Pasadena - Best Apartments??? (Orange, Bell: wood floors, cheap apartment, rental)

[pamela_marie01]

Hi All! I am moving to Pasadena (from Alaska) on a work assignment for one year. I am being allotted about $5000 a month for an apartment. (wowzers!!!) Anyways...I am looking for a great apartment, close to where things are happening (shops, cafes, public transport etc). We are a young (late 20s) couple looking to spoil ourselves a little on this one year trip!

Can anyone give me some insight on the good apartments?? I've been looking online and found the Trio and Station Del Mar. However, we're gonna have to commit to a place pretty quickly without much insight.

Does anyone have ANY feedback as to where your dream apartment in Pasadena would be?

Thanks!

[katenik]

my dream "apartment" in pasadena would be a house in south pasadena, but you might find what you're looking for at the terraces at paseo colorado. the brand new units at the americana in nearby glendale might appeal as well. both are attached to nice outdoor mall complexes, with restaurants and shopping literally at your doorstep.

[Jonah1979]

Originally Posted by pamela_marie01

Hi All! I am moving to Pasadena (from Alaska) on a work assignment for one year. I am being allotted about $5000 a month for an apartment. (wowzers!!!) Anyways...I am looking for a great apartment, close to where things are happening (shops, cafes, public transport etc). We are a young (late 20s) couple looking to spoil ourselves a little on this one year trip!

Can anyone give me some insight on the good apartments?? I've been looking online and found the Trio and Station Del Mar. However, we're gonna have to commit to a place pretty quickly without much insight.

Does anyone have ANY feedback as to where your dream apartment in Pasadena would be?

Thanks!

$5k a month...rent a house. I wouldn't live in any of those apartments near the Paseo...look up the reviews ppl give them. They are noisey as heck!

[jemyr]

I also sent you a direct message,

Personally, if it was me, I would either rent a house on the east side of Arroyo Blvd, west of Orange Grove , south of Colorado, north of California (you can walk to Old Town from there, but it will be a bit of a hike). Or I would find the apartment complex with the most amenities (will either be Holly Street Village Apartments or Del Mar Station). Or I would rent a residential condominium unit. Personally I would either do 35 N Raymond (The Boston Building) or 50 W Dayton (The Library Hall Lofts).

It depends on what you are looking for.

Here are the things to think about:

Do you want to walk two blocks to a restaurant, movie, bar (have a drink), and then walk back home? (apartment, condo in Old Town) Would you mind walking 20 blocks instead, to have more privacy? Would you be fine with driving and parking in Old Town? (house in the Arroyo) Do you want exercise equipment, and a pool on site? (apartment) Would you rather join Equinox (the fanciest gym here) instead? (condo) Do you mind the thin wall issue? (make sure you get a top floor apartment, or do a condo)

Apartments: Holly vs Del Mar: Holly has noise issues from Memorial Park when they do music at night, ask for a top floor unit that doesn't face the park, unless you like the ambiance of the music, which many people do. They shut down no later than 10. Del Mar Station has noise issues from the train, and is surrounded by heavily trafficked streets. Get a top floor apartment, or a townhouse, ask them which are the quietest.

I would not consider any other apartments than those two choices, you won't find better amenities, or a better location. The only thing you might find is something quieter, and if you are concerned about that, then you should go ahead and upgrade to a condominium rental (as opposed to a cheap apartment).

Condos: There are 5 or 6 for rent on the market now. I would not do the ones in the Delacey Green building because Twin Palms is VERY loud on the weekends, and I doubt they have been able to mitigate that issue. Of the remaining choices I would do the Boston Building or the one I direct messaged you about, which is not listed. If you did either of those you would get a very swanky looking place to stay, more privacy and less noise from your neighbors.

Look at the website walkscore.com, and you will see all the different things you can do based on the address you put in.

[pamela_marie01]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great information!!!

[kaminor]

2nd floor, Vaulted Ceilings, Wood floors, Private Patio (http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/apa/731677547.html - broken link)

This is an awesome place!

[jemyr]

I keep getting messages (5 years later!) about this post, so I thought I would give updates: Old Town has changed a bit since 2008, there are more options for residences, and swankier nightlife, new businesses have popped up and old business have gone away. So I'm going to redo my old post:

Personally, if it was me, I would either rent a house on the east side of Arroyo Blvd, west of Orange Grove , south of Colorado, north of California (you can walk to Old Town from there, but it will be a bit of a hike). Or I would find the apartment complex with the most amenities (will either be the new apartments at Westgate, Holly Street Village Apartments or Archstone Del Mar Station). Or I would rent a residential condominium unit. The prestige buildings (owned by individuals and SOMETIMES rented) are 50 W Dayton, 250 S DeLacey, and also (with caveats) The Montana and Terra Bella.

It depends on what you are looking for.

Here are the things to think about:

Do you want to walk two blocks to a restaurant, movie, bar (have a drink), and then walk back home? (apartment, condo in Old Town) Would you mind walking 20 blocks instead, to have more privacy? Would you be fine with driving and parking in Old Town? (house in the Arroyo) Do you want exercise equipment, restaurants and a pool on site? (some apartments, some condos) Would you rather join Equinox (the fanciest gym here) instead? (condo) Do you mind the thin wall issue? (make sure you get a top floor apartment, or do a condo)

Apartments: Holly vs Del Mar vs Westgate: Holly has noise issues from Memorial Park when they do music at night, ask for a top floor unit that doesn't face the park, unless you like the ambiance of the music, which many people do. They shut down no later than 10. Del Mar Station has noise issues from the train, and is surrounded by heavily trafficked streets. Get a top floor apartment, or a townhouse, ask them which are the quietest. Both of these places have instant access to the train, Del Mar is a bit fancier with a bit fancier amenities, and it has restaurants ON SITE. Westgate is the fanciest of all, but you have to walk to the train, although the walk to Old Town is much nicer. After the construction is done at Westgate, it will probably be your best bet to find a quieter unit as the streets between Del Mar and Colorado are quiet streets.

I would not consider any other apartments than those three choices, you won't find better amenities, or a better location. The only thing you might find is something quieter, (both from street noise and from your neighbors) and if you are concerned about that, then you should go ahead and upgrade to a condominium rental (as opposed to a cheap apartment).

Condos: These pop up from time to time. They are privately owned residence that the owners sometimes rent out: The full list:

Condos in pre 1950 buildings with parking, electrical and laundry issues (I seperate them because they are their own class): Castle Green and the Maryland hotel at 80 N Euclid. Both generally have problematic parking, requiring you to cross the street to go home. Castle Green's units generally don't have central A.C. and heat, and they blow fuses when you use too much electricity. If you don't have in-unit laundry, then doing laundry gets old. Elevator issues as well.

High End and Private: Terra Bella, 250 S Delacey, 50 West Dayton, and the Montana (I dislike the Montana's location, but it is the super swankiest). These are the premiere properties because they either have very few units and so are very private, (except for Montana), they are unusually large with views, they are located on quieter streets that are still within 2-3 blocks of Old Town proper, and/or are built to look fancy. 50 West Dayton has no amenities but has the fewest units and the most open space and the best walking location to Old Town, Terra Bella has no pool and a very baroque look and is closest to the train, DeLacey has a glass bottom pool which is neat though the location feels a bit no-man's landish and it has the most units, and Montana is as swanky as you can get with lots of staff that cater to you, but for some reason they decided being across from the mall was better than being in Old Town near Tiffanys. I prefer Dayton because the location is the closest to the action, and I like the New York loft style.

Mid-line: 80 N Raymond, 111 S De Lacey, 125 N Raymond, 35 N Raymond, 238 South Arroyo. This is either because of how they were constructed, the fact that they have a lot of units, or the loudness of the street. 80 n raymond is most private with least amount of units, the ones that don't face Raymond are very quiet. 111 S Delacey is much quieter since Twin Palms left (though there is construction on the south now) and they generally feel apartmenty and dark and there's a lot of them. 125 N Raymond, I hear, has some beautiful swanky units (in the theater building), but there are a lot of them, and construction can feel apartmenty in many. 35 N Raymond was built so everyone's unit faces the other, they are oddly laid out. 238 South has the most amenities, and I'm less familair with it, though it looks a whole lot like Archstone apartments and Archstone has more amenities. Of these, I like the idea of one of the unusual theater apartments on Raymond, or a unit in 80 n Raymond on the east side because of it's quietness and privacy.

Low-line: Condos on Walnut and North of it, On Marengo and East of it, on Del Mar and South of it, and on Pasadena and West of it. These roads are fast and loud. People generally don't cross them to get into Old Town. Also many of the buildings built on them were originally apartments. So you might as well rent an apartment. Note: 217 S Marengo, and 159 west Green are recently built, and feel very much like apartments.

Lastly, the addition of Whole Foods on South Arroyo Parkway, and the opening of the Art Center on South Arroyo Parkway has added a wrinkle to location desirability. If you like walking to either of those places, then you may prefer to be nearer to South Arroyo instead of Old Town. In general, however, the closer you are to One Colorado, the more "in the mix" you feel.


Look at the website walkscore.com, and you will see all the different things you can do based on the address you put in.