San Diego Suburbs – Everything You Need to Know

You’re moving to San Diego, but you’re not sure you want to move right into the city of San Diego? And you’re wondering about all the great suburbs in San Diego. Well, this video is all about the suburbs of San Diego, all the neighborhoods in the suburbs, things to do, places to go. Watch this video or read more and we’re getting after it right now.

We’re going to go over all the local suburbs around the City of San Diego, the places that are not in the city, but surrounding the city so you can get the lay of the land. I’m going to pull up a map, go through all the places, all the things to do and all the roads.

Let’s dive into the City of San Diego and the surrounding suburbs. I’m not going to spend very much time on the city of San Diego since I have a whole another video going through the specific neighborhoods of San Diego in a map format like this. It’s really going to focus more on the areas around San Diego, but just real quick so you can see where the City of San Diego is and in relation to the areas we’re going tobe talking about. 

This outline here is the City of San Diego stretching from the coast here. You got Point Loma, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, and basically hitting Del Mar but starting to cut Inland from Del Mar and an area called Carmel Valley. And then it heads East and it covers this whole area in here, which is Miramar, Scripps Ranch heading up into Rancho Bernardo, and then more south here covering central San Diego out to La Mesa. 

La Mesa is its own city and then South to National City. This is the City of San Diego, the main arteries through it are the 8 freeway and the 52 freeway. Those are going to go East to West. You’ve also got the 54 freeway down here, a little bit more south that then turns into the 125. It’s a good quarter on East County heading North. And then North to South, you’ve got the 5 freeway which runs from Mexico all the way up to Canada.

That’s our coastal freeway. A lot of people, they want to live West of the 5, going to be more your beach communities. Going to be a bit more expensive versus East of the 5. And you’ve got the 805, which is kind of a connector freeway, right through the heart of San Diego, connecting the 5 here and then connects with the 15 and then back down and connecting to the 5 of the border.

And then the 15 freeway is more of our Inland freeway connecting from the 5 freeway at the Coast, and then heading on up into the Inland areas of the County and North of there. This is the City of San Diego. Now this is the actual County of San Diego, the city of San Diego is basically in this area here. This is the entire county. It is absolutely massive. 4,261 square miles, and has a total population of about 3.3 million people.

The City of San Diego has a population right around 1.3 million versus 3.3 million in the entire County. And it is incredibly diverse geographically. You have the beach, Coastal Beach. There’s a lot of variation, the beach as well, as far as just nice sandy beaches. Cliffs as well. And then Inland, you have a lot of mesas and canyons, and then you have mountains and then we’ve got the desert as well. 

Here is your canyons and valleys. That kind of thing, your mountains are out here is going to be a much more rural. And then you get into the desert areas in which not a lot of people live out in the desert. Some people do, but kind of more sorta getaway homes. You might want to call them where people kind of bug out for the weekend.

A lot of off-roading occurs out here like Glamis. Glamis is out in this area past Ocotillo. We got Borrego Springs, which is a kind of a vacation area. A lot of art shows that are there just really nice chill area. And then you’ve got Ocotillo Wells over in this area, which also has a lot of off-roading opportunities as well. Glamis is big for the sand dunes though. 

If you’re looking for major sand dunes, you know, you can taking your Polaris or side-by-side out faster, you’re probably going to be going. Also a lot of opportunity to camp out in the desert and some opportunities to do shooting as well if you like to shoot. There’s Bureau of Land Management Land or BLM land, and you can shoot on some of that property. That’s the overall county.

We’re going to kind of dive into the different neighborhoods around San Diego. We’ll start with East County San Diego. A lot of people certainly live in East County, San Diego. It’s generally a little bit more affordable than the actual City of San Diego. 

La Mesa, California

Now everything’s coming up in price, of course, but the first one is La Mesa. So a lot of people really like to live in La Mesa cause it’s very, very close to the City of San Diego, it boarders it so you can be there in minutes, but to Downtown it’s about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on where you are in the La Mesa. Check out this video deep dive into La Mesa California. 

Really a great family oriented community. There’s a lot of single family homes. There’s a lot of condos as well, all kinds of shopping centers, theaters. You’ve got Grossmont Center. There’s a trolley center there as well, Rosemont Trolley Center.

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And you’ve got this great lake over here at Lake Murray, which is, has a fantastic walking trail you can walk, almost around the lake you can actually go clicking around it. You have to walk back. That’s a great like five mile hike. Very central area, again, somewhat affordable compared to San Diego. A lot of mid-century homes. 

You’re going to find here, some new construction condos, but mainly a lot of mid-century single-family homes. A lot of the condos in generally going to be built more in like the 70s, the 1970s. It’s right next to Cowles Mountain and Mission Trails Park.

Cowles Mountain is a fantastic hiking trail. It’s about 3 miles round trip to the top and is a really fantastic view that you get from Cowles Mountain, you have 360 view. It’s a quick hike. And a lot of people really love to do it to get exercise and you’ll find people walking it, hiking it, and people running it as fast as they can to train for whatever it is they’re training for.

This is La Mesa. you’re 8 freeway cuts right through it. And then order by the 125 freeway, you’ve got a good community college out here at Grossmont Community College. Everything you need is certainly right here in La Mesa. So a really fantastic neighborhood to check out. And again, I have videos on all these different communities that we’re talking about.

If I don’t have it now, I’ll have it soon coming out new videos every week. So I’m going to deep dive into those. This is more just gave you kind of lay the land and what to expect.

El Cajon, California

East from there, you head into the City of El Cajon. Again, this is a separate City from San Diego. They have their own mayor and El Cajon is a bit diverse as well. It gets very rural, but it’s still technically El Cajon and you can get into the mountains, really incredible homes out in the East part of El Cajon. 

And there’s a really good church out here, Shadow Mountain Community Church. And there was a college here, but it actually moved to San Diego Christian College. Depending on kind of what you’re looking for, the City of El Cajon itself, literally means the box and it kind of is a box. It’s kind of a big valley, but kind of a box valley as well. So it’s kind of a mix of homes down here. Certainly a lot more affordable. 

Some of the areas are going to be, maybe a little bit rougher, but as you get more east than you’re certainly going to have some larger homes as well. And definitely some really nice homes. There’s also some really nice condos down here in El Cajon.

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Fletcher Hills

And then there’s also an area called Fletcher Hills. Fletcher Hills is basically right in this area here. And so Fletcher Hills, you can actually have homes up here up on the bluff that overlook El Cajon and you have really incredible views to the east. 

You have El Capitan mountain way out here, really great views, El Capitan. If you’re looking for views, you kind of want to be up on the hill here. And it is considered El Cajon. I had family members that have lived out here in the past. 

And then as you go down the hill, you get into some also really nice homes before you get down into like kind of the valley of El Cajon, but they’re not going to have as much views, but they’re going to be maybe a little bit more affordable.

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There’s some really great condos right here along Cuyamaca Road as well. I’ve sold homes in this neighborhood as well. So El Cajon is certainly an option. You’re going to have a wide mix of affordability and the 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, 4 bedroom homes. 

So it might be a little bit more affordable for you. And then you’ll have some larger homes, especially as you get more into the East County or on this bluff here of Fletcher Hills. And they’re going to be a bit on the more expensive side for you as well. It does get rather warm in El Cajon if you’re not on one of these hills, you’re not really getting the breeze.

It does get pretty hot down in the valley. You definitely want to make sure you got some good air conditioning going on there.

Santee, California

As we move North, we covered La Mesa and El Cajon, and I’m going to go a little bit North into Santee and then Lakeside here. Santee is a really fantastic bedroom community, somewhat affordable compared to the City of San Diego. It’s certainly been kind of discovered over the years for a long time. It was kind of overlooked where there’s a lot of new construction that is going into Santee. 

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So if you are looking for new construction, this might be the place for it. And they may not be ran brand new construction by the time that you’re buying it because a lot of the developments are kind of wrapping up now, but there is talk about a large development going on out here, this part of Santee. 

There’s a lot of public pushback against it because it’s going to take over a lot of land and people are kind of disappointed of course about that. And it’s going to cause more traffic, but so that could be a new development coming down the road. There is a lot of new development over here in the Weston community that’s just wrapping up. 

You’re going to have an opportunity for some resell, new construction homes. It might be just a few years old. And then there’s also Sky Ranch, which is over actually in this area here, right here in Sky Ranch. And in my Santee video, I dive into all these neighborhoods and talk a lot more about Sky Ranch, the Weston community and Prospect Field, which is also a small new construction community, but lots of deal here in Santee. 

There’s Mission Trails, a lot of people will access Mission Trails right here, and there’s a lot of hiking and bike riding that you can do. Mountain biking, you can do in Mission Trails on the Santee Lakes. There’s a lot to do here in Santee Lakes, as far as walking, fishing, not paddle boarding, but paddle bike boats, they’re pretty fun tool around on. RV camping, cabins, so I’d feel birthday parties here as well. 

A lot of the homes do overlook the Santee Lakes as well. It’s a pretty big draw here and you’ve got all the major shopping here. You’ve got Costco, you’ve got Target, Walmart, all the major grocery stores, all the major chain restaurants in here. You’re going to certainly find all you need to hear to live and work and play here. But a lot of people do live here and then they’ll commute into the City of San Diego as well. 

They have Sportsplex USA, which is really cool. They’ve got a soccer field, baseball field. So a lot of activities go on there right next to it because a YMCA with a large pool and kind of a small waterpark there as well, you can do swim lessons there and gym membership. So that’s the City of Santee.

Lakeside, California

As we move east into Lakeside, this is certainly going to be getting a lot more rural and there’s a pretty big mix in Lakeside. You’ve got some fairly new homes that have gone in the last 20-25 years. That’s fairly new for San Diego. San Diego is a lot of mid-century homes. 

There are some communities here in Lakeside that are pretty new, Eucalyptus Hills. You get into some actually really nice homes with pretty good sized lot.  You’ll find a lot of homes here, certainly with a half acre, but oftentimes more like an acre to 2 acres. Now, out here, you are going to start getting into having septic and potentially Wells. 

A lot of times they are on public water, but a lot of times they’re on septic as well. That’s just something to keep in mind, something that has to be maintained by you, but really in a great area, Eucalyptus Hills and Lakeside. And then you get into more kind of horse properties, things like that out here in Lakeside as well.

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Blossom Valley is an absolutely incredible area of Lakeside and the County of San Diego.

Really, really large, beautiful homes that have been built out here. If you’re looking for something that I’d probably be looking for a 3,000 plus sq ft home with some property, Blossom Valley is certainly a neighborhood to check out in Lakeside. 

Alpine, California

And then heading over a little bit further east into Alpine. So Alpine is located about 25-30 minutes from San Diego, definitely very rural at the satellite map. And you can really see just how rural it gets out here versus the city, but you can get some really big properties out here. And there’s some really great communities in Alpine. 

You’ve got the Palace Verde as a state’s out in here in Alpine, gated community. It’s really beautiful homes out here. I mean, you can definitely get lots that are one acre all the way up to much larger, but commonly 5 to 10 acres as well. And some of them have absolutely incredible views. 

When you get on these mountain ranges and peaks out here as well.

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From Alpine, you can head further east and allows you easy access to get up into the mountains or into the desert. But you’re still not too far from the actual City of San Diego. Again, you can see how rural it is out here compared to the City of San Diego. 

A lot of people do work out here, obviously work from home, but there’s a lot of folks in the construction communities that work and live in Alpine, Harbison Canyon area, and then the east county areas of Santee, Lakeside, and El Cajonand then commute into the cityas well. Really great properties out here. If you’re looking for potentially a larger home and definitely some land to spread out.

Jamul, California

As we head south a little bit, you have the community of Jamul, very sleepy community oin Jamul. Again, you’re going to have a lot of larger properties. All these places for the most part, depending on where you are, unless there’s an HOA, you’re going to be able to have animals. 

Goats and chickens, that kind of thing, horses potentially in some of these areas. If you’re looking for something more rural country living Jamul, Alpine, Harbison Canyon, those are definitely going to be some really good options for you.

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Ramona, California

We’re going to stick a little bit with the rural area before we head into the Inland areas. As you head north, you get into the communities of Ramona. The folks that are in Ramona, when they say they’re going to San Diego, they say, they’re going down the hill to San Diego.  

They’re going to shop down the hill or whatever it is. It’s a really tight knit community in all these kind of rural areas, Ramona and Alpine. Again, you’re going to find a lot of horse properties up here in Ramona, a lot of homes that you’re going to be able to get a lot more acreage. 2 to 4 acres pretty routinely. If you’re looking for a lot of property, these are the places to go. 

It’s about 45 minutes, really to get into the City of San Diego from here; from Ramona down into Santee, you’re looking at about 25 minutes.

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North County San Diego

And then if you continue a little bit more north as well, then you’ve got the communities of Valley Center, Fallbrook and then of course Escondido, also a lot of rural communities that you’re going to find up in these areas. I’ll turn on the satellite map and you can just see how rural it is. 

If you’re looking for something that gives you more property, these are the places to look. Now, when you get into the actual cities of these areas, then that’s where you get into more of your traditional homes, single family homes, condos, you’re shopping, all kinds of things. Let’s start diving in. Kind of back more into the suburbs in the cities of San Diego, where there’s not rural neighborhoods.

Poway, California

First we’ve got Poway right over here. That’s heading up the 15 freeway. The interesting thing about Poway is basically it’s pretty far off the freeway. When you live back here, you can be 15 minutes off the freeway or more so it can take a while to get to the freeway. 

But a lot of people there, they get into Poway and they don’t really need to leave. Cause everything’s there for you, all the amenities, all the shopping, that kind of thing. And there’s a big mix of single family homes here. Some really large homes, big spreads, and then there’s some smaller or traditional mid-century homes that are going to be more your 3 bedroom, 4 bedroom type homes as well.

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Rancho Bernardo, California

Then we head up into Rancho Bernardo. This is technically a part of the City of San Diego, big mix of homes. A lot of newer homes. There are homes were built in the 1960s and 1970s here, but a lot of the homes were built in the 1980s and more, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

There’s a great neighborhood called Forest Ranch. That’s very modern, really great. Town center here for us Ranch. So this is definitely a bit higher end community. Anything right off the 56 is definitely going to start to get into the higher end communities in San Diego. 

Larger homes into the 2,500 to 3,500 sq ft homes, 4 or 5, 6 bedroom homes, schools, that kind of thing. And so definitely more of your higher end areas. A lot of people will live here and then they’re working in Biotech or their engineers working Downtown. 

But a lot of people are living in Black Mountain Ranch, Torrey Highlands, Del Sur, Rancho Peñasquitos. And they’re commuting over to the coast to work in University City, Sorrento Valley, those kinds of areas.

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Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, Oceanside

As we head a bit North, in these cities of Escondido, San Marcos Vista and even Oceanside, you’re going to have a bit more affordability on all these neighborhoods. There’s a mix between the neighborhoods are certainly going to find gated communities with very large homes that are going to be again in your 4 or 5 bedroom range. 

But you’re also going to find a lot of older mid-century homes in these communities as well. And you’re going to find more filterability in these neighborhoods. Now, as you head to the coast, things are going to start getting more expensive. Oceanside is probably one of the most affordable coastal areas. It’s a great neighborhood. 

There has been, you know, some crime over the years, but for the most part, it’s definitely improving. And it’s becoming a really great neighborhood, especially as you get to the Coast. Now, as you head down the coast into Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana beach, this is where you really got into your coastal homes, that much larger homes. 

Carlsbad is going to have a huge mix of single family homes and condos and townhomes. It’s not super affordable compared to the City of San Diego. It was just going to be a lot like San Diego. So a little bit more expensive, but some really beautiful, great homes. All your amenities are going to be here of course.

North Coastal San Diego, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Cardiff, Solana Beach, Del Mar

And then as you head down, you’ve got Legoland California right here, which is super cool. And the beaches here in Carlsbad are awesome. And as you head into Encinitas, Cardiff, Solana Beach, these are like your quintessential beach towns in San Diego. 

They’re really, really fun to go and tour and really great restaurants and shops down through Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar. And these are going to be certainly your much more expensive homes. You’re going to be certainly in the $3M to $10M price range as you’re into these neighborhoods.

Rancho Santa Fe, California

And then you got Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch. These are also going to be your most expensive homes in the County of San Diego, competing with La Jolla and Coronado. Those are going to be your most expensive neighborhoods. Rancho Santa Fe, if you’re looking for a very, very large homes and large properties, this is probably where you want to be. 

There’s gated communities in here. A lot of the homes themselves are gated individually, and you’re going to find properties that are anywhere from 2 to 4 acres, pretty routinely.  You can have horses there. It depends on the specific property, the HOA, but these are your much larger homes or 6 bedrooms, 7 bedrooms, very ornate, basically mansion type homes, but people that live here absolutely love it. 

If you’re looking for a bit more rural lifestyle, your own ranch type thing, and this is definitely where you want to be is Rancho Santa Fe. But you’re certainly going to be into that much higher price range. $4M is pretty much the low end in Santa Fe. Really most homes are going to be selling in the $8M to $12M range in Rancho Santa Fe.

Del Mar and Carmel Valley

As we head down in the south, we’ve got Del Mar and Carmel Valley. And again, these are going to have wide mix of homes here, but a lot of single family homes, mostly single family homes. Del Mar is an older community in San Diego, as far as the homes that are built here, but there are a lot of custom built homes that you can find in Del Mar. 

Now Carmel Valley is going to be a lot more attract style homes, but these are also going to be very beautiful, lovely homes that’s probably absolutely love. I like to compare Carmel Valley a lot to Scripps Ranch, also Del Sur. So depending on what you’re looking for, you know, with Carmel Valley being so Coastal, you’re certainly going to be spending more money.

A lot of these homes are going to be more in the $2 million range versus Scripps Ranch might be more around $1.5M range. It’s kind of about a $500 to $700,000 premium for homes here in Carmel Valley. But there are a lot of newer homes here and you’re very close to the beach to the right to Del Mar and to La Jolla. 

La Jolla, California

La Jolla is technically part of the City of San Diego, but these are definitely going to be for the most part, much larger homes as well. You can find some older homes and will find more condos in La Jolla, kind of along the shore as well. But as you get sort of a more Inland, La Jolla. 

And you’re going to have a lot more single family homes. Also larger homes and larger properties as well, usually a half acre to an acre, but some of the properties are smaller and it’s all built around this hill, Mount Soledad. So you can see here at Mount Soledad. So as you rise up the hill, you’re going to have some really incredible views either of the Pacific Ocean or of the City of San Diego.

Coronado, California

And then we go down into Coronado. I have a whole deep dive video on Coronado here. A lot of people think Coronado is part of San Diego. Coronado Island it’s not part of San Diego, it’s its own city. It has its own Mayor. It’s heavily dominated by North Island Naval Air Station. 

It takes up about 2/3 of the island, as you can see here, and it’s connected to the mainland by the Silver Strand. The main access to it though is the San Diego Coronado Bay Bridge, which is this long sweeping, beautiful blue bridge. And there is so much to do on Coronado Island, but the homes here are certainly going to be a little more on the inexpensive side. 

You can find single family homes for around $2 million. That’s going to be on the low end though, for the most part, you’re looking at definitely more in the $4-$8M range, but this is where some incredible mansions are. There’s actually a mansion for sale right now for $36M on the island.

In Coronado, you’ve got Coronado Cays down here, and this is a really cool area. You’ve got all these boats slips in here for your private yacht. It’s really, really cool. If you’re in a boating and you have a boat, I’d recommend buying a home here. There’s mostly single family homes here, but there are also some condos and town homes here as well. 

This is just a really great area if you love the ocean, love the water. You’ve got the ocean right here and you’ve got easy access to the city and can get into the main parts of the City of San Diego.

Chula Vista and National City

Now, as we head a little bit further South, and we get into Chula Vista and National City and Imperial Beach. Depending on where you’re going to be, there’s certainly going to be some more affordability in these neighborhoods. It just depends on what you’re looking for exactly. 

As you get an Imperial Beach, this is probably one of the most affordable coastal besides Oceanside. So kind of opposite ends of the county. You’ve got the ocean side of that Imperial Beach for more affordability, certainly going to be a lot of single family homes are going to be around $1-$2M for sure. 

If there are some townhomes as well down here, it’s certainly developed for the last underdeveloped coastline in San Diego. A lot of people are moving here. Navy SEALs moved here recently or moving here. And so there’s a lot of them coming development as well, kind of related to that.

Chula Vista has a lot of new construction in the east part of Chula Vista. So late 1980s, early 1990s, there’s a lot of building that happened over here in Eastlake area. And then a lot of newer construction is really happening down here in the Otay Ranch area as well. 

If you’re looking for some brand new construction or some recently completed construction last few years, we’re definitely going to want to take a look at the Otay Ranch and the Eastlake areas as well. And you’re going to find some really beautiful homes in these neighborhoods. There are going to be HOA associated with these homes as well.

That’s a complete overview of all the different suburbs of the City of San Diego and all the outlying areas to help you get a lay of the land.

Curtis Chism, Realtor
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