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Thanks all for the posts! I came back today to check and I love the discussion!
USdefault: I agree with you! I also appreciate your honest opinion. You would love a blog that I love called Mr. Money Mustache. He is brilliant and would also tell us to get out of CA I have lived here all my life, and when my husband got his MA we moved to Washington State for 2 years before relocating back to So. Cal a year ago with a job transfer. I missed my friends and family, and I could not deal with all the gray days and rain. There was a lot of beauty and super friendly people, but the summers were still cold to me, and I begged my husband to get us transferred back. We did house hunt in WA, and we loved the little area where we lived with old houses for less than 200K!!! but I couldn't hack it and back we came. My husband does have a well paying steady job, and while I stay home with my children at the moment, I keep my own career gently simmering in the background with a bit of side work. We are very careful with finances and always try to live below our means to hopefully avoid getting burned the way so many others have. I agree with you though, and I often wish I was ballsier to live further from family and cope with less than stellar weather patterns.
Sfosyd: I had not heard of those areas! Thanks! I will look into them!
Hitman: Awesome! Thanks for adding in those areas so look. I had not heard of those either!
Supagyrl88: Clairemont would be our first choice in terms of price/commute if we can snag something. We are not picky and are looking at fixers, just saw one for $399,999 yesterday that would have been perfect except that it was right at the intersection of Genesee and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard....and was literally catty corner to a check cashing place and liquor store....so that was a deal breaker. I do think families like ours will start moving into some of these affordable neighborhoods as the older owners sell them, and it will be a whole new era. We have lived for the last year in some really nice condos in PQ and we need a yard for the kids and a garage for the tinkering husband....so we'll see if we can get it.
Earlyretirement: Thanks for the warm welcome! You would love Mr. Money Mustache too because he is all about early retirement
Thanks all for the posts! I came back today to check and I love the discussion!
USdefault: I agree with you! I also appreciate your honest opinion. You would love a blog that I love called Mr. Money Mustache. He is brilliant and would also tell us to get out of CA I have lived here all my life, and when my husband got his MA we moved to Washington State for 2 years before relocating back to So. Cal a year ago with a job transfer. I missed my friends and family, and I could not deal with all the gray days and rain. There was a lot of beauty and super friendly people, but the summers were still cold to me, and I begged my husband to get us transferred back. We did house hunt in WA, and we loved the little area where we lived with old houses for less than 200K!!! but I couldn't hack it and back we came. My husband does have a well paying steady job, and while I stay home with my children at the moment, I keep my own career gently simmering in the background with a bit of side work. We are very careful with finances and always try to live below our means to hopefully avoid getting burned the way so many others have. I agree with you though, and I often wish I was ballsier to live further from family and cope with less than stellar weather patterns.
Sfosyd: I had not heard of those areas! Thanks! I will look into them!
Hitman: Awesome! Thanks for adding in those areas so look. I had not heard of those either!
Supagyrl88: Clairemont would be our first choice in terms of price/commute if we can snag something. We are not picky and are looking at fixers, just saw one for $399,999 yesterday that would have been perfect except that it was right at the intersection of Genesee and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard....and was literally catty corner to a check cashing place and liquor store....so that was a deal breaker. I do think families like ours will start moving into some of these affordable neighborhoods as the older owners sell them, and it will be a whole new era. We have lived for the last year in some really nice condos in PQ and we need a yard for the kids and a garage for the tinkering husband....so we'll see if we can get it.
Earlyretirement: Thanks for the warm welcome! You would love Mr. Money Mustache too because he is all about early retirement
I love your attitude Tangerine. Yes, I'm aware of Mr. Money Mustache. Funny you mention it as I just found it the other day. I do agree with many of the principles of Mr. Money Mustache and I too made retiring early in life a goal of mine.
MA we moved to Washington State for 2 years before relocating back to So. Cal a year ago with a job transfer. I missed my friends and family, and I could not deal with all the gray days and rain. There was a lot of beauty and super friendly people, but the summers were still cold to me, and I begged my husband to get us transferred back. We did house hunt in WA, and we loved the little area where we lived with old houses for less than 200K!!! but I couldn't hack it and back we came.
Where in Washington. Seattle? Spokane? Tri-city area? Also, how were the winters.
It was in Vancouver, WA....loved the small town feel and being so close to Portland goodies. The winters were mild compared to what some states can dish out. A lot of rain and a few days of snow which were exciting!!!! There was a certain beauty to it....there really was!
Oh no Hitman and Sfosyd! You told me about South Park/Burlingame and we drove around today and I am in love!!! It reminds me so much of Berkeley & (near) Portland areas where I lived!! Not much inventory and so far nothing in our price range but wow.....WANT to live there!!! Of course North Park, Normal Heights & Kensington too....but I already assumed those were out of our price range. A girl can dream
If you want to sacrifice commute, look at San Marcos; you'll have some good local school districts and your pick of charters and home school hybrids in neighboring vista, escondido, etc., PLUS more housing inventory to choose from.
[i have done public, charter and home school [unschool and home school hybrid. ; and have lived in several areas of SD. so cal is so short on walkable 'communities' with character to begin with, that you will be hard pressed to find all of your criteria at the same time, short of raising your housing budget. Even with your 'broad definition of 'ghetto', you will find places that fit the criteria but are full of strip malls, not gritty urban hoods, most of the time.]
Side note: a great thing about SD is that there are several hybrid homeschool charters, 2 or 3 days per week on site and the others at home; lots of school choice here.
And to those who say choose schools carefully: You CAN open enroll within the district. Example: we know people in clairemont who open enrolled in la jolla middle and high schools. You simply opt for a class or program not available in your district, such as Latin. This is important because reality shows that many families cannot afford housing in a decent school district, in San Diego. You have to be flexible and work with what you've got.
More school stuff (for anyone reading this thread down the road): Charters typically have waiting lists and/or may not be all they seem on paper (ie what the particular charter school says it is does not live up to your expectation). So relying on them for your main school choice is not the ideal. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. There are some fine charter options; just plan for multiple scenarios.
Last edited by lrmsd; 07-18-2013 at 07:09 PM..
Reason: typo
Oh no Hitman and Sfosyd! You told me about South Park/Burlingame and we drove around today and I am in love!!! It reminds me so much of Berkeley & (near) Portland areas where I lived!! Not much inventory and so far nothing in our price range but wow.....WANT to live there!!! Of course North Park, Normal Heights & Kensington too....but I already assumed those were out of our price range. A girl can dream
I also lived in normal heights for 3 years; with children (prior to that I was in Clairmont for 3, coincidental to your post). The character of south park, etc can make you wistful for almost any other area of the country [pacific northwest, east coast, etc], but these areas are really not the best family areas in sd. And it DOES matter, especially as your children get older.
I'm a nor cal girl at heart, [originally from the NE] lived in college towns like boulder and missoula, and I am telling you: Normal heights and southpark have character on the surface, but the parks and common areas are shared with many homeless and there are many open drug deals and a lot of small dogs. All vying for space with kiddos trying to play a little ball. I don't recommend it, aside from the fact that you will find a 700 sq foot tiny house for your price range, in a hit or miss area.
If you don't mind yoru car being broken into and/or stolen as a likely reality, that's cool. The normal heights area zip code has the highest car theft zip in SD. [my spouse and I each had our cars stolen, eventually found months later long story, broken into on separate occasions.] Also, I have lived in Africa and Asia for extended periods, so I get your point about definitions being relative. You also have a choice to not deal, though. Especially when it's your investment/home.
Oh, we have friends who still live in the area and love it, with children. I just think it's something to consider. It may work for you. or you may want to spread out a little more, even if you lose some of the character and charm. It's so cal, after all.
Thanks all for the posts! I came back today to check and I love the discussion!
USdefault: I agree with you! I also appreciate your honest opinion. You would love a blog that I love called Mr. Money Mustache. He is brilliant and would also tell us to get out of CA I have lived here all my life, and when my husband got his MA we moved to Washington State for 2 years before relocating back to So. Cal a year ago with a job transfer. I missed my friends and family, and I could not deal with all the gray days and rain. There was a lot of beauty and super friendly people, but the summers were still cold to me, and I begged my husband to get us transferred back. We did house hunt in WA, and we loved the little area where we lived with old houses for less than 200K!!! but I couldn't hack it and back we came. My husband does have a well paying steady job, and while I stay home with my children at the moment, I keep my own career gently simmering in the background with a bit of side work. We are very careful with finances and always try to live below our means to hopefully avoid getting burned the way so many others have. I agree with you though, and I often wish I was ballsier to live further from family and cope with less than stellar weather patterns.
Sfosyd: I had not heard of those areas! Thanks! I will look into them!
Hitman: Awesome! Thanks for adding in those areas so look. I had not heard of those either!
Supagyrl88: Clairemont would be our first choice in terms of price/commute if we can snag something. We are not picky and are looking at fixers, just saw one for $399,999 yesterday that would have been perfect except that it was right at the intersection of Genesee and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard....and was literally catty corner to a check cashing place and liquor store....so that was a deal breaker. I do think families like ours will start moving into some of these affordable neighborhoods as the older owners sell them, and it will be a whole new era. We have lived for the last year in some really nice condos in PQ and we need a yard for the kids and a garage for the tinkering husband....so we'll see if we can get it.
Earlyretirement: Thanks for the warm welcome! You would love Mr. Money Mustache too because he is all about early retirement
So funny. We lived up in Seattle for 2 years just to live somewhere else, but I LOVED the weather! I love rain and yes it is beautiful there! If my children decide to live there in the future I would definitely move back. But you know how it is, once you leave, you miss it more. Same for us. We missed San Diego and now we miss Seattle. There was that snow storm which I lived but made us miss out winter trip to cancun! I think right now every market is tough so good luck! But I know people who purchased houses in areas they didn't necessarily like, only because the could afford it and regretted it. Maybe rent here in Clairemont or UTC for. Few years?
There are many companies who deal in fixer upper in San diego.
But y to go for a fixer upper house?
The renovation cost and crap will ********* away.
You can go for a Rehab house or a foreclosed house
Try finding rehab houses in poway. You will find plenty of them
Tangerine, we bought a house in North Clairemont and think its worked out pretty well. Right now, just on our block there are 4-5 families with kids under 5 here and they are new to the block like we are. The older neighbors mentioned they are happy to have kids back in the neighborhood again. When we were shopping for a house, we looked in UTC and Mira Mesa but decided away from Mira Mesa just because to us, we felt it was too far (for our conveniences-it's not really) looking in UTC at the time for our price range (500k) it was older houses that need major renovations so we were turned off by that. We've been tracking the home prices in Clairemont and if we were to buy now, we'd feel priced out of the move in ready homes. Just a year ago a home on our block sold for $650k, so you can see the range in Clairemont.
As for schools, we will choice our children into UC school just for more diversity since so many random people choice in there. Both my husband and I came from schools where the schools were not that great (I'm from East LA) and we both graduated from UCSD. So I'm not sure if school ratings are that relevant when you have parents who are active in their children's education and don't think the teacher will work miracles.
Have you thought about a townhome? There are nice ones that are 4b/2 ba in Tierrasanta for $300k
I'm not a big fan of this philosophy. If half the kids 'make' it so to speak while the other half wind up in jail or worse, that's not a good environment for anybody. When you are the exception, rather than the rule, it's not just about the parents. The kids environment will also play an important factor in how the kid develops, grows up, makes friends, etc.
A lot of parents think they can control everything and nothing else matters. And while bad things can happen anywhere, it's far better for a kid to be a part of a system where 99.9 percent of the kids go to college and 90 percent of those kids graduate college than it is for a child to go to system where maybe 50 percent graduate high school.
And making a kid go to a school far away from home also has it's factors. There are always trade offs.
And money is always a factor. If both parents need to work to survive, who is actually teaching the stay at home child ? It's hard to do if you work.
I think it's a great idea to want to teach your kids at home and figure that is what's best for them. There are many children who were taught at home and go off to college and do wonderful things. But it means somebody actually has to be there to do that. Which means one person either isn't working or you have some private tutor all day long, multiple days a week. That gets expensive.
It's best to plan like you have to send your kids to school someplace. Because if you can't afford to stay at home to teach or you can't afford to send your kid to a private school or you are on a long waiting list to get into some better school, is it really worth it that your kids wind up at some second rate school?
Parent involvement can only go so far if your child goes to a school where 70 percent of his peers don't really know how to speak english and half the day is spent going over simple things they already know. If you're child is smart, they get bored. And they probably don't learn. There are always trade offs. If a school has to teach english first, it also means a lot of the smarter kids might never shine because they are just too bored half the day doing things they already know. And this happens often in Southern California.
Some school systems are just not really good for most kids. It' s just sad that this is the way it is. If you spend your childhood in these schools it becomes more "the exception" to the rule that you actually make it out to succeed. Sorry but in my opinion, I'd rather my children be part of a system where almost everybody goes to college instead of one where out of 100 kids, maybe 20 graduate college. Just because I was 'the exception' sure as hell doesn't mean I want my kids to go through that same crap.
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I have lived here all my life, and when my husband got his MA we moved to Washington State for 2 years before relocating back to So. Cal a year ago with a job transfer. I missed my friends and family, and I could not deal with all the gray days and rain. There was a lot of beauty and super friendly people, but the summers were still cold to me, and I begged my husband to get us transferred back. We did house hunt in WA, and we loved the little area where we lived with old houses for less than 200K!!! but I couldn't hack it and back we came. My husband does have a well paying steady job, and while I stay home with my children at the moment, I keep my own career gently simmering in the background with a bit of side work. We are very careful with finances and always try to live below our means to hopefully avoid getting burned the way so many others have. I agree with you though, and I often wish I was ballsier to live further from family and cope with less than stellar weather patterns. 
family and square footage considerations
