Me and my wife live in atlanta ga with our 2 yr old. We are seriously considering moving to LA...we love Cali and also i want to be near commerce or bike. Any ideas where we should live, where they have good schools(worst school probaly better than any GA school). We have friends in burbank and santa monica so those are options. Are there any hidden gem areas? El segundo?..any help would be apperciated. thanks..obv if we move and find a good deal 10 dollars on stars:)

To get a better response you are going to have to get a lot more info. Where are you going to be working, how much can you spend on your home? How much time are you willing to spend in the car for a commute?

we are not rich but we do ok....we are looking to rent a place first before we decide to buy there. Probaly a yr. My wife is a contract social worker and I work from home so anywhere is ok raeally. Im just trying to get an idea of so when we go out there we know where to look. Santa monica is high on the list since w have friends there. But i dont know enough about it. Is it all nice or like most has some bad areas and some good. Ive been to mnahattan beach alot but thats probaly out of our price range. So I know that area is ok with el segundo etc...Ive heard Hawthorne or torrance are pretty affordable but I dont know anything about them. Do you live there..what are ur fav areas of town?

I live in NoCal, but have lots of friends family down there. My suggestion is go and spend a week, drive around. I personally like the beach areas such as Mnahattan, Redondo, Hermosa, Newport, Hunnington, etc. but you are also looking at about a million for 3br 1 bath.

If you go inland there are a lot of nice area in the middle of shitty areas, so you have to be careful. I would do some good research on finding a good realtor (I know you said rent first, but a realtor especially now can help you find a rental and be showing you areas that you may want to potentially buy, and you know they have the time right now.

My mother in law lived in Upland for a couple years, nice older community, but about an hour + from the casinos. Obv the farther away from the beach the more affordable. My wifes grandparents live about a mile from LAX in an older community that has beautiful homes but they are min 750K to millions for 3/2.

PM socalpoker, he'll tell you where to go to get away from the minorities. J/K theres no getting away from them in SoCal.

I have another friend who moved out to corona, its in the foothills on the way to the desert, but really nice, about an hour commute to Anahiem.

thanks that helps alot...I like hemosa area as well....maybe we can get lucky and find a good place. Cant wait to get on the Left coast though. Ill miss sec football but oh well

Well you can always venture into Watts and go see USC.

That's always the best way to go when moving to a new place with no clue what the area's like. Find a nice apartment in your price range and don't worry too much about the location - then you can spend the next 6-12 months making sure you are sticking with LA and also figure out the exact area's you want to be in/can afford.

i lived in upland and really liked it. but anywhere in the inland empire seems just weird to me.

your best bet for a family might be orange county or the valley (i count burbank as part of the valley). of course, there are also seedier parts to orange county, and the nicer parts lack any real soul. but irvine, tustin, newport beach, huntington, and lake forest are all REALLY safe newer communities. although life is slower here than in some cities closer to los angeles.

santa monica would be a pretty good place for a young family, although it's expensive. be wary that any place in the greater los angeles area is going to have a shitload of traffic.

to share a story, on saturday i went to visit my cousin in los angeles. the car ride there took 2 hours. it only took 1 hour back because traffic had died down by that time. i was late by an hour because "why would there be any traffic on saturday at 2:30?" after a while the traffic and unpredictability of arrival time can REALLY start to get to you.

if you NEED los angeles proper i would go with the hollywood hills, if you just want to be close go with santa monica, if you're okay going a little slower go with the valley or burbank, and if you just want to be in a nice place in southern california go with orange county.

This is good advice, from my SoCal experiences.

you can't swim in a town this shallow

Ok, I live in SoCal, specifically the San Fernando Valley, otherwise known as "The Valley". I've lived in this area almost my entire life.

A lot of mixed races here in the valley and the house prices will range from $450K to $3Mil. The valley is decent but will take you a good 45-60 mins to get to a beach (i.e. Santa Monica is about 30-45 mins depending on traffic) and about the same to get to Commerce and/or The Bike this is all dependent on traffic.

If you do look at the valley make sure you are west of the 405 FWY and either south of the 101 FWY (i.e Encino, Tarzana) or north of Roscoe Blvd. (i.e. Northridge, Granada Hills, Chatsworth). Encino and Tarzana have some really nice neighborhoods with houses over $1 Mil. Northridge, Granada Hills and Chatsworth are houses from high $600's to $1.5 Mil. Or west of Desoto Blvd (i.e. Woodland hills, West Hills area)

Stay away from: Anything around downtown including: East LA, Gardena, City of Commerce, Bell Gardens, Silver Lake, Inglewood (always up to no good) Culver City, Hollywood, North Hollywood. All considered to be pretty ghetto and you will feel very uncomfortable leaving your house at night.

If you want something decent the beach cities are going to be pricey. Long Beach has cleaned up a lot recently and you might be able to find something under $1 Mil there.

Areas that are some what close to Commerce / The Bike that I would recommend. Pasadena (old town Pasadena preferred), Glendale (as long as you can stand being around Armenians all day), Burbank, Toluca Lake, Universal City and Hollywood Hills.

Orange County and Irvine are nice too but a little pricey and crazy traffic to get from Orange county to LA county.

Hope that helped.

Before you consider this consult Navybuttons on the Gay Ghetto. This is important.

if i was going to move my family to long beach, i would go to belmont shore. belmont shore would be an AWESOME place to live. like newport beach with more soul.

downtown is just not a place for kids. also the residential parking in long beach proper sucks SO SO SO bad.

Thanks for all your help. This is gonna help a ton. We are going out there and un a few weeks and Ill defeintly go by this info. Thanks again.

Interesting to see someone is/was from Upland.

The 909 is nice as long as you stay in Claremont, Upland, or Rancho Cucamonga.

Whittier... FTW... look it up... nice location, housing not too bad... in LA county, but close to orange county...