OK, let’s say you have made it in Hollywood-a fewmillion, and you can afford a home in sunny Malibu. My question (based on a few trips there): Is it worth it? You pay 2-3$ million for a samll house on the beach, and you are threatened with the Pacific Ocean washing you away (in storms, sometimes the waves break on to Rt. 1). Then, just across Rt. 1, you have the unstable hills of the malibu canyons to worry about-a few weeks of soaking rains, and they may well decide to slide down on top of you!
Add to that: the constatnt traffic on Rt.1, and star-worshipping groupies trespassing on your patch of beach.
So, Is life in malibu all that great?
Oh, it seems to me that summers on the So. Cal. coast are overrated-that “June Gloom” fog sometimes lasts all day…never clears out tillSeptember.
Well, I wouldn’t mind living in a house where the Pacific Ocean was my front yard (and there’s others that agree–that’s why there’s people who pay millions to have that privilege), but I’d skip on Malibu. There’s plenty of other places in Southern California where I can have beachfront property without the threat of being buried in a mudslide. There’s some areas in Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Huntington Beach that have wonderful beachfront homes, and that’s where I’d probably end up (besides, that’s close to where I grew up, so it’s “home” to me).
The traffic on Rte. 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) is no different than the traffic on any of the other highways and freeways in L.A. County. Just in Malibu, it’s the street you live on.
I personally love the June Gloom. It’s the price you pay for having summer last until mid-October and a mild winter.
Compared to all the amazing places in Southern California (like ralph124c mentioned), Malibu would be one of the lowest on my list.
Any of the other beach towns like Redondo or Hermosa are much more desireable places to live in my opinion. South Orange county is also wonderful. If you were going to get a place directly on the beach, San Clemente or Laguna Beach would be good places to live also.
P’raps I’m being dense, but why was this posted in Cafe Society? … I’m moving it to IMHO.
I’d have to agree with other posters that points south of Malibu are actually better places to buy a beach house. But that was where Jim Rockford staked his trailer, and a lot of celebrities live there. Oh, and Johnny lived out there. I think the emphasis away from Laguna, Huntington, et cetera may have been more from the '70s when there was a big drug crowd and so forth, but that’s all done now. Those places are shining enclaves of yuppie love just like the rest of SunSoCal, now.
Personally, if it were my dime, I’d live further north–points north of San Luis Obispo. Not some much a strolling beach area, but you don’t have people living on top of you, you have some great views along the #1, and you’re closer to a real cultural and culinary mecca (San Francisco).
No kidding. People are complaining about the rain right now, but come May we won’t see an actual blue sky until October or November (unless you go up in the mountains). Sun, well yes, you can kind of make it out through the haze, but it ain’t all that pretty in the summer.
Now, if I had the money of, say, Larry Ellison, I’d just buy an Mediterranean Italian village and live large, sans all the state politics of California. But that’s just dreaming.
Stranger
When I was looking to buy a place in LA, just for kicks I checked out Malibu. I was shocked that you could buy a trailer/manufactured house (Rockford style) for 300K. Shocked because they were so cheap, mind you. Home prices in LA are converging to $infinity. “What’s the catch?” I thought. The catch is that you don’t own the land under the trailer. THAT will cost you like $2000 per month.
In Malibu, home prices seem to jump from 400K to 1.5 million with few in between.
Malibu High School is an excellent school though, according to the State’s test scores. They’re up there with the best schools in CA.