Closer to Marina Del Rey, or Closer to Burbank/Glendale? (Santa Ana: apartment, foreclosure)

[misscassandra]

Hi all, thanks in advance for all advice and guidance.

My work is moving me to LA (from the SF bay area) in the next 60 days (exact timeline TBD, but very quickly). I'm in my mid-thirties and married, my husband and I don't have kids - just fur babies (one chihuahua/terrier mix dog and two indoor cats).

The two most important accounts I'll work with are in Marina Del Rey and Burbank, so I'd like to locate close to one or the other. At each of these clients, I'll likely work in their offices one day a week, at least for a couple of hours.

Some things that I'd like to consider are air quality, safe feeling, convenience to grocery, hospitals, walkable coffee shops. I'm going to compare the two areas and research.

One thing I think is that if we did choose to be closer to the Burbank client, I think we would like Glendale. It seems to have more shopping and creature comforts along with newer amenities. I visited there a couple of years ago and had coffee at a really hipster coffee place with free wifi.

That said, I've never been to Marina Del Rey, but have always fantasized about living right on the ocean. I think the air quality would be better out there and I'm going to look into weather and climate differences.

Your input is very welcome!

EDIT: I am also reading similar threads.

[quizzer25]

Marina Delray and other beach cities like Redondo tend to be expensive.
Why don't you consider Burbank or Pasadena?

[misscassandra]

We definitely can consider Burbank or Pasadena, I need to educate myself more on those two towns, especially since it looks like we can rent a house for similar pricing as a 2B/2BA apartment in MDR.

Do you think the air quality is noticeably different between there and MDR?

[DKM]

MDR will be 10 degrees colder and that's not necessarily a great thing in March. Glendale would be a great base camp for 2 months in LA. Air quality? Hard to say because sometimes its worse at the coast than inland (right now actually).

[misscassandra]

That's a great insight, thank you. I incorrectly assumed the coast meant ocean air.

[Xanathos]

We live in MDR.

We like it a lot, but it's not a real "happening" spot. It shuts down early. I wouldn't call it "sleepy", per se, but by LA standards it's downright comatose. It's about as safe as you can get in the LA area. You still have to be aware of your surroundings, but you never feel innately nervous. LEO's also do a pretty good job of driving the bums out of the area. Super walkable, though for things like grocery shopping, we do hop in a car, and the restaurants are surprisingly mediocre. The commute times are dead simple down Silicon Beach, which was our big goal, though things can get a bit clogged. I can't imagine a drive into Burbank being pleasant, but I've not attempted it - it sounds like a pure nightmare, though. My guess is it's at least 90 minutes. Thing about the coastal cities is there are limited ingress/egress points, so getting into or out of them is a challenge. Air quality is subjective. We find it smotheringly bad, but we came from a very clean city. I guess by area standards, it's pretty good, though. We do rather like the smell of the ocean, views, sounds, etc. though.

The big thing you'll have to be prepared for is price. We paid almost 5 million dollars for our home and, since moving here, I can't recall seeing anything for less than about 2, so the barrier to entry is pretty high. We even recently went to a foreclosure auction, and not even that cracked under that entry point. It's worth mentioning, because Glendale is going to be night-and-day cheaper to get into.

[BRinSM]

I moved to the Bay Area from LA last year, but I can say without a doubt that commuting to MDR and the westside as a whole is more difficult than getting to Burbank (though that is no walk in the park). I would think somewhere like Culver City would give you easy access to MDR and easy freeway access for days when you need to be in the valley. Culver City would also check all of your boxes for neighborhood amenities.

[misscassandra]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I wonder if it makes a difference if we consider that my husband, an accountant, will need to find work once we arrive. We are thinking there might be better options for him close to home if we live in Glendale/Burbank, but I could be wrong. Perhaps a drive to downtown LA from MDR wouldn't be that bad? I can't tell from Google Maps and plugging in different times, the ranges are so large.

[BRinSM]

Lots of accounting work to be found in downtown as well as Century City. The valley will also have options between Woodland Hills and Glendale, but probably not as concentrated as the other two I mentioned.

[Cloudwalker]

What is your budget, OP? That might be the biggest determining factor.

You will have a much faster commute going from MDR/surrounds to Burbank than the other way around as it will be a reverse commute. Most East/West traffic is coming into the Westside in the morning and leaving in the afternoon.

Generally the air quality is much better closer to the coast than further inland such as Burbank or Glendale because the prevailing wind is from the ocean. Currently we have Santa Ana conditions with winds coming from the desert so the coastal air quality is a bit meh. Most of the year that is not the case.

The coast can be a lot cooler than Burbank, but many people seek that more moderate temperature. We live in MDR, don't have air conditioning. I wouldn't dream of living without it in Burbank.

Agree with the suggestion to look at Culver City, also West LA and large parts of the 90066 zip code, good compromise between neighborhood amenities, price and proximity to clients and freeways.