Relocating from NYC to San Diego need advice on rentals in safe neighborhood (apartments, condo)

[Eurousfam]

Hello there,
We are a married couple with our son of 2.5 years.
I'm from Germany but with multicultural heritage.
We are planning on relocating to San Diego.
What are safe but inexpensive neighborhoods with walking distance to the trolley?
Our budget is 1000$ a month for a 2 Bedroom.
We won't own a car right away and my husband would be working for a FedEx office location so he would be able to commute. Can anyone help with advice? Thank you! :-)

[deadcoder]

Please read this first:
GET REAL About San Diego Rental and Real Estate Prices

For safest neighborhoods, you might want to stick with green line trolley but you will not even find a one bed room apartment for that budget. You at least need to double your budget. Remember this is San Diego!!!

[loveautumn]

Yes, you'll need about $1700 to $2k to find a 2 bedroom apt in a safe, decent area. I hope you will research the cost of living here before deciding to relocate, it's one of the most expensive cities in the US, especially for housing. Public transportation isn't as available here as in Europe.

[Eurousfam]

Thank you guys for your advice. Well our situation is that we would like to rent only for 6 months or so and within the time find a condo or small house to buy. That's why we don't look for any fancy or pricey rental. Maybe even a 1 Bedroom apartment would be fine for the time being. I know 1000$ is a low budget but I've seen several rentals online that are around this price point. Some of them wrote that they were walking distance to public transportation. I just need it to be a safe neighborhood the schools don't have to be great because our son isn't at that stage yet.

[loveautumn]

apt vacancies in SD are at an all time low, they are filled almost immediately and many places have waiting lists...are you in Germany or NYC? You may have to come here ahead of your family and stay in a residential hotel type place for a month or two so you can check out places and secure some housing. I definitely wouldn't sign a lease for a place sight unseen. These online listings can be misleading. It isn't easy...perhaps your employer, FedEx, can offer you some relocation advice.

[deadcoder]

We didn't say you will not find anything, but what we said that you will not that apartment in any safe neighborhoods which is close to Trolley. Even for 1 bedroom apartment, you will at least need $1500-1600. Online is pure BS. Check those apartments physically and then search their reviews on Google, Yelp, ApartmentRating.com.

[Drake744]

Originally Posted by deadcoder

We didn't say you will not find anything, but what we said that you will not that apartment in any safe neighborhoods which is close to Trolley. Even for 1 bedroom apartment, you will at least need $1500-1600. Online is pure BS. Check those apartments physically and then search their reviews on Google, Yelp, ApartmentRating.com.

One caveat with apartment ratings websites is that frequently people get on there for the sole purpose of letting out their frustrations. You might see perfectly fine complexes with a 50% recommended rating because a bunch of pissed off people have gone on there to vote the place low. I have a buddy who just moved out of an apartment he really liked only based on rent increases and it has a 33% rating on apartmentratings.com He also likes the place he lives now and it has a 42% on there.

[deadcoder]

Originally Posted by Drake744

One caveat with apartment ratings websites is that frequently people get on there for the sole purpose of letting out their frustrations. You might see perfectly fine complexes with a 50% recommended rating because a bunch of pissed off people have gone on there to vote the place low. I have a buddy who just moved out of an apartment he really liked only based on rent increases and it has a 33% rating on apartmentratings.com He also likes the place he lives now and it has a 42% on there.

Yes, that's true. That's why I generally check that site at the very end. Google reviews -> Yelp -> Rest of the rating site. Though there are some fake reviews but its easy to find out which one is authentic.

[Pedro2000]

Originally Posted by Eurousfam

Hello there,
We are a married couple with our son of 2.5 years.
I'm from Germany but with multicultural heritage.
We are planning on relocating to San Diego.
What are safe but inexpensive neighborhoods with walking distance to the trolley?
Our budget is 1000$ a month for a 2 Bedroom.
We won't own a car right away and my husband would be working for a FedEx office location so he would be able to commute. Can anyone help with advice? Thank you! :-)

It depends on the office. If he's at some random FedEx Kinkos office, that could be anywhere in SD and nowhere near a trolley. There are a couple of those offices near me and you can't get to any of them without a car. You could live close enough to walk though, but a 2 Bedroom would cost you over $2500.

The other reality is month to month or 6 month leases are going to cost you more money. Most leases these days will run you 12 months, if not, they usually charges some kind of premium. I know some places that will charge a few hundred dollars more per month just because it's not a 12 month lease.

And the "spend little now so you can buy a condo/house in 6 months" makes sense, but are you aware that houses in safe neighborhoods are probably going to cost you over $500K, closer to a million in some places. If you think $1k will get you much, what do you plan on spending on a house in six months?

[Eurousfam]

We live in NYC for the past 7 years. The housing prices here are even higher than in SD. Our budget on a condo or house would be around 550k. I will hire a realtor to find us a few rentals to look at ahead. So we will definitely look into those residential type hotels till we find a decent place where we won't have to be scared to leave the house. I appreciate all of your advice! Thank you so much!