***UPDATE*** Finalizing SD move. Last few location questions (San Diego, August: apartment complexes, rental)

[hockeylfe11]

I wanted to update all the people lucky enough to have answered my questions in the past and possibly be a little inspiration to those who have been thinking about moving to San Diego.
(scroll to the end for the quick version)

My girlfriend and I have been talking about moving to San Diego for about a year now. We began saving last summer and doing what we can to minimize/eliminate debt and save towards a move. As it got closer and closer and without a for sure date in mind, people really began doubting if we would ever pull it off. Plenty of talk after a year seemed to be great evidence that it was not going to happen. However, we knew all of our hard work would pay off. We visited San Diego the last weekend of April with a few properties lined up to look at. We were also hitting 'refresh' as quick as possible on Craigslist for any new postings that fit our search. After all the research and question asking, we agreed to look for a place near the beach. Coming from Arizona, we are sick of the heat and wanted reward our hard work with 'living the dream', so to speak. Well after spending six hours Saturday, April 27th, we arrived at a property to view the open house. Little did we know that twenty minutes later we would be filling out our applications and crossing our fingers that we would land the lease. We received a phone call few hours later Saturday night informing us that we have in fact been approved and if we wanted, we would be able to meet on Monday to sign the lease. We were able to spend Sunday enjoying the city and the beach (as it hit 100 degrees in PHX this weekend). Monday we met and signed the lease. We had breakfast around the corner from our new place. Walked to Pacific Beach to have a glass of champagne to celebrate and drove back to AZ. It didn't set in right away. It still has yet to set in. But after all the talk and the little support from a lot of people (besides close friends and family), we can honestly say we will be living in San Diego. We officially pack up the truck and drive out June 1st.

Thanks again for all the help and advice.


TL;DR After nearly a year of saving, signed our lease within a mile from the beach and move at the beginning of June.

[AZ2SD]

Congratulations!

San Diego is a great place and am sure you and your GF will love it. Looks like you struck "gold" being able to find affordable accommodation near the beach - even better.

Now you can brag about San Diego weather when you call family and friends back in Phoenix in July/August/September/October and possibly early to mid November when it's still toasty in AZ.

I moved here from Tucson so I know what you're talking about when you talk about the desert heat. No joke.

Safe travels on 1-8 or I-10 depending on your Phoenix starting point!

[ShelbyGirl1]

Congratulations! Sounds like you struck gold! And obviously, hard work and determination paid off.

[RyukyuSpirit]

That's awesome for you guys! I've been going through the archives of this forum, and I can say it's always been nice to see a "success story" among all of the speculative posts. It definitely does give me a little inspiration.

I'm in a similar situation you were in, only I'm in Japan so my "house/job hunting trip" is actually more like "living with my GFs family until HOPEFULLY something turns up". So I've got a few questions if you don't mind. Feel free to PM me if you don't want EVERYONE to know, or to disregard a couple of them if you don't want me to know

Do you have jobs in place already, or was this strictly a house-hunting trip?
If the latter, do feel confident having visited that the amount you've saved over the past year ($XX?) is enough to hold you over until you get a job?
Around how much is the rent and in which general area are you (I'm assuming PB)? I only ask because the Apt. rental sites can sometimes be misleading, and it would be nice to hear a concrete price.

Congratulations again! It would be nice to hear a couple updates over the next few months from you about how the transition goes, although I won't hold it against you if you're too busy enjoying SD to make it back here.

[skeke]

Good for you. I moved from AZ to San Diego in 1976 and was sooo happy to leave that desert heat behind.

[hockeylfe11]

Originally Posted by RyukyuSpirit

Do you have jobs in place already, or was this strictly a house-hunting trip?

I do have a job in place already and my girlfriend is working on a transfer with her company. Probably one of the most important details.

If the latter, do feel confident having visited that the amount you've saved over the past year ($XX?) is enough to hold you over until you get a job?

Although we do have jobs lined up, ya never know what could happen. I feel confident from what we have saved that we would be okay for the majority of the lease, with no income. But we worked a lot to save that money, pay off debt, and cut corners here and there. On top of my 50 hour work week, I worked about 10-20 additional hours a week (reffing hockey). We trimmed our cable bill and eating out. I wouldn't really say we went on a budget, more of smart spending. We aren't very materialistic people and on the other hand, I'd say we get out and do a good amount of stuff. We wanted to keep our lifestyle reasonable for when we move, we're able to keep the same habits without a financial impact.

Around how much is the rent and in which general area are you (I'm assuming PB)? I only ask because the Apt. rental sites can sometimes be misleading, and it would be nice to hear a concrete price.

We looked at a decent amount. The only places we would actually call on or stop by were the ones that seemed realistic. We are in pacific beach and that was the only place we looked, although we had considered Ocean beach, Clairemont, Mission Valley, Bankers Hill, and downtown.

We were aiming for a townhouse/condo. We wanted to avoid major apartment complexes. Based on that, the majority of 2 bedrooms we ran across were 1500-1700. The couple one bedrooms were 1150-1500. That all changes based on location, quality of the property, and location. Off ingraham, and near the bay, rent seemed to be pretty stable, but a little lower than north PB. I would only assume based on noise/traffic. Obviously, I don't live there yet, this is simply from my experience of daily craigslist & padmapper research and from our hours of driving/walking through neighborhoods.

Thanks for the kind words and I will definitely have some updates coming. I feel its only right to provide more information and hopefully at least one person will be able to use my story for their own inspiration to make it happen. I know we're more lucky than most already having jobs. However, we did work our a$$es off to save money and make the necessary changes that we could realistically make in order to pull of the San Diego dream. I'm not there yet, but my lady and I have already made it a reality

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Nice work hockeylife! Congrats to you guys. It sounds like you too a really disciplined approach to moving out.

Definitely keep up to date with your move and everything. I am sure there are plenty of readers that can benefit from your experience.

[RyukyuSpirit]

Wow, thanks for answering my questions so thoroughly! Sounds like you guys worked really hard! I've actually known about my move to SD for about a year and a half now, so luckily I had time to save up doing some simple things: Smartphone to prepaid phone, Fiber-optics to copper-wire, TV to internet TV, surfboard repairs to duct-tape, etc.
Like I said, you've already provided me with some inspiration!

[LocalType]

Nice work, OP! I loved your success story. I've been looking into that same area, since I'll be there in the summer. I'm trying to line up a pre-move trip but not sure it's going to be possible with my employer, timeframes, etc. I check PadMapper a few times a day and all the areas you listed are the ones on my list, as well. I'll be interested to hear how your first week goes, if you decide to come back and check-in post-arrival.

Good luck to you and your gf!

[sdurbanite]

Good luck on your impending move Keep us posted when you get here.