Friends and family of the Fake Angeleno know that we've been apartment hunting around Santa Monica, Culver City, Venice, Palms, Mar Vista and Westwood for two months now. The process has been surprisingly difficult compared with what I thought it'd be. After seven years of groveling for ridiculously overpriced rat traps in NYC, I thought finding a nice, reasonably priced perch in L.A. would be a breeze in comparison. Not so much... With the collapse of the housing market, the rental market has heated up -- or at least local landlords think it has.
The first thing we noticed in our apartment search was that everyone seems to be setting their asking price at least $300 per month too high. Thus, we've been noticing that a lot of apartments continue to stay go unclaimed despite the alleged sellers' market. The second thing we noticed was the lack of housing units meeting our fairly simple requirements: fairly clean, decent parking, some outdoor space, quiet, laundry on site, mostly hardwood floors, no asbestos ceilings and a couple other things.
I thought this recent post on Gothamist captured our frustration perfectly. The writer found an image to sum up our experience of most of the 100 plus places we've looked at:
Disclaimer: I know some of you are asking yourselves: "Why did you limit your search to just the West Side? Shouldn't you have been looking at Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz, etc? The price value is much better there and the cultural scene is richer too."
My response: "If what I really wanted was reside within walking distance of cutting edge rock n roll clubs, tattoo parlors, and happening dive bars, I'd have just stayed in North Brooklyn, thank you very much. I want me some beach access, some irrigated landscaping, and some peace and quiet."
And now, I am pleased to announce we've just signed a lease on a house in the Mar Vista Hills neighborhood. It's 30 blocks from the beach, and has easy access to Santa Monica, Venice and both the 10 and the 405 freeways. It's quiet, clean, patient, kind and has a pornographically huge back yard. Eat your hearts out Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Manhattan friends! Want to see some pictures?
Didn't think so. But for those of you that do, you can take a look after the jump.
Front view...
Backyard one...
Interior...
Backyard two -- you can see what I likes best about the new place...
WTF!!! That's a house!!! Well done. What's a backyard?
Posted by: Senor Stedman | March 24, 2008 at 09:01 AM
I guess a good housewarming present is a croquet set? Or a couple polo ponies? Congrats!
Posted by: Kevin | March 24, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Congrats! Now you know why LA is the 3rd most expensive place to live in the whole US of A. Mar Vista is a great spot to land in. I know you will be happy there.
Posted by: adrienne | March 24, 2008 at 01:46 PM
Thanks friends!
LAers: We can't wait to have you over.
New Yorkers: Your open-ended visit invitation begins effective May 1!
Posted by: Fake Angeleno | March 24, 2008 at 05:16 PM
Holy carp! I'm jealous. No wait...I love New York, right? Who needs all that space...by which I mean: can I come live with you?
Congrats. Life's looking pretty sweet for you out there! And I love catching up on the blog.
L
Posted by: Lizzy | April 01, 2008 at 11:33 AM