Moving to LA - Will I be able to afford a house?

[Pro1000]

Is it possible for you to live/work in the Central Valley where home prices are cheaper and your money would go farther? Its different and sort of a downgrade lifestyle wise than the cities on the coast but if you really want home ownership in Cali then I'd look there first. You don't want to have a huge down payment, sky high mortgage, plus a high cost of living by trying to do LA or the Bay Area if you're not making six figures or more a year

[FirebirdCamaro1220]

Originally Posted by Miss Pip

FHA loan is helpful for first time home buyers. You should be looking at real estate sites like Redfin and Zillow to see home prices and talk to real estate agents.

Monterey Park is mostly Asian and more on the expensive side.

Montebello is a mix of Asian and Latino.

Hacienda Heights is mostly Asian.

OP should also look into Rowland Heights

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by fajoooo

My question is, for those of you who have bought a house in LA/SF, how do you manage to do it?

We started out buying a fixer or a condo.

Originally Posted by fajoooo

I am looking to rent (for now) with a budget of $2,250. I'll be working in Whittier and not sure where to live. Any advice on that front?

What about Brea? You're smart to start out renting to see if you like the area.

[SoCal_Transplant]

Originally Posted by CALGUY

Yes, but where one saves is no huge mortgage payments on their house.
Not sure, but most mobile homes are below $200,000 so mortgage payments would not be that high, as compared to a traditional home.
Depending on the location, space rentals are, on average, in the $400 to $800 bracket.
Mortgage, plus space rental would still be a lot less that a conventional home.

Property taxes are also non-existent on a MH. Huge thing to consider when buying.

[Grlzrl]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

A conventional loan can qualify you on a monthly debt-to-income (DTI) ratio up to 45% but you'll need to provide a 20% down payment, plus closing cost which is usually another 2% of purchasing price. Based on your income alone ($65K), you can qualify to around a $500K house but the total monthly payment (including insurance & property tax) will be around $2323/mo. That's assuming you can get a 30 yr fixed loan at 2.5%.

If you qualify with your g/f's combined income, you can qualify to over $1M homes. So you'd better be nice to her

A million dollar home with $115k in income? That's asking for trouble. What happens if one of them loses their job? That's the kind of thing that created the 2008 crash. Don't do it, OP.

Is there another place you can move? Are your jobs remote?

[timtemtym]

I would look at Buena Park, La Mirada, or Fullerton. There are some nice, newer apartments that aren't too pricey and not too far from Whittier. Downtown Fullerton has a fun scene for going out since there is a big university there.

I used to take the metrolink from anaheim to DTLA and the most dressed up people on that route got on at the Fullerton station. It has a large Asian population and it is a nice, safe area. Anywhere within a reasonable commute from Whittier is going to have a Latino population as well.

Rents are good right now in SoCal. If you want a real bargain, look at the platinum triangle area of Anaheim (near Angel Stadium). They WAY overbuilt new complexes there and some of them just finished construction last spring. That area has good access to the 5 which is flying in the morning heading north until you hit that LA County line. The Auto Center exit is the last good exit before the major traffic hits. The negative to that area is there aren't a lot of grocery stores or stores you'd want in the immediate area. Hopefully they fix that soon.