-maylands, mount lawley. 20 mins from city. old working class suburbs now trendy areas.
-any western suburbs. expensive, also close to beach on other side.
-victoria park. current trendy, good cafes, close to city.
-belmont, carlisle, cloverdale. current working class (and some undesirable locals) but some nice streets and great location. in 10 years will be expensive.
most people come here for the mining so you might want to look into that. it can be a pretty good gig if its your thing. basically you live in perth but they fly you up to the mines on a roster that is something like two weeks on one week off. so you live up there for two weeks working your ass off, they provide food, accom, gym etc and then they fly you back and you get a week or whatever to spend at the beach. the best part is the pay is awesome.
just something to look into if you havent thought about it already. there are plenty of employment agencies here that specialise in fly in fly out mining jobs so maybe give them a call and see what they think of your resume if youre interested. they can also tell you what training you need to do to get the job you want.