Irvine-Los Angeles Best places to live
Hey everyone,
So I will be working out of Irvine in the coming months. And really want to be as close to the Los Angeles area as possible as I feel that’s where majority of young people are living. I’m coming from the east coast and all I know is that West Hollywood and Santa Monica is where it’s at but the traffic between OC and LA is horrendous. Where should I look for a happy medium of not getting caught in traffic yet having ease of access to LA people and activities etc
Odd question but if anyone from the area has insight on cool places or areas to look into a bit more that would be sick. Thanks!
No way around that. WeHo is 1+ hours away not including traffic.
Lived in LA for 3 years. If you are going to work in Irvine, I would recommend staying in Irvine (lower budget) or Newport Beach (need a higher budget, but awesome place). It is going to be a pain to commute from LA to Irvine on weekdays (2+ hours one way). Obviously, during the weekends you can go to LA or SD and see what each city has to offer. In LA, most of the action is on the west side - Venice, Santa Monica, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Malibu (further up north, definitely worth the drive). I haven't lived in Newport Beach, but that place has been great whenever I have visited. Believe me, you don't want to spend 4+ hours each day on the 405, rather live in a silent place in OC where you spend less time commuting and take the weekend to visit LA / SD.
What do y’all think about Long Beach? Would that be a happy medium? Where it may take 30-45 minutes maybe an hour if horrible traffic each way?
Realistically, I would find it hard to hang out in LA during the weekdays after commuting 1.5 hours to and from OC in a given day. Irvine & Newport Beach are better pockets of LA/OC to live in compared to Long Beach or Torrance, so would recommend staying in OC!
Long Beach is possible, but you'll still spend quite some time commuting to Irvine. Seems like you're having a very strong preference towards being in LA or closer to it. Is there something about living in orange county that you don't like or are put off by?
I have to hop on and second how awesome Malibu is. I live on the central coast and drive down every sunday for Cars and Coffee. There are always sick cars, and my friend lives in Calabasas so we grab lunch at the country mart.
Do you mind shooting me a DM so I can ask you some questions about specific areas/neighborhoods in LA?
PM'd you
From what everyone says it seems staying closer to work and being able to focus in on work is going to be the move over moving between LA and OC during M-F.
I guess I'm wondering if I was to go to LA for the weekends in terms of visiting people, partying, etc. what would be the best way to go about that? Is ubering between an actual possibility or am I just going to end up paying hundreds of dollars just for transportation back and forth. How expensive would airbnb or hotels cost? I have some people I know or friends of friends from LA but don't want to end up crashing with them constantly as I'm sure that'll be a solid way to not get invited again and again. Is there a cheap place to park my car or something?
I see what people are saying about going up to LA on the weekends but I just don't see how that could logistically be done multiple weekends without just burning cash. I'm sure OC is nice, I just dont really anyone in the area and not sure how I'd meet them if they do keep to themselves as mentioned
Using Uber / Lyft in LA / OC is generally a bad idea (unless you live next to where you work and have friends to drive you around). Ride sharing would probably cost you anywhere from $50-$125 each way depending on the traffic and the time of the day that you travel, so getting a car would be better. Parking is an issue that a decent amount of people, but that really depends on where you will be headed. You should be able to find street parking in most cases or if you will be crashing at the same place every weekend, you can buy a monthly parking pass at a private parking lot (not sure how much this costs). Again, I don't know much about Airbnb's coz I never had to use it.
IMO, you'd burn more cash staying in LA and commuting to OC (coz that's a 5 day deal) vs staying in OC and commuting to LA (2 days / week). Not to mention the amount of time you'll waste contemplating your existence on the 405.
You def do not want to work in Irvine and live in WeHo or Santa Monica. Will be over an hour each way every day. I lived and worked in Irvine a few years ago and I have zero complaints. I was on the border or Irvine/Newport and paid ~$2,400 for a nice 2 bed 2 bath townhouse. Spent my weekends in Newport Beach and other beach areas around there. Irvine also has a lot restaurants and everything. Cost of living will be much lower and you'd spend 10-15 minutes commuting to the office compared to the 1 hour+. Also my entire family is in LA and I had no problem driving up on weekends to see them and friends.
Traffic is very bad, people generally don't live in LA and work in Orange County. I recommend Newport Beach, lots of young people, great restaurants, entertainment, beaches. Plenty to do. Irvine is also good, might be too suburban in my opinion, but you'll still enjoy many things for how far your money goes. You can easily head up to Santa Monica, WeHo and the other popular hangouts in LA on the weekends.
Anyone have any recommendations on where to find a place in OC just for the summer? Will be working in Newport, but Irvine seems to be the best bet in terms of cost and commute time.
You can commute to PIMCO from irvine
How long is the commute typically?
If you want to save money try costa mesa. A little bit further from PIMCO and not as nice but much cheaper than Newport/Irvine. Just stay away from the cartels and you will be fine.
My firm has an LA office, they view the OC as another world, and totally separate market. I think the commute is not even close to being daily doable unless you just love your car that much. I would just settle in and get the OC lifestyle (Newport Beach if you can swing it), then go AirBnB in LA (hell downtown hotels are often cheap, even pre-pandemic) when you want that experience for the weekends (and hit San Diego while at it). The money saved from trying to commute like that will help.
Shit this is accurate. My LA-based firm would rather do deals in SF or Seattle than the OC haha.
Second this, unless you are a serious frat star Newport totally sucks.
If you are a frat star then yeah, just live on the peninsula and you will have a great time.
If you aren't.... Santa Ana is commutable to Irvine/Newport and has a more "urban" vibe with coffee shops, music venues, food halls. Long beach could be an option if you are getting to work early/dont mind a somewhat longer commute.
Second this too. I moved to Irvine and worked in Newport Beach in my mid-20s, and it's certainly a beautiful place to live, and very hard to beat in terms of M-F workweek. You have amazing weather, lots of outdoor options, however there is not much entertainment in the pure urban sense since it's a very suburban place, but the positive is that it limits distractions M-F when you can focus more on work, and there is also less traffic compared to LA. I would compensate for the lack of fun things to do by going to LA every other weekend as other posters recommended, and it's easily doable and a great break from OC.
I made some good friends from work, but as the posters above said it's a bit tricky if you're not from the area, as many people in their 20s who moved there usually are already from OC or SoCal and might know each other or have mutual friends, which can make you feel like an outsider at times. Some posters suggest living in the peninsula - it's very fratty and bro-ish. Unless you're into that, just live in another neighborhood in Newport or Irvine and just drive to the beach - there are plenty of options and you won't be more than 15 mins away from the beach.
TL,DR: live in Irvine/NPB (ex. peninsula), go to LA over the weekend.
Friend of mine was born and raised in Newport Beach. Said he was one of like a dozen kids at his HS whose first car wasn't a BMW and got ridiculed for it by kids (still drove a nice $40k car).
This is anecdotal but I would agree that friend groups are very insular in OC and the people from there love it. I had a coworker from OC and she would drive back every other weekend to party with her HS friends. Whenever her friends would come up for parties in LA they'd be the only group of people that would just stick to themselves.
Live in Irvine or Newport Beach. Minimize your commute M-F. Weekend you can do whatever.
Live in Newport Beach on the peninsula, thank me later
I've only ever visited, but the Newport/Laguna area feels like paradise on earth. I'm sure I'd miss the city living there, but man...
Hijacking this thread a little - but since it seems like a lot of people here know the area, what are the best places to live for a job in Downtown LA? I'd love something by the beach, but I don't want my commute to be an hour each way. I'm a a bit older and settled so I care more about restaurants and coffee shops than bars or clubs, and I'd be happy to spend some money to not live in a dump.
Two of my best friends now live in Manhattan Beach, I love visiting there, not cheap but very ideal if you looking for "small beach town feel" near the big city. They both work for same firm in El Segundo so traffic/commute not an issue. Santa Monica obviously seems super cool (and expensive). Frankly, I think traffic/commute is just part of life if your work in DTLA and don't live in DTLA (which is getting way cooler by the minute, or at least was pre-COVID, but I'd bet that returns when the mayor allows the city to open back up).
I've been to DTLA once, but it was only a hotel stay by the Staples Center, dinner at a cool Asian place, and then a concert at the Greek Theatre. Do people live in DTLA or is it mainly just a CBD that empties out after work hours?
You could probably do somewhere in West LA like Sawtelle or Westwood, kind of around there near the 405-10 interchange. You can go further west of the 405 into Santa Monica itself to be closer to the beach but your commute would only get longer. There's rent control in Santa Monica so your quality of housing might not be as good.
Manhattan Beach and the South Bay (Redondo, Torrance and El Segundo) are nicer, but you're getting further away from DTLA. If you're more into the neighborhood atmosphere of shops, restaurants and other entertainment Pasadena or Glendale might be good options. They're a mix of suburban and city living. They are northeast of DTLA with much closer proximity to DTLA, but further from the beach.
I'm not sure I'd want to go east. Ideally I'd be able to live super close to work and commute to the beach when I have time or live near the beach and commute to work - or I suppose something relatively equal distance between the two.
I appreciate all of the suggestions though.
I lived in West LA and was shocked how quickly I could get to downtown if I hit the road by 8:00AM. The west coast really does have a different concept of time.
I grew up in SoCal and live in Century City right now (between Beverly Hills and Santa Monica). I used to work in Irvine at my last job and before that spent a lot of time all over OC and LA.
If you’re working in Irvine, you should really live in Orange County. Irvine is cool, there’s quite a few young people who work there. Newport is okay, it’s beautiful but I haven’t really jived that well with it. I love Laguna Beach, I haven’t been there in a while but it’s beautiful there. If you want to save money, go slightly inland into Aliso Viejo or near there. Your commute to irvine should be 15ish minutes.
Long Beach is kind of the worst of both worlds in terms of commute. You could easily spend nearly 1 hour each way to Irvine and then 1.5 hours each way to LA. Not worth it. Plus it has a lot of mini neighborhoods that you need to know. One area is filled with multimillion dollar homes, 5 blocks over I wouldn’t really want to park my car and leave it there.
Others have pointed out the cool spots in LA, Malibu being my personal favorite. If I were you, I’d just Uber from OC to LA over the weekends. Or just get an Airbnb/ hotel for the weekend.
OC is significantly less expensive than west side of LA btw.
How do you like it?
It’s really nice. I like being 15 mins from Malibu, 5 mins from Beverly Hills, and 10 minutes from Culver City. I’m also walking distance to the mall.
I am getting back into hiking and the palisades has tons of trails that go on for miles and miles. Neighborhood is nice and you definitely feel safe walking around.
Huntington/Newport
Newport Beach is tremendous.
But like someone mentioned, it is "clicky" to the extreme. For that reason, I don't think it's the best spot for a young'ish person unless you have an "in".
Girls in the area are nothing short of 10/10 (physically).
I can add some color on both Newport/Irvine in terms of the social scene and access.
Saw a lot of recommendations from users to live on the peninsula. I would say if you are working in Newport then this is fine but the commute time to any of the offices in Irvine will be 25 mins minimum and with summer traffic pushing 45 mins+ depending on where your office is located. Peninsula has the only real bars/clubs in the area if you want to call them that but are not to be compared to anything you would see in LA or any major city. I would instead recommend something south of the PCH bridge if you can afford it (CDM or Newport Coast) or Huntington Beach which tends to be less expensive. Much closer to Irvine and a considerably nicer area to live in than a shack on the peninsula. Many students/grads in this area will go to LA for the weekend as they have friends that work/live in the area. Overall, Newport is a very homogenous community compared to Irvine which is a lot more diverse. Living in either of these cities requires you to make/have good friends as otherwise there won't be much to do on the weekends in terms of going out/partying. Due to the high COL in both Newport and Irvine most people are either from the area (family money) or are highly successive individuals who wanted to live in Socal.
Whatever you do, don't commute from LA. You will end up burning cash on gas and you will hate yourself once you are sitting in traffic for 1.5 hrs. Look for places that border Newport/Irvine or neighborhoods that have close access to the freeways.
socal born and raised for 24 years. costa mesa has some new apartment complexes and housing developments that aren’t as inflated as irvine; would def check the area out. plz don’t make our housing costs go up.
anyone have any suggestions on summer housing for interns? Is Irvine my best bet?
If you’re looking for cheaper look inland. Anywhere near the coast is going to cost quite a bit more. Santa Ana will be cheaper but not as safe compared to Irvine/ Newport Beach.
^ bump. would love recommendations
Guy the truth about so CAL is that, unless you're making dime, your not going to be able to get the ideal place. Also, you'll only be able to enjoy it on the weekends.
Any solid finance related gigs in Newport / Greater OC area? Would like to make a change eventually to the area but don’t like the idea of taking a substantial pay cut from IB to do so
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