Moving From North Carolina with a Toddler (San Diego: rent, place to live)

[JuliaKM]

Thanks for all of the great responses.

@PharmboyinNC and marjorie121 - We're in Durham, NC.

We lived in North Park about 10 years ago pre-baby before moving to NC and loved it. I just can't imagine walking around the neighborhood with my daughter now, although I've heard North Park has become way nicer. I've looked around for daycares a bit and called a few in the North Park/Hillcrest area and been told that it's super hard to find a good daycare in the area without a crazy wait list.

I would have never considered Carmel Valley before but it sounds like it's pretty walkable, has access to good daycares, and is near UCSD. I've also looked a bit for apartments in the Clairemont area but it's so hard to tell which neighborhoods are sketchy without visiting. UTC might also be good but the apartments seem really expensive. Also, I graduated from UCSD in the late 90s and the thought of living in the same place I lived in college is weirdly depressing. But, that doesn't mean it won't make sense to live there. We're on the waiting list for La Jolla Del Sol.

Are there any parts of Bay Park/Bay Ho that are somewhat walkable? Looking at the map, that seems like another area that's close to UCSD and has some decent nearby daycares.

[MovingAloha]

Originally Posted by PharmboyinNC

Hey Earlyretirement,
You got a point. There are much higher HOA/M-R in the area and my neighborhood of Torrey Hills probably has some of the lowest.

I just Googled the area and found out I technically don't live in Carmel Valley, based on Wiki; Torrey Hills, San Diego - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Do you have kids in school in Torrey Hills? If so, are you happy with them?

[oddstray]

I believe Torrey Hills is in the Poway Unitifed School District, which is highly regarded. You can verify that here, if you have a particular address in mind: School Boundary Address Look-up

[MovingAloha]

Originally Posted by oddstray

I believe Torrey Hills is in the Poway Unitifed School District, which is highly regarded. You can verify that here, if you have a particular address in mind: School Boundary Address Look-up

Thanks Oddstray, I'm just doing my continuing research on schools and neighborhoods. To be honest, I would love to live closer to SD, like North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights, etc. I just have to be mindful of the schools, since I have my 11-year old grandson living with me. I've been focusing on Point Loma, Mira Mesa, Tierrasanta and Del Cerro, basically because of the schools.
Thanks again!

[PharmboyinNC]

Originally Posted by MovingAloha

Do you have kids in school in Torrey Hills? If so, are you happy with them?

No kids, but since I'm paying for the privilege of living here, I'm thinking about enrolling my 6 year cat and 12 year old boxer at Torrey Hills...

Originally Posted by JuliaKM

@PharmboyinNC and marjorie121 - We're in Durham, NC.

When you come back, pick me up some Mongolian Food at Bali Hai off 9th street near Duke, or a platter at NeoMonde. I can't seem to find similar places around here.

[rdesai]

Hi IRMSD,
My husband and I are moving to SD from new jersey and was wondering if you could tell which apartment complex do you live in? We have been searching for a place for quite some time and most of them have okay rating. Any help we could get in this matter would really be appreciated.

Thanks!

[GMUAlum08]

mello roos?

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by GMUAlum08

mello roos?

You may wish to do a search of this forum to find additional discussion regarding mello roos. Other folks on this forum have a more detailed understanding of mello roos than I do.

My understanding is that mello roos are basically a special assessment on a particular neighborhood development for community improvements to support that neighborhood development. They usually begin when the neighborhood development is first built and run for about 20-30 years. Not all neighborhood developments have (or have had) them. However, many neighborhoods built within the past 10 years seem to have them. Mello roos are paid by the individual homeowners like property tax, but are separate and different than property tax. Mello roos are also different from HOA dues, and they have a limited term (usually 20-30 years) unlike HOA dues. You could easily find a home that has property tax, mello roos and HOA fees, so take everything into consideration when making an offer. From my CA real estate searches, most mello roos seem to land around $50 to $300 per month, but YMMV.

Mello roos are just one more thing that makes CA special!

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Mello roos are just one more thing that makes CA special!

Ragnar,

That's a nice way of putting it! Ha, ha. I've owned in several places but never had to deal with or pay "Mello Roos" taxes before. It's not pleasant having to pay them but many newer communities in North County have them.

You just have to add that cost into the ownership expenses of having the house. On our house we pay over $500 a month in Mello Roos taxes but it's still worth it to us to live where we do. (But admittedly it was a difficult pill to swallow especially not having to pay that sort of thing before). Fortunately property taxes are fairly reasonable at 1% of the purchase price. In other areas like Texas it can be 2%.

There is a TON of information on it including pay off information on the Piggington site. Piggington's Econo-Almanac | San Diego Housing Market News and Analysis Just do a search for Mello Roos and there is all kinds of interesting information.

GMUAlumni - you can see this fee broken out as CFD on sites like Redfin. For example, look at this listing:

http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/8...7/home/6481654

You can see CFD (Mello Roos) taxes are $6,871 per year... On top of the $16,000+ in annual property taxes. ($23,011 in total for 2011).

[JuliaKM]

Thanks for all of the advice here! I've stumbled onto Tierrasanta as another possible place to live. How would the commute be to UCSD? It doesn't look too bad on a map.