Moving from L.A. to San Diego - need neighborhood help! (Los Angeles: rental, HOA)

[mbm16]

Hi everyone,

I have lived in L.A. for the past 8 years and am moving to San Diego for work. I have been trying to research areas but have had limited time to go exploring.

I am trying to find a neighborhood in San Diego County that is similar to some of my favorite areas in Los Angeles such as Topanga Canyon, Laurel Canyon - basically places that have a sort of rural feel with lots of hills, trees, and QUIET. I definitely am not interested living anywhere where I'd have lots of college kids throwing parties.

I have heard that Encinitas could be right for me, and also La Jolla. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? One of my worries with La Jolla is whether or not there would be certain parts where lots of students from UCSD would live.

Thanks for your help!

[SDrelocate]

Encinitas and Carlsbad are cool beach towns. Encinitas has very distinct areas.

Downtown a lively strip on the 101 with great restaurants and shops

Leucadia, the funky beach town part

Olivenhain, in land very nice suburban.

Cardiff, bit more upscale, great beach neighborhood.

Hate to make such broad generalizations, best bet is to rent a place for 6 months or year and scope out areas. None of those are college towns per se, although as you get really close to ocean there are more rental places with potential for more noisy college-student like behavior.

Good Luck

[AADAD]

The rural feel is out East in Poway and east however the commute may be to far to UCSD. I would think that you should def come down and drive around.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

mbm16,

Encinitas and La Jolla are two of the least rural areas that I can think of in San Diego with the exception of Olivenhain (unincorporated Encinitas).

San Diego in nowhere near as densified as LA so it doesnt take long to get to rural parts of the county here. For the most part rural areas can start 15 miles inland from the coast.

If you look at a map, as a general guide, follow the 15 and go east of that. That is pretty much where inland valley and trees start picking up.

Since you never indicated any type of budget or where you would/might be working, these generalizations are painted with a pretty broad brush as there is a lot of "rural" here that is nice and quiet. Are you looking for a house, condo, some land with the house, HOA type community? I would imagine no, if you are comparing to Topanga Canyon.

Check out Fallbrook, Escondido, Ramona and as far south as Jamul and El Cajon. Lots of quiet, but still within a quick drive to civilization.
Keep in mind that the weather there is not as mild as along the coast. The variance can be upwards of +,-10 degrees depending on season.

[sdinfjmale]

The Rancho San Diego area actually offers a lot of good prices on homes compared to the rest of the area. It is south of the bad parts of El Cajon, and east of the bad parts of Spring Valley. I lived right behind Monte Visa HS for about a year and it was a great location. We had a very walkable neighborhood that was full of families. There were parks close by as well.

Poway would be another good alternative as well, however, the 15 is one of the worst commutes in SD.

It depends on what part of town you are working in. If you are working in Downtown or anywhere near or south of the 8 I suggest Rancho SD. If your work is in the Golden Triangle/UCSD/or North County area I suggest Poway.

[NYSD1995]

Because San Diego doesn't have a big mountain range right in town like LA, you have to go east towards the backcountry to find semi-rural suburban-style areas like you are used to in Los Angeles. Mount Helix and most of the areas surrounding La Mesa to the south is very similar to LA hillside neighborhoods. Also La Jolla and Del Mar have this character and you can be literally just a few blocks from PCH and be in a fairly private hillside setting. Privacy is at a premium in San Diego as it is fairly dense, albeit not nearly as much so as Los Angeles.

[mbm16]

Thanks for your suggestions everyone! I'm still in the early stages of looking and getting a feel for what's out there - I will definitely check out these areas!

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by sdinfjmale

The Rancho San Diego area actually offers a lot of good prices on homes compared to the rest of the area. It is south of the bad parts of El Cajon, and east of the bad parts of Spring Valley. I lived right behind Monte Visa HS for about a year and it was a great location. We had a very walkable neighborhood that was full of families. There were parks close by as well.

Poway would be another good alternative as well, however, the 15 is one of the worst commutes in SD.

It depends on what part of town you are working in. If you are working in Downtown or anywhere near or south of the 8 I suggest Rancho SD. If your work is in the Golden Triangle/UCSD/or North County area I suggest Poway.

sdinfjmale is spot on. Rancho San Diego and south El Cajon are gems. Totally undervalued in the county IMHO. The schools are very good and the houses are gorgeous. Definitely not for tourists, straight up local scene around these parts.

We actually go to the movie theater there in Rancho San Diego as its 10 min east of where I live. Very nice area and the YMCA was really nice when we checked it out.

It just might be too redneck (aka rural and f350s) for some.

[sdurbanite]

If you don't mind going north a bit, the areas around Lake Hodges in South Escondido might be what you are looking for:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=escond...73.13,,0,-3.27