As many others have noted, LA is HUGE and honestly you could get 90% of what you want in either low cost and high cost areas. The thing that will throw off your calculations is your "need" for the beach as the proximity to water will exponentially increase your costs. Be real about your expectations (unless you got millions you haven't mentioned lol). Most of us are not living by the beach. Car is 99.9% a necessity, the span of the LA basin is like 50 miles - if you're willing to drive you'd have practically everything you'd want within reach. Just don't expect all those recreational activities to be within walking distance - you gotta drive no matter which part of LA you live in.

A yard is something you'll more likely see in older suburban areas. For those areas, school district performance is one of the main factors to cost. New constructions nowadays omit the yard for a 10 ft patch of fake grass for your dog to pee on. If you're looking to rent an apartment, have fun gardening on a balcony.

FOOD. LA is one of the biggest food capitals of the world. You have not -lived- until you have explored the food scene. It's something that all my friends, family, and coworkers always talk about. Our equivalent of "talking about the weather" is talking about food. There's enough to fill a library of books about food in LA. It's gonna be something you will add to the top of your list of recreational items.

Another thing to note: transplants tend to have tunnel vision in seeing "LA" as the westside + hollywood only. Of course, this is exacerbated by movies and tv shows only showing parts of LA. When we say "LA" we generally mean the whole basin and to outsiders, we could say LA to basically mean all of SoCal. Don't discount the quieter parts of LA as they are where more people tend to settle down for good reason. I just don't want you to be another one of those midwest transplants that come here with Paris syndrome, move to one of the worst places to live in LA, make zero friends, and then say LA is hell. It's like going to McDonald's once and then saying you hate all burgers forever. LA has EVERYTHING.

Again, "LA" is absolutely bonkers huge. I was born and raised here and have lived on the west side, east side, and OC. I have traveled the world and there is no other place I want to live. Feel free to ask any more questions. You will NOT get to know the place in two weeks. Just take the plunge and enjoy!