I was in the US for two months recently with a few stretches in LA. A lot of LA that I saw was fairly low-rise and with character (e.g., Venice). Things like pavement and roads are getting pretty run-down and I got the impression that the country/state/council can't quite afford to maintain everything, but it didn't feel overrun with high-rise development. There were thousands of curious houses/bungalows/cottages with unique gardens and so on.

I imagine if you're trying to cross LA, it's hardly walkable and gets a bit grim, but if you live and play in say the Venice and Santa Monica areas, I could see how that would make for a decent home. (I am however oblivious to the costs of real estate there.)