Family Relocating to North County from LA - HELP! (San Diego: low income, real estate)

[HastingsJD]

My husband was offered a job transfer to San Diego from LA. We're happy to escape. After years of horrible commuting (2-3 hours roundtrip to go 20 miles each way) he doesn't want another wretched daily roadtrip.

The office is in San Marcos. Where should we live? We own a condo in the LA area but are planning to rent it out (selling would not be smart right now.) We're looking to rent a townhouse or condo for about $1700-$1800 max per month. (I'm guessing houses would be out of our range) 3 bedrooms would be great, but I doubt that's possible in our price range. 2 would be fine.

We have a toddler so we'd like family friendly. We're also okay with suburbia. Living near the beach is fine, but not a necessity. We live on the coast in LA and would be fine with a change. We'd like some sort of outdoor space - even if it's just a small patio with a concrete slab. Right now we have a balcony and that just doesn't work for a toddler. This is not a permanent move - likely 2-3 years and then we will be moving back home to the South. We'll likely be gone before our child starts kindergarten but in the event we're still there we'd like a decent district for kindergarten.

Any thoughts on San Marcos (San Eliojo area)? Any areas to avoid in San Marcos? What about Carlsbad? Is Poway too far?

[sdhkshdcny09]

Poway isnt too far and i would recommend looking into it. It will probably be about a 30 minute drive each way, but the 78-15 interchange does get backed up so it may take longer. It also depends on where you live in poway because it extends to the east and many areas are not that close to the freeways. Poway schools have the best reputation and the area is family friendly. Its wealthy, but you dont get the snobby vibe from people. Its a mix between suburb and rural, and there isn't much going on there, but has a central location relative to the county, which is a plus. Poway has an amazing sense of community! I would also recommend looking into Rancho Bernardo, which is the City of San Diego neighborhood directly bordering Poway. It is in close proximity to the 15 freeway and is a very nice community (best schools, safe, etc....but expensive).

San Marcos is the least wealthiest of the three and has more middle and low income residents. The only areas you really need to avoid are the neighborhoods around San Marcos Elementary and Alvin Dunn. For the highest performing schools (not necessarily best) and safest neighborhoods, a good rule of thumb is to stay out of areas that feed into San Marcos Middle. These neighborhoods tend to be within the San Marcos Elementary, Alvin Dunn Elementary and Joli Ann Leichtag Elementary boundaries. The one exception is Paloma elementary and its corresponding attendance area of Santa Fe Hills. Pretty much every other part of San Marcos has schools comparable to its wealthier neighbors to the west and south. SM tends to get a bad rep for a number of things just because it isn't extremely wealthy. In reality, schools are consistently some of the highest performing and the city has, if i remember correctly, the third or fourth lowest crime rate in San Diego county. SM also has an abundance of parks and open space (over 20, with more being constructed) The worst thing about SM in my opinion is the traffic (which isnt all too bad to begin with and nothing like LA/OC). SM is situated in a valley and everyone trying to go east or west has to squeeze through on either the 78 or 3 other roads, which causes traffic jams. Commuting within SM will only take you 20 minutes tops however.

As for San Elijo, it is basically the wealthiest part of San Marcos. It has the highest performing schools and is probably the safest neighborhood. The elementary school and middle schools are fairly new (5-7 years old) and the district is rebuilding san marcos high school (its feeder high school) completely, which should open in 2 years. The cookie cutter suburban neighborhood is pretty fake, but the community vibe is actually strong and the area is nice. Although it is the most expensive part of SM, it is still cheaper than Carlsbad or Poway and the homes/townhomes are generally newer. Its also very bike/hiking friendly for those that dont mind hills. Its a quick 5 min trip over the mountain to the valley where most of SM lies.
here is a listing for a townhome within walking distance to grocery, parks, schools, shops for $1800: Condos and Townhomes for-rent at San Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92078 for $1,793 - Rentals - Real Estate

Carlsbad- its the more expensive, coastal neighbor of san marcos. The school district has a good reputation (although i think its overated in part because test scores are barely higher than SM, when SM has 3 times as many socioeconomically disadvantaged and english learner students. SM also has higher test scores for every single category recorded....hispanic, black, asian, white, poor, educated, english learners, etc.) Schools in Carlsbad perform similarly to San Marcos, except both San Marcos high schools are higher performing due to significant gains in recent years. Even if you move to Carlsbad there is a chance that you would be in San Marcos Unified because large portions of La Costa and the entire Carrillo Ranch development feed into SM schools. Overall, Carlsbad is a nice city and has a lot to offer. Beaches, shopping, well-maintained parks, abundant recreational activities, etc. It's just more expensive and snooty than SM. $1800 will probably not get you very far in carlsbad, but you should do some more research on it. Carlsbad is an easily navigated city as it is crossed by numerous main roads, which usually aren't too congested. The weather is also less hot than SM or Poway in the summer, but this also means it is foggier for the rest of the year. Some parts of Carlsbad are more walkable than others, but in general the city is very well planned with relatively little traffic considering its population is around 100,000 people.

so....thats the whole overview of these cities. I know the schools info may not be important to you, but in general these are all good cities for a child's education and it may be important to keep that in mind. They represent 3 of the 4 highest performing unified schools districts in the county...

my ranking is..
Poway>San Marcos>Carlsbad

but that's just my opinion.