Where should I move to in southern CA?

May 25, 2010 9:30 AM

This fall I'm starting a graduate program that requires me to be in Santa Barbara for 3 days/month. I currently live on the east coast. Where might I move to within driving distance of Santa Barbara that is not insanely expensive but still a "nice enough" place to live?

I'm a female in my late 20's. I have family in SF but none in Southern California. I'm okay with moving somewhere where I don't have connections as long as the place itself offers decent social/community opportunities. I'm open to living in the city or the country. I'd prefer the drive to Santa Barbara to be no more than 5 hours and ideally it would be much less. I currently live in an inexpensive hip little city and my cost of living will jump exponentially in California no matter what. Also, I'll be working part-time because I'll be a full-time student. I'm very comfortable living with housemates. A friend of mine suggested that I try to be a live-in nanny, trading childcare for free housing. Is this a good idea? Any other ideas for cheap(er) living? Any suggestions for laid-back, not uber-wealthy, cool places for a 30-something (almost) girl to live?

posted by tacoma1 to Work & Money (27 answers total)

Response by poster: P.S. I'm also willing to consider west coast cities that are not within driving distance (Portland, OR?) if they make sense for other reasons (cost, quality of living, inexpensive flights to Santa Barbara or LA...)
posted by tacoma1 at 9:35 AM on May 25, 2010

First, what are you wanting to pay?

What are you going to be doing for work? What kind of work do you do? (Unemployment is high in CA. You might want to job hunt first before picking a city.

Are you at UCSB? (3 days a month?) Student housing is pretty affordable.

Ventura is 40 minutes from SB and is much more affordable.
posted by k8t at 9:38 AM on May 25, 2010

There are no cheap flights to SBA.
posted by k8t at 9:39 AM on May 25, 2010

I came in here all set to recommend Ventura, which is an adorable beach town about 20 minutes from Santa Barbara & near where I grew up, then saw you're willing to live within 5 hours of Santa Barbara. That encompasses all of LA County (1 - 1.5 hours away), Orange County (1.5 - 2 hours away) and San Diego county (3 hours away, where I live now). Heck, technically San Jose & Santa Cruz are under 5 hours away if traffic's good. Are you looking for urban? beachy? urban beachy? what do you do for fun?
posted by changeling at 9:39 AM on May 25, 2010

(of course, we're talking southern california, so all of those driving time estimates potentially double if you drive during the wrong time of day...)
posted by changeling at 9:42 AM on May 25, 2010

Maybe I don't have the full story, but why not just get a cheap hotel if it's only 3/days month? Seems way easier (and cheaper) than going through the hassle of finding a place to live.

Also, SF is about a 5-hour drive from SB.
posted by kookaburra at 9:53 AM on May 25, 2010

My vote: Ojai. Small, pretty, cool, interesting. Lots of people with large properties and guest houses. But you're still in striking distance of everything, while being secluded so you can study.

You can get the relevant Craigslists here: Ventura (covers all Ventura County) and Santa Barbara. I think the pain of commuting makes Los Angeles less attractive, but there may be more work there.

My impression of Santa Barbara was that is is more touristy and more expensive than anywhere in Ventura County.

(Background: I have worked and lived, variously all over LA, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Ojai, and Camarillo).
posted by artlung at 9:54 AM on May 25, 2010

My friends live near Pasadena, and their elderly mother visits via train from Santa Barbara. You may want to look where Amtrak goes and see if there is a less expensive city that you can live in and commute by train. Commute by car--always dicey!
posted by 6:1 at 9:56 AM on May 25, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks so far for the suggestions--I'll look into Ventura. For work I've been waitressing for the past few years. the grad program I'll be attending is in psychology and eventually I plan to work as a psychotherapist.

k8t: I don't know exactly what I want to pay because I don't know what's possible out there. $600-$800 for a room? It's fine that there aren't cheap flights to SBA; I can fly in and out of LAX.

changeling: What do you think of San Diego? What's the culture like? Is it as pricey as SBA and LA? I like urban and beachy. In terms of culture, I'm a writer and I love cities with good art scenes. I live now in Asheville, NC and I like the feeling here: very DIY, grassroots, hip in a relaxed way...
posted by tacoma1 at 9:57 AM on May 25, 2010

If it were my money, I wouldn't move. I'd fly into LAX once a month and take a shuttle or bus to Santa Barbara. (Far cheaper, and it's less than two hours on the road.) You can then get a cheap hotel room for three days each month. Right now Hotwire.com (a site I used many times and love) has hotel rooms in Santa Barbara starting at $79/night.
posted by kate blank at 9:59 AM on May 25, 2010

Response by poster: kookaburra: You're totally right; I might just stay where I am and fly cross-country once a month. I'm interested in the possibility of moving instead, though, both for the adventure and to avoid so much constant traveling.
posted by tacoma1 at 10:01 AM on May 25, 2010

SBA is often cheaper and always better than LAX and the airbus. (Airbus is $70 roundtrip and take hours).

Most everyone I know pay about $1000 per room in SB. There are cheaper places for sure.

Ojai is pretty crunchy but people have a hard time finding work. Ventura is urban artsy.
posted by k8t at 10:05 AM on May 25, 2010

Response by poster: Okay, piggyback question: Any neighborhood suggestions within Ventura?
posted by tacoma1 at 10:10 AM on May 25, 2010

Seconding Ojai. There are more expensive, and less expensive areas there. There are several communities between Ventura and Ojai that might work also. The drawback is that it gets beastly hot in the summer, up there.
posted by Danf at 10:17 AM on May 25, 2010

changeling: What do you think of San Diego? What's the culture like? Is it as pricey as SBA and LA?

I do like living here in San Diego. It's really a sprawling city of neighborhoods, some pricier than others, some more liberal, some less. Unless you live downtown, you need a car, but that does for all of Southern CA. I'd say on average, San Diego is less expensive than LA and definitely less expensive than SB, if we exclude the glammy places in SD like La Jolla.

You should definitely check out the North Park/South Park area of San Diego -- my favorite. It's relatively affordable, central, liberal, artsy, and right next to gorgeous Balboa Park. Here's a recent thread about NP. You could find a small apartment there for under $800, or share a place for much cheaper. Amtrak from San Diego to Santa Barbara is about 5.5 hours, and it's a really nice ride, if you decided not to drive.

Oh, and the weather is everything you've heard it is -- we just had an 80 degree Christmas.
posted by changeling at 10:20 AM on May 25, 2010

Okay, piggyback question: Any neighborhood suggestions within Ventura?

Ventura isn't very large. The majority of the fun stuff is along Main Street downtown, parallel to & a couple blocks from the beach; the rest of the city is quiet, beachy suburbia.
posted by changeling at 10:23 AM on May 25, 2010

I vote for going north - San Luis Obispo. Two hours drive away (and they're an amazing two hours), totally beautiful, a bit pricey but not compared to Santa Barbara. It's a college town, so there are more social/cultural opportunities than other small places. It's so close to lots of amazing places on the central coast; the ocean, wineries, mountains, parks. And it's four hours from San Francisco. Other similar options: Santa Maria or Paso Robles.
posted by elsietheeel at 10:27 AM on May 25, 2010

I don't know what's possible out there. $600-$800 for a room?

It seems like you have a mistaken impression of L.A. as being as expensive as Manhattan to rent? Since you said "room" I assume you are talking about a roommate type situation, and $1400 - 1600 ($700-800 each) will get you an extremely nice two-bedroom in pretty much any part of the city. You could actually find your own studio for $800 with a bit of effort, especially with rents being as low as they are now.

It's really up to you what you want as far as small city/big city but

I'm a writer and I love cities with good art scenes

makes me think you want to live in L.A. Certainly before San Diego, with all due respect.
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:27 AM on May 25, 2010

So Ventura County is large, Ventura the town is distinct within that. The suggestions people make for Ventura are for the town - it's a very cute beach town, slightly urban and I think a good match. It's also the first major town south of Santa Barbara. If you head inland from Ventura, you hit Ojai. If you want beachy, then I revise and extend my remarks to put Ventura ahead of Ojai. :-) If you want arts, Ventura and Ojai are what you want. Other options (Camarillo, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Thousand Oaks, etc) won't have enough "cool" I think.

One thing to remember is that Santa Barbara all the way to San Diego is really megalopolis-y*. Go another 15 miles in any direction and you're in a new town. This increases traffic but also means that you have much more at your disposal than in smaller areas of the country.

Also, if you're set on flying to SoCal, consider Burbank as another destination. But as mentioned, the shuttle seems like a good idea, but it ends up chewing a lot of time as those buses use the standard freeways, which when busy, are quite slow.

Consider this, your drive time between San Diego, and say, Ventura is ideally about 3 hours. I've done the same drive in 7 on a Friday night. The car factor is critical in California.

*Car-dependent megalopolis. I wish it had more effective public transportation!
posted by artlung at 10:32 AM on May 25, 2010

Seconding k8t about flying. It's really worth it to fly into SBA. LAX is a nightmare and the Airbus is expensive ($44 one-way) and slow. Sometimes it's even cheaper to fly into SB depending on where you're coming from. Hotel rooms are definitely not $1000/night. You can easily get them for $80 or so.

Are you going to have a car? It's a real pain to get around the area (especially if you're coming from Ventura or Ojai into SB/Goleta) without one.
posted by kookaburra at 10:35 AM on May 25, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks so much! You all are great! Now that I've been craigslisting some of these areas, I see that I might have been overestimating the cost of rent. The thing is, where I live right now I pay $300 plus utilities (!) for a nice room. If I can pay closer to $500 in CA that would be very good.

After reading these answers I'm thinking Ventura, Ojai, North Beach in SD or LA...obviously I have some narrowing down to do...

I think I should prioritize the ease or difficulty of travel to SBA from whichever town/city I choose. I didn't realize that Airbus kind of sucks. Taking Amtrack sounds nice...
posted by tacoma1 at 10:45 AM on May 25, 2010

For Amtrak, San Diego to Santa Barbara is covered by Pacific Surfliner and has stops rin Ventura and Santa Barbara on most runs. Metrolink is in that area too, but stops just short of Ventura (a few miles away) in Montalvo. Also, Metrolink is weekday only if I remember right.
posted by artlung at 11:11 AM on May 25, 2010

Amtrak is cool if you're not in a hurry. Once it took us 5 hours to go from SB to SD. But our friend came up from LA last week and it took him nearly 10 hours.
posted by k8t at 11:49 AM on May 25, 2010

$1000 per room per month for rentals in SB, not hotels.
posted by k8t at 11:53 AM on May 25, 2010

I take the Surfliner almost every week. It's consistently on-time (+/- 5minutes). It's much more consistently reliable (and decidedly more pleasant!) than my flights to SFO and OAK.

The thing is not every Surfliner goes North past LA Union Station. If you hop an early train in SD, you may wait several hours for a connection. If you plan the routes to hit the connections, it's not a problem.

For flights in the LA area, I try to use Burbank. Super easy security, small, generally on-time - all good things in an airport. (Note, the food is sucky past security. If you're flying cross country don't plan to pick up a meal at the airport.)
posted by 26.2 at 12:08 PM on May 25, 2010

For flying: If you fly into Burbank, there is an amtrak station across the street so that can be easy. If you are doing a full round-trip flight from somewhere else then flying to SBA is usually cheaper than flying to LA and taking the airbus. I fly between Austin and Santa Barbara a few times per year and I've searched MANY different options to try to keep costs down and flying to SBA is usually only like $30-$50 more than stopping in LA. This could be different if you can get a good deal on Southwest (which doesn't fly to SB) or something like that.

My studio apt (which was admittedly on the cheap side) was $850/month in SB so you could get a room for under that. Isla Vista is going to be a little more expensive because they tend to gouge the students but as a grad student you probably don't want to live there anyway.
posted by magnetsphere at 5:01 PM on May 25, 2010

In addition to Ventura, there's also Oxnard and Camarillo, which are just a bit further away from SB on the 101, but basically melded into the same community when you're driving through. Amtrak stops at least in Ventura and Oxnard.

My fiancee just spent the past year at UCSB, and after two quarters decided it was cheaper to live here in San Diego, pay a bit less than half our rent, and just take the train up to SB for one night a week and crash on her friend's couch. Her rent for a room there (in Goleta, actually) was $750/month, which was supposedly a screaming deal. We saw ads in the local paper where people were letting rooms for 800/month, but you didn't get kitchen access, and you also had to clean the house - you pay $800 to be a maid. We're paying $950 for a pretty large one-bedroom in SD right now (Banker's Hill area).

If you do the train route, there's also a stop in Simi Valley; still in Ventura County, but just barely. Simi seems like it might have some deals on rent.
posted by LionIndex at 9:57 PM on May 25, 2010