Scripps Ranch vs Sabre Springs, any feedback? (San Diego, Davis: apartments, houses)

[soymabelen]

My family and I are relocating to San Diego from the East Coast at the end of June. We have been house hunting this week and we have found several houses within our price range in these two neighborhoods. I am wondering if any of you who are familiar with these areas have any input.

My husband's work is in Mira Mesa, close to the Sorrento Valley area. We checked and commute times seem to be good.

We have two children, our oldest will be going into 8th grade and our youngest into Kindergarten. We know that they are two different school districts. The Poway district has an overall good reputation, but the San Diego Unified district schools for Scripps Ranch seem to be on par.

The schools for Sabre Springs are Creekside Elementary, Meadow Brook Middle and Mount Carmel High. For Scripps Ranch, I think it would be E. B. Scripps Elementary, Thurgood Marshall Middle, and Scripps High.

Is there anything I am overlooking? Facilities, anything you can think of that would sway us over one of these areas in particular?

We are trying to make a decision pretty soon. I appreciate any feedback.

[Oerdin]

Sabre Springs is nice but it is literally just a suburb with no shops or retail around it; you have to go to Poway if you want to shop. Scripps Ranch, especially the part from the 70's and 80's, has neighborhood schools with in walk distance, it has a nice community shopping center with in walking distance, it has several parks with in walking distance, and light industrial office space intigrated with the community. In my mind that's a much better development strategy compared to the only suburbs with no shopping or office space integrated with the community. Mixed development is totally the way to go.

[soymabelen]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

Sabre Springs is nice but it is literally just a suburb with no shops or retail around it; you have to go to Poway if you want to shop. Scripps Ranch, especially the part from the 70's and 80's, has neighborhood schools with in walk distance, it has a nice community shopping center with in walking distance, it has several parks with in walking distance, and light industrial office space intigrated with the community. In my mind that's a much better development strategy compared to the only suburbs with no shopping or office space integrated with the community. Mixed development is totally the way to go.

Thank you so much for your input. All the areas we are looking into are 90s developments. Location wise it seems to be just a matter of a little further north or south, but generally the same, except they are technically two different areas and school districts.

I am going to explore the location of schools and other facilities within each community some more. Price and style wise houses in both areas seem to be similar. The kinds of facilities we would like to see nearby are neighborhood playgrounds and parks, community pools, schools, libraries, etc.

Again, any input, whether it is about the schools (especially regarding the Middle and High schools), or anything else is really appreciated since we are new to San Diego.

[NYSD1995]

Schools and amenities will be similar. Scripps Ranch is the more desirable area overall. Sabre Springs is sort of an isolated tract while Scripps Ranch has a little more of a "neighborhood" appearance.

[revelated]

If I were you I would consider Scripps over Sabre, if it were down to one of those two areas. Sabre is an illusion: high prices, for nothing.

Although, have you checked prices in Carmel Valley/Del Mar Heights, directly off the 56? Don't know what prices are out there, but I would imagine (and could be wrong) that they're comparable to the other two areas. Definitely a physically appealing area.

[Oerdin]

The 90's and 00's parts of Scripps are very nice. You might just want to take a look at some of the homes around Aviary Ave to Scripps Lake Dr though. Yes, they are from the early 80's but the lots are much larger, the homes have mature trees, plus the location is extremely hard to beat. With in about a mile you have three schools (elementary, Middle, and High schools), two public parks, Miramar lake (where I used to go jogging in the mornings and where my uncle would take my sister and I fishing when we were younger), the Scripps Ranch farmer's market, the community shopping center, and most of the community cultural events (like Pops in the Park and the Scripps-Davis family's yearly community festival on their ranch) happen right in that area. It has a great community feel to it.

[soymabelen]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

The 90's and 00's parts of Scripps are very nice. You might just want to take a look at some of the homes around Aviary Ave to Scripps Lake Dr though. Yes, they are from the early 80's but the lots are much larger, the homes have mature trees, plus the location is extremely hard to beat. With in about a mile you have three schools (elementary, Middle, and High schools), two public parks, Miramar lake (where I used to go jogging in the mornings and where my uncle would take my sister and I fishing when we were younger), the Scripps Ranch farmer's market, the community shopping center, and most of the community cultural events (like Pops in the Park and the Scripps-Davis family's yearly community festival on their ranch) happen right in that area. It has a great community feel to it.

This area sounds great! I will certainly look into it and see if we can find anything that meets our requirements within our price range. Thank you.

[ubringliten]

Hi Soymabelen,

Trader Joes is coming to Scripps Ranch in the summer. This says it all. Oerdin hit the nail on head about the description of why SR over SS. Another thing I want to point out that, no one has, is that the SR public library is wonderful. It has a pond (great size) next to it with beautiful ducks and landscaping, and the feel of the library with a courtyard is charming.

[Oerdin]

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. The whole Scripps Ranch area used to be part of the ranch owned by the Scripps-Davis family (they still own a small horse rank near I15 and Pomorado road but it is very small now as they've sold off most of the land) and there are a couple of old cattle watering pounds around. There is the old pond by the Scripps Ranch Library and another one on south side of Aviary (with a bunch of apartments around it) called Hendrix Pond which is named after one of the old cowboys who worked on the Scripps-Davis ranch before it get developed. Both are tiny, again they were just designed as a water source for cattle, but they're kind of cool community features. Parents like to feed ducks and kids like to do a bit of fishing in them. As kids my friends and I used to go to Hendrix Pond to catch bullfrogs.

[Bella52]

Scripps doesn't have much shopping at all. Unless you consider the Vons shopping center shopping. You have to go to Mira Mesa, Poway or Carmel Mtn. Sabre Springs is only a few blocks from Carmel Mtn. and Poway.
I also prefer the Poway Unified School District.