Moving to california

totopo

Socal is a large place. Do you know where your job would likely be located? Traffic patterns dictate travel times more than raw distance.

for los angeles:
If you want something close to nightlife, korea-town is not bad and a pretty good value, or hipster regions like silverlake, atwater village, echo park, or north hollywood are really trendy.

Downtown and the beach cities are nice, but out of your price range.

Torrance and the rest of the SFV are more sprawl. The metro system isn't too bad and I would recommend considering location to the stops when looking for a place.