u/ScarLupi

If you could barely afford a down payment and monthly mortgage for a SFH, would you pull the trigger in this market?

Many folks say that property values will only rise in the South Bay, so better to get in sooner, but these prices feel crazy (1.5M+) for what wouldn’t be a dream home for us. If rates were lower it would be more palatable since we could always plan to rent out a “starter” home down the road and have tenant pay the mortgage, but the math isn’t mathing now…

We keep falling back to renting ourselves and investing some of the difference, while continuing to build up the down payment treasure chest.

Taking my 4-year old daughter to our first Angel City game. Is the fan fest pre-game worth it?

It starts 3 hours before the match which seems excessive. Planning to get there around 5 just before the 5:45 game start time. Is that enough time?

I heard that Hermosa is no longer accepting transfer students from other districts through the permit release process because they are full. Apparently this is the first time this has happened and there is a huge # of families that thought they were getting in like always but were instead put on a waitlist with practically 0% chance of acceptance.

To be fair, it must be hard for popular school districts to manage the demand and to balance business needs with serving families. Hopefully they can be as transparent and communicative as possible so folks can make informed backup plans for their kids’ enrollment in the upcoming school year.

Has this affected anyone here, and if so, what are you planning to do?

Trying to decide where to send our kids to school for Elementary and Middle School next year. Thankfully we both work relatively high paying remote jobs, so we can live anywhere. Looking to rent first, then maybe buy later. We are aware of district permit transfers as an option too if needed.

Our preferences:

-Tight knit community with parents actively involved volunteering

-Strong academics with high expectations from both the school and other families for their own kids

-Diversity would be great as our kids are mixed ethnicity and bilingual.

-Living nearby the schools, close enough to either walk or bike safely.

.

.

Some assumptions (please check me on these!):

-We don’t like PV to live as it’s too isolated and far, even though schools are great

- El Segundo checks a lot of boxes for us, but worried about the smell, pollution and air traffic noise.

-Manhattan seems pretentious, worried about the kids being spoiled, and no diversity. But excellent academics.

-Redondo and Torrance seem mid-tier with aging facilities, but positives are more diversity and solid academics. They seem similar to each other.

-Hermosa seems like a good fit with tight knit community and academic reputation, but we heard it’s tough to transfer in due to limited enrollment availability. Also heard they have funding issues.