Where is a good place to live in Southern California?

If affordability is your thing, then don't come here!

SHERMAN OAKS, STUDIO CITY TOLUCA LAKE. coz its abt 15-20 mins freeway ride to ur auditions.If you live close to Santa Monica n such popular areas your gonna pay a hell of a lot in rent. Not to say the areas i listed aren't expensive. Rent will be $1000-1200 regardless.The really nice wealthy areas are CALABASAS, WESTWOOD, WOODLAND HILLS.You might want to look for a roommate. All in all most of the suburban areas outside of Los Angeles are fine.just don't live in downtown/south central/east LA....I don't know your situation but just a word of advice, there are NO jobs here. SAVE SAVE SAVE before you come, so you have money to spend.otherwise it will get really frustrating.

Obviousman pretty much got it right. West LA is the "good" part of LA. Where everybody works and no one can afford to live. Lol. You can find a good studio or 1 bedroom in a middle class neighborhood for 1200ish a month. That's for a basic apartment, not a luxury one. More bedrooms, nicer area, more money. In other neighborhoods, like nearer to the beach, or just in a more upscale area, you can end up paying 2000-4000+ for a decent 1, 2, or 3 bdrm. From my experience.

if your auditions are in l.a. you should look in santa monica or west l.a. if orange county is to your liking where i live newport beach is cool.

We see this every day in this forum: Everyone wants to move here, and is looking for “cheap/affordable and safe". However, such a place just doesn’t exist; the two terms are mutually exclusive. It's all about supply and demand: If it's in SoCal, then it's not going to be cheap to begin with. If it's a safe area, then it's more expensive. If you need good schools, add a couple hundred bucks a month on top of it. If you want to live here and enjoy the weather, then you have to pay for it. You put up with the smog and the traffic, enjoy the weather and pay your rent or mortgage. My advice is to start checking out craigslist, rent.com, and apartments.com if you are looking to rent. You’ll quickly see that the minimum rent for a non-war zone is about $1,000-$1,200 per month for a studio or 1BR. Really nice areas (like the West LA area) easily run $3,000 or more. Want to live near the beach? Expect to pay a premium. "LA" is such a big place, there are so many neighborhoods/cities where you can live. Of course, even within a city or neighborhood, there are safer sections and less-safe sections. In Los Angeles, some nice sections are West LA, Brentwood, Westwood, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Los Feliz, Silverlake, and Eagle Rock. Palms and Mar Vista are pretty good, too. In the Valley(part of LA), you have Encino, Tarzana, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Granada Hills, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks, West Hills, and Chatsworth. Glendale and Burbank are good places, and are incorporated cities of their own. To the east: South Pasadena, parts of Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Glendora, San Dimas, Laverne, Azusa, Rancho Cucamonga. Along the beach: Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Rancho PV. In Orange County aka "The OC": Seal Beach , Huntington Beach , Newport Beach , Corona Del Mar , Laguna Beach , Dana Point , Capistrano Beach , San Clemente , Brea, Yorba Linda, Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest To the west: Agoura, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Simi Valley, Moorpark. This is not an all-inclusive list, but it's a start.