Ryan Burcham

Based on your description I am going to go ahead and say you haven't spent a substantial amount of time in LA. West Hollywood and North Hollywood are not exactly near downtown. In fact, they're not exactly near one another. North Hollywood is in the valley and near Glendale/Pasadena, but probably not a place you'd want to live.

I don't know what type of job you have (how much money you'll be making), and how much you can afford is a major aspect. If you're not looking to spend a lot then North Hollywood might not be bad, but like I said it's not exactly beautiful. Glendale/Pasadena is in the middle as it can be inexpensive and it has some very beautiful areas (try South Pasadena maybe which is also closer to the actual downtown). If you want to be more centralized to LA (not downtown but central), then West Hollywood or West Los Angeles is central, but may be just outside of your 50 minute time-zone (traffic is crazy). This is also somewhat of an expensive area.

My advice would be to stay in the Glendale Pasadena or South Pasadena area. If you want to be more centralized then go to Silverlake/Los Feliz/Echo Park if your a hipster or Sherman Oaks if you have the money and want to be closer to the westside.

No matter what you do, be ready to dish out some major cash for any rental (compared to the rest of the US) and also be prepared to ditch your lease after a year because there are so many different areas of LA that you'll discover and probably fall in love with after you've been living here. It's rare that you can move to LA and straight into the right long-term place for yourself. Good luck! - Sun Jul 6 2008, 20:04

Keep in mind, interest rates are still low and while you may save money on the overall cost of the house, interest rates will also be rising due to inflation. - Fri Jun 20 2008, 12:20