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Curbed L.A.: You Have to Make $145k a Year to Afford Rent on a Two-Bedroom in LA

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im planning to LA/Socal soon. Where do you live? i dont mind hour away from work too.

Help from anyone else from Socal or know a lot about the area would be appreciated too.

here is a screen cap i did. Im guessing my "X" spot is the expensive parts? Which city in the "circle" would be good low cost living place?

Well if price is all that matters then, Inglewood or South Central

Personally I wished they had broken this heat map down into $500 dollar increments
LA-County-Apartment-Median-Rent-ZipCode-2015.0.jpg
 
You have no idea. I was consulting in Santa Monica for about 5 month's and it was just terrible. About 1.5 to 2 hours to get to work in the morning. About 2 hours minimum to get back home at night.

Breh, I was living in Redlands while I went to UCLA (working full time at San Manuel casino, attended school 2 days a week). Three hours there, three hours back. For two years. Even two days a week, it was still completely awful.

I live five minutes from my job in Santa Monica ($2600, 2br, 1.5ba, rent controlled), and I'm no longer allowed to talk about it.

Yeah, no one wants to hear this nonsense :p
 
im planning to LA/Socal soon. Where do you live? i dont mind hour away from work too.

Help from anyone else from Socal or know a lot about the area would be appreciated too.

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here is a screen cap i did. Im guessing my "X" spot is the expensive parts? Which city in the "circle" would be good low cost living place?

You think you can commute from Riverside to LA proper? You're going to go crazy trying that.
 
Paging Tabris to tell us why this is wonderful

It is not just him. San Franciscans really enjoy their high rents to feel exclusive and hip. Any affordable place is either a flyover state, a ghetto or the south where those damn republicans live
 
Honestly anyone paying that much in San Francisco needs to have their head examined. You can buy a 1.2 million dollar house in San Jose that's 3-4 bedrooms in a nice area, and pay the same amount per month except you own the house and in 10 years you'll double your money
Which is fine, if you indeed want to live in the South Bay & have even more cash on hand. To hit ~$5.2k/mo incl. property taxes, you'd need to take out a 30yr mortgage & put about 25-30% down (about $300-360k) on that $1.2m house.
 
I make half that and afford a 2 bedroom (on my own) on the West Side. Suck it!

(I probably shouldn't live alone but I'm doing okay).

(It was a lot nicer when I was working in startup world and making $20k a more)

I actually looked at relocating from Del Rey/Mar Vista to Venice, but its like $4k a month for anything halfway decent over there so that was kind of out of the question. Everything brand new in my neighborhood costs $2k-$3k which is a shade more than what I pay right now ($1850 for 2br2ba 2 covered parking spots and a pet).
 

mollipen

Member
Even for being "expensive," Glendale is not as expensive as downtown proper: https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-glendale-ca-rent-trends/

Once all of the ridiculously-priced new developments that are being worked on open up there, it's going to get worse. I'm not sure what's caused the boom in Glendale, but that place has majorly changed from 5~6 years ago.


Where are you working? And what's your budget/salary? The X area isn't impossible to live in. In fact many areas within it are doable but you will make trade offs. In I'm opinion it's not worth living in LA if you're not in the X area.

Yeah, I'm with you. Living that far out from LA proper would be utter hell. Even the few years we spent at the west end of the SF valley were horrible to me. If I'm going to live that far in the suburbs, I'd rather live in a different, far cheaper city.

Also, Santa Monica is the worst part of LA.
 
West LA rents have gone up 15-20% in the past year but are still comfortably under $3000 a month here near the border with Culver City. So that number is dumb.

But, if you think finding an affordable apartment in LA is tough, wait until you have to find an affordable apartment in an area with good public schools.
 
West LA rents have gone up 15-20% in the past year but are still comfortably under $3000 a month here near the border with Culver City. So that number is dumb.

But, if you think finding an affordable apartment in LA is tough, wait until you have to find an affordable apartment in an area with good public schools.

They aren't going to remain under 3k much longer with all that development going in on Jefferson.

I moved in to my place in 2010 and it was $1325 I think. It's now $1850. All the silicon beach funny money is going to destroy the affordability of Del Rey/Mar Vista/Culver City. And the Runyon Group is gonna make so much bank off all the stuff they put in by the train.
 
Say 30% goes to taxes. So you're actually only bringing home 101,940. After rent it's 40,776. Divided by 12 is $3.3k / month. That needs to cover car maintenance, food, gas, utilities, and everything else.

Er, if you're bringing home 101,940 and rent is 40776, wouldn't it be 61164/12 = $5097/month?

So assuming all additional expenses total up to $1500/month, you're taking $3500/a month, so about $900/week. That's great, and definitely not just affordable living conditions.
 

Schattendorfer

Neo Member
Hello,

when you LA and SanFrancisco Residents here say that your rent is too hight, you mean in a very good neighbourhood, right? I can´t imagine that all the poor people in LA have so much money. I mean there must be rent for poor people in a not so good neighbourhood, too! Right?

I pay 400 Dollars rent 40 Minutes away from Vienna for a 120qm house and this is expensive.
 
Hello,

when you LA and SanFrancisco Residents here say that your rent is too hight, you mean in a very good neighbourhood, right? I can´t imagine that all the poor people in LA have so much money. I mean there must be rent for poor people in a not so good neighbourhood, too! Right?

I pay 400 Dollars rent 40 Minutes away from Vienna for a 120qm house and this is expensive.

No they mean in every neighborhood. Poor people are getting government assistance, living many people in the same house, haven't moved in decades, or simply don't live here
 

Amory

Member
Usually if you have a 2 bedroom and you're renting, you have a roommate to split the rent with. Also, only 28% of your income should be rent? I always paid more than that and was still fairly comfortable.
 

Gutek

Member
Usually if you have a 2 bedroom and you're renting, you have a roommate to split the rent with. Also, only 28% of your income should be rent? I always paid more than that and was still fairly comfortable.

Or a stay at home dad/mom and a kid. Good luck with that.
 
D

Deleted member 20415

Unconfirmed Member
I just don't know how anyone's supposed to make this all work.

I'm in NYC, am in a comfortable salary band... and still, just a total mess trying to rent a place... and buying? Even something outside of the city seems so difficult with the 20% cost of down payment... how does anyone do this?

I don't get this...
 

maxcriden

Member
I just heard from some friends that Sandy Springs is jacking up the rent along Roswell Road for the Mercedes Benz headquarters. It was about a $200 increase at my old place along there.

Sandy Springs is definitely crazy pricy. Areas like Buckhead, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, not cheap either comparatively. Feel very lucky to have a great side by side duplex in Stone Mountain, super convenient to Marta for me and school for my wife. Unsure how much we're paying; $750 maybe? Two bedroom w/ fireplace, dishwasher, porch, backyard, W/D hook-ups.
 

Kill3r7

Member
The current metropolitan housing market = too expensive too buy and too expensive to rent.

I just don't know how anyone's supposed to make this all work.

I'm in NYC, am in a comfortable salary band... and still, just a total mess trying to rent a place... and buying? Even something outside of the city seems so difficult with the 20% cost of down payment... how does anyone do this?

I don't get this...

They expect you to commute from North Jersey, Westchester, LI or CT. I feel your pain.
 
I just don't know how anyone's supposed to make this all work.

I'm in NYC, am in a comfortable salary band... and still, just a total mess trying to rent a place... and buying? Even something outside of the city seems so difficult with the 20% cost of down payment... how does anyone do this?

I don't get this...

You either need to make a bunch of money, get used to having roommates or move to Jersey.
 

milanbaros

Member?
Usually if you have a 2 bedroom and you're renting, you have a roommate to split the rent with. Also, only 28% of your income should be rent? I always paid more than that and was still fairly comfortable.

Yes, this is so misleading.

The 28% rule only makes sense for a single level of I ncome. Are you really trying to tell me someone needs to earn a $1m to pay $280k rent?

The truth is, if you are low income rules like this make sense because the rest of your income is also taken up with essentials and near essentials.

Once you move to higher income you can afford to spend a greater portion of your income on rent, not that it necessarily wise, but you can do it without any suffering.

Also, in London a lot of people pay way more than 28% and make it work.
 
I've always wanted to move to LA but after seeing countless articles about how fucked it is in terms of rental pricing, I'm giving up that desire real quick.
 

ironcreed

Banned
ATL traffic will make you want to leave your car in the middle of the street on fire.

Indeed. I don't miss it a bit except for eating out at the Vortex with friends back in the day or catching an occasional Falcons game. But those are things I can do without. Glad I left.
 
Yes, this is so misleading.

The 28% rule only makes sense for a single income. Are you really trying to tell me someone needs to earn a $1m to pay $280k rent?

The truth is, if you are low income rules like this make sense because the rest of your income is also taken up with essentials and near essentials.

Once you move to higher income you can afford to spend a greater portion of your income on rent, not that it necessarily wise, but you can do it without any suffering.

If you are paying $280k in rent ($23k / month), you're living in an estate that would probably cost $10m+ to buy.

Yes you need to earn an absolute fuckton to afford that. You will probably need a staff to manage the house.
 

ironcreed

Banned
I just heard from some friends that Sandy Springs is jacking up the rent along Roswell Road for the Mercedes Benz headquarters. It was about a $200 increase at my old place along there.

Absurd, but not surprising. It's been about 9 years since I have been down that way and I have no plans to go back.
 
It must be fucking cool to be wealthy.

But they're not wealthy when the cost of living is substantially higher. It's all relative to what the cost of living is. Otherwise, you could say everyone in the US is super wealthy because they make substantially more than someone in some third world country.
 

Dre3001

Member
You think you can commute from Riverside to LA proper? You're going to go crazy trying that.

Yea good luck with that, im currently living in Rancho Cucamonga commuting to downtown LA for work daily and its making me miserable. Its a 2 hour commute in the morning and a 2.5- 3 hour commute home.
 
Indeed. I don't miss it a bit except for eating out at the Vortex with friends back in the day or catching an occasional Falcons game. But those are things I can do without. Glad I left.

Same here. I miss somethings about living there, but ATL traffic almost on its own was enough for me to say "fuck this", pack up, and move across the country within a month.

But where I moved to, rent is insane. $1600/mo for a 2 bed/bath apartment seemed way too high. Surprised to find out that my rent is on the lower side.
 

milanbaros

Member?
Yea good luck with that, im currently living in Rancho Cucamonga commuting to downtown LA for work daily and its making me miserable. Its a 2 hour commute in the morning and a 2.5- 3 hour commute home.

What do you do? Can't you switch from 9-5.30 to 7-3.30 or something? Explain that your commute is 5 hours a day. Jesus man, that is so bad.
 

Tripon

Member
Yea good luck with that, im currently living in Rancho Cucamonga commuting to downtown LA for work daily and its making me miserable. Its a 2 hour commute in the morning and a 2.5- 3 hour commute home.
I'm doing the Torrance to Reseda route. 1 hour up and 2 hours back to Torrance.
 
Yea good luck with that, im currently living in Rancho Cucamonga commuting to downtown LA for work daily and its making me miserable. Its a 2 hour commute in the morning and a 2.5- 3 hour commute home.

My mother does this too everyday. I drive like 5 minutes to work.
 

Iorv3th

Member
Surprised at how much Dallas has gone up. Though I lived in a suburb my rent for 2 bedroom apartment was 695 a month.
 
What do you do? Can't you switch from 9-5.30 to 7-3.30 or something? Explain that your commute is 5 hours a day. Jesus man, that is so bad.

Damn, that's rough. I used to commute from Pasadena to Beverly Hills for my shitty $10/hour independent contractor job a few years ago and I thought that was hell.
 
not surprised to see Phoenix as the 2nd fastest rising rent, shit is getting stupid expensive around here for seemingly no valid reason.
 

nel e nel

Member
So, why do you need 145629 - 3398*12 = 104853 to live in LA besides rental? That's 105k for what exactly?

It's Los Angeles, besides all the other life things you need like electricity and food and whatnot, you also need a car, car insurance, gas, maintenance, etc, etc.
 
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