How do you feel about Monrovia? Is it in a good location? (Los Angeles: apartments)

[AChillDude]

So this is a follow up to my question about buying a home in Monrovia

Regarding Monrovia, do you think it’s in a good location? As in is it conveniently located to fun things and places in LA or would one feel kind of “isolated” and too far from the action if living there?
Plus are there any fun and interesting places to eventually hang out nearby?

[Astral_Weeks]

Depends on your personal situation/perspective:
1) For someone 25 and single Monrovia could very well feel too far removed from the action;

2) For someone 40 years old, married and kids on the way, Monrovia might feel very well located and close enough to the action;

But hey it was good enough for Upton Sinclair who lived there between 1942 to 1966,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair_House

[mrxalleycat]

Monrovia is pretty quiet and has a small town field.

It is close to the Arcadia West Field Mall if you like movies, shopping.

[CA4Now]

How old are you, OP? That would seem to make a difference. Monrovia is definitely not hip, but it has a cute little downtown area that has art walks in the summer, fairly good restaurants, and music. The area up by the foothills is beautiful.

[JB24]

Monrovia has mostly a suburban feel to it. The City does have an Oldtown which has some unique bars and restaurants but it is on the smaller side which is understandable since Monrovia is a smaller city. Location wise it is about a 10-15 minute drive from Pasadena which has no shortage of restaurants, shopping, and bars. Monrovia is also about a 15 minute drive away from Alhambra which also has a downtown area with restaurants and bars (not on the scale of Oldtown Pasadena but bigger than Oldtown Monrovia). Another poster mentioned the Westfield Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia which about a 10 minute drive and is one of the bigger malls and continually growing/expanding each year. Monrovia to Los Angeles is about 30 minute drive (without traffic) so it isn't a terrible commute.

I agree with what was posted before though. If you are 25 and younger and want to go out every weekend or want to be around a trendy area with lots of younger folks then Monrovia will probably feel a bit too sleepy/small town for you. If you are 35 years plus with a family already and are only looking to got out for a night in the big city twice a month or so then I think it would be a viable area.

[ohio_peasant]

"Back in the day", Monrovia was regarded as one of the poor-cousins to Pasadena, as a bedroom community of choice, for persons who worked in Pasadena but couldn't reasonably afford to live there. An example was Caltech graduate students who moved out of student-housing and needed relatively-speaking lower cost apartments. And by "Monrovia" I mean the general area east of Pasadena, north of El Monte, South of the San Gabriels, and west of Azuza/Glendora and the various "Inland Empire" cities.

One point of note, is the San Gabriel foothills in that general area. It's an opportunity for a house on more land, in a more private and bucolic location, than what's possible in comparable circumstances in Pasadena, Glendale or further west, at lower cost. Or to give this some numbers... a $1.2M house, which say in Altadena might have been a $1.6M house.