Somewhere for a family to live between Newport and Torrance? (Long Beach: neighborhood, buying)

[ColoMom4]

Hi - I posted this on the OC board, but I thought I should probably post here as well!

We are relocating from a mountain town in Colorado and are struggling with where to look for a house. My husband needs to commute to Newport beach, and I need to drive to Torrance after my children are done with school for their activity. Our kids are in private school right now, so I think we would look for one in California as well. We are looking for a quiet neighborhood, possibly with a little "downtown" area to walk around, and we would rather be closer to the shore than inland (mostly because I hate being hot). The most we could spend would be $1.3 mil (but would like to spend less, although prices in California are still much higher than Colorado). I would really appreciate any suggestions! Thank you.

[1200RT]

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "I need to drive to Torrance after my children are done with school for their activity." .......

Is this a drive you'll be doing every day until your kids turn 18? Or is it a temporary thing?

Newport is nice: If your husband's job is there, I don't see any reason to look anywhere else. I suppose you could look at Huntington Beach or the Palos Verdes peninsula, but you might be budgeted out of the area, even at $1.3M

[ColoMom4]

Thank you 1200RT. Yes, I will have to drive to Torrance probably 3-4 times a week after school. Newport seems very nice, but I was worried that it would be too far/too much traffic to try to drive that many times a week in traffic. What do you think?

[ColoMom4]

Oh yes, in answer to your question, I will be doing the drive to Torrance for many years to come :-(

[1200RT]

Originally Posted by ColoMom4

Newport seems very nice, but I was worried that it would be too far/too much traffic to try to drive that many times a week in traffic. What do you think?

Thats about an hour drive (or more) with traffic ..... so I feel for you there.

Seal Beach? I dont know ... i'm not a huge expert on that area. Check out some of the stuff on the PV Peninsula

[NaplesRes]

Originally Posted by ColoMom4

Hi - I posted this on the OC board, but I thought I should probably post here as well!

We are relocating from a mountain town in Colorado and are struggling with where to look for a house. My husband needs to commute to Newport beach, and I need to drive to Torrance after my children are done with school for their activity. Our kids are in private school right now, so I think we would look for one in California as well. We are looking for a quiet neighborhood, possibly with a little "downtown" area to walk around, and we would rather be closer to the shore than inland (mostly because I hate being hot). The most we could spend would be $1.3 mil (but would like to spend less, although prices in California are still much higher than Colorado). I would really appreciate any suggestions! Thank you.

Naples Island or Belmont Shore/Belmont Park area in Long Beach. It has everything you're looking for and is not going to be a bad drive for either of you.

[JohnG72]

Most places within a few blocks of the beach are going to add at least 15 minutes to your drive to Torrance in the afternoon, which is no gem of a drive anyway, but much easier if you can use the car pool lane.

If you need to be near the beach and Newport, I'd go with Seal Beach or Huntington Beach. You are not priced out in HB and 1.3 million will get you about a 2800sq ft new build place(built since 2000) less than a ten minute walk from the beach. If you want the price to drop, just go inland a small amount(maybe 5-6 blocks) or look at smaller places. There are nice enough places that are a bit older and maybe a mile from the beach that are in the $700-900k range, same size.

Drive to Newport in the morning will be around 15-20 minutes, drive to Torrance in the afternoon(say at 3pm) will be 35 minutes if using the carpool lane, 45-50 minutes using the regular freeway.

If you are ok with living a bit farther from the beach, the following communities will all fall well within your price range...at the top of your price range you are most likely buying the most expensive property in the city....and will have varying range of difficulty in driving to Newport and Torrance:

Rossmoor
Los Alamitos
Cypress
Fountain Valley
Parts of Long Beach including Belmont Shores, El Dorado estates, Bixby Knolls, the area around CSULB

Just an FYI, you can pretty much find any activity in Huntington Beach that exists in Torrance. HB is a pretty family oriented place.