Southern California is known as a tourist destination, with Disneyland counted as just one among a handful of behemoth theme parks, as well as dozens of world-class beaches and renown comfortable midsummer temperature ranges from highs in the mid 80-degree range and lows that rarely dip beneath the mid 60s. However, as those who live here know, the region’s abundant topographic, ethnic and economic diversity make it a premiere living destination.

The region includes five counties—Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura—and is home to approximately 24 million people, over half of California’s total populous. It is the nation’s second most populated region behind the urban seaboard of the Northeast US. SoCal’s boundary roughly is defined by the Tehachapi Mountains 70 miles north of Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean on the west, the border of Mexican border in the south and the state’s border with Arizona and Nevada in the east.

The Southern California Region also accounts for roughly half the state’s total number of jobs. SoCal’s economy would rank as the world’s 11th largest economy if it were a nation, slightly larger in stature than Mexico and a bit lower in rankings than India, and the region is home to a variety of thriving industries: entertainment, technology, international trade, aerospace, tourism, agriculture and finance to name only a few.

The region has a variety of housing stock from entry-level homes priced among the state’s lowest to multimillion-dollar mansions. In fact, SoCal has six of the state’s 10 highest median prices according to the California Association of Realtors: Manhattan Beach ($1.5 million); Palos Verdes Estates ($1.16 million); Calabasas ($1.07 million); Newport Beach ($1.05 million); Santa Monica ($1.02 million); and Rancho Palos Verdes ($912,500). Additionally, the area is dotted with a plethora of thriving downtown destinations where condominium markets offer this same demographic range from which to chose to association oneself—young professionals just starting out to those with well-positioned portfolios looking for a view to die for and a bustling, artsy lifestyle. And it would be hard to chose one: up-and-coming areas like Downtown Long Beach and growing juggernauts like Downtown Los Angeles with LA Live and Staples Center offer high-rise living and entertainment, while established pedestrian favorites like Old Towne Pasadena and Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade offer shopping and your choice of a mountain view in Pasadena or a brief walk to the ocean in Santa Monica.

And speaking of lifestyle, perhaps no place in the country has such a diverse (there’s that word again) offering of choices for the extremely active thrill-seekers to the walk-in-the-park easy-goers. Within a two-hour drive one can go from surfing, sailing, swimming and kayaking in any of the thousands of nooks and crannies in the Pacific Coast shoreline to skiing, snowboarding and sledding in the San Gabriel Mountains rising less than a half-hour northeast of Pasadena. And that’s leaving out everything in between from hiking and climbing to horseback riding and mountain biking to gliding and skydiving. Or as Southern Californians put it: Gnarly dude.

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