Help-choosing between Torrance, HB and Costa Mesa (Long Beach, Huntington Beach: apartments, to rent)

[sheggie]

Hi, I'm in the process of relocating for a new job to the So. Cal area and I have the choice of working at three different locations. I’d love your suggestions or comments on the quality of life and housing choices in these 3 places.

My husband and I are in our 60s with grown kids, so schools are not an issue. Would love to buy but know that $750K doesn't go far.

Available Work Locations:
Torrance – PCH and Vista Montana
Huntington Beach – Warner and Goldenwest
Costa Mesa – Harbor Blvd and Wilson

What’s important to us is:
-Sunshine but not too hot in the summer (coming from rainy WA state)
-Live near work (15-20 min)
-30 minutes max to the beach
-active, friendly community
-night life and restaurants nearby
-good walkable areas, safe at night
-back yard or patio
-not insane traffic

Are there any ideal neighborhoods like this near any of these locations?

TIA for any advice on neighborhoods and which location to choose!

[SoCal_Native]

Is a condo or town-home OK? If so, you can probably live in a pretty nice area. A SFR at $750K is more likley to be a fixer, small, in a crowded blue collar neighborhood.
If I were you and I would look at condos/townhomes, I'd look at either the HB or CM location they're only 10 miles from each other.
For living, I'd look south of the 55, may be a challenge with $750K or around UCI, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo, Laguna Woods (retirement community), Laguna Hills. Commuting will be pretty good once the 405 freeway construction is complete but it depends on your hours too. Starting early, like 6 or 7 eliminates a LOT of traffic. Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, Foothill Ranch, and Dana Point are nice too BUT they will at at least ten minutes to your commute. San Clemente is very nice but that's another 20 minutes.
I'd use Redfin for filtering homes.
You can look at a map. The more inland, the warmer it is in summer. (This summer has been very mild so far, last summer was brutal).
All these places I mentioned are very clean, planned, civilized, and low crime. The kids in the schools are all pretty sharp. These are all family communities.
Huntington Beach itself is cool in summer and you'd have no commute. You'd have to check for condos or townhomes. Use Redfin.

[kauaidooley]

Do not know what the rent is now.....you can check

But we keep life fun, easy, and simple and gravitate toward the beach life style.

I lived for about 12 years at Harbor Lights Apartments, in HUNTINGTON HARBOR, Realy nice area.
The address was on Algonquin.....just up from Warner and PCH.

Large rooms, underground parking, gated community, huge park like courtyard, central area
with swimming pool and jacuzzi and bbq's. I do not remember if we had A/C, but we did have
electrical heating with thermostats in the individual bedrooms.

Fitness center on property. Assigned under ground parking.

Oh, and chutes for the trash, just open the hatch, and down it went into the dumpster.

Laundry rooms with Several washers and dryers in each section.

Indoor mail boxes just a few steps down the hallway. Life made easy.

Walk to the beach, but about a two minute drive to Bolsa Chica Beach as well as Sunset Beach.
Note: Bolsa Chica merges with huntington beach, so you have miles and miles of beaches.

About 2 minute drive to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands trails and hike. Very nice, lots of sea birds, ith
wide open spaces just inland from the ocean. Corner of Warner and PCH.

Huntington Harbor Mall is next door to Harbor Lights, with shops, grocery store, Huntington Harbor Athletic Club,
Car wash / gas station, bank, etc, etc. Also another huge market and shopping village about a one or two minute
drive inland.

Plenty of Great restaurants and bars, in the immediate area, and on PCH, in Sunset and a few minutes more to
great old town Seal Beach. Quaint and fun main street, pier, a beach.

Bolsa Chica Beach Bike Trails, ride south to Huntington Main Beach, and pier, and main street , or north to Long Beach
and Shore Line Village,

Also, along PCH, in sunset, there is the Huntington Harbor marina , shops, rent kayaks,
eat out doors on the board walk overlooking the docked boats, and plenty of shops, restauants, bars, etc.

Non pretentious friendly people, and Erica lived in old Town Seal Beach, and I lived in Huntington Harbor.
We had fave places over the few mile area that we frequented quite a bit. Really liked old town Seal Beach
and Alimitos Bay.

We had absolutely no interest in spending our retirement savings a owning a house. Just not important to us,
as we prefer adventure and traveling. Skippering boats, our selves, in Tahiti, Australia, the Caribbean,
Ireland, and belonged to a sailing club in Newport Beach for local coastal sailing and Catalina and the
Channel Islands. And several land based trips to Kauai Island , Hi.

The Harbor Lights apartments were very , very , nice, well kept up, with the courtyard , which is very large,
and nicely landscaped . I preferred working out at the HH Athletic Club and walked over in just
a couple of minutes every week day morning at about 5 am. Met people who became good friends.

Just of the top of my head , some of our fave places. There are many, many more. This was a few years ago.

* House of Brews : Walk over next door to the the Huntington Harbor Mall
* Arbors : Very nice restaurant and bar, entertainment in the lounge
* Capt Jacks: Great foot and fun on PCH, in Sunset Beach. Entertainment . 4 minute drive
* Patty's Place in Seal Beach .....classy, high quality everything
* Walts Warf : Super fave for fish...Old town Seal Beach on Main Street
* O'Malleys on Main: Quality, Irish pub style, warm woods and fire place. Main street Seal Beach
* The Hang out, on Main Street, Seal Beach next to Seal Beach Pier
* Several others on Main Street, and also quaint shops.

Plus Seal beach pier for surfing, body surfing, wading and soaking up the rays.

All of the above are in very close proximity.

OK, if this area is so great, why did we move after 12 years ?.

Because we had visited Kauai island for 12 years and fell in love with Kauai, the beauty and the people.
Erica came over to my place in HH, and she said she just checked with HR....( supervising M.D for
L.A. County Health Dept.) She could retire early. Decision time.....DO WE WANT TO MOVE TO KAUAI.

The answer to that was...an immediate yes, and we had 10 marvelous years living full time on Kauai Island
across from Kalapaki Beach ( lihue marriot area ).

We had to leave kauai, and selected Dana Point, South Orange County, but even now, living in South County,
When I go up to the VA Health Center in Long Beach, afterwards we always stop in
Old Town Seal Beach for a happy lunch. Sometimes have friends meet us there.

Lots of choices of places to rent, you might check out some of the area that is described above
and see if it fits your lifestyle.

The above is only a small part of living at the beach.. Easy going life style, neat people, safe , great
weather in general, cool westerly breezes off the ocean, and just feels good .

Denny and Erica

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by sheggie

Hi, I'm in the process of relocating for a new job to the So. Cal area and I have the choice of working at three different locations. I’d love your suggestions or comments on the quality of life and housing choices in these 3 places.

My husband and I are in our 60s with grown kids, so schools are not an issue. Would love to buy but know that $750K doesn't go far.

Available Work Locations:
Torrance – PCH and Vista Montana
Huntington Beach – Warner and Goldenwest
Costa Mesa – Harbor Blvd and Wilson

What’s important to us is:
-Sunshine but not too hot in the summer (coming from rainy WA state)
-Live near work (15-20 min)
-30 minutes max to the beach
-active, friendly community
-night life and restaurants nearby
-good walkable areas, safe at night
-back yard or patio
-not insane traffic

Are there any ideal neighborhoods like this near any of these locations?

TIA for any advice on neighborhoods and which location to choose!

Harbor and Wilson is crap.

Warner and Golden West are meh to ok.

Don’t know about Torrance

Have you looked into Fountain Valley?

[sheggie]

Socal Native- Thanks so much for the info. Hate the idea of a commute longer than 20 mins, since I'm doing 45 mins now and would love to shorten that. But it looks like if we decide to buy, then we'll have to live farther away from the Costa Mesa or the HB locations.

[sheggie]

kauaidooley, you've almost sold us on HB! The other issue is that I'm getting pressure to take the Torrance location, since that's opening first. Any thoughts on Torrance?

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by sheggie

Socal Native- Thanks so much for the info. Hate the idea of a commute longer than 20 mins, since I'm doing 45 mins now and would love to shorten that. But it looks like if we decide to buy, then we'll have to live farther away from the Costa Mesa or the HB locations.

I would avoid Costa Mesa and Torrance. HB can fit. I lived in Costa Mesa.


Torrance itself is not bad, but it puts you right in the middle of a lot of traffic.

[sheggie]

Thanks, Electrician- good to know about those locations.

Expat- why avoid CM? also because of the traffic?

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by sheggie

Thanks, Electrician- good to know about those locations.

Expat- why avoid CM? also because of the traffic?

Parts of CM or nice and parts (West of Harbor Blvd) are not. Traffic can be really bad especially on weekends and Summer as all traffic flows in to a point in the city center and then all of it is on Newport BLVD to the beach. There are ways around it, but it is still hectic. Just there late last year. There are homeless and gang issues and other related problems, more so as far as I can tell than HB. It is still popular due to its closeness to the beach as home prices are high, but even though growing up I did not like HB, I would recommend it for you over CM. Just my opinion.

[kauaidooley]

No clue about Torrance, but agree with the traffic and getting anywhere.

Might add on another comment.

from Huntington Harbor ( Huntington Beach ) we could easily drive up
Bolsa Chica ( North bound ) to the 405 freeway and the 22 freeway. Easy access

or if heading south.....

We could drive out Warner, ( East bound ) to the 405 going to more south destinations )

For Coastal , we would pretty much stay on PCH. Better view of the ocean, but did hit slows
near Main Street at the Huntington Beach Pier. Summer is what it is.

The Bolsa Chica off ramp signs can be a little confusing, since Bolsa Chica road goes south of the frwy.
North of the freeway the same road becomes Valley View. Same road, just a name change.

Costa Mesa : EX Pat is right on......due to the summer beach traffic, going to balboa or newport,
thru Costa Mesa, traffic is a monster. Newport Blvd, and Harbor blvd are jammed beasts and join
together in Costa Mesa.

When I was living inland near Disney Land, , and working at the Newport Sailing Club, I would
take back streets and side streets, and off beat alternate routs to the sailing Club in Lido Village. Located PCH and Newport Blvd.

When living in Huntington Harbor, I took PCH. ocean views and less stress.

Good on you for doing your research and getting great help from the posters here.