When moving to LA, DON'T make any sort of commitment to living arrangements until you've given the commute a test drive. The regular rules of commuting don't apply here. In most cities the traffic flows towards downtown in the morning and away in the afternoon. Here, almost all of the freeways are blocked almost all of the time (there are a few freeways that are actually worse on weekends). A 15 - 20 mile commute can take over an hour depending on which freeways you're taking, so it's best to live as close to work as possible. Ideally, I would live within 5 miles of where I work (unfortunately, my wife works in Pasadena, and I work in Manhattan Beach, so there's no way to do this).