Is there anywhere in OC within a 'commutable' distance to LA? (San Diego: insurance, house)

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally Posted by Jdawg8181

Wow thank you. I am really quite surprised how expensive it is. I live on LOng Island now so I am no stranger to high price living. The difference here is you can get good homes in good areas for around $500k's or $600k's .. the big thing being how expensive taxes are also.

Maybe we can look @ some areas in LA also. My husband just thinks LA is trashy and mentioned orange.

Before WFH, I commuted an hour both ways via train so I don't mind it.

Unless you work in Downtown LA, trains are useless. They don't go near LAX or Westwood. You can find condos in Culver City for under $600k, but probably not single family homes. You can find nice SFH in the Santa Clarita Valley for $600k and under.

I think your best plan is to rent near your work for 6 months and spend your time on weekends exploring areas to live and what commutes are worthwhile.

[lvmensch]

For 20 years we lived in OC (Los Alamitos) and commuted to El Segundo. That community and the neighboring towns were very heavily oriented to upper middle class commuters to Los Angeles.

We had easy access to the very nice park across the freeway in Long Beach and a 10 minute bike ride to the beach in Seal Beach. Schools were fine...we lived next to the high school but that tract is now up over a million. There are other tracts less expensive.

That commute is deceptive. It was generally a very fast commute as far north as the Harbor Freeway then the pits getting further north. Paid to know the side streets. But the good news was you could go well south with almost no impact on the commute...most of time was spent in the last 5 or 6 miles.

[OpinionatedUrbanist]

Originally Posted by Jdawg8181

Wow thank you. I am really quite surprised how expensive it is. I live on LOng Island now so I am no stranger to high price living. The difference here is you can get good homes in good areas for around $500k's or $600k's .. the big thing being how expensive taxes are also.

Maybe we can look @ some areas in LA also. My husband just thinks LA is trashy and mentioned orange.

Before WFH, I commuted an hour both ways via train so I don't mind it.

1.)
Long Island is not in the city.
Asking about home prices on the Westside of LA County is like asking about home prices in Manhattan. You need to be realistic here.
Like mentioned earlier, you can get a home for 600k or so, but it will be in a place that is hot, dry, and brown during the 5 -7 months of summer-like weather.

2.)
Yes, much of the city of LA is dirty. But not all of it. This is an enormous metro area. Again - you probably can't afford to buy in the nice areas. Just reassess your expectations in light of commute and budget.

3.)
Like I said earlier, you should just rent close to your office to start off. Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Santa Monica, Culver City, maybe even Century City. Try it out first as a renter. Don't be in such a rush to buy. 6 - 12 months of renting won't destroy you. Those places are relatively clean and safe.

[BRinSM]

When I worked on the westside, many of the people with families I worked with lived in the Thousand Oaks area. It's not close and certainly can be a very difficult commute, but it's nicer and newer and you get more bang for your buck relative to areas closer to the city. There's a lot of similarities between TO and parts of Orange County, including the schools that are very highly rated in both. If you did absolutely need a cleaner, safer suburban neighborhood closer than Irvine, this may be an option for you. The commute will still be over an hour each way with traffic, but if you stay further west (eg Agoura Hills), this may limit the pain to some degree.

[happygrrrl]

As a native Southern Californian, I can tell you that the only true deserts in SoCal are the Mojave & part of the Colorado Desert, including the Anza-Borrego SP, about 75 miles NE of San Diego, and the Imperial Valley of Imperial County, which is heavily irrigated to grow produce.

The rest of SoCal is just naturally dry & brown. If there are any "green areas", they are in the spring for a brief period after a lot of winter rain, or it is articially green by use of irrigation. One example is Irvine in OC. It is a planned city. The hills around Irvine are usually brown, unless there is a lot of winter rain. Even the mountainous areas of SoCal are not that green, due to perpetual drought, which weakened the conifers & encouraged blight. I moved to PNW after most of my life, & that was when I really noticed how brown SoCal is.

Regarding where to live, Culver City used to be a pleasant, middle-class city. I'm not sure how nice it is now, but I did notice that SFH seem to be around $1 million, & they are 1940s-60s era. I would not want to live further from 90066 than that. The traffic is crushing. It may have lightened some since the pandemic, but it will be back to insanity again.

Also the rail system in SoCal is nothing like NYC area. I was amazed how fast it was to take LI RR into NYC, & the NYC subway.

I'm not downing my home state or trying to discourage you, just being realistic. The suggestions from post #33 regarding renting makes the most sense, IMO.

[Justabystander]

I have relocated from CA but know it very well. If you are working by LAX and want a yard and want to spend 700-800k I would seriously look in La Mirada or Fullerton. Imperial Hwy goes directly to LAX, and you miss all the traffic. When I come back to OC, this is the route I go. I don't envy you in your decision, moving back and having to commute to LA would be a nightmare for me. Much different than the train commute directly to my job in the Loop in Chicago from a lovely leafy suburb.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Justabystander

I have relocated from CA but know it very well. If you are working by LAX and want a yard and want to spend 700-800k I would seriously look in La Mirada or Fullerton. Imperial Hwy goes directly to LAX, and you miss all the traffic. When I come back to OC, this is the route I go. I don't envy you in your decision, moving back and having to commute to LA would be a nightmare for me. Much different than the train commute directly to my job in the Loop in Chicago from a lovely leafy suburb.

I grew up in that area, in La Habra. Imperial Hwy does go straight to LAX....straight through Watts and other sketchy areas. My mom took Imperial to LAX, once, because she had grown up in Chicago and was afraid to drive on the freeway. The rest of us took the freeway, as God intended: 91 to the 405, and then, the newer and much better route, 91-605-105.

(Note that in California, a "freeway" is a road with limited entry/exit ramps, no stop signs or stoplights, and no cross traffic. A "highway" is just a large, regular street. They are not synonymous terms.)

It's about 40 minutes from Fullerton to LAX via the freeway, and 75 minutes via Imperial Hwy. "You miss all the traffic" doesn't quite capture the reality.

[Justabystander]

Originally Posted by saibot

I grew up in that area, in La Habra. Imperial Hwy does go straight to LAX....straight through Watts and other sketchy areas. My mom took Imperial to LAX, once, because she had grown up in Chicago and was afraid to drive on the freeway. The rest of us took the freeway, as God intended: 91 to the 405, and then, the newer and much better route, 91-605-105.

(Note that in California, a "freeway" is a road with limited entry/exit ramps, no stop signs or stoplights, and no cross traffic. A "highway" is just a large, regular street. They are not synonymous terms.)

It's about 40 minutes from Fullerton to LAX via the freeway, and 75 minutes via Imperial Hwy. "You miss all the traffic" doesn't quite capture the reality.

I have never seen traffic like on the 405, feeling trapped during rush hour. I found Watts fine to drive through, and it was no 75 minutes to Fullerton in my experience, driving through just E. LA, Norwalk, and La Mirada to get to the hills of Fullerton, a "straight shot" if you look at a map. Growing up in Sunny Hills, there would be no way I would put up with a 75 minute commute. I don't know if traffic has let up from pre-covid times, but rush hour in LA is horrendous, and I prefer to "keep on moving" on surface streets. To each his own, and I appreciate your take on this.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Justabystander

I have never seen traffic like on the 405, feeling trapped during rush hour. I found Watts fine to drive through, and it was no 75 minutes to Fullerton in my experience, driving through just E. LA, Norwalk, and La Mirada to get to the hills of Fullerton, a "straight shot" if you look at a map. Growing up in Sunny Hills, there would be no way I would put up with a 75 minute commute. I don't know if traffic has let up from pre-covid times, but rush hour in LA is horrendous, and I prefer to "keep on moving" on surface streets. To each his own, and I appreciate your take on this.

Did the 105 exist when you lived here? We were thrilled when it opened up; it was a great improvement on the alternatives and made the drive to LAX much more pleasant.

Not that I am questioning your memory, but Google currently (11:45am) gives the route from Sunny Hills to LAX at 1 hour, 19 minutes via Imperial and 40 minutes via 91-605-105, despite a slowdown on the 91 in the Downey/Bellflower area.

Either way, I wouldn't recommend working north of LAX and living in the Fullerton/La Mirada area, to someone who is thinking about moving here.

[Justabystander]

Originally Posted by saibot

Did the 105 exist when you lived here?

I'm not questioning your memory of the drive, but Google currently (11:45am) gives the route from Sunny Hills to LAX at 1 hour, 19 minutes via Imperial and 40 minutes via 91-605-105, despite a slowdown in the Downey/Bellflower area.

Either way, I wouldn't recommend working north of LAX and living in the Fullerton/La Mirada area, to someone who is thinking about moving here.

It did. Maybe my frequency was not much ( I moved to Boston during college and have not returned ) and my aversion to freeways into the airport could have taken over for fear of being stuck in traffic. But, if being in an OC atmosphere was the goal, then La Mirada at least ( 24 miles to LAX) should be looked at, since it is right at their price point and is a nice area with well kept homes and yards.