Relocating from Las Vegas - Where to, Poway or Ramona? (San Diego: low crime, how much)

[syndeern]

Hi!

My family is planning to relocate and buy a descent but affordable house. My wife and I work in a hospital with 2 girls age 5 and 2.

Here are our criteria:
1. Price range $400,000 - 550,000
2. Good school (elementary and highschool)
3. Great/Safe neighborhood
3. Not too far driving from work (hospitals)

I've been researching, and so far this is what i come up - Poway or Ramona? Which one more or less fits my criteria above.

Anyone live in this area?

Any opinion/suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Whuzzaaap!]

Neither?

[syndeern]

Originally Posted by Whuzzaaap!

Neither?

Why is that so?

---

addendum to my previous post: this time, my family and i are considering Poway, Carmel Mountain Ranch, and Encinitas with house maximum range of $600,000. --- out of the 3 which one has a better school and safer neighborhood?

[esmith143]

Ramona is very rural. Acreage, horses, cows, chickens, avocados, bee hives. Is that important for you? If not, go with Poway.

[syndeern]

Originally Posted by esmith143

Ramona is very rural. Acreage, horses, cows, chickens, avocados, bee hives. Is that important for you? If not, go with Poway.

Thank you...

Any insights on encinitas, rancho bernardo, scripps ranch, and carmel mountain ranch?

[destroycreate]

Romana is really redneck and sort of meth central. I grew up in Poway and Ramona is the next town over...it's pretty shady looking, rural, and it's backwards conservative. I don't really recommend it especially because of the frequency of drugs there amongst teens.

Poway, eh...if you want to be stuck out in suburban sprawl. I much more recommend areas near the ocean like Encinitas, that also have a nice walkable center and it's more socially moderate.

[f_m]

Depends on where you will work. If you work at Scripps Chula Vista, then those are kind of far, but if you work at Poway Pomerado, then of course Poway is close. Ramona is rural and isn't a place close to many hospitals.

[Stoney Mcgee]

Poway/RB has a really great school district and low crime. I grew up there and never felt fear walking down any street even at night. The kids are ambitious in this area because they see a lot of nice homes and expensive cars. Its a really nice place to raise a family, ask anyone who lives there. Houses are pricey though. If you can afford it, try the Trails or Green Valley (neighborhoods).

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by syndeern

Thank you...

Any insights on encinitas, rancho bernardo, scripps ranch, and carmel mountain ranch?

I don't know anything about Encinitas.

Rancho Bernardo has a large population of well-off retirees. (Look at Bernard Heights 'next door' to Rancho Bernardo).

Carmel Mountain Ranch is new. It was open fields when I moved to San Diego. It has subsequenty been filled with McMansions. I think ... not certain ... that it's in the Poway Unified School District. The PUSD is a good one!

Scripps Ranch is older than Carmel Mounain Ranch. I don't know much about it, but it looks inviting when we drive through it, and I haven't heard anything unfavorable about its schools.

(For context, we live in Rancho Penasquitos, which is just across the I-15 from CMR. CMR is north of Scripps Ranch.)

[sdlife619]

Those are nice area's that everyone just mentioned, but they are all very bland, boring, and lifeless neighborhoods. Personally I wouldn't raise my kids ( when I do have kids) in such a semi perfect pleasantville like neighborhood.

It's true that even the well to do families in San Diego have problems with there kids getting into drugs more so than lower income area's sometimes. I remember not too long ago, some rich kid got arrested in Poway for selling Cocaine, he led the cops on a short pursuit, then finally got arrested.

It boggles my mind when I hear these things, because these kids have it all, nice house, nice cars, money at there disposal, and yet they still find ways to get in serious trouble. I feel sometimes parents try to overprotect there kids, thus by not letting watch certain TV programs, play certain video games, basically confining them to outside world, and when they get older all hell breaks loose. This can lead to many problems in the future because once a kid is able to experience something they haven't been exposed to, they go all crazy and can start to experiment with drugs or whatever and random acts defiance usually follows, well at least this is the case at some public schools or even worse, private schools.

I had a good friend of mine that I met in High School that attended Catholic School for most of his life, I remember him telling me how strange and weird it felt entering into a public school for the first time, because of all the different types of kids with different styles, social classes and attitudes. He was shock, but yet relieved because he always felt extremely protected by being in Catholic school and that it got him upset since it wanted a different experience, all that strictness didn't help him either.

He actually loved public school and felt "free at last", he always told me how much he hated Catholic school since it was so strict and homogeneous. By going public, it gave him a better understanding of others and he feels like he can get along with all kinds of people that he probably wouldn't be able to do before.

Anyways yeah, Poway is a nice area, Ramona is just too far out there to be considered unless you like living out in sticks.