I wonder if $85K is enough for a single person to live in Southern Cali?
What city should i stay away from? I am thinking about LA or Orange county. First I think I am going to stay at one of the extended stay near Disneyland than find a good apartment later.
Your opinion is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

It really depends on where you are working. Traffic is a bitch. The 5, 405, 91, 605, are all total shit. Live as close to your work as possible or you will go nuts. Orange county can be very pricey unless you go to tustin which is not my first choice. The rest of the OC is going to expensive if it is a nice area. 85k should be fine if you dont have much or any debt. You can get a good apartment for around 1500-1800/mo in good area, and live pretty comfy on 85k here as single guy.

Watch out for those OC girls though. They are used to being spoiled and will put your ass in the poor house fast.lol

Stay away from downtown LA, monterey park, alhambra, compton, watts, echo park, and most of fountain valley, and most of long beach.

Tell me where your work is and I can give you a better clue as to where to look.

Brad@PSI MOTORS wrote

It really depends on where you are working. Traffic is a bitch. The 5, 405, 91, 605, are all total shit. Live as close to your work as possible or you will go nuts. Orange county can be very pricey unless you go to tustin which is not my first choice. The rest of the OC is going to expensive if it is a nice area. 85k should be fine if you dont have much or any debt. You can get a good apartment for around 1500-1800/mo in good area, and live pretty comfy on 85k here as single guy.

Watch out for those OC girls though. They are used to being spoiled and will put your ass in the poor house fast.lol

Stay away from downtown LA, monterey park, alhambra, compton, watts, echo park, and most of fountain valley, and most of long beach.

Tell me where your work is and I can give you a better clue as to where to look.

What's wrong with these two cities?

Brad@PSI MOTORS wrote

Watch out for those OC girls though. They are used to being spoiled and will put your ass in the poor house fast.lol

+1. Lots of girls are used to mommy and daddy's credit cards at their disposal, and remember 250k in property in somewhere like Suburban NY or (Where I'm from MO) is worth 3-4x that much in California, so people tend to spend a lot. I go to Univ. of Arizona, we have more than our fair share of bleach blond, snotty, spoiled SoCal types. I've seen it time and time again.

SoCal is a great place to live though, beautiful people, amazing beaches and some incredible roads.

My work is located on Golden Circle Dr in Santa Ana, CA. I hear Cali girls have plenty of plastic and I want to see if this is the true or not. lol
My only debt is my car payment and should be payoff shortly.
Thanks you for the quick reply.

If you don't mind a quick jot down the freeway every day, then try Irvine, which has a lot of fairly nice apartments that aren't too expensive. It's a pretty nice area, and you're close to Fashion Island (a mall thats also the "it" place to hang out). This is all under the assumption that you mean 85k a year, not just 85k cash. 85k will run out kinda quick without sufficient income in Orange County.

As for Santa Ana, its a nice city. It's pretty central, so you've got good access to Newport Beach, or L.A. and you're right next to Disneyland

Schm wrote

+1. Lots of girls are used to mommy and daddy's credit cards at their disposal, and remember 250k in property in somewhere like Suburban NY or (Where I'm from MO) is worth 3-4x that much in California, so people tend to spend a lot. I go to Univ. of Arizona, we have more than our fair share of bleach blond, snotty, spoiled SoCal types. I've seen it time and time again.

SoCal is a great place to live though, beautiful people, amazing beaches and some incredible roads.

Hmmm... there is no such thing... try 400-600k ... not too many 250k properties in suburban NY. Unless you are talking foreclosure, and it is like that everywhere in the US.

But yeah, you didn't make much of a change. NY to Cali are both as similar in real estate/living costs as u can get. Assuming you are talking about the metro areas.

Best of luck with the move. Must be very exciting to make such an extreme change of scenery.

NYCGarbagePrince wrote

Hmmm... there is no such thing... try 400-600k ... not too many 250k properties in suburban NY. Unless you are talking foreclosure, and it is like that everywhere in the US.

But yeah, you didn't make much of a change. NY to Cali are both as similar in real estate/living costs as u can get. Assuming you are talking about the metro areas.

Best of luck with the move. Must be very exciting to make such an extreme change of scenery.

+1...real estate and living expenses in NY state, specifically Long Island, are about as expensive if not more than Cali..there are no $250K houses

If you survived on 85k in NYC, you will survive on 85k in So Cal. Things are definitely cheaper in Cali, aside from income tax and sales tax.

Whats wrong with Compton?

You'll be fine with 85k in cali...its a huge area with options for all price ranges...like others said because cali is so spread out and traffic is bad ur work determines where u live....id stick with irvine, orange, tustin or even anaheim.....oh one other thing:

Don't say blah blah "cause im a new yorker" or "im from new york"...etc. every two seconds....we hate that....

Welcome

NYCGarbagePrince wrote

Hmmm... there is no such thing... try 400-600k ... not too many 250k properties in suburban NY. Unless you are talking foreclosure, and it is like that everywhere in the US.

But yeah, you didn't make much of a change. NY to Cali are both as similar in real estate/living costs as u can get. Assuming you are talking about the metro areas.

Best of luck with the move. Must be very exciting to make such an extreme change of scenery.

My bad, I was simply stating that in general, property values in California tend to be much more than other parts of America, I don't know ny and have never lived there, but from my time in California, several of my friends live in houses that would be much cheaper in other pats of the world. But again, you should be able to live comfortable on that salary.

"The OC", "Cali"...

85k is enought if your single or small family with not a lot of bills n shit.depends on where you live, you can grab a pad by the beach in santa monica or something if your single..

i hear rent is cheap in Compton and Inglewood though, worth a shot =)

Not to thread jack but how are apartment prices down that way compared to SF area?

bmwmike335 wrote

85k is enought if your single or small family with not a lot of bills n shit.depends on where you live, you can grab a pad by the beach in santa monica or something if your single..

i hear rent is cheap in Compton and Inglewood though, worth a shot =)

Some parts of Compton are alright, but best to stick away, lots of drugs, gang violence, property crime.

Good luck. I would love to move there!

Schm wrote

I go to Univ. of Arizona, we have more than our fair share of bleach blond, snotty, spoiled SoCal types. I've seen it time and time again.

Don't go to there but I see it all the time.