Moving back to San Diego! (Irvine, Escondido: sales, real estate, crime)

[ellaphant]

My husband and I are moving back to San Diego after a few years in Denver. We can't wait to get back there!

We lived all over the county as single people, but now, we're moving back married and starting our family. Good school districts are important to us!

Would anyone mind giving me the low down on the school districts? I know there's San Diego Unified, but I've also hears (and this was years ago) that San Marcos had good schools. What about Carlsbad?

Also, since we're moving back as a family (it didn't matter to us where we lived when we were single!) can anyone recommend a good area for families but not too suburban? I'm thinking Stepford Wives suburban!

Thanks a bunch and go Padres!

[dreamsofhome]

Hi ellaphant,

I am very curious to the advice and input you will get here. I also currently live in the Denver area and am looking to move my family to SoCal. I'm looking at the areas Irvine, Carlsbad, and POway so far. We are planning a trip out there to look around.
I have two kids, one just started college and the other is entering high school in the fall.

We have only been here in Colorado for 2 and a half years but none of us have truly been happy. We also have lived all over the country and are searching for a place to call home.

What brought you out to Colorado from San Diego in the first place. My thoughts are if I had lived there I would have never left. I can't wait to vacation there and see for myself if it truly is a place to call home as I have been told by many.

Good luck with your search!

[NYSD1995]

Interesting... I am thinking of doing the opposite (SD to CO)... I would love to hear your reasons for moving back (aside from just weather, of course)

Anyway, it all depends on what you can afford. There are good schools in Carlsbad and San Marcos and there are not-so-good schools. It all comes down to what you can afford. And generally speaking there is a high correlation between "stepford suburbia" as you put it and good schools, at least at the price points most mere mortals can afford. Unfortunately, much of inland north county SD could be described as 'charmless'.

General recs are RP, Poway, Carlsbad, 56 corridor, coastal north county. Second-tier with spottier neighborhoods and schools are San Marcos, Escondido, Vista, etc. which still do have good schools in the good areas. Money is the great divider of course.

And if you truly value "great" schools, i.e. it's not enough that the school is "demographically good", then you will have a much more complicated decision to make. High schools, in general, offer you a quite limited selection at the "great" level.

[ellaphant]

Thanks Sass for the info. That's definitely helpful. And, since both of you asked why we are leaving and moving back to San Diego.

We've been out here almost 4 years and haven't really been happy here. We left San Diego because of the rising real estate prices and we regret it. We're both from the east coast. I moved to SD from NYC to get out of the snow. But, now that I was older I figured I would try it again. I hate the winters, snow, I'm a sissy driver in it. I'm not a skier/snowboarder.
Socially, we've had a really hard time meeting people. We've tried all types of social organizations, clubs, groups, etc, and just haven't had much success.
We live in a South West suburb, where the population is very conservative. As an interracial couple, (I'm white/Jewish and my husband is Chinese), I've heard interesting comments from people. Granted, you'll find people like that all over, but we're used to a more diverse environment. It might be different in a different part of Denver, but who knows.

We truly miss the beach and the lifestyle that comes along with it. I think being landlocked has taken a toll on us!


We're heading back to SD for the July 4th holiday and it's going to be hard to come back here!

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by ellaphant

I hate the winters, snow, I'm a sissy driver in it. I'm not a skier/snowboarder.

We truly miss the beach and the lifestyle that comes along with it. I think being landlocked has taken a toll on us!

Not to hijack your thread... but would you say it's primarily the weather / beach issue? Because personally... the weather stuff doesn't worry me at all, I don't care about the beach and almost never go there... but what you mentioned about lack of diversity (I am in an interracial couple too) is definitely a concern for us. I know Denver's suburbs are pretty white / christian / conservative, but I'm not entirely sure somewhere like RB or inland Carlsbad is really all that much different.

What you mention about having trouble meeting friends also is a common complaint on this board. We have had the same experience in San Diego, but do have some family here so it's not too big of a deal.

[ellaphant]

I think it's a combination of things. The weather is huge for me, but also the lack of a good social network. We have no family out here and our friends are in San Diego.

Both of us agree that SD is much more diverse, even in some of the suburbs, than where we live currently.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by ellaphant

Both of us agree that SD is much more diverse, even in some of the suburbs, than where we live currently.

I think it's tough to beat CA in general for diversity... CO is a pretty "white" state overall.

Whereabouts in southwest denver are you living? We are looking at some of the older communities in Lakewood and Littleton. My wife is Hispanic so we are hoping it should not be as tough since CO does have a fairly large Mexican-American population.

[jksouthbay88]

Go Padres?GO ANGELS!!!

[sdlife619]

Go Chargers when football season hits!

Hey Sass, I've been to Denver a few times, and personally San Diego is more of relief than it is in Denver. Denver is good place, but to live for a long time, I'm not so sure, my brother used to live there off Colfax Ave to be exact, because he just couldn't stand California any longer, but after 5 years of being in Colorado, he couldn't take it anymore, and wanted to come back to Cali with the quickness. It was partly because of the weather and the people, he couldn't meet people like him, well his personal style and interest, Denver seemed more conservative compared to California and even San Diego, although Denver is supposedly a Liberal city, it didn't feel that way to me.

I also think the city of SD is slightly more urban than Denver, because while visiting, I always felt like I was in a big suburb the whole time. The only good mall for shopping was the one in downtown Denver, I forgot the name of it, (16 st mall?) but it's huge and is out doors.

[lobster5757]

IMPORTANT!! CAUTION Rethink Your Move To San Diego! READ THIS PLEASE!
OH my goodness, do NOT move to San Diego. I lived there for 10 years. I am a California native.
I moved out of San Diego and California 6 weeks ago. San Diego is dirty, over priced, there is a lack of jobs and as you know California has huge budge cuts and has cut the funding for many things, including mental health care and it is evident in San Diego. You don't see many of the crime reports on TV, but the drug cartel in Tijuana Mexico is out of control and all of that chaos is very close, too close in San Deigo. Look it up on online. Have you seen the cost to register your car in CA, It has doubled this year! The cost of living in S.D. is not what it was 10 years ago, it is very expensive to live there. The sales tax is almost 12% in a few areas of San Diego too. The state will be broke I mean totally broke in 4 weeks. That means cutting fire departments, cops (they already do not have enough police, they can't keep them in S.D.). Southern CA is planning to close libraries and parks and that is just the tip of the iceberg....

The beach is beautiful, but honestly that is all. The Forrest mostly burned down around Julian so other than the beach, there is not much else. OH! The tap water made us sick the last 6 months we lived there. Even if we cooked with the tap water, we got diarrhea. Everyone we know did not drink the tap water in North Park, Normal Heights, Kensington and Hillcrest areas because they got sick. Also, unless you can afford to live in wealthy areas like La Jolla, or Encinitas, with few exceptions, restaurants are honestly awful. San Diego is for the very wealthy.

It was a weird city but cheap to live when I moved there and the traffic was no where near as bad as it is now, and the cost to living is honestly outragious. Just FYI, we were paying $900 for a 450sq foot cottage in an area (Normal Heights) that was not very nice. Look on craig's list at the prices. I know this sounds like a joke or I am making this up, but as I mentioned, I lived in the heart of San Diego for 10 years and just want to warn nice people not to spend their hard earned money to move to a city that they will hate in about 2 months. Heck, read my other postings and most of the responses to my post.. support everything I am saying.

I moved out of state and can't tell you how much I love the trees, open spaces and quieter life. I hear the Carolinas are a good place or Austin Texas? I wish you luck.