San Luis Obispo or San Diego? (Oceanside, Escondido: apartments, rentals, condos)

[adventure26]

I am interested in relocating from Orange County Southern CA to possibly San Luis Obispo (my 1st choice) or San Diego (my 2nd choice).

I am a 26 year old female journalist part time but also sell make up full time and I’m open to taking any job that I need to take to be able to pay the bills when moving. I can worry about finding my dream job later on! My husband is currently working in construction but has a degree in computer science. He is like me also willing to take a job that may not be in his field.

We are looking to leave Orange County mostly based on the rent/cost of living. We still want to live in an area with a beach breeze (not a far drive from the beach) and a safe area, but with a lower price tag if possible. We would like to be within a 30 minute drive to a beach but without paying $800,000 to $1 million+ for a 2 to 3 bedroom home. We have no problem renting an apartment or condo for the next few years until we are ready to buy a place and are sure we are in the right location.

We love San Luis Obispo because of the clean air and water, beautiful views, nice weather, wine country, cute downtown area, small town feel, friendly people, open spaces, European style alleys and streets, and the average rent is about $600 less per month than the OC beach areas. Our worry is that since it is a smaller-town kind of in the middle of nowhere compared to Orange County, that there is less jobs and less to do.

We also love San Diego for how much there is to do, great malls and night life, great weather, good public transportation, close to the beach, health food stores and restaurants, and it is also a few hundred less per month rent-wise (although not as cheap SLO). We love the upscale areas like Fashion Valley and La Jolla, being at the cove and seal watching. Our fear here is that it’s not as safe as Orange County, as we have read some threads about gang activity and this worries us.

Can you please list your suggestion for us: San Luis Obispo or San Diego?

[sav858]

The areas in SD with gang activity I doubt you would want to live in anyways. SD overall is a pretty safe metro area, I don't think it's any worse than OC. I really wouldn't worry about crime there but more so finding a decent paying job and the high cost of living over anything else.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by adventure26

We are looking to leave Orange County mostly based on the rent/cost of living.

If that's your primary motivation, you might want to come up with some other prospects. I don't think you'll find a quantum leap downward in cost of living in either area. In San Diego North County, maybe -- Oceanside, Vista, Escondido -- but not SD proper.
Jobs are very hard to come by in SLO as the proportion of college students willing to do anything for even minimum wage is high in relation to the size of the city. That also puts a lot of pressure on low-end rentals. You might be able to get something right now with school being out, but come August, you'll have to compete with the students.

[BRinSM]

SD and OC are pretty much equivalent with respect to home prices and OC probably has a better job market. SLO is up in the middle of nowhere and I doubt jobs are easy to come by, especially when the city is graduating thousands of college students every year. I wouldn't move up that way without a stable source of income, it's not that much cheaper than OC.

[Snort]

Like most opine, secure the jobs first. I'd take SLO over SD simply for the lower volume of traffic. Better hiking too.

[adventure26]

You may be right about the jobs being harder to come by, and honestly it makes sense for SLO and SD with the colleges and recent grads in both areas. But it is cheaper for sure, rent wise. The average rent in SLO was $1000 to $1100 for an apartment, and SD was $1100 to $1200 (maybe excluding apartments directly on the beach front which cost more). But here in OC the apartments are on average $1400 to $1800+ for a one bedroom. And when you do find an apartment for $1100 in OC with comes fully stocked with bug infestation, white trash trying to build there own home meth labs, and the rest non-english speaking residents who thrown trash all over the complex. Im speaking from experience because that was the only apartment I could get here in OC with my imcome and thats exactly how it is. Not to mention that anything around $1100 is over a 30 minute drive to the beach so you dont get much of a breach breeze and your A/C bill is still high. I did consider Corvallis Oregon for the cheap rent as well, but Im guessing jobs will be just as hard to find there.

[Rhenzanite]

Originally Posted by adventure26

You may be right about the jobs being harder to come by, and honestly it makes sense for SLO and SD with the colleges and recent grads in both areas. But it is cheaper for sure, rent wise. The average rent in SLO was $1000 to $1100 for an apartment, and SD was $1100 to $1200 (maybe excluding apartments directly on the beach front which cost more). But here in OC the apartments are on average $1400 to $1800+ for a one bedroom. And when you do find an apartment for $1100 in OC with comes fully stocked with bug infestation, white trash trying to build there own home meth labs, and the rest non-english speaking residents who thrown trash all over the complex. Im speaking from experience because that was the only apartment I could get here in OC with my imcome and thats exactly how it is. Not to mention that anything around $1100 is over a 30 minute drive to the beach so you dont get much of a breach breeze and your A/C bill is still high. I did consider Corvallis Oregon for the cheap rent as well, but Im guessing jobs will be just as hard to find there.

I hope you realize that those $1000 rentals in slo are super teeny tiny (studios, usually) and are usually in smaller student complexes. Hope you're not used to sleeping at night or on weekends. Plus, since college kids are basically used to living in squalor, most of those apartments are pretty shabby. I've been trying to move to the slo area (I live about 15 minutes outside of slo) for around 6 years... Good luck finding a place.

[LDH]

If you want to come to SLO I would recommend that you come and spend 5-7 days exploring the area and checking out apartments and condos. Just as someone else mentioned you won't get a very big place and would be in with college students who like to party at that price. Yes, it's a beautiful place and if you like the outdoors, farmer's markets and bars, then you will be okay activity wise. Shopping is nothing special and you should plan on heading to Santa Barbara and south if you are used to shopping in the finer stores.

[love4travel86]

I am very familiar with San Diego and I think it's an incredibly beautiful area - you'll love it! I've never felt unsafe there and it has a very low crime rate for a county of over 1,200,000 residents. Plenty of young families here and college students, as well as young professionals.

Try checking out UTC - it's a neighborhood around La Jolla but maybe 10 minutes inland. Plenty of rentals in that area. Mission Valley (which is also near Fashion Valley Mall) has some affordable rentals in your price range. I've seen condos go for $1,100-1200 and they seemed nice.

There are also some areas surrounding downtown - one called North Park which has a pretty vibrant scene for someone in their 20s. It's 5-10 min from the city, and slightly urban but has cute housing options and many are very affordable and within walking distance to the nightlife. You'll still be within 10-15 minutes of the beach, and downtown is a blast at night! It's developed quite a bit in the past 5 years and has so much to do.

[the city]

San Diego has a better job market than SLO. SLO's job market is limited to most job openings are for California Polytechnic State University and Cal Poly Corporation, California Men's Colony, and County of San Luis Obispo.

And most employers here prefer graduates from Cal Poly SLO or from UC Santa Barbara.