit myself to buying for at least a year. Prices will likely go up in that amount of time, but hopefully your savings will go up drastically in that amount of time as well.

Good luck!

Companies still give stock options?

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrepeMan

Thanks for the many replies. The 3 bedroom requirement is really one of those mandatory items. There's a non-negotiable need for a dedicated home office, and we're planning on having a kid in the near future. We're coming from a 5 bedroom home with over 4000 square feet on a 10,000 square foot lot now, so we're already lopping off 2 rooms and half the living space in our projections, which is a pretty significant concession. Our pooch is also not apartment friendly, she has energy and needs to be able to move around a bit. And she's family, so we're not giving her up. Our debt is what I would term OK. We splurged on a nice car and pay $1,000 a month for it, but we've only got 4 payments left, so that'll be off the books by Thanksgiving. We figure we'll need a 2nd car in LA, but it can be a run of the mill 30K situation. Student loans are a thorn in our side to the tune of about $600 a month between us, but there's nothing we can do about that. Our revolving debt is right around average household level at around 17K or so thanks to some medical issues and the loss of her income while she went back to school, and we'd like to focus the first few months of her job paying that down to $0. She shops at Ross and Nordstrom Rack, I shop at whomever has Levi's on sale and get most of my shirts from tech conferences or shirt.woot, so we don't really splurge on clothing. We do like to dine out quite a bit. We take 1 nice vacation a year, and 1 cheap one. As I said, schools won't be important to us until at least 2023.

If I have to commute for an hour or so, so be it. I should be able to work from home 2 days a week to help deal with that problem. But I'm getting wildly varying answers as to whether Granada Hills is 1 hour from Santa Monica, or Thousand Oaks, or Culver City. Some say yes, some say no way. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test run it during primary commute hours while there.

You can find a nice house for around a million or maybe less in Sherman Oaks:

https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood/...use,min-beds=3

Commute and neighborhoodwise that would be the best option. You would be looking at 45-90 minutes commute each way depending on factors. The downside if you plan on having kids is it's in LAUSD school district which means you will have to try to get into charter schools or pay for private schools. A place like Thousand Oaks has excellent public schools and is a great place to raise a family but you could realistically be looking at 2 hours in the car each way of your commute. But those are compromises in LA. I know plenty of people who commute 2+ hours each way so they can own a house somewhere with good schools but they are also making less money and don't even have the option to rent closer to work in places with good schools.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

Companies still give stock options?

Yes, especially if you're in tech, which SM has plenty of these days.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrepeMan

But I'm getting wildly varying answers as to whether Granada Hills is 1 hour from Santa Monica, or Thousand Oaks, or Culver City. Some say yes, some say no way. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test run it during primary commute hours while there.

The reason you are getting different answers is because you will have a wildly varying commute depending on the day's traffic conditions. Sometimes but not often the traffic might flow smoothly and you will make it in 75 minutes. Change that to a rainy dark December day and the same commute will take 3 hours.

You have the chance to live in the near perfect weather conditions of Santa Monica! If instead you decide to commute a couple hours or more everyday to the smoggy hot San Fernando Valley, you will be missing out on most of the benefits of living in Southern California.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by capoeira

The reason you are getting different answers is because you will have a wildly varying commute depending on the day's traffic conditions. Sometimes but not often the traffic might flow smoothly and you will make it in 75 minutes. Change that to a rainy dark December day and the same commute will take 3 hours.

You have the chance to live in the near perfect weather conditions of Santa Monica! If instead you decide to commute a couple hours or more everyday to the smoggy hot San Fernando Valley, you will be missing out on most of the benefits of living in Southern California.

There can also be wildly different answers on commute depending on where exactly you are starting and ending. My Santa Clarita/Burbank commute takes 35-45 minutes each way as long as nothing crazy happens. My job is next to the Burbank airport and my home is a couple of miles off the first Santa Clarita exit off the 5 so basically I am going form the southern most SCV exit to northern most Burbank exit and both locations are 1-2 miles from the exit. If I worked in Burbank by the Glendale boarder and lived in northern part of Santa Clarita and wasn't as close to the freeways my commute would probably be 60-75 minutes each way. Do you have to drive past a lot of schools and get stuck behind school buses during the year? How many traffic lights do you have to go through? In LA every little thing could tack another 5 minutes on that adds up.

Google maps lets you type in time and day you are traveling when you are looking at directions and it will tell you the expected drive time on that particular day/time and I have found it's actually very accurate. So if OP knows the times they will generally be commuting they can do a much better job calculating commute times with Google maps then by relying on strangers on the internet that don't have the exact same commute

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by capoeira

The reason you are getting different answers is because you will have a wildly varying commute depending on the day's traffic conditions. Sometimes but not often the traffic might flow smoothly and you will make it in 75 minutes. Change that to a rainy dark December day and the same commute will take 3 hours.

You have the chance to live in the near perfect weather conditions of Santa Monica! If instead you decide to commute a couple hours or more everyday to the smoggy hot San Fernando Valley, you will be missing out on most of the benefits of living in Southern California.

The SFV isn't always super hot . It also gets more sun shine . It can be overcast on the Westside and then sunny over in the SFV.

The SFV is huge with a population of millions of people and there are a bunch of different neighborhoods in the valley . If one lives in a decent neighborhood in the valley I don't think they are missing out on much .
Santa Monica is nice but also can have insane traffic and parking can be a real pain a lot of times .

If one is looking to buy a 3 bedroom 1800+ sq foot house the SFV is a better value than Santa Monica or most of the Westside .

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by jm1982

The SFV isn't always super hot . It also gets more sun shine . It can be overcast on the Westside and then sunny over in the SFV.

The SFV is huge with a population of millions of people and there are a bunch of different neighborhoods in the valley . If one lives in a decent neighborhood in the valley I don't think they are missing out on much .
Santa Monica is nice but also can have insane traffic and parking can be a real pain a lot of times .

If one is looking to buy a 3 bedroom 1800+ sq foot house the SFV is a better value than Santa Monica or most of the Westside .

They would be missing out on snobs, overcrowded beaches and tourists along with the traffic and parking issues

[69Charger]

I know a couple that lives in Northridge. He commutes to Pomona, and she commutes to Century City. They spend about equal time in the car, although some days HE beats her