Where is the best place to live in SoCal?

2POSTS

14 years ago

Hi,
We are relocating to California from Dublin, Ireland. We have two small kids age 3 and 1. My husband will be working from home and I will start looking for a job once we are settled in. So now to my question, where is the best place to live? We'd like to be fairly close to an airport and want to live in a nice child friendly and safe neighborhood. I know prices are crazy in SoCal. But we are willing to pay a little bit extra in order to be in a good place for the kids. We've been looking at Pacific Palisades, Newport Beach, Manhattan Beach and San Clemente. Any recommendations?

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AnnaMagdalena Member

2POSTS

14 years ago

Thank you Armand!

Armand wrote:
Hi AnnaMagdalena!

Welcome to Expat.com

Armand

GuestPoster279 Guest

0POSTS

14 years ago

From your list, you seem to want to live on the coast so that does limit options somewhat. You did not mention your income, but do note that Manhattan Beach is one of the most expensive coastal towns in the US and out of most people's price range. It is where many rich and famous people have homes. If you can afford Manhattan Beach, it is certainly to consider. Newport Beach is also expensive and very near John Wayne Airport (one of your criteria), but you can also then get some flyover traffic sound there. If you can afford Newport (medium income is $200K), I would suggest looking also at Laguna Beach, which is a little down the coast highway from Newport. A small, quiet community.

jbrugiero Active member

37POSTS

14 years ago

Hi,
this is totally right : the prices can be very crazy in those areas and knowing your budget would definitely help.
You also have to be really careful with the schools (unless you plan to go for private ones) as some of those areas are very famous but have sometime very bad schools (the richer the area is, the more people put their kids to private schools). There are some specialized websites to check the API scores of every schools and you should be able to find it very easily with google and almost all the Real Estate Websites offer a straight link to it (at least, mine does).
Let us know if you have any other questions.
Good luck!
JB

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joeyeggs Active member

46POSTS

14 years ago

Hi,
I don't know if you've already moved but there are some nice areas around Manhattan Beach that are still expensive, but not as expensive. You could look at El Segundo, Hermosa Beach or Redondo Beach. All have good school districts and are safe. Most of Torrance is a little bit inland but it does have a stretch along the coast. Torrance is a larger city and the schools will vary more in terms of API scores etc. You can google CA API to see the highest scoring schools. Great scores don't guarantee a great fit though. I'm not a huge fan of MB schools and they consistently have high test scores. Orange County is very pretty but not as diverse. All the areas should be comparable as far as youth activities.