So as a former Angeleno myself i have a lot of experience from the city of Los Angeles and i have a lot of love for a lot of hard working great Angelenos.
But as a life-coach and adviser, i need to give you the reader who might be thinking of moving to LA, a cautionary advise on what you would be moving to now in the year of 2019.
We have seen Los Angeles on the movie screen and in tv-shows for a long time now.
And a lot of people have moved to Los Angeles over the years from smaller cities and towns across the US and from around the world, based on what shows and movies they have watched.
I moved for work from Europe to Los Angeles in the 1970 s and it was a very different city compered to what it is in ,today’s 2019.
The first thing you need to understand is that LA today is very different from what it has been in the past.
And what you see in movies and tv-shows, when they show Beverly Hills or Hollywood hills or even West Hollywood in shows like Beverly hills, the Hills, for instance, is very different from what LA is actually looks like for the most parts.
Nobody can say that LA is a beautiful city, it has some beautiful areas , but as a city it is not beautiful, if you walk around in many areas and mainly the down town area.
I would say that Los Angeles has like 50+ suburbs looking for a city, if that would make sense to you.
So LA it is not like many other cities in America, where you have a nicer down town area or gathering spot.
Because of the horrendous traffic in LA , usually you will stay in the area(suburb) where you reside during evenings and weekend, compered to many other cities where you can live in on area and then visit friends in the evening in another area.
This is almost unheard of in LA.
You will drive for work one way, 1-2 h but you will not drive to see a friend in the evening.
So if you are gonna live in LA you should pick an area where you have fairly close to work and where you see yourself also be willing to spend time in , in the evenings and on the weekends.
because once again the traffic is horrendous in Los Angeles and has been so since the 1980 s.
And it has just gotten worse over the past 30 years time , when the city has grown exponentially.
But in no other city in America and maybe even in the world if we count away London who also have the same problem that LA has today on the housing market.
Which is that people are simply house poor!.
That means pretty much that people have over extended themselves financially to be able to buy a house, to the point that they have no money left after paying for their mortgage and insurance and taxes that all comes with buying a house in LA.
Many angelenos are paying over 50% of their income towards their living.
And most economics agree globally that you should only pay a maximum of 25-30% for your living, to be able to live a so called (Normal life), if there is anything that is normal to begin with.
But for arguments sake we use the word normal here.
Today you are paying 1 million dollars for a rats nest, to use some harsh language or a complete tear down to the stubbs in Los angles for a house.
At 2 million dollar you are starting to get something nicer and at 3 million dollars you get something nice, in a nicer neighborhood.
You can get a 1.3-1.8 m dollar home new construction today in LA but that will not be in a good neighborhood or in a good school district.
La sombra dr where i lived for many years is Hollywood hills east, and is considered a decent neighborhood today , will run you 1.5-2.5 m dollars for a decent house.
I would personally not consider Hollywood hills east as a good neighborhood, if we use any of the normal family standards here.
The Hollywood hills west is a better area, but usually you pay almost double for a house in that area of the same quality.
So you are pretty much as a parent forced to spend closer to the 2 million dollar mark to get your family into a better neighborhood with at least a decent school district.
And that is just insane!, there is no other word for it than insane!.
OK!, how did this happen?.
Pretty much what has happen is that there has been a huge increase of people into to the city of LA city or county, how ever you want to count on it over the past 35+ years.
And there has not been that much new construction for the working class or for the middle class.
Then you have had a lot of foreign capital that has come into the LA county over the past 15 years time, that has also effected the prices on a lot of homes and mainly homes in-between 2-4 million dollars.
And for the working class and the middle class the rent has sky rocket over the past 20 years also to an insane level.
You will pay true your nose for a 2 bed room apartment in a nicer area of LA today.
We are talking about from 4000-6000 USD.
Thant could be the take home pay for a fairly normal earner.
So my advise to you who are thinking of moving to Los Angeles in 2019 or 2020.
Is that know your challenges that lies ahead of you in finding a decent priced place to live in!.
And also pick your neighborhood based on where you believe that you will work over a longer period of time, so you can save on some of the insane commute.
What i suggest that you do is to really visit Los Angeles and stay in Airbnb around the city for 1-2 nights and then you get the feel for the neighborhood and the area that you are considering living in for a foreseeable future.
Before you get a place in an area that you might not like.
And also ask yourself how MANY YEARS you are willing to sacrifice in your life , if you are coming to wait tables and try to make it in the show business or another business that has its main base in LA.
My advise is this if you are trying to make it in LA, if you have gotten nowhere inside 3 years, then leave, and dont look back.
I know people who tried for 30 years and never made it.
And i know of people who made it inside the 3 years , that i suggest, will pretty much tell you yes or no, if you are gonna be able to make it the show biz.
There are today more projects than ever in television, more shows than ever before.
The big difference today is that many shows pays a fraction of what tv-shows paid in the past when there when 10 times less of them around.
So even if you get cast in a tv-show, it might not mean more that 50.000 dollars after taxes and agent costs.
So if your rent is 30.000 a year , it will still be a struggle to make ends meet.
What studios and companies know, is that you can pay newer actors much less and they will accept just to get the part.
Please also remember that there are people who have lived 15 min from the beach, their whole life and never been there.
So you will not go to the beach as much as you might actually think that you will.
Forget about Santa Monica, it is just crazy expensive and Venice beach is just insane, we can do a whole own post on Venice beach, what is once was, and what it actually is today!.
So i am not trying to scare anybody off here, from moving to Los Angeles, but i am a strong believer in that you should gather all the information you can before you make a huge life altering decision that a move usually is.
So the best advise i can give you as an old and a long time angeleno is that visit the city a few times and stay in different airbnb s to make sure in which area would suit you the best.
Thank you for reading.
Mrlifeadvise.
