Rental Houses in SD? (San Diego, Kensington: for sale, real estate, apartments)

[hermione24]

Hello forum peoples! I'm hoping some of you here can help me.

My husband and I will be moving to SD around July. We have no kids, but we plan on starting a family after moving. We also have a small dog (corgi). Right now we live in DC and rent an apartment in a large complex. While we like having access to a pool and gym, etc, we would like to rent a house when we move so that our dog can have some place outside to run around. My husband will be working at the naval hospital in Balboa and I believe that we would like to live in one of the surrounding neighborhoods, based on the other moving threads that I have read (North Park, Cortez, etc). My question is, are there homes to rent in these areas or is it mostly apartments or homes to buy? Are there other areas that are semi-close to Balboa that we should look at instead? We have some time to narrow it down, but we may have to move fairly quickly and would like to have some ideas. We believe that will we be allotted $2000-2500 a month for housing, and we would like 2 bedrooms.

Thanks!

[moved]

Check out Craiglist for what you're looking for in the following neighborhoods:

North Park
Normal Heights
University Heights
South Park
Mission Hills

You should be able to find what you want, and since your dog is small, you shouldn't have a problem finding a place that will accept it.

[cruitr]

Your rental budget should get you a nice house. In addition to Craigslist, try a couple of property management companies. They maintain an inventory of rental houses. Here are two reputable property managers:
San Diego Property Management
SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO Homes and Real Estate For Sale - ,

[hermione24]

Thanks guys. I've been looking through Craigslist just for price ideas, so that's been a great help. cruitr- Thanks for the links. I'll check them out.

[kettlepot]

Hermione,

Moved and Cruitr gave you good advice, I just wanted to reinforce what they said. However, I just looked at the websites Cruitr supplied, and these companies don't have many homes in the area you should be looking in. Maybe they know the names of the companies that do specialize in the areas you want.

Mission Hills is a great neighborhood, but also the priciest. Given that your only 'kid' is a dog, I believe you can forego Mission Hills if you want to save some money, particularly until such time as your kid enters school.

These urban neighborhoods have more kids, particularly younger ones, than people give them credit for. You just need to get linked into the 'play date' crowd.

When the time gets closer, give us some general locations for some of your house choices and we will give you our opinions about the particular areas.

While these neighborhoods are generally safe, the usual caveats apply. These are urban neighborhoods, not Mayberry RFD circa 1962. You won't run across Sheriff Taylor and Opie hiking down the road to the fishing hole.

[earlyretirement]

You can also try VRBO.com. Most of the houses are more expensive but almost all the owners will give you a deal on a longer term rental. We rented a house for a few months this Fall while we look for the one we will buy.

[hermione24]

Thanks kettle and early. Yeah, when I checked there wasn't much listed, which is why I was wondering if there were homes in the area that rented or if it was mainly apartments.

We are hoping to come out in May to check out the areas so that we have a good idea of what they are like. We are both from SD area originally, but I haven't lived there since I was 12 and that was nearly 15 years ago, and we lived in Penasquitos. I have no idea what the downtown area is like, aside from when I was there in 2008 for SDCC.

I will definitely check out that site, early.

Thanks!

[applejack726]

All of those areas have houses for rent. I just drove by one in Normal Heights that was for rent, and I would guess that it is on Craigslist also. Another neighborhood to add to your list is Kensington.