Best places in SoCal to raise a young family

[Ragnar]

OP, perhaps staying in Georgia for the short term may be your best strategy to get to SD.

Staying where you are in the short term will give you time to plan. Be disciplined and run the budgetary numbers to see what you would need to make it in San Diego, and practice that as much as possible while still in GA. Come up with a 3- or 5-year plan, especially for financial things that would be easier to accomplish while in GA than in CA. Save up more cash like crazy for the move and for a house down payment while you watch what the SD housing market does. Pay off any debt and pump more dollars into retirement and kids' college savings while you can, in order to give that money a head start toward real growth. Establish a cash emergency fund of 6 months of SD expenses in the bank.

Maybe once the kids are all school age you'll be ready to re-enter the workforce (I assume from your post that you have been staying home with the kiddos) - even a part time basis could help your family tremendously in SD.

SoCal has a number of amazing churches of all flavors. I'm sure you'll be able to find a community with which to connect.

Don't give up on your SD dream. You shouldn't need to wait until retirement to make the move, but you may find that in 3-5 years you are in a far better position to succeed. Please keep us posted!

[manxmissile]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

That's too bad, we live in part of Clairemont, not on a cul de sac but we do that with the neighbors all the time. Their are two cul de sacs close and we play basketball, catch, whatever. Every year we have a block party on the 4th. Halloween and Xmas are AWESOME.


Of course, I kinda researched this area when I first moved out here

What part of Clairemont? That's where we are looking to buy

[socketz]

Since you have young children, I would start with the best school districts and work your way backwards with regards to housing, eliminating space and bedrooms to get into the right area. From that point, you can build equity and work your way back up.

At just under 500Kish, you should be able to find a decent sized 3 bedroom townhome in an area like Rancho Bernardo, Scripps or Poway. Keep in mind that this price range is full of buyers just like yourself, so you cannot become too emotionally attached to anything you look at...a few detached homes exist in these areas as well, but there will be undesirable aspects at this price range.

If you can deal with undesirables like living on the highway, homes that need to be remodeled or ones with defects like 1 car garages or a single full bath, busy street, etc. you can find some deals.

I'm familiar with the market where you live and people look for perfection when they shop because the market is chock full of resales (and even new homes) and you can be very picky. Here in San Diego, if you need good schools districts and are coming in below 700K looking for a detached home, you will really need to understand your tradeoffs and decide what you can and cannot live with/without. It's a different way of thinking out here (tradeoff based) and you will probably be competing with other Socal natives that are wired this way from the start.

As others have mentioned, we are reaching our 2005 peaks in many of the more desirable areas in North County coastal and inland (homes of the best school districts). With this in mind, buy something you can live with for 5-7 years, because you may find yourself upside down in 2-3 and not able to move. The good news it that the market always rebounds in the desirable areas with 5-7.

If you look in 92127, a place like Westwood (RB West of the 15, before you get to 4S Ranch) offers some homes that may be a fit.

This one on Duenda is nice: 11580 Duenda Rd, San Diego, CA 92127 | MLS# 140034047 | Redfin

Duenda is the main street through Westwood, so your kids would not be able to play in the street, but this is a great place to raise a family otherwise.

Good luck.