VLOG – What’s it like to live in North Park San Diego, California
Are you wondering what it’s like to live in North Park this is everything you need to know about the North Park neighborhood in San Diego? Watch this video or read the blog post find out everything you need to know about Living in North Park.
Location of North Park and How to Get Around
University Heights, Hillcrest, and Kensington it’s super centrally located just outside of downtown San Diego just south of Mission Valley. It’s bordered by the 805 and the 163 and then the 8 freeway to the north and then the main streets running through it are El Cajon Boulevard and University as well as 30th street. El Cajon Boulevard and University run east to west. 30th street runs north to south North Park actually was named the third most hipster neighborhood in America just a few years ago. So that either may turn you off or you may love that.
Either way, it’s a fantastic place to live whether you’re a single young couple or if you have kids as well. So it’s a great place for families. It’s super walkable and one reason for it being so walkable is because of how flat North Park is. Now there are a couple of hills in North Park but for the most part, it’s really flat. It’s located on top of a mesa or a table and that’s why it’s so flat and so walkable and also why you can bike around so much.
You can also take birds but it’s super walkable very friendly to cyclists in fact the city is installing additional bike lanes actually it’s turning 30th street into kind of a thoroughfare for cycling. That’s been a love it or hate it type thing it certainly has impacted probably the local businesses because of parking issues a bit. But it’s created a bike lane for people to cycle right through North Park there’s also they’re adding bike lanes running east to west as well to make it a little bit safer for people to bike in North Park.
Search all homes available for sale in North Park here!
Restaurants, Bars, Breweries
There are all kinds of local neighborhood restaurants and bars everything you can imagine very few chain restaurants there is a target in North Park but for the most part it’s going to be all locally-owned restaurants and bars. There are lots of breweries, wineries, cideries, and hard kombucha. Some of the great breweries here are like North Park Beer Company and Mike Hess Brewing. Modern Times has a tasting room here as well so lots of options. Negociant winery and Bivouac Cidery are located here and hard kombucha you have Juneshine as well.
North Park has all kinds of amazing restaurants as well some of my favorites are Lefty’s Pizza for great Chicago style pizza or Luigi’s Pizza which has amazing New York style. I would definitely check out the Crime Scene pizza there. Underbelly has incredible ramen and Olympic Cafe has fantastic Greek food. Also, a really awesome place is Working Class which is a very affordable restaurant and bar that you can go to with your family and enjoy some fantastic fish and chips or a hamburger.
Things to do in North Park
As I mentioned it’s super centrally located. you can get anywhere within the city within 15 to 20 minutes. A little bit further of course out in the county maybe 30 minutes to the northern and eastern reaches of the county, but right here you’re right next to Balboa Park, a wonderful, huge huge park in San Diego with all kinds of museums and trails to walk around. There’s also Morley Field which is in North Park which is a really awesome gigantic park that’s part of Balboa Park. It has a tennis club, public pool, frisbee golf, course and it has a public golf course as well.
30th street was actually named one of the best beer neighborhoods in San Diego and there’s all kinds of bars and restaurants and breweries located on 30th street and surrounding there as well. In fact, there’s a local brewery called Green Flash, that actually named one of their beers 30th Street Pale Ale after that iconic 30th street.
On Ray Street there is an Art Walk that occurs once a month as well so that’s a really great event and then you to check out once a month if you’re interested in art. Just off 30th street at North Parkway is the North Park Farmers Market. That’s every single week on Thursday so you can go and get your fresh produce and support local farmers.
There are lots of parks here in North Park including dog parks to take your furry friends to play with. There’s Bird Park that has amazing music nights once a month it’s a fantastic place to check out it’s free you just bring in your picnic blanket or sit in your chair or lay-out and listen to the music. There are lots of playgrounds around here as well fantastic for either having children to go and play outside or if you’ve got dogs to take them to run around and play as well.
Types of Homes in North Park
Let’s talk about the types of homes that are here in North Park. There are a few types of homes primarily there are craftsman-style homes and there are Spanish style homes. These are bungalow-style homes so oftentimes they can be on the smaller side, about one thousand square feet, sometimes smaller – even 800 square feet, two-bedroom, one bath, and then they range up from there. You can get into much larger homes as well those are certainly going to be on the pricier side when you get into the higher square footage.
These will be closer to 2,000 square feet and the higher number of bedrooms: 4 bedroom, 5 bedrooms but there’s a lot of 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and 3 bedroom 2 baths that can be had here in North Park.
There are neighborhoods here in North Park that are not the craftsman or Spanish style homes where they’re kind of more of a mid-century type home to it but that’s not the norm in North Park. But there are some of those homes available as well now keep in mind that a lot of these lots are going to be on the smaller side so you’re probably not going to get much of a backyard the home is going to take up most of the property.
However, sometimes you can find a home that has a little bit larger lot that also has a backyard so that might be in the 6,000 square foot property size but generally speaking, there’s going to be a lot of lots that are closer to 4,000 square feet. They’re not going to have too much of a backyard something that you really want to make sure you get when you buy a house here is to make sure that you get off-street parking. Off-street parking is certainly a premium here in North Park to have.
There’s just not a lot of parking available because there are a high number of condos, townhomes, and apartments here in North Park intermixed with a lot of the homes. So street parking is not very available so you might have to park really far from your home instead of actually being a park at your house. So when you’re buying a house here in North Park you really want to make sure that you’re getting off-street parking whether that’s a driveway or a driveway and a garage now.
Things to look out for when buying a house in North Park
Something else to keep in mind with homes here in North Park a lot of them are going to be significantly older – about a hundred years old. Many of these homes were built in the 1920’s some before that, some after that. But it is very common to have these homes built in the 1920s, so keep that in mind because of the age of these homes you really have to be prepared for what you’re going to find when you’re buying these homes in terms of inspections.
There’s oftentimes older wiring (old knob and tube wiring), in the homes, or there might be foundation issues there might be some plumbing issues, specifically around the sewers with cast iron piping. There can be a lot of cost, involved with purchasing these homes if those things haven’t been taken care of already by a prior owner.
When we’re looking at homes you want to make sure that either you’re prepared to come include these costs in your budget to make these repairs after you’ve purchased the home or we want to make sure that those repairs have already been done by our prior owners so you’re not going to have those costs. Foundation problems are a very common issue in the homes here in North Park because they’re built on unreinforced foundations they’re 80 to 100 years old. Oftentimes they need to be upgraded so you definitely want to get a foundation inspection on pretty much any home you’re going to be buying here in North Park and find out what you’re going to be in for if that home needs a foundation repair.
Wrapping it Up
As I mentioned, North Park is part of the Uptown neighborhood, so again that’s Normal Heights, University Heights, Kensington, South Park. These neighborhoods are all right around here and they all have a fairly similar vibe. I have other videos and blog posts addressing each of those neighborhoods and what to expect in there.
It’s really great because of the walkability and the cycling and the ease of transportation around North Park you can get to any of those neighborhoods very quickly. So a lot of people will live in North Park but they’ll go in shopping to go to a bar or restaurant in Normal Heights or Kensington. Keep that in mind, if you’re living in North Park you can get to the other neighborhoods really quickly.
If I can help you buy a home in North Park, or any other neighborhood in San Diego, California please reach out to me. I love helping people buy and sell homes here in San Diego and I’d love to help you as well!
Curtis Chism, Realtor
858-281-2568 | Mobile
mailto:info@sandiegohomes.io
Chism Team | DRE #02105113
brokered by eXp Realty | DRE #01878277
Categories
Recent Posts