living near UCLA med center? (Vista, Santa Monica: real estate, apartment, leasing)

[navymdwife]

My husband may be transferring to UCLA med center (we'll find out next week). He's a resident (so a doctor, but not a very well paid one) and we'll need to live within 30 minutes of the hospital. Being sandwiched between Santa Monica and Beverly Hills does not help our search...too rich for our blood. Any suggestions on decent housing close to UCLA? The more space the better; our family is growing. How long would the commute from Hollywood or Ventura be? Is there a snowball's chance of anything in Santa Monica or Malibu? We used to live in Loma Linda, so most of our knowledge is Inland Empire.

[fastfilm]

Hey Navywife. I'm pleased to read you prefacing your concerns with the reality of the fantasyland housing prices here. (Belying my present poverty) I grew up on the West side, and would recommend Mar Vista and Culver City as the closest places to UCLA that don't require millionaire's incomes.

Santa Monica is VERY expensive for single family homes, as are its adjacent areas of Brentwood and West L.A. Hollywood has affordable family-large properties, but so many of them are nearby crime-ridden pockets that I suggest you ride your realtor as hard as a rodeo bronco to get you near the safer family-pockets. I am also hoping you mean "Ventura Blvd." in the San Fernando Valley, as the city of Ventura is a good 90 minutes away via a difficult commute along the ultra-crowded 101 freeway. The major problem for you both, requiring daily attendance at UCLA, were you to try out the larger-lot family neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley is that the commute "over the hill" every day to the West side would sap your quality of life issues, otherwise that tends to be the more affordable option. There are few routes besides the pernicious 405 freeway and a few "secret" (but also as crowded) windy mountain roads to cross this barrier, hence the 24/7 traffic.

Please check a lot of the available sites to get a feel of the extremely high prices around here. The realtor dot com site is a good one, but be aware that when you type in smaller prices, you are being funneled to some genuinely dangerous slums. And no, there is not a snowball's chance in hell for Malibu, unless you like the idea of 3K a month for a small apartment. It really is the equivalent of Park Ave. in NYC or Palm Beach in FLA: millionaires only need apply.

[navymdwife]

Thanks, fastfilm, for the quick reply. No, we are not naive about housing prices out there. We only moved from Loma Linda two years ago and our rent for a two bedroom was $975/month. We own a house now, but would be looking to rent in LA because (as my handle indicates) we are a Navy family and will be moving away from LA after two years (praise the Lord!). We need a two bedroom apartment in a non-slummy area. I found a place at 2245 S. Beverly Glen - seems too good to be true, but with utilities included it would only be about $400 more than we pay now for our house. I say "only," but it's the best I've found so far.

Any other apartment ideas?

[fastfilm]

Navy, get off the computer this instant and go nab that apartment at that address! It's in Beverlywood, an excellent area, with the gigantic Rancho Park ( a great, safe park ) nearby for the kiddies. If you can handle the rent, you're home free, to turn a phrase.

Beverlywood is Beverly Hills adjacent, Rancho Park adjacent, and West Hollywood adjacent. Good schools, nicer people.

Actually, Mapquest said your address was at 2245 south Beverly DRIVE not Beverly Glen. The same message applies. Just don't go any further south or east, or you'll end up in the Crenshaw district which is fine but varies a great deal from block to block in safety.

Lastly, if you've got the address wrong and it's Beverly Glen, so much the better! I hope my flurry of replies has helped.

[navymdwife]

I checked again and one of the buildings is actually on Beverly Glen...other buildings are nearby, but not on that street. I think the one we would want is at 2033 Beloit Ave (Mapquest says this is about 6 miles from UCLA Med Ctr).

Well, I submitted my name & such to the leasing office...we don't actually know if we're moving yet. UCLA said they would make a decision about the job this week, so hopefully we'll know by this Friday. Moving into an apartment will also be contingent on selling our house in Buffalo...and closings tend to take 60-90 days here (don't get me started on NY real estate law), so we'll have to stay with friends in Brea until our mortgage funds are freed for rent payments. Now THAT will be a fun commute.

Thanks for the help!

[fastfilm]

Beloit is right in the middle of Westwood Village, off Westwood Blvd, near La Grange and the Veterans Adm., a great area. You could bicycle up Westwood Blvd. to UCLA, which, I'm guessing with the traffic, you may contemplate doing. You've been getting excellent listings and help by the by.