Housing is just stupid in LA. $600k for a 2br2ba condo with $500/mo HOA and maybe you get air conditioning (not guaranteed in West LA). If you’re not a professional or making consistent bank in general, you just can’t afford to put down roots here.
SF is similarly stupid at even higher cost. They really need to raze half the Sunset and Richmond districts and put up “missing middle” housing and a bunch of minimum 6-story condos. Converting some unused downtown commercial office space into residential spaces would be good, too.