We see this over and over in this forum: Everyone hears about the great weather in SoCal or believes they are the next great actor/model/singer, then starts looking for the "cheap, clean, and safe". It's all about supply and demand: If it's in SoCal, then it's not going to be cheap to begin with. If it's clean and safe, then it's more expensive. If you need good schools, add a couple hundred bucks a month on top of it.
If you want to live here and enjoy the weather, then you have to pay for it. You put up with the smog and the traffic, enjoy the weather and pay your rent or mortgage. My advice is to start checking out craigslist, rent.com, and apartments.com if you are looking to rent. You’ll quickly see that the minimum rent for a non-war zone is about $1,000-$1,200 per month for a studio or 1BR. Really nice areas (like the West LA area) easily run $3,000 or more.
"LA" is such a big place, there are so many neighborhoods/cities where you can live. Of course, even within a city or neighborhood, there are safer sections and less-safe sections.
In Los Angeles, some nice sections are West LA, Brentwood, Westwood, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Encino, Tarzana, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Granada Hills, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks, West Hills, Chatsworth.
To the east: South Pasadena, parts of Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Glendora, San Dimas, Laverne, Azusa, Rancho Cucamonga.
Along the beach: Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Rancho PV.
In Orange County aka "The OC": Seal Beach , Huntington Beach , Newport Beach , Corona Del Mar , Laguna Beach , Dana Point , Capistrano Beach , San Clemente , Brea, Yorba Linda, Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest
To the west: Agoura, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Simi Valley, Moorpark.
This is not an all-inclusive list, but it's a start.
So what is LA like? First of all, I'll tell you what it's NOT like: It's not like anything on TV. There aren’t running gun battles in the street. There aren’t shootouts every day. Also, you don’t see celebrities just walking down the street. We don't go surfing during lunch hour. Some parts of LA are really nice, others are “ghetto”.
LA doesn’t have an effective public transportation like New York or San Francisco. One reason is that LA is larger in area than either of those, without a central hub where everything is. Back in the 1960’s, we might have done it. But by the time local governments got their act together, it was much more difficult to make a working public transit system. Also, unlike NY, we have earthquakes, which makes it a little more difficult to built underground.
You NEED a car to live in Southern California. Deal with it.
The freeway traffic in LA is probably the worst thing about living here. The 405 is the worst. Know why they call it the 405? Because you go 4 o' 5 miles per hour, and it takes 4 o' 5 hours to get where you're going. Freeway Traffic is bad from 6-10 AM and bad from 3-7 PM. I don't know why they call it rush hour. It's more than an hour, and nobody's rushing, that's for sure.
The gangs in LA are the cause of many rumors. Keep in mind that there are gangs in any large town, in every part of the country. In LA, the gangs aren't really downtown, they are in South LA, East LA, and north Long Beach (an extension of the South LA gangs, actually). And here's the deal: Mostly, they just kill each other.
Gas is expensive in California. Currently, it's about $3.20, on average.
Yes, gas and real estate are very expensive in SoCal. However, this would be the best time to BUY a house because it's a buyer's market right now. There are a lot of foreclosures, and too many houses on the market. So if you have cash, it's a great time to buy. Unfortunately, most of us don't have a half-mil just lying around. Perhaps Paris Hilton (regular poster here)?
Yep, freeways are a drag, it's smoggy in summer, and expensive to live here. Yet, if it's so bad, why do we have thousands and thousands of people moving here?
Weather
Activities
Weather
Plenty of jobs
Weather
Beaches, mountains, deserts all within driving distance
Weather!
Here's my final point on the weather. In colder parts of the country, people keep their cars in their garages all winter. Kids get snow toys for Christmas. Here, kids get BIKES, scooters, and skateboards. 10 AM Christmas morning, the streets are FULL of kids on their new bikes, scooters, etc. We have a play set from Costco in the back yard. I installed a light in the yard and our youngest plays on it (sometimes with friends) at night during the “winter”, from the time homework and dinner are done until bed time. You can't do THAT in the snow.
The job market is good here, mainly because there are SO many people here that it creates its own job market. Then there are MANY industries, including tourism, entertainment, shipping, manufacturing, etc. It’s an incredible economy.
However, LA is not for everyone. Every time someone posts this question, you get the LA haters who post their bile and venom. A lot of them don’t know what they are talking about. Maybe they had cousin Ernie visit once, and he was plumb disappointed when he got to Hollywood and found it weren’t pretty like on TV. Of course, he told all his kinfolk, and now they’re LA experts. Some of them are people who actually visited once, and found out it wasn’t like it was on TV, and it certainly wasn’t Mayberry. And some actually lived here, and couldn’t deal with the expense, the traffic, or the rather impersonal nature of living in a large metropolis. (You know, the kind who like to drop in on their neighbors unannounced, open the (unlocked) door, and let themselves in. Well, it’s not like that here, for better or worse. To those I would say “good luck” to you wherever you are, but please don’t spew your venom in this forum.
In a nutshell, LA a HUGE metropolis. I live in one of the nicer suburbs, but the commute is no fun, often 1-2 hours each way each day. However, 340+ days of sunshine really helps. Yeah, it's expensive. Mrs. Obviousman and I both have to work to pay the mortgage. But is it worth it? You bet!