New to SD (La Mesa, El Cerrito, Winter Gardens: apartments, condos, house)

[Starrynight227]

My boyfriend and I are moving to SD this summer,(I'll be attending SDSU for my MS) and we are looking to buy a house in the low 400's. We were down there recently and liked the grossmont and Mt. Helix areas of La Mesa. We also looked at a house on Meade Ave near the high school, loved the house and immediate neighborhood, but didn't see a safe looking area to do our shopping. I went through a lot of the threads on here about area and safety so I have a bit of an idea of where to avoid.

My main question (finally, ha ha): I found a great looking house online in the Winter Gardens area of Lakeside, and am just wondering what the surrounding area is like.

Thanks!

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by Starrynight227

My boyfriend and I are moving to SD this summer,(I'll be attending SDSU for my MS) and we are looking to buy a house in the low 400's. We were down there recently and liked the grossmont and Mt. Helix areas of La Mesa. We also looked at a house on Meade Ave near the high school, loved the house and immediate neighborhood, but didn't see a safe looking area to do our shopping. I went through a lot of the threads on here about area and safety so I have a bit of an idea of where to avoid.

My main question (finally, ha ha): I found a great looking house online in the Winter Gardens area of Lakeside, and am just wondering what the surrounding area is like.

Thanks!

The Mt. Helix and Grossmont areas are great, but it will be tough to find a good house in the low 400's. Generally the homes on the southern side are a bit less pricey due to their proximity to some sketchiness at the base of the foothills in Casa De Oro.

Meade near Hoover High is not bad but not a great area, and as you mentioned the commercial district is pretty rough. As you go east the area improves greatly, but it is pricey - a nice home on a good Talmdage block will run you 600k+ and the same pretty much goes for El Cerrito.

If you those areas I would look at my neighborhood, Rolando Village, as well as western La Mesa (92141). There is a pretty decent selection of homes in the low-mid 400's in the neighborhood and it's proximity to SDSU and downtown La Mesa means good supermarkets and stuff like that. General rule of thumb is to stay north of University Ave.

As for Winter Gardens in Lakeside... it depends what you are looking for. There is a mix of shabby apartments / condos as well as some older tract homes and some horse property. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were looking at a special property on acreage or with views or some other amenity that a semi-rural area can provide.

[Starrynight227]

Thanks Sassberto!

The house in Lakeside is really nice. It's on top of a hill with no one behind it, on .62 acres with great views. So, that is a plus but if the surrounding areas are bad then it's probably not worth it. Thanks for all the good information.