Moving to LA

[Teleku]

Tell your parents to forget LA, Orange County has plenty of culture, clubs and other things to do.

Even better, tell the parents to skip that entire hell hole of an area and move to San Diego, if they must live in Southern California.

[Ingmar]

Tell your parents to forget LA, Orange County has plenty of culture, clubs and other things to do.

Even better, tell the parents to skip that entire hell hole of an area and move to San Diego, if they must live in Southern California.

Yeah San Diego is great.

[Morfiend]

I live in Orange County and know all the surrounding areas really well. If you want to talk about areas PM me and ill give you my AIM.

The short of it is that basically Living in LA and commuting to Irvine will suck. You are looking at 45 minute to 2 hours depending on time of day and location in LA. Southern Orange County is a pretty nice area. Basically draw a line from Irvine to the coast and any area below that is a decent area. Some much more expensive than others.

I went to high school in Laguna Beach and it is a fantastic area. I would move back there if it didnt cost a fucking arm and a leg. The best "bang for your buck" will be in San Clemente or Dana Point. Both decent areas, with San Clemente being sort of the worse area (and cheapest) in southern OC, but constantly getting better. Irvine itself is not horrible, actually its really clean and safe, just soulless.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, I think that's about right. The problem is that Orange County isn't bad, but it's not bad in some of the ways that Houston is not bad. When I lived in Atlanta, a lot of it sort of reminded me of Southern California, especially Orange County inland. Phoenix is sort of like Southern California, especially inland Orange County. It's a style of urban development that's prevalent in cities that had big growth after 1940, especially in warmer climates. Parts of Johannesburg in South Africa, actually, look like Orange County. Nothing exactly wrong with it, but nothing that gives you a strong sense of place unless you're down on the water or up in the mountains. You could do a lot worse, but also a lot better, and for someone tired of Houston, I don't think there are many options to mix it up except to pay the premium to be down near the water.

[MahrinSkel]

The word you're looking for is "Generica".  I can go almost anywhere in the country and find the same stores, the same houses, the same architecture and freeway designs.  Most pronounced in cities that got most of their growth after the 70's, but there are pockets (or rings) of it almost everywhere.

Houston and OC are certainly textbook Generica.

--Dave

[Morfiend]

The word you're looking for is "Generica".  I can go almost anywhere in the country and find the same stores, the same houses, the same architecture and freeway designs.  Most pronounced in cities that got most of their growth after the 70's, but there are pockets (or rings) of it almost everywhere.

Houston and OC are certainly textbook Generica.

--Dave

Please, like Khaldun, you need to include Inland Orange County. The beach cities are pretty awesome and fairly unique.

[Lantyssa]

There's not much you can do with a city built on a plain.  We have to import our hills.

One thing I will give our generic looking highways is thoughtful design.  Exit markings and access are almost universally better than any city I've visited.  We've also gotten rid of almost all the troublesome merges.  Our HOV system could use updating in places (open lane instead of the closed-off we have), but they were designed 25-years ago.

Driving in other big cities can make me crazy.  "Did they just put our exit sign ten feet after the exit, with only 100' of exit lane to merge with?  WTF California?"  [Excerpt from real conversation going to Long Beach convention center.]  Or Dallas' I-45 to I-35 get over five lanes in 100 yards exit during rush hour.  There are some confusing ones in Baton Rouge, too, when just trying to stay on I-10.

[WayAbvPar]

Been a few years since I spent any time in the area, but from my experiences-

Anything south of Seal Beach along PCH is wonderful
anything north of Seal Beach along PCH is hit or miss, and much more miss if you go more than about a mile east
Culver City is a shithole
Ditto for Riverside (dear god, the traffic trying to get to or from Palm Springs)
Costa Mesa was pleasant (at least it was a fun place to get drunk)


There is at least one In N Out Burger in Irvine, so what else do you need?

[Samwise]

San Francisco is a really nice town, and close enough to visit LA if you feel the need.

And you can get a really nice house in Oakland for just under a million bucks.  Well, you could probably get it cheaper now.  

There are houses in decent areas of the City itself going for substantially less than a million bucks right now.  Which I know because I'm doing a refi and am acutely aware of how far in value my house has fallen.  

[Khaldun]

Been a few years since I spent any time in the area, but from my experiences-

Anything south of Seal Beach along PCH is wonderful
anything north of Seal Beach along PCH is hit or miss, and much more miss if you go more than about a mile east
Culver City is a shithole
Ditto for Riverside (dear god, the traffic trying to get to or from Palm Springs)
Costa Mesa was pleasant (at least it was a fun place to get drunk)


There is at least one In N Out Burger in Irvine, so what else do you need?

Culver City has actually improved a lot recently, tons of new restaurants, some nice developments. But it's quite a ways from Irvine.

[Ironwood]

San Francisco is a really nice town, and close enough to visit LA if you feel the need.

And you can get a really nice house in Oakland for just under a million bucks.  Well, you could probably get it cheaper now.  

There are houses in decent areas of the City itself going for substantially less than a million bucks right now.  Which I know because I'm doing a refi and am acutely aware of how far in value my house has fallen.  

Even with that table ??

[ghost]

San Francisco is a really nice town, and close enough to visit LA if you feel the need.

And you can get a really nice house in Oakland for just under a million bucks.  Well, you could probably get it cheaper now.  

There are houses in decent areas of the City itself going for substantially less than a million bucks right now.  Which I know because I'm doing a refi and am acutely aware of how far in value my house has fallen.  

Damn that sucks.  Hopefully you bought it before the bubble. 

[Merusk]

San Francisco is a really nice town, and close enough to visit LA if you feel the need.

And you can get a really nice house in Oakland for just under a million bucks.  Well, you could probably get it cheaper now.  

There are houses in decent areas of the City itself going for substantially less than a million bucks right now.  Which I know because I'm doing a refi and am acutely aware of how far in value my house has fallen.  

Even with that table ??

It DOES tie the room together.

[Samwise]

San Francisco is a really nice town, and close enough to visit LA if you feel the need.

And you can get a really nice house in Oakland for just under a million bucks.  Well, you could probably get it cheaper now.  

There are houses in decent areas of the City itself going for substantially less than a million bucks right now.  Which I know because I'm doing a refi and am acutely aware of how far in value my house has fallen.  

Damn that sucks.  Hopefully you bought it before the bubble. 

During the decline, but not at the bottom.

[ghost]

During the decline, but not at the bottom.

Well you can bet that in San Francisco it certainly won't stay in that trough for long.  San Francisco is one of the few truly awesome cities in the States. 

[Rasix]

I'm not counting on any such recovery in Tucson.   

The housing bubble detonating here really tanked a bunch of neighborhoods, especially those not centrally located. 

[ghost]

My wife's aunt and uncle just bought a place in Scottsdale for almost nothing.  I'm a bit worried they are going to see the surrounding area start to disintegrate a bit, but I don't know exactly where it is in Scottsdale. 

[naum]

My wife's aunt and uncle just bought a place in Scottsdale for almost nothing.  I'm a bit worried they are going to see the surrounding area start to disintegrate a bit, but I don't know exactly where it is in Scottsdale. 

~5-10 years ago, N. Scottsdale was the hub of a lot of economic bustle and startups galore. Big corporations launched IT centers and planted offices. Now, it's eerie as most of the office space is empty -- it's like ghost town mini-malls, though there are still thriving outfits here and there.

And real estate prices have crashed down into reasonable and sane marks, especially compared to Boston / San Francisco / Seattle equivalents.

A big part of Arizona economic engine was simply construction and real estate -- rate of development growth with all the ancillary commercial support organizations -- realtors, titling, insurance, roads, etc.…

The downward dive seems to have halted, and there are still pockets of economic activity -- though one, oddly, is all the hail damage from storms last year that really propped up roofing industry and even brought imported roofers here.

But malaise in metro Phoenix will result in a different look than Detroit. More like a badly filmed Planet of the Apes sequel mini-mall set.