I do not mean this facetiously, but have you spent much time in SoCal? Everything between roughly Santa Barbara and San Diego and as far east as Riverside is "the city." There are no breaks, it goes forever with no clear divisions between one city and the next. It's not like the Midwest or most of the East where miles of nothing separate one suburban area from the next. You can drive for hours and not see open land - you are always in the city.
Irvine is gorgeous - it's actually where I'm from. But despite being a master planned city, it's still sprawl. Everything is sprawl. KB has way more recent experience than I, but I would strongly encourage you to find the job and THEN figure out where to live. SoCal traffic is awful. You want to minimize your commute as much as possible, especially if that commute involves on-call or exhaustingly long days. Sitting in a car for 45 minutes while you travel 5 miles at the end of a 20 hour shift is bananas.
Chicago has a pretty high rent also. At least anywhere I'd want to live. I've looked at Denver and it's pretty similar. We were looking in the Stapleton area, west of the city, and there were not many homes on the market. And most of them were new construction. There seems to be a lot of growth. How do you like the City? We recently visited Denver, however it was winter and we weren't able to get out much. It seems like there is a decent amount to do though.
One thing I like about Chicago is the amount of outdoor activities in the summer. It seems like there is quite a bit to do in Denver too?
The airport itself is 30 minutes out of the city for some reason. And the Jordan's live pretty far south of the city as well. The city seems designed better than Chicago from my experience.Originally Posted by Cam
Nope. I know the basics about each, but I've never visited LA, or southern CA at all really. I've only been to SF.
Gotcha. I warned my wife about the traffic. And it would effect her more than I. I might be able to work from home if I move. One of the major things that will effect where we end up.
I think it'd be worth a trip to see what you could handle and what you couldn't. Although SoCal is a big, spread out area there are a lot of distinctive flavors going on down there, and depending on what you want different areas will appeal. Or, just play some GTAV and see what Los Santos neighborhood appeals the most... chances are it extrapolates directly into a SoCal city.
My sister is in Irvine, and they sure like it a shitload more than living in northern New Jersey. They describe it as "the Naperville of LA."
As for traffic, if you're used to north side of Chicago and N/NW burbs traffic, LA traffic isn't anything mind blowing; there's just more of it because the sprawl just keeps going.
Having been to both SoCal multiple times and multiple cities in CO. I'd move to Colorado Springs.
Other choice I'd personally take, Arkansas. But that is like my 'retirement' goal. The roads down there are a driver's/motorcyclist wet dream.
Some real nice hospitals in the Sacramento area...just sayin'.
Between Denver and LA, I would personally pick Denver. LA is too much for me. Too much traffic, too much brown, too much everything.
Whoomah!
Doesn't California also still have that 6% consumption tax (General Sales Tax)? That's pretty off-putting.