Taking a scouting trip to SD in 10 days. I've done the research, but looking for a sanity check (San Diego: rental, condos)

[BilboTBagginz]

Just an update if anyone is interested:

We're flying in tomorrow morning, early. We plan on using the time we have before check in to hit the north part of the county. On Sunday, we plan on hitting the inland parts and east Chula Vista. I'll post updates on our thoughts throughout the weekend.

[cruitr]

Originally Posted by BilboTBagginz

On Sunday, we plan on hitting the inland parts and east Chula Vista. I'll post updates on our thoughts throughout the weekend.

I'll bet you like east Chula Vista. Zip Code: 91913. You get a lot of home for $600k+ there. Great coastal weather and some homes with distant bay views. Only about 15 miles to downtown SD, the airport, and the beautiful Coronado beaches.

When you get to the Mission Bay area (where I live), you'll say "Who would spend a $1M for these dumps?" There are very few HOAs in my area. You can do anything you want with your home. And my neighbors do.

The sub-$1M homes in central San Diego are an acquired taste. It took us 3 years of nomadic renting before buying a home near Mission Bay. Some early visitors (long-term friends) from Phoenix said "You paid how much for this place?"

Have a great weekend. I'd love to play tour-guide but I'm a gearhead. This is prime car show season in SoCal.

Looking forward to your updates.

[LaJollaEast]

Enjoy your time in San Diego. It should be a nice weekend weather wise. I was one of the people that suggested the east Chula Vista/ Otay Ranch area since that is where my daughter is a teacher and I have spent a lot of time around the area in the past couple of years. You can certainly get a nice new house there within your budget.

[BilboTBagginz]

Originally Posted by cruitr

I'll bet you like east Chula Vista. Zip Code: 91913. You get a lot of home for $600k+ there. Great coastal weather and some homes with distant bay views. Only about 15 miles to downtown SD, the airport, and the beautiful Coronado beaches.

When you get to the Mission Bay area (where I live), you'll say "Who would spend a $1M for these dumps?" There are very few HOAs in my area. You can do anything you want with your home. And my neighbors do.

The sub-$1M homes in central San Diego are an acquired taste. It took us 3 years of nomadic renting before buying a home near Mission Bay. Some early visitors (long-term friends) from Phoenix said "You paid how much for this place?"

Have a great weekend. I'd love to play tour-guide but I'm a gearhead. This is prime car show season in SoCal.

Looking forward to your updates.

Car shows! I haven't been to one in a long while. I wish I had more time this trip.

Originally Posted by LaJollaEast

Enjoy your time in San Diego. It should be a nice weekend weather wise. I was one of the people that suggested the east Chula Vista/ Otay Ranch area since that is where my daughter is a teacher and I have spent a lot of time around the area in the past couple of years. You can certainly get a nice new house there within your budget.

I'm looking forward to checking east CV out!

We just left our hotel in La Jolla and are headed up 5 to Oceanside....annnnnd traffic already lol.

[LaJollaEast]

We just left our hotel in La Jolla and are headed up 5 to Oceanside....annnnnd traffic already lol.

And that is a typical Friday here in San Diego!

[cruitr]

Traffic is the worst on Fridays. You should have clear sailing this weekend.

[BilboTBagginz]

Originally Posted by cruitr

Traffic is the worst on Fridays. You should have clear sailing this weekend.

Originally Posted by LaJollaEast

And that is a typical Friday here in San Diego!

Honestly, after dealing with Bay Area traffic, this wasn't too bad. At least it was moving. When we left East Bay this morning at 5am, the bay bridge was mostly at a standstill. It's like that all the time.

So we drove to downtown Oceanside just to check it out. Seemed like a typical coastal tourist attraction type place. The retail was ...typical coastal tourist attraction retail. We drove around some side streets for a little while on both sides of the highway. From some of the comments some people make in this forum you would think Oceanside was hell on earth. I've seen WAY worse. Granted I wasn't there at night and I myself wouldn't buy a house there at this point in my life, but it's not (or doesn't appear to be by looks alone) some town where a brutal war was fought and the houses all have bullet holes in them.

From there we pushed on to the Ivey Ranch area. Lots of gated communities. My wife asked if that was a good or bad sign. I said... "Both!" jokingly. Anyways, the ew neighborhoods we saw were pretty much "cookie cutter", but nicely maintained. Homes were really close together but that's most anywhere. I have Verizon, and had an extremely weak cell signal while we were there. Not a deal breaker, but something to factor in (i could've just been in a dead spot too).

San Marcos was next. We didn't drive through any neighborhoods, just kept to the main roads in town. We both felt like we didn't have to "inspect" any neighborhoods because the city itself was really nice. Lots of shopping nearby, which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Our house back in the midwest is in a desirable area that has lots of retail around it, and it''s getting larger by the second. Great news if you need to run to the store real quick and you don't want to spend 25 minutes driving there. Bad news when you try to go anywhere during peak times. Anyways, looks like there was a train that ran right through the city, it's near the highway and seemed to be a nice area. I give this area a thumbs up.

Last was Poway.Houses were close together (space is at a premium) but I noticed more uniqueness amongst them, unlike Ivey Ranch. Homes were well maintained. It also seemed a little less developed than say San Marcos (which is a good thing). I could be wrong, but taking a quick look at Redfin seemed to indicate this area was a little more expensive than San Marcos (and Ivey Ranch), with 1,700 square feet being at the $700,000 range. I liked this area too, thumbs up.

We're now 2 miles from the hotel in La Jolla, and it's projected to take 16 minutes to get there. NOW it's starting to remind me of the Bay Area.

Anyways, there were other areas between Oceanside, San Marcos and Poway that people suggested, but several tours through Redfin indicated that they would be above our price range so we didn't bother going there.

Sunday we'll be heading to the central inland areas of San Diego East Chula Vista and the areas around there (saving the best for last?) before we fly back Monday morning.

[alanadoodle]

Good luck tomorrow! I've never been to East CV but my friends' that have lived there loved it.

[cruitr]

If want to see a classic SoCal summer car show/cruise, there's one tonite in Escondido. My wife and I will be there. There are lots of restaurants along the cruise route. We try to eat with a group of friends at Filippi's. Filippi's is cheap Italian food in a great location to see all the cars.

The event: https://cruisingrand.com/
Time: 5pm to 8pm

Where to park: Wells Fargo Bank, 145 N Escondido Blvd, Escondido, CA 92025 (the bank will be closed so disregard the tow signs).

If you're coming from the La Jolla area:
1. take 52 east
2. then 15 north (Use the hov lanes. The hov lanes are free if you have at least 2 people in the car.)

Traffic will probably be heavy to Escondido but the hov lanes make it fairly painless.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by BilboTBagginz

Honestly, after dealing with Bay Area traffic, this wasn't too bad. At least it was moving. When we left East Bay this morning at 5am, the bay bridge was mostly at a standstill. It's like that all the time.

So we drove to downtown Oceanside just to check it out. Seemed like a typical coastal tourist attraction type place. The retail was ...typical coastal tourist attraction retail. We drove around some side streets for a little while on both sides of the highway. From some of the comments some people make in this forum you would think Oceanside was hell on earth. I've seen WAY worse. Granted I wasn't there at night and I myself wouldn't buy a house there at this point in my life, but it's not (or doesn't appear to be by looks alone) some town where a brutal war was fought and the houses all have bullet holes in them.

From there we pushed on to the Ivey Ranch area. Lots of gated communities. My wife asked if that was a good or bad sign. I said... "Both!" jokingly. Anyways, the ew neighborhoods we saw were pretty much "cookie cutter", but nicely maintained. Homes were really close together but that's most anywhere. I have Verizon, and had an extremely weak cell signal while we were there. Not a deal breaker, but something to factor in (i could've just been in a dead spot too).

San Marcos was next. We didn't drive through any neighborhoods, just kept to the main roads in town. We both felt like we didn't have to "inspect" any neighborhoods because the city itself was really nice. Lots of shopping nearby, which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Our house back in the midwest is in a desirable area that has lots of retail around it, and it''s getting larger by the second. Great news if you need to run to the store real quick and you don't want to spend 25 minutes driving there. Bad news when you try to go anywhere during peak times. Anyways, looks like there was a train that ran right through the city, it's near the highway and seemed to be a nice area. I give this area a thumbs up.

Last was Poway.Houses were close together (space is at a premium) but I noticed more uniqueness amongst them, unlike Ivey Ranch. Homes were well maintained. It also seemed a little less developed than say San Marcos (which is a good thing). I could be wrong, but taking a quick look at Redfin seemed to indicate this area was a little more expensive than San Marcos (and Ivey Ranch), with 1,700 square feet being at the $700,000 range. I liked this area too, thumbs up.

We're now 2 miles from the hotel in La Jolla, and it's projected to take 16 minutes to get there. NOW it's starting to remind me of the Bay Area.

Anyways, there were other areas between Oceanside, San Marcos and Poway that people suggested, but several tours through Redfin indicated that they would be above our price range so we didn't bother going there.

Sunday we'll be heading to the central inland areas of San Diego East Chula Vista and the areas around there (saving the best for last?) before we fly back Monday morning.

Good post. Pretty fair assessment of the areas you visited. San Marcos is definitely the best area along the 78 freeway. Poway is sorta split in half with the northern/eastern section nicer than the southern/western areas. During your exploration further south/east, check out La Mesa, Santee, Tierrasanta and Allied Gardens. I look forward to your updates.