Any tips about "Monte Rio" Community in Penasquitos (92131)?? (San Diego: loft, condos)

[sdnewbie1980]

Hi,
We are a young couple/no kids looking to buy our first home in San Diego. We are preferring the Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, Penasquitos areas due to closeness to our workplace and the fact that we are familiar with these areas. Although SR was our first preference, we found a good home in the Monte Rio community in Penasquitos (north on Blk Mountain Rd from Mira Mesa Blvd). The one we are looking at is a 1244 sq ft condos (2 bd with loft and attached 2 car parking) for around 335K...which gives us good space and falls within our budget especially since most 3bd homes are upwards of 390-400K in today's market. It also seems to be in a not-so-crowded area and less notorious than Mira Mesa is made out to be.

If anyone on this forum is familiar with Monte Rio or this area in general, we would appreciate any suggestions/"things to be aware of" that would really help us take a sound decision.

Thanks in advance..

[oddstray]

Assuming you're referring to the area of Black Mountain Road near Mercy Road, I can only talk about the area since I don't live there (I live at the condos at I-15 and SR-56). The worst thing I can think of about in the Monte Rio area is the heavy traffic on Black Mountain Road during rush hour. And I doubt that lasts very long. It used to be quite heavy on Sundays also, but then the Maranatha Chapel moved away from there.

Penasquitos does have gangs, but so far the worst I've heard of them doing is vandalizing vehicles.

Monte Rio is quite near Canyonland Park, which is a nice, big park with a rec building. And it's directly across from the west entrance of Penasquitos Canyon which has loads of trails to explore, and also has some of the oldest rocks in San Diego county (if you're into geology). North on Black Mountain Road a mile or so is a large shopping area with Vons, two drug stores, a hardware store, the post office, and several smaller stores.

I don't know whether the schools are in Poway school district (a very good school district) but in any case I haven't heard anything wrong with the schools in Penasquitos.

Here's a caveat: you said no kids. Penasquitos is a bedroom community. There's no night life here. If that will drive you crazy from boredom, then be careful about that.

And a minor thing ... 92131 is a Scripps Ranch zip code. Penasquitos is 92129.