Im moving to LA, can someone tell me which of these areas are nice areas to live?

Every one of those areas has very nice and not-so-nice neighborhoods. Where will you be working or going to school? Choose something close to work or school so you don't have to deal with sitting in traffic hours a day. You should be able to find apartments in your price range in a nice neighborhood in those areas, although how nice will vary. In desirable areas near the beach, there won't be a lot of options when renting a house or an upscale condo, $3000 a month will be on the low end, but you'd be able to find an apartment. If commuting isn't an issue, chose an environment you like. Do you like the beach (but you'll get less for your money), or do you like the mountains, do you like lots of space, or are you OK with being in a crowded neighborhood? There are lots of scams on craigslist, it isn't the best place to look for rentals, so look elsewhere too, so you'll know when something on craigslist is too good to be true. Realtor.com http://www.realtor.com Click on Home Type > Rentals Good luck!

signal hill/bixby knolls is a really nice place to live, and it's in the LB area. You can also get a really good place in Downtown LB for the rent you're willing to pay. The southbay is nice, but you'd probably want to stay in areas like Manhattan Beach, and Torrance. The Valley is far from everything, so I'd stick to the beach cities.

Westside-Southbay I am on a county gang task force, so my opinion is jaded. Santa Clarita is nice and low crime, its upper SFV There are nice areas sprinkled around. Antelope Valley is cheapest, I live here. If you want to be a super commuter for $550. a 2 bedroom here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVnt7oZOBAM Its all about what you want to pay and how far you are willing to drive!

I live in Los Angeles, if you want to pay 2-3k you should live in Westside-Southbay (Manhattan Beach, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, etc..

Look at Santa Clarita. Family town, low crime (I think it's the 5th safest cities in America), good schools, clean.... Good luck.

Long beach

Within each of those areas, there are nicer places and ghetto places. 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-ghetto place is about $1,000/$1,200 per month for a studio/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. The answer to this really lies in the answer to the question, “Where do you work”? It’s not good at all to live in South Bay if you have a job in Pasadena. It’s stupid, in fact. The one thing that grinds people down more than anything here is the traffic. It’s the worst thing about living here. So rather than worrying about “cheap and safe”, your FIRST order of business should be getting a place close to your job. THEN you can worry about safety and price. But, to reiterate, nothing is cheap here. "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. If you want to see the safety and price factors, go to www.lalife.com. Also, the LA Times did a nice job of outlining all 277 neighborhoods in LA County: http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/ . You can also look in neighborhoodscout.com. Time to get researching!

2 to 3.000 a month? my gawd you must be crazy. anyway you wont be moving here or if you do you will move back to where you came from. ohhhh another level 1 or level 2 trying to impress us.. well i am impressed PS the only people that call Los angeles LA are old overweight geezers with more hair growing out of thier ears and nose than on top of their head. Capice? people that say Good Luck or have fun on their answers or copy the same answer over and over again for the bizillionth time, get a thumbs down. Just because........

I think the San Fernando Valley would be your best bet. Nice little towns for family living.