Relocating ... where to begin?! (LA Specktrettes)

[amoona]

OK so I'm not relocating until Jan '09 but I like to be well prepared so I'm planning from now haha. Right now I'm in the Bay Area and I'll be relocating to LA to finish school (FINALLY!). I live at home and my bills consist of school, car, phone and my shopping addicition haha. So living on my own in LA for the first time will be a huge change.

I could live in student housing and save myself the trouble of finding a place to live but with student housing you have to move out at the end of every quarter and that's not going to work for me. I plan on transferring with MAC down to LA - which brings up another point, I've heard that I might have to take a pay cut because cost of living in LA is much cheaper then San Francisco.

So right now here's my plan, when my quarter ends in December 2008 I'm going to put in for a transfer at whatever location is hiring at that time. I'm going to give myself from 12/08-5/09 to find a location to transfer to and then I start school again in 06/09. Here's my thing - I don't know anyone in LA and I've only been there on vacation. I'd love to live in West Hollywood but of course everything I've seen online is WAY out of my price range. I love Pasadena and Santa Monica as well but I don't know how far that really is from school. Mapquest says 15 minutes but what is that in LA time?

Basically I just want to know where the hell to begin?! Where can I find somewhere? I know there's craigslist but since I don't really know the areas too well I don't know where's an afford, safe, centrally located place plus I'm scared to meet a psycho haha. I want to kind of get an idea of where my target living area should be and what I should expect to pay realistically and what I should probably be making to live comfrotablly there.

I'll be getting rid of my car and driving my moms old car so all I'll need to pay for is insurance (about $160 a month) and my phone bill (about $100 a month) and student loans are taken care of already. I know it's a lot to ask but I just need any type of guidance possible. Oh and my school will be located in Downtown LA.

 

[mistella]

Santa Monica is kind of far. and traffic is always horrible there. I wanted to live there but it's just a bitch to get anywhere sometimes. Pasadena isnt too far from downtown LA but it's not really in LA.. it just depends on what kind of area you want to live in. Do you want to live in a quiet neighborhood or in the middle of everything, near the clubs, restaurants, etc? Apartmentratings.com is super helpful. it shows the prices and ratings from people who have lived in those apartments and apartments from a 5-20mile radius from whereever you choose.

 

[exoticarbcqen]

are you going to UCLA?
they do offer OFF campus housing into apartments where you DONT need to move out at the end of the quarter. They also have listings of recommended properties you could look into. I have to live there for 3 months while interning with the muslim public affairs council in downtown..down the street from UCLA..and im in the same situation as you. I would recommended trying to find the CLOSEST thing to school, that way you could walk if you had to..save money on gas. Pasadena isnt really LA and its also 15 mins away, but with traffic, that is easily tripled x 10!! Downtown LA is expensive, the closer you get to BH the more expensive its going to get. LUCKILY, I have a friend who lives on wilshire blvd, 5mins from UCLA and my internship so no problems for me anymore..but if you need more ideas..let me know

good luck.

 

[kimmy]

weho looks nice but in reality there's alot of crime there. there are alot of parts of los angeles that look fabulous, but have a dark side. i'd suggest looking into crime rates before making your final decision. as a young lady in a new place, it's important for you to be somewhere relatively safe.

one of my friends just moved home from van nuys, and he loved it. it didn't seem too far from downtown los angeles, but of course when we were going to downtown and weho, it was late at night.

 

[amoona]

So I just found out that my school does offer year long student housing but it's pretty expensive. The housing is in downtown LA and I guess a lot of people just do that for their first semester and then move out on their own.

I've been told another nice area to consider is Glendale. My major concern isn't to be downtown or near all the clubs. I rather just be somewhere close to school and safe. I can drive to clubs when I wanna go out, even if I have to drive an hour.

If West Hollywood isn't the best area to live in then where are some other good areas? I see North Hollywood a lot on craigslist and stuff.

 

[athena123]

Chances are you won't want to live too close to your school unless you can afford to rent some of the super spendy lofts starting to go up in downtown LA. One thing you always have to consider her in SoCal is traffic. If you live too far away and have to make a drive through rush hour to get back and forth, it'll suck all the energy and fun right out of you!

I would first consider exactly where the school is then how to get there via train. Most of the lines stop at Union Station, then from Union station you can take a bus pretty much anywhere. I would just be hesitant about going the public transportation route if you're gonna be doing this at night.

I'm more familiar with Orange County area and don't know which neighborhoods in downtown LA would be safe, I'm sorry I'm not too much help.