Perry,
I lived in Playa for 8 years. I lived right down on the sand in the area called The Jungle. It’s the last affordable beach front property. The homes are all duplexes, so you can live in 1 and rent out the other. It is a great area to live in because of the community – everyone knows each other, and the weekends are about playing volleyball down at the beach. I think it is a great place for kids too.
In my opinion, Manhattan Beach is too homogenous, and Marina Del Rey is too cold (it has a feeling of old, tired, something’s-not-quite-right about it).
Check out Trolley Way, and see how much the homes are selling for.
If you work on the Westside, you can take surface streets to work. Plus, it’s easy to get to Hollywood up the 91 and over to La Cienaga.
The only downside is a little riff-raff on summer weekends, but I alwas quite like that. It’s not for everyone though.