City Profile: Los Angeles

Seeking a city with energy and kick? With a vast yet focused population, exciting culture and entertainment, and more sun than you ever suspected could exist, LA is the answer for many seeking to lay down roots.

Los Angeles is the second largest city in the U.S., with a population of nearly 4 million people. Add in the suburbs and surrounding areas that make up L.A. County, and population jumps to over 10 million. It’s a heady mix of peoples, income levels and ethnic backgrounds, which makes it one of the world’s major global cities. For example, Los Angeles is the home to the largest communities of Latino Americans and Asian Americans in the country.

What does real estate look like in the City of Angels? Depending on city neighborhood, or the suburb/external community of choice, prices vary widely. According to Trulia.com, the average home within the city is priced at around $975,000. This average takes into account multi-million dollar homes of the stars, along with smaller prices for less wealthy neighborhoods.

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Why are people flocking to LA?

First, it’s one of the best climates in the country. Mild, reasonably wet winters, and warm to hot summers, all moderated by the breezes from the Pacific Ocean, characterize this seaside city. While New York is a city of islands, and Chicago is flatland, LA is a mountainous, hills-and-valleys-filled metropolis that offers unique opportunities to residents. The city’s geography is stunning, with the Santa Monica Mountains, the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley shaping much of the city.

Within the city smaller neighborhoods give residents an identity to grasp and a place to call home. The borders between city and suburbs or other city communities are often hard to draw, meaning the city is a series of loose ties. Some well-known areas of LA include Venice Beach, Hollywood, Koreatown, Santa Monica, and the San Fernando Valley, as well as the elite, affluent Bel-Air, Hollywood Hills, and Pacific Palisades.

Los Angeles is one of the world’s most important centers of culture, science, technology, trade and more. Most well known is the city’s contribution to the world’s popular entertainment. Movies, TV, music – all are created here, support one of the biggest industries in the city and country, and form the basis of the city’s international fame. Many visitors are captivated by major studio tours and public displays such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater. And of course there’s the constant stargazing, as Hollywood’s new and established make their way through La-La Land.

Residents and tourists alike have a myriad of cultural opportunities available to them, ranging from the heavily-commercialized but extremely popular Disneyland and Universal Studios theme parks, to the world-renowned Getty Center, Natural History Museum, and LA County Museum of Art.

Los Angeles is also a big sports town, home to Dodgers baseball, Kings hockey, and Lakers and Clippers basketball. Strangely missing from the city is an NFL team. Prior to 1995, LA held both the Rams and Raiders before moving to new markets, and no teams now play in the city. In addition to professional sports, the ideal geography of the city makes it a beautiful place to stay active. Volleyball, surfing, skateboarding, hiking, skiing – all are available to residents and tourists.

The city continues to grow as crime declines and popularity soars. In fact, Los Angeles has the second lowest crime rate per capita among big cities, second only to New York. The influx of residents and tourists in a city dependent on cars makes it the most car-populated metropolis in the world, and creates interesting daily gridlock. But public transportation is alive and developing, and new routes are being phased in to ease car tension.

To learn more about Los Angeles and becoming a resident, visit the following sites:

LAcity.org
LA.com
LATimes.com

For current Los Angeles Mortgage Rates go to Mortgage Los Angeles - ERATE