What is the REAL Cost of Living in San Diego California in 2022

Here is everything you need to know about the cost of living here in beautiful San Diego California.

#1 Median Price

San Diego is named one of the least affordable if not the most in affordable cities in San Diego. And part of that is because of the median price of homes.

As of April 2022, we hit $1 million the median price of homes here in San Diego. That’s the entire county of San Diego, arrogated together. There’s a lot of packets within San Diego. Some are cheaper, some are more expensive so a median price, $1 million.

For condos, the median price hits $660,000. Depending on what your down payment is, your mortgage is going to be right around $5,700 a month if you’re putting 20% down on a $1 million property. And that’s the current interest rates right around 5.5%.

When I’m recording this video, interest rates have been rising quite regularly, although they’ve kind of plateaued a little bit, they might continue to rise. We shall see. And I anticipate that the median price will probably start to stabilize as we hit these higher numbers with these higher interest rates going up.

For condos, when you’re factoring in 20% down payments and the average HOA costs around here, which is right around $300 a month, your average mortgage payment is probably going to be right around $4,000 per month. As I mentioned, as far as the median prices around the county, it’s really going to vary depending on where you’re looking to live.

If you’re looking to live Coastal, San Diego, West of the 5 Freeway in a single family home, expect to pay north of $1 million dollars, for sure. Most likely more in the $2 million and up price range.

Now out in East County, San Diego, depending on the type of home that you’re looking for, you can find home single family homes for about $800,000. And then ranging up depending on the type of home, up into the $1.5 million range.

If you’re looking for a large acreage spread in east county or in north inland part of San Diego county, then you’re probably going to be spending a couple million dollars if you’re looking for a couple of acres. It just depends on what you’re looking for.

#2 Taxes

The next thing we’re going to dive into our taxes. There’s a lot of taxes here in California. California politicians love to levy taxes. That’s how they make their money, of course.

Let’s look at the different taxes that are here. We do have State Income Tax, it’s one of the highest in the nation. We have a Marginal Tax Bracket. If you’re making from about $62,000 a year to $312,000 a year, you’re going to fall into the marginal tax bracket of 9.3%.

You’re paying less money on that money. You’re making up to that $62,000 cause it’s marginal tax bracket. But if you fall in that range, you’re going to be right around the 9.3%. The maximum tax bracket here is if you’re earning $625,000 or more per year, and that’s going to top you out right around just over 12% per year as your marginal tax bracket.

Of course we have Federal Income Tax as well. And then we have Sales Tax. Within the county of San Diego, each city can kind of set their own sales tax as far as local bonds and measures that have been added to the sales tax to pay for different things in that specific city. But right now in the city of San Diego, it is 7.75%, and it can vary some cities around San Diego in the county might have 8%, 8.2-8.5%. But that’s about what you’re going to pay in sales tax here in the city of San Diego.

The other thing we’ve got is Property Taxes. We have a property tax rate of 1% in California that is limited by Prop 13 that passed a number of years ago that restricts it to 1% of the sales price of your home. That can go up at a rate of 2% per year.

So let’s just say you bought a $1 million home and a 1% tax rate, that’s $10,000 per year. It can go up at 2% of that $10,000. So essentially $200 per year that it can rise. That being said, cities are allowed to pass local bonds that add to that tax rate. That will increase it just a little bit.

In the city of San Diego, you have an effective property tax rate that starts at 1.2% and the different cities around the county, it’s going to vary a little bit. 1% is the starting point, but it might be slightly higher depending on where you are in the county. 1.1%-1.2% is what you should expect to pay starting out.

In certain communities, there is also Mello-Roos, an additional tax that’s levied onto different communities that are built around the county. Those are generally only in newer communities.

Mello-Roos does usually fall off after a number of years, quite a few years, usually something like 30 years, but that helps to pay for the infrastructure that the city of providing to feed that community so your sewer, your water, your roads, your parks, all those sorts of things, if that’s not already included in the HOA of that community.

Not all communities have HOA, but a lot of the newer communities, the new built communities will have HOA and we’ll have Mello-Roos, and these can add quite a bit to the cost. It might be a $100 a month for Mello-Roos. It could be $600 a month for Mello-Roos plus your HOA, which might be, say $300, or if it’s a nice new community, it could be five, $600 a month for HOA.

You could be paying anywhere from $300-$400 a month to a $1,000 a month between HOA and Mello-Roos depending on where you’re at. Something that’s really important to keep in mind about property taxes is the Supplemental Tax Bill. This is a bill you’re going to receive about 6 to 12 months after buying your home.

And it’s going to be the difference between what you paid for that house and what the prior owner paid or what it was assessed at. And you’re going to pay that difference in property tax prorated based on work falls in the fiscal year.

It’s kind of complicated too much to go into this video, but just be aware that you’re probably going to have to be paying a supplemental tax bill on your property taxes 6 to 12 months later. Be prepared for another few thousand dollars that you’re going to have to pay later that you’re not paying upfront in your property taxes.

#3 Utilities

Let’s take a look at utilities and what you should expect to be paying for utilities here in the county of San Diego. Here in San Diego, we only have one utility provider for gas and electricity, and that is San Diego Gas & Electric. SDG&E as we typically refer to it, is owned by Sempra energy.

Sempra energy’s most profitable division in its entire portfolio is SDG&E. Why is that? Because it’s the most expensive utility provider in the nation. We pay the most for our gas and electric here. Be prepared to shell out quite a bit of money per month, depending on where your house is, how hot it gets in that specific neighborhood.

If you’re coastal, probably not going to spend as much. If you’re east county and you’re running your air conditioning a lot, you’re going to be spending a lot more. Be prepared to spend anyone  in the neighborhood of a $100 to $150 a month on the low end for SDG&E bill, but probably up to $400 to $500 a month, if you’re running your air conditioning quite a bit, and it could even be more depending on how inefficient certain things are for the old air conditioner. If you don’t have dual pane windows, that kind of thing.

When you are buying a house, you really want to make sure that home has a lot of energy efficiency upgrades like dual pane windows, a new roof with good insulation in the attic, insulated walls because that’s really going to reduce your energy bill.

You want to keep as much money in your pocket as you can, and not send it to SDG&E. We kind of have a love-hate relationship with SDG&E because we love the power they provide, but it’s very, very expensive.

The other thing is water, depending on where you’re in the county, you might be getting it through the San Diego County Water Authority. You might be getting it through Padre Dam or Helix Water District. Those various water authorities throughout the county.

The rates are going to vary quite a bit, but depending on where you live and what district you’re in, expect to pay probably a $100 to $150 a month for water. But if you have a lot of landscaping that you need to irrigate a lot of grass or a pool, then you’re going to be paying a lot more, probably more in the $250 a month range.

Depending on the different factors between gas and electric and water, be prepared really to be spending about $200 a month on the low end, up to $600-$700 a month, depending on the different factors I just discussed.

The other thing is internet. The average internet cost in San Diego right now is about $60. Honestly though that for a pretty low end package. We have a few providers of internet here in San Diego. Right now we have Cox Communications, Spectrum and AT&T. I’ve used all of them.

I’ve lived in different areas of San Diego. And frankly, my favorite is AT&T. They provide fiber internet to a lot of areas here in San Diego and throughout the county, but not everywhere. You have to check the address and see if you can get fiber internet. Up until recently, they were only providing 1GBPS. Now you can actually get 2GBPS or even 5GBPS of internet up and down speed. It’s absolutely incredible. I had 1GBPS when I lived in the city of San Diego.

I don’t live in the actual city right now. I live outside of it and I don’t have access to the fiber internet. I am stuck with Cox communications broadband, which they consider 1GBPS download but only about 25MBPS, it’s super slow and it’s very inconsistent. The wifi is constantly fluctuating and I’m always having problems with it. Even though they claim it’s 1GBPS, you’re not going to get that.

When I was on AT&T fiber, it was absolutely incredible. It’s only about $80 a month. It’s pretty cheap compared to Cox communications, which is about $120 a month for their 1GBPS broadband.  If you can get AT&T fiber internet, absolutely go for it. It’s going to save you money. And it’s going to be super, super fast at 1GBPS. Don’t go for the 5GBPS unless you absolutely need it. I don’t know what you’d be doing if you’re running 5GBPS internet, but that’s going to run you about $180 a month. To save your money, hit the 1GBPS for $80 a month, definitely worth doing now.

#4 Groceries and Food Budget

What does it cost for groceries and eating out here in San Diego? Well, the average grocery bill supposedly is about $350 to $500. However, this is not reflective of inflation that’s occurred over the past year.

Really the average cost of groceries is right around $400 to $600 a month for an average family, depending on what kind of foods you’re getting though. Of course, if you’re buying a lot of organic foods that a lot of people here in San Diego, including myself love to eat, you’re going to be spending probably more in the order of $600 to $800 a month for your average grocery bill for a family of four.

If we’re eating out a lot, then that’s going to up your grocery bill or your overall food budget. The average cost of eating out at kind of a low end restaurant here in San Diego is right around $15 to $20 a person, depends on how much alcohol you buy. If you don’t buy alcohol, then it’s going to be more. If you’re at kind of a mid tier restaurant, you’re looking at $75 to a $100 per person. Again, assuming you’re buying some alcohol, of course.

And then of course you have a lot of really high end restaurants. It’s hard to project exactly what you’re going to spend, of course, but you’re probably looking at $200 to $300 a person at some of our higher end restaurants.

Something that we have a lot of here in San Diego are craft breweries. I actually used to own a craft brewery here in San Diego. Your average pint of IPA that we love to drink here is right around $7 to $8 per pint. If you’re getting a double IPA, you’re looking probably more like $10, and they’re only going to serve it in a smaller glass.

#5 Transportation

Now, let’s take a look at transportation costs here in San Diego. Our main mode of getting around is definitely by car. The average San Diego drives about 12,000 miles per year. Gas prices right now are also rapidly on the rise. They’ve stabilized recently around $6 per gallon here in San Diego, but with summer coming on, likely going to go up. But as far as checking what the average gas price is, right now at $6 per gallon.

If you have a car that averages 25 miles per gallon, then you’re going to end up with a gas bill, right around $3,000 per year for gas. The other options for getting around San Diego are the trolley, the San Diego trolley or the coaster.

The trolley generally runs east to west in San Diego. And it also is going up the coast now into La Jolla. It runs from Downtown all the way out to East County, into Santee, and then up the coast into La Jolla. It’s gradually being expanded. It’s a fairly slow service. If you’re going from Santee to Downtown, San Diego, it’s going to take you close to 1 hour to get there versus say, 20 minutes in the car.

If there’s traffic going to east county, then you’re not going to save time, but it might be a similar, it might be 40 minutes by car, an hour by trolley, that kind of thing. And you can get a monthly pass for about $70 to a $100, depending on what you’re doing. The coaster, which runs north to south is going to run you about $140 to $180 a month.

Honestly, though, our public transportation is just not that great here in San Diego. Most people are getting around by car. You might be able to get close to your destination with the trolley, but you’re not going to be able to get to your final destination. You got to take a bus. That’s going to be an extra costs, can take even longer. Most people get around by car. It’s just how we are laid out. We have a lot of freeways designed for travel by car. There is certainly traffic, but that’s probably the best way.

If you’re driving an electric vehicle, of course, it’s going to save you all that gas money, but then you got your higher electric bill. You’re probably want to get solar on your home if you have an electric car, so you can charge it via solar and save your money that way.

#6 Healthcare System

Our healthcare systems here in San Diego are absolutely incredible. We’ve got some great systems here. We’ve got Scripps Hospital, Sharp Hospital, UCSD, and we have a Rady’s Children’s Hospital, which is one of the best children’s hospitals in the entire country.

Depending on what you’re needing, those are some great hospital systems to be a part of. And then there’s a lot of individual practitioners as well for different specialties that you might be looking for. Rate area for health care, absolutely world-class doctors that live and work here in San Diego. If you’re looking for good healthcare, San Diego is your place to be.

And real quick: let’s compare San Diego to some other big cities here in California. The cost index for San Diego says taking all the different costs and aggregating it into one member. The average for the country, it’d be 1. We are at 1.6 so that means that San Diego is 60% higher cost of living than the average in the entire United, of course, that’s comparing us to super low cost areas and say the Midwest so we’re at 1.6.

However, compared to places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, we’re actually much cheaper. Los Angeles is a cost index of about 1.76, which is a 9% more expensive place to live than San Diego. And San Francisco is super, super expensive at 2.69, about 68% higher cost index to live in San Francisco.

That is actually why we see a lot of people relocating to San Diego from those higher cost areas, especially the bay area. There’s a lot of tech jobs that are coming down here to San Diego because there’s tech companies opening new offices down here, and there’s the whole work remote that’s happened since COVID so a lot of people are taking those high paying bay area jobs around San Francisco and moving to San Diego and working remote. And the cost of living is actually significantly cheaper for them than the bay area.

Compared to everywhere else, San Diego is way cheaper live in California. It’s kind of a hidden gem as far as cost of living. Even though people claim it’s the most expensive city to live in San Diego. It’s just not really true when you actually look at the numbers.

That was a complete overview of the cost of living here in San Diego.