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We have good friends who live in Bay Ho, and I'd say that description (hit or miss) is pretty close. Their former next-door-neighbor was a druggie who had druggie friends over and sometimes living there. They didn't cause our friends any direct problems - but it was a bit creepy having that going on right next door, and the property wound up looking very run-down. That neighbor is now gone, and the new neighbor there is cleaning up the property. Other than that, their area looks quite well kept up.
We HAD a druggie living about 2 blocks away. The physical house looked like a dump and smelled like a meth lab from the street. The owner finally got the druggie evicted and sold the place to an Asian couple in 2010. The new owners literally took the house apart and added about a thousand feet of living space with all new hardscape. Last month, they moved in. I could never have that sort of tenacity when it comes to a personal residence.
So it's kind of house to house more than block to block? Prop 13 seems to have that effect on lots of areas of Southern California with older homes. Pasadena also seems to have really wild variation in condition from house to house.
In looking at north PB again there are few places around the top of our budget near Kate Sessions park and sort of along tourmaline, we'll definitely check that area out but I remember PB and La Jolla being a giant PITA to get around in and that was in late January.
We just keep vacillating around Clairemont, particularly Bay Ho and Bay Park. The location seems good, prices are right, houses aren't the best looking but whatever, yards are good sized. I know you said it's not the prettiest area of town but is it on the decline like La Mesa or what's the deal? What is your opinion with Bay Ho vs. Bay Park? Proximity to Mission Bay is a plus (running, dog park, sailing, etc.).
I live in Bay Park. Up the hill (going up Milton) is good. Don't live too close to Morena Blvd. That area tends to be more druggie. A few blocks up are all pretty nice homes, many have awesome ocean views.
Clairemont is really hit or miss. We would find a decent house surrounded by awful ones. We gave up and paid more, purchasing in Bay Park. What I like about Bay Park is I am one mile from the Bay, no crime, nice quiet neighbors. Close to the "5" but high enough up the hill to not hear the freeway.
This thread has been fascinating because we have sort of been taking the same journey. We spent several years narrowing down potential relocations to San Diego, then spent two months last winter renting via VRBO - one month in Sunset Cliffs and one month in Del Mar. Our house criteria are extremely similar to yours (although we only have the old cat, no dogs). We communicated with a realtor, did a ton of research ahead of time, and spent many outings driving around various neighborhoods and checking out listed houses and other amenities. We went to all the big farmers markets on weekends, checked out the shopping centers, found decent bagels, enjoyed restaurant week, and I tried to walk all the piers. I couldn't get on the Scripps pier but did walk Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Oceanside, and San Clemente.
In the end, we both agreed our favorite neighborhoods were in Point Loma - primarily Sunset Cliffs, Loma Portal, and Loma Palisades. Mission Hills and anywhere around La Jolla (including Bird Rock and the area near Windandsea) would be a close second but clearly out of our budget.
There were some areas of North Park that looked nice but really only were interested in those close to the NE corner of Balboa park. We also found several nice areas where all the affordable houses were either overlooking a highway or on a steep hill. Our impressions of Bay Ho and Bay Park were exactly what people were saying - some blocks looked great, others like drug dealer territory. University City had several homes that seemed to fit our criteria but none of them jelled; neither did the neighborhood - too family oriented maybe.
Re open houses - when we were at the house in Sunset Cliffs, there was a weekly local (Ocean Beach) paper that showed area open houses for the upcoming weekend. We looked at several houses in the neighborhood on our own. We found a perfect house during halftime of an NFL playoff game; it had actually sold the day before. These kind of listings probably won't show up online but there might be local papers in your neighborhoods of interest. Another place to get open house info is to drop by the local realtors during the week.
I'm just afraid that thanks to DH's procrastination, we will have a very difficult time finding an house. And of course we have to sell our current house but we are in a hot market in a highly desirable Chicago suburb. I think we'll need to rent for a while in San Diego but DH doesn't like that idea. And our financial situation wasn't an issue two years ago, and won't be an issue two years from now, but would affect the amount of mortgage we could get right now. We're currently trying to get a feel for what our current house might get (it will be a tear down).
But we loved living San Diego (not a surprise after multiple vacations over the years) and (for me at least) it's still my goal before I'm too old to enjoy it.
I live in Bay Park. Up the hill (going up Milton) is good. Don't live too close to Morena Blvd. That area tends to be more druggie. A few blocks up are all pretty nice homes, many have awesome ocean views.
Clairemont is really hit or miss. We would find a decent house surrounded by awful ones. We gave up and paid more, purchasing in Bay Park. What I like about Bay Park is I am one mile from the Bay, no crime, nice quiet neighbors. Close to the "5" but high enough up the hill to not hear the freeway.
That's great info, thanks. These do sound like great areas for us based on what you guys are saying. Your neighborhood sounds about perfect. You guys generally know most of your neighbors and that type of thing? This sounds like what we need, a safe neighborhood where we can go for a run or bike ride with the dogs out the front door...even better that mission bay is right there. hell I could ride my bike over and race Lazers or daysail right there from the look of it. close enough to race J boats on the harbor frequently. Nice and close to the airport is a big deal as well. Based on what we are seeing, this seems like an area where we might be more likely to buy as opposed to rent.
Is the market any less competitive in Clairemont? I keep seeing beat up dumps that, like cuitr's neighbors, appear to be perfect candidates to gut and throw on a second floor or blow out the back of the house, do some landscaping, put in a pool, etc. One thing we have plenty of is time, maybe that is a good route for us to take.
This thread has been fascinating because we have sort of been taking the same journey. We spent several years narrowing down potential relocations to San Diego, then spent two months last winter renting via VRBO - one month in Sunset Cliffs and one month in Del Mar. Our house criteria are extremely similar to yours (although we only have the old cat, no dogs). We communicated with a realtor, did a ton of research ahead of time, and spent many outings driving around various neighborhoods and checking out listed houses and other amenities. We went to all the big farmers markets on weekends, checked out the shopping centers, found decent bagels, enjoyed restaurant week, and I tried to walk all the piers. I couldn't get on the Scripps pier but did walk Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Oceanside, and San Clemente.
In the end, we both agreed our favorite neighborhoods were in Point Loma - primarily Sunset Cliffs, Loma Portal, and Loma Palisades. Mission Hills and anywhere around La Jolla (including Bird Rock and the area near Windandsea) would be a close second but clearly out of our budget.
There were some areas of North Park that looked nice but really only were interested in those close to the NE corner of Balboa park. We also found several nice areas where all the affordable houses were either overlooking a highway or on a steep hill. Our impressions of Bay Ho and Bay Park were exactly what people were saying - some blocks looked great, others like drug dealer territory. University City had several homes that seemed to fit our criteria but none of them jelled; neither did the neighborhood - too family oriented maybe.
Re open houses - when we were at the house in Sunset Cliffs, there was a weekly local (Ocean Beach) paper that showed area open houses for the upcoming weekend. We looked at several houses in the neighborhood on our own. We found a perfect house during halftime of an NFL playoff game; it had actually sold the day before. These kind of listings probably won't show up online but there might be local papers in your neighborhoods of interest. Another place to get open house info is to drop by the local realtors during the week.
I'm just afraid that thanks to DH's procrastination, we will have a very difficult time finding an house. And of course we have to sell our current house but we are in a hot market in a highly desirable Chicago suburb. I think we'll need to rent for a while in San Diego but DH doesn't like that idea. And our financial situation wasn't an issue two years ago, and won't be an issue two years from now, but would affect the amount of mortgage we could get right now. We're currently trying to get a feel for what our current house might get (it will be a tear down).
But we loved living San Diego (not a surprise after multiple vacations over the years) and (for me at least) it's still my goal before I'm too old to enjoy it.
Weird, even your 'burb sounds like ours with the hot market (houses selling over ask @open house here) and the potential for the house to be a teardown, lol.
Thanks very much for the insight and I wish you the best of luck getting it all worked out. You and I agree that renting is probably the best choice at first and my wife agrees with your husband. I think we may settle on buying in a somewhat less desirable area for less money initially (maybe Clairemont is a good example, or somewhere like Allied Gardens/Del Cerro) and if we decide to move to Encinitas or Poway or something down the road, rent out or just sell the place at that point. Might as well save a few bucks in the meantime.
That's great info, thanks. These do sound like great areas for us based on what you guys are saying. Your neighborhood sounds about perfect. You guys generally know most of your neighbors and that type of thing? This sounds like what we need, a safe neighborhood where we can go for a run or bike ride with the dogs out the front door...even better that mission bay is right there. hell I could ride my bike over and race Lazers or daysail right there from the look of it. close enough to race J boats on the harbor frequently. Nice and close to the airport is a big deal as well. Based on what we are seeing, this seems like an area where we might be more likely to buy as opposed to rent.
Is the market any less competitive in Clairemont? I keep seeing beat up dumps that, like cuitr's neighbors, appear to be perfect candidates to gut and throw on a second floor or blow out the back of the house, do some landscaping, put in a pool, etc. One thing we have plenty of is time, maybe that is a good route for us to take.
We know most of our neighbors and all are friendly. Some are original owners or close to it. The houses were built in the early 1950s so they are dying off. Sometime the kids or grandkids move in and tear down and build a mansion and keep that low Prop. 13 tax base, but keep the house in the family and are all very good neighbors, grew up in the area and care about the area. Some families are moving in, young professionals but have small children but are very athletic and want to be near the bay and ocean so you have a real mix here. But no "bad" neighbors. Lots of professionals but no "snobs". We lived in La Jolla for 18 years and people were not friendly there. When we moved here we could not believe how friendly everyone was. Everyone came to greet us right away, it is a real "neighborhood" to us.
Market is super competitive as the inventory is low. We bought in 2008 and there were 20 offers on this house the first day, we offered $30,000 over asking price and scored. I think it is even more competitive now. Not to be negative but you need a realtor that knows the area. If you want some names send me a private message. No I am not a realtor but I do know of the realtors that have the listings in the area. You could hook up with them and maybe get a jump on a house right when it goes on the MLS or even before.
Regarding some of your earlier questions. Between our La Jolla sale and our Bay Park purchase we rented for 15 months and had two dogs. We were able to rent a house in Bay Park with an ocean view for $2,200 per month no problem, the owner accepted the dogs. I had to pay I think a deposit of $250 for the dogs. A property management company handled the transaction. San Diego is very dog friendly and when I looked I searched property management companies and found many rentals (houses) that did take dogs. When I say many, I mean about 30% of the listings back then accepted dogs. In Bay Park the rentals are usually $2,000 to $3,000 per month for houses.
In terms of areas you mention your wife is a runner. I used to be one, marathons and 1/2 marathons. Del Cerro is very hilly. You have Mission Trails and Lake Murray but the streets are very hilly. I as a runner hated hills. That is why I always trained all over Mission Bay and the beaches. Also the San Carlos/Del Cerro area is a good 15 degrees hotter than Bay Park in the summer. I know I grew up in San Carlos. As a runner I hated training in hot weather so the coastal area wins hands down. Bay Park is the most affordable coastal area in San Diego and ideal for runners in my book, that is why we ended up here. Just my humble opinion.
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Bay Park
