<p>One excellent resource is Westside Rentals [Los</a> Angeles Apartments, Orange County Apartments, and San Diego Apartments](<a href=“http://www.westsiderentals.com/]Los”>http://www.westsiderentals.com/) You can log in as a guest to see apartments for rent, and some are available by the week if he needs a landing pad to get started and look for a more ideal accommodation. I believe the service charges $60 for a month to get addresses/contact info, but it’s a fun place for him to start looking and seeing the prices charged and what you get.</p>
<p>For his interests (beach, younger folks), he should take a good look at Venice (very hip, walk to beach and cool restaurants, shops), Santa Monica (pricier, a little older, but beach trendy and really nice for new transplants w/clubs, shops, great weather), and if he wants a more practical, less expensive area, he should look at Culver City (more inland), Century City (more highrise) and Westwood.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, my S1 is also moving to L.A. next week, having just taken a job here, and will be apartment hunting in the same areas. Moving back down from San Francisco which he really loves. There he used Craigslist to discover the nicest (to him) neighborhoods and he found some very cool Victorian houses w/roommates. </p>
<p>And one more thing–just to go looking at a lot of apartments, your son will want to have a car. Maybe a rental? And I second the suggestion to see what HR will cover in relocation costs.</p>
Agree with this 100%. I managed to score a cheap apartment in the latter area and LOVE it. Pretty much anything you could need within walking distance, and being near Wilshire means relatively easy access to other parts of LA.</p>
<p>
Mostly agree with this, but I’d recommend Palms over Westwood.</p>
<p>As far as owning a car goes, depending on where you live in LA, you may be able to get by perfectly well without one. I’ve used public transit here for several years and have had no trouble getting around. It’s definitely true that owning a car generally makes your life easier, though.</p>
<p>Another vote for Westside Rentals. They seem to have every rental listing in LA, and the info can be narrowed down very quickly on their site. You do use the service by paying a fee, but it will save him time.</p>
<p>D1 is paying 1800 for her share in a convertible 2 at a very desirable location in NYC. She is looking to pay a bit more to get her own place next year. Cheapest parking space is around 350/mon. We don’t have a car in the city now. We use zipcar or regular car rental when we need to get out of town. It included getting a mini van from zipcar to move D2 to school. Total up front fees - broker’s fee is around one month rent, one month deposit and first month rent.</p>
<p>For a young professional, I’d recommend Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach, Venice and Brentwood. All of those can be very walk able depending on the building. Venice is still gentrifying, so keep that in mind. In Santa Monica, I’d recommend someplace near Main. That is where the younger people will be. Venice, near Abbott Kinney.</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think of it, I do have a friend who rented a house to someone going through a realtor. Some realtors are also property managers. This was in the Bay Area.</p>
<p>I work in NYC and my <35yo co-workers that live in the city (even Brooklyn) do not have cars. They take subway & cabs everywhere around town. When they head out of the city, it’s either zipcar for the day or hertz/avis for longer. It’s not just the cost to park near your apartment, but you will need to find and pay for parking at your destination. It’s just not worth the hassle. </p>
<p>I’ve had several co-workers who were born & raised in NYC and never got driver’s licenses until they were in their mid-30s and moved to the suburbs.</p>
<p>I’m a young person who lives in this area (westside of LA). Here’s my advice: Marina del Ray is populated by older married couples, 40+. It’s “nice” but boring - few young people, few fun places to be, lots of standard corporate chain establishments, etc… If you want to be near the beach, he should be looking at Venice, Santa Monica, or Hermosa (depending on which direction his office is in.)</p>
<p>By the way, in LA 8-10 miles can be a 15 minute commute or it can be a 1 hour commute. It’s worth investigating the traffic patterns. He should seriously consider the possibility of living somewhere adjacent to work. Driving an hour each way every day can be soul-destroying, especially when it’s a small distance done in total gridlock.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Westwood is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in LA - it doesn’t fit the criteria at all. Westwood makes no sense for a young person unless they go to UCLA or else they work in the big office buildings on Wilshire. Century City is also very expensive, and it’s a dead office area with absolutely nothing to do. CC is entirely made up of office skyscrapers, condo towers, and gated apartment communities where old people live.</p>
<p>Culver City is indeed a great and more inexpensive option. Palms is a tiny residential area adjacent to Culver City with great prices (on typically small, old apartment buildings) where tons of UCLA students end up living.</p>
<p>Other neighborhoods mentioned in this thread: Brentwood is very small and very expensive. It tries very hard to maintain a certain “small town” atmosphere in the middle of the city, and I see lots of families with young kids there. It’s nice, quiet, and enjoyable, but not necessarily ideal for a young person.</p>
One way to do this is to go to [Sigalert.com</a> Fairfax County Traffic Map](<a href=“http://www.sigalert.com%5DSigalert.com”>http://www.sigalert.com), select LA as the city, and check it at around the times he’d be commuting and see what the traffic on the freeways looks like. Doing this over the course of several days fives a pretty good feel for it.</p>
<p>I had a thread about this same topic just over a month ago. D2 has been in her apartment for about two weeks now (one week with her furniture, etc.). She went through Westside Rentals and by far had better luck using them as opposed to using Craigslist and the classified ads in general. She and H arrived there on a Wednesday evening. She had set up three appointments for Thursday, and on Thursday morning was able to add a fourth appointment. She ended up going with the first apartment she saw Thursday morning; they finalized the lease on Friday morning and she started staying there Monday night when H left to come home. She has a very friendly landlord who loaned her an air mattress to sleep on until her stuff came. But yea, Westside Rentals beat everything else she had tried on a previous visit to find something.</p>
<p>This may come as a shock to those who haven’t visited the area recently, but there are now light rail lines that go to some of the areas mentioned. Perhaps pulling up the light rail map on Google may be useful. </p>
<p>The most recent line just completed goes from downtown LA to downtown Culver City. Also, they are currently building the extension from that line that will go all the way to Santa Monica. And MTA also finally got their act together and runs some of these lines until 2 am on the weekends.</p>
<p>I am familiar with Culver City. It is a more family oriented area. That being said, the increase in the entertainment options (live theater, movie theater, various levels of dining, art galleries, etc.) have increased exponentially over the past ten years.</p>
<p>Op, what is the exact city that your S will be working in?</p>
<p>For finding apts, go online to Westside Rentals. The no fee option gives you an apt “radius” so you have to call the landlord while the fee option gives you the exact address.</p>
<p>Of course, beachy communities will be more pricey. But fairly young beachy communities besides Marina Del Rey are: El Segundo, Playa del Rey, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Venice, Santa Monica. Since Santa Monica is rent controlled, sometimes you have to use a “apt rental company” that charges a fee, and does not list the apt publically. S could go cheaper if moves inland: West Los Angeles, Palms, Mar Vista, Culver City. </p>
<p>Others posted considering corporate apts until S gets settled in. A well known place is oakwood apts.</p>
<p>Motorcycle driving in LA is extremely dangerous. Maybe if he is taking surface streets to work, but on the freeway, there are many accidents per day, and I’ve seen many bad auto vs motorcycle accidents.</p>
<p>Similar to what another poster wrote, go to Google Maps, zoom into the area where S will work, and turn on the traffic button on the right. He can see the traffic patterns in AM and PM rush hour. It is infamous!</p>
<p>Has your S considered (or would he consider) Santa Monica or even Playa Vista? Santa Monica has a LOT to offer for a young person (3rd Street Promendade is filled with people watching, cafes, bars, people watching; the SM Pier; the Ocean Avenue promenade is excellent for exercise; and of course the beach itself), is a beach town, and if he is prepared to pay that kind of rent, would likely be able to find a decent place. Is his potential job in Culver City? As a long-time SM resident (more than 30 years) if you PM me, I could provide some excellent short cuts using side streets rather that freeway travel. If it were my D I would point her to Santa Monica over Marina del Rey especially coming from walkable NYC. MdR is not walkable. SM is. I would even guide towards Ocean Park, an off-shoot of SM, and with a pretty hip Main Street.</p>
<p>One last thought…no to the realtor. We don’t use them out here for rentals.</p>
<p>Agree SM is great, but expensive. D’s first L.A. place was in Venice - nice in a funky kind of way and walkable, but big bucks. She found her second place a short time later in the area aroung L.A. City College utilizing Craigslist. Currently lives in No. Hollywood with easy access to her gigs…</p>
<p>Without being too specifically specific, his prospective employer is located just south of LAX and west of the 405 in one of the communities that has “Beach” in its name. It looks as if living in one of the “Beach” or del Rey communities, that he could commute on surface streets. And … from Google Traffic … it doesn’t look too bad even when the 405 is at a standstill.</p>
<p>I think that location sounds much better than what some of us might have been imagining - i.e. commuting from the beach to downtown LA. That location opens it up to have a reasonable commute from beach areas south of LAX, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, etc. and even from north of LAX, Marina Del Rey, Venice, etc. and taking one of the surface streets between LAX and the beach to get around LAX and avoid freeways. This might also make commuting on a motorcycle a little less of a worry as opposed to riding it on the busy LA freeways (with lane splitting by motorcycles - often done in a dangerous way by them).</p>
<p>I think he should move close to the beach even if it costs a bit more assuming he can still swing it. He should do it now to enjoy it before he ends up with a family and might need to be more practicable. He should live close to the beach, buy a surfboard, but a boogie board, and enjoy life in a great climate and an area with great beaches. If nothing else he can lease an apt for a year and then decide at that point where exactly he wants to live or if he wants to save money by not being so close to the beach. By then he’ll have a lay of the land.</p>
<p>All of these areas have plenty of restaurants, have bars (if he’s into that), and have other things to do. He might be interested in taking up sailing, perhaps joining a sailing club at one of the harbors. </p>
<p>I thinks this is all looking better and better for him on a practical basis as well as on the fun and nice place to live level.</p>
<p>My kids have never rode a bike here. It is VERY dangerous…I was being pc back a ways. And we can’t drive in the rain. Many drivers practice the F*** YOU I’m rich school of driving, which adds a lot more challenging.</p>
<p>Daughter interned for a sports team that had headquarters in El Segundo. It wasn’t a bad car drive from our home…20 to 30 minutes…</p>