Where Should I Live in Moving to San Diego
Wondering where you should live when moving to San Diego California? In this blog post, I’m going to cover my Top 5 favorite areas of San Diego! I’m a third-generation San Diegan, born and raised here in beautiful, America’s finest city, San Diego and I know all the best areas of San Diego.
Serra Mesa
The first area that I really love here in San Diego, it’s super near and dear to my heart is the area of Serra Mesa. So Serra Mesa is actually the neighborhood that I grew up in. I was born in the early eighties and grew up in a fantastic time to live in Serra Mesa, and we played on the streets a lot and really had a fantastic time growing up in the Serra Mesa neighborhood. It’s super, super family-friendly. If you have children, it’s certainly a fantastic neighborhood to consider.
There are a lot of dead-end streets as you hit canyons. And so this this kind of creates all these cul de sacs. So not a lot of through traffic in some of the neighborhoods. Some of the main streets you’re going to have more traffic, of course, but a lot of the actual neighborhoods don’t have a lot of traffic so it’s pretty calm, not going to have a lot of traffic through there. You’re going to have people that are walking their dog or going for a little bike ride, that kind of thing.
It’s a very relaxed, easygoing place. The homes are all mid-century; modern type homes. So a lot of them, we kind of joke look like mobile homes originally, but a lot of these have been upgraded and they have fantastic finishes now. But it’s just a really great neighborhood. It’s super, super central, which is really one of the main attractors of this location. And it really was a hidden gem for a long time, but is being discovered now. Most people did not know where Serra Mesa was when I was growing up. Now when someone mentions it, a lot of people know where it is.
Now, because it’s so central, you can get anywhere in the city super, super fast. Just maybe 12 minutes to downtown, 12 to 15 minutes to the airport, 10 to 15 minutes to the nearest beach and Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach. And then you can get to East County really quickly, too. So if you have friends that happen to live in East County or you want to do activities out there within about 15 to 20 minutes, you can be just about anywhere in this county. And then you’re not too far from heading up north as well. You can be in Miramar, Mira mesa, Scripps Ranch area in about 15 minutes as well.
Now Serra Mesa’s positioned right above Mission Valley, which is a very growing area for sure, and it’s getting busier and busier. So there is becoming more traffic through the main corridors of Serra Mesa, which is Murray Ridge, for instance. But that being said, there’s a lot going on in Mission Valley. There’s a brand new stadium that’s being built. Perhaps by the time you’re watching this, it’s already been built, the Aztec Stadium.
So San Diego State University, SDSU, our local well-known college, is building a new stadium there. They took over the grounds of the previous Qualcomm Stadium, which before that was called Jack Murphy Stadium, tore it down completely and are building a brand new state-of-the-art stadium there, along with apartments and shops so it’s going to completely revitalize that part of Mission Valley. It’s going to be really incredible. Home values are going to start rising rapidly as that kind of development comes into the area.
It’s also right next to the community of Civita. Civita has Civita Pak, which is a fantastic park. You can go and walk around, walk your dog. You can exercise there, playgrounds for the kids, fantastic area. And Civita is a great place to live as well. And then Serra Mesa itself has some a really great park called Murray Ridge Park. There’s no restrooms at this park, but the benefit of that is it does keep homeless people away. However, it has a huge grassy field. So if you’re looking to play ultimate Frisbee or soccer or football, this is a great park to do that. It also has a basketball court and a tennis court and of course, playgrounds there as well.
Now the shopping in Serra Mesa itself is not particularly extensive. There is one shopping center in Serra Mesa, just a little strip mall. It has, I believe, a Rite Aid and a Crunch Fitness. Those kind of changed every so often and a couple of shops as well. There’s a great Mexican food restaurant there called El Cotixan and it has fantastic carne asada burritos. I used to go there and buy carne asada burritos for about $3-$3.50. Now they’re more like $8 or $10, but definitely worth checking out for the burritos right there in Serra Mesa.
The schools in Serra Mesa are pretty good. They’re not the best in San Diego, but they are pretty solid. So if your kids are in public school, it’s a decent option for them. But there are some great charter schools right there in Serra Mesa as well. There’s Elevate located at Faith Community Church right off the 805 in Murray Ridge. So that’s a great option for you as well for schools.
Now, with Serra Mesa being so close to Kearny Mesa and Miramar, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the awesome craft breweries that are located in Kearny Mesa, also Miramar. I actually used to own a craft brewery located in Kearny Mesa, now. Kearny Mesa is actually mostly a commercial area. There’s a few apartment homes now in Kearny Mesa that have been built, but there’s some fantastic breweries located here, like Societe Brewing, which is cranking out world class beers for sure, and then Ketch Brewing. Now Ketch actually their main locations for restaurants are down in the harbor.
So you actually have one downtown and then you have one on Shelter Island and it’s all menu for restaurant. It’s awesome. Right on the marina there. Beautiful. This one is in Kearny Mesa and this is actually a production brewery so they have their production facility right there and they also have a full food menu for you there in Kearny Mesa as well. And then also Kearny Mesa has a great restaurant. It’s kind of the original craft beer place in San Diego, and that is O’Brien’s right there in Kearny Mesa. Fantastic food and beer.
North Park
Now, the next area that I’d move into is North Park. I actually lived in North Park for about 8 years. North Park is also very centrally located here in San Diego. It’s in the neighborhood of Uptown, which includes areas such as Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, University Heights, of course, North Park and then South Park. It’s also basically directly south of Serra Mesa.
To go from Serra Mesa to North Park, you would just jump on the 805 freeway crossover Mission Valley across that long bridge there across Mission Valley. And boom, you’re right into North Park, get off on El Cajon Boulevard or University Avenue and there you are. North Park was named the third most hipster town in America just a few years ago. If you’re not into that, maybe that’s not for you. I’m not particularly hipster, but I really loved living there, so I moved there back in 2014 and again lived there for about 8 years.
It was so awesome being so centrally located within the city but also to be able to get to any restaurant or bar that I wanted to get to very, very quickly, whether that was on foot or if it was on bike or even now scooter. When I first moved there, there weren’t scooters available and now there are, so a lot of times I would just walk out of my house, find a scooter and head up the street to one of the local bars.
It’s a really fantastic neighborhood with really cool old homes here in North Park. A lot of Craftsman style and Spanish style homes now. Now there are a lot of condos here and apartments as well. The condos are going to be a little more affordable now compared to the homes. The homes are definitely reaching well over $1,000,000 now, but the condos are going to be a little bit cheaper but there is also a lot of apartments.
With all these condos and apartments, this creates a big parking problem in North Park and really the whole surrounding areas of Uptown, it’s kind of similar situation. So if you do live here, you really want to make sure you’re getting off street parking because otherwise you’re going to have to park potentially six blocks away from your house walking home late at night. That gets old really fast.
Something else to keep in mind with the homes in this neighborhood is that they are older. So when you’re buying them, you want to make sure you have full home inspections and just be prepared that there’s going to be some extra costs you may not find in other homes like foundation problems or plumbing problems, that kind of thing. Now, the owners might have upgraded them already, and that’s fantastic.
There are many bars and breweries, here in North Park. However, , there’s been some turnover lately with COVID and some of them didn’t quite make it, but one of my favorites is Seven Grand. It’s a whiskey bar, but it also serves up great craft beer as well. There’s Mike Hess Brewing and North Park Brewing, both are world-class breweries that are serving up tremendous beer on a daily basis. Mike Hess Brewing, they teamed up with a local restaurant called Encontro so you can order right off their menu.
They also have food trucks that stop by regularly, so pretty much every day you can have a food option. And then North Park Brewing, they have partnered with Mastiff Sausage and they have a fantastic kitchen and menu that they pump out some amazing foods based around primarily sausages, of course, but other options as well. But their beer at North Park Beer Company is fantastic. And then you also have Original 40, which is a great brewery. It’s really making some of the best beer here in San Diego right now.
One of my favorite restaurants in North Park that I typically will take friends or clients to is called Working Class. I love Working Class because they have a fantastic happy hour. It typically runs from 4:00 to 7:00 pm during the week and you can get typically $4 beers, $5 appetizers. So you meet there and drink there very inexpensively compared to a lot of other options in North Park and North Park where it’s located like I said, it’s super central and it’s also right next to Balboa Park and Morley Field.
Morley field is a really cool, huge public park that’s part of Balboa Park. It has Frisbee golf. It has tons and tons of tennis courts. It has a velodrome, it has a public pool and just huge grassy areas. You regularly see people out there just walking around or doing exercises, group exercises, that kind of thing.
South Park
My next favorite area and these aren’t necessarily in any particular order, but is South Park. So South Park, of course, is directly south of North Park. Now South Park, it’s been discovered as of late, but I lived there for about four years. When I moved back from going to college, I moved into South Park. I rented a little tiny one bedroom apartment in this old Victorian home that had been converted from a house into an apartment building, likely during World War Two. A lot of the homes in South Park were requisitioned by the US government to provide housing for their troops.
They would buy these homes typically, but sometimes they would work with the homeowners and they would house our soldiers here in the Navy because they just needed so much extra housing because of the influx of sailors. A lot of these homes, sometimes the homeowners would actually live in part of the home. They would divide off the rest of the home, and then they would have barracks for their sailors in the rest of the home. So this was one of those homes, actually, the kitchen was, you could tell, built in the hallway of the home. So it was a really tiny little kitchen. But I lived there for four years in the first year of marriage with my wife. So I have very fond memories of South Park living right there on 30th Street, 30th Street being the main artery right through South Park.
The homes in South Park are so charming, they’re mostly Craftsman-style homes, a few Spanish-style as well. But these are just absolutely incredible homes, typically very well taken care of. Now, South Park, like I said, because it wasn’t really known when I lived there and the reason for that is actually because it was certainly one of the early places to gentrify and it’s actually a very safe neighborhood. I always felt safe and comfortable there and I absolutely love hanging out in South Park. It has almost this Mayberry feel to it. I definitely love going there and I love going to some of the local restaurants.
Unfortunately, some of those restaurants and bars didn’t quite survive COVID like Hamilton’s Tavern and South Park Brewing. Unfortunately, an electrical fire took them out. And then Grant’s Deli was a great location, too, which just recently went out of business and is turning over to something new. But there are some fantastic restaurants still there, Kindred, which is actually a vegan restaurant that has fantastic cocktails. So if you’re into vegan food, that’s a great option for you.
And right across the street from Kindred is Buona Forchetta. Buona Forchetta is a fantastic Italian restaurant. This is actually their original location. They now have multiple locations throughout San Diego, but this is where it all started in a tiny little house that they converted into the restaurant with a little kitchen, and then eventually they expanded into a very large outdoor seating area. And it’s definitely worth checking out. You need to go early, otherwise you’re going to be waiting potentially a couple hours. I do think they do take reservations if you’re over a party of six, but certainly worth checking out.
The other one I really like here is called The Station. So they’re mostly known for their hamburgers, fantastic burgers and turkey burgers as well. Very, very family-friendly as well. And they’re mostly just serving up beer and wine, but that’s definitely a great place to go for a late night eat. There’s a really cool bar here as well called Whistle Stop. They’re serving up beer as well, but they’re also known as a music and comedy venue as well.
There’s also a really good dog wash here in South Park and it’s called the South Park Dog Wash. So if you have a furry friend that you want to get groomed or get some gourmet treats for them, gourmet foods, that kind of thing, this is definitely the place to check out.
Little Italy
Now we’re going to start moving coastal, still not too far away from where we’ve been in North Park and South Park, and that is downtown, but specifically the neighborhood of Little Italy. Now, I spent a lot of time here in Little Italy, never lived here, but I worked here. I used to be a construction Project Manager. I built two of the high rises here in Little Italy, Sapphire Tower, a luxury condo and Ariel Suites an apartment building also on the luxury side. So I spent about four years working here, enjoying the local restaurants, the local bars and getting to know this neighborhood. I love Little Italy. It’s a mix of low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise buildings. So it isn’t a flight path to San Diego.
That being said, once you get into the heart of Little Italy, you really cannot build much higher than a certain height. Otherwise it’ll block the flight path. You definitely don’t want that. But there are so many great restaurants here. Of course, a lot of Italian restaurants being Little Italy, but a lot of other restaurants as well.
You’ve got the very well-known Mona Lisa, an Italian restaurant cranking out amazing pizza and Italian food. And also it has a little market inside as well. You also have Filippi’s, which is a fantastic pizza place as well. It’s kind of a thicker pizza, very heavy. But they also have other types of Italian foods you can order up there as well. The lasagna is fantastic. Definitely worth checking that out. It also got Crack Shack, which is a great chicken restaurant right there on Kettner.
And then, you’ve also got Craft & Commerce, which is a restaurant, but it is also well known as a bar. So great craft beer, but also really fantastic cocktails, great mixologists there. And you got Born and Raised. Born and Raised is a very high-end steak restaurant. Also fantastic cocktails. But typically they’re aging the meat right there on-site and they prepare a lot of the food, not the steak, but to prepare a lot of the food, like the salad right there at your table as well. Very pricey. Beautiful, beautiful interior. I think it’s cost them something like $8 Million to build out that interior, but that is certainly worth checking out.
Little Italy also has a weekly farmer’s market right there, so that’s definitely worth going to and getting things you can buy from local merchants here and from farmers, honey, that kind of thing. So definitely a fantastic farmers market to check out. There’s also a really great bottle shop here called Bottle Craft. They kind of helped start the craft beer movement here in San Diego or at the very least helped perpetuate the craft beer movementAnd so they used to have educational nights where we could go there and learn about beer. I think they probably still do that, but I would go there early when I was learning about craft beer and how to make it and how to taste it. And they helped kind of launch me into my enjoyment of craft beer. And they have a fantastic selection from all over the world, but also a very curated selection of local and some statewide breweries as well.
Coronado
Next, we’re going to move even more coastal, and that is to the Island City of Coronado. Coronado is an island connected by a very thin strip of land called the Silver Strand that connects it to Imperial Beach and Coronado essentially forms the San Diego Bay. Now, again, it is its own city, separate from San Diego, now it is absolutely fantastic. I have never lived here, but I love going here. I go here regularly with my family.
Every time I go to Coronado I feel like I’m on vacation and that might just be for an hour or two or might be for the whole day. But I absolutely love spending a lot of time here so whether you’re looking to move and buy a home in Coronado or you’re looking to move into one of the other areas we’re discussing and then spend time here, it is absolutely fantastic and definitely worth checking out and exploring all kinds of homes. It’s really interesting.
Homes built from the 1900s all the way up to now and everything in between. You’ve got craftsman homes, Spanish homes, mid-century homes, East Coast cottage style homes, and then just huge, huge mansions as well. You’ve got homes that range from about one and one half to $2 Million all the way up to about $3-$6 million. And again, everything in between.
If your budget is a little bit on more of that side of things, then there’s going to be a range of homes for you to buy from, of course. But there is just so much to do here in Coronado. Its home, the Hotel del Coronado, very, very famous hotel, the largest wooden structure, I believe, in America. And at the time it was the largest structure that was electrified back in the 1880s, built in 1888, this Victorian-style hotel, the developers actually bought the entire island of Coronado, subdivided the plots of land and sold them off about 350 plots of land so they could raise money to build the Hotel Del and a power plant and a train station and they basically created the city of Coronado.
They eventually sold that to a very well-known developer here in San Diego, again in the 1800s, early 1900s, called John D. Spreckels. And so you got Spreckel’s Park right there in the middle of Coronado, a huge, huge park with lots and lots of trees and a beautiful, huge playground for your kids and have concerts in the park regularly in the summer. There’s a 4th of July parade that goes right down Orange Avenue. And then you’ve got the Ferry Landing, which is kind of the downtown area of Coronado. So the ferry used to be the only way to get over to Coronado via car so you can drive onto the ferry with your car and get ferried over.
When San Diego Coronado Bay Bridge has gone into place, which is the beautiful two mile long, sweeping blue bridge that comes into Coronado, that’s not necessary so it’s really a pedestrian ferry now. So you can get back and forth between downtown and Coronado this way. But there’s a whole bunch of tourist shops and great restaurants as well here in the Ferry Landing area, there’s Il Fornaio, which is a great Italian restaurant. You’ve got Spiro’s Greek Cafe, which is a great place for getting Greek food and especially Gyros..
And then you also have Coronado Brewing Company that’s not technically in Ferry Landing itself, but it’s on Orange right by First Street and it has absolutely fantastic world class beer, Weekend Vibes, my favorite IPA from them right now and really great food. The Cajun shrimp tacos are definitely worth trying out. And then you get into the uptown area of Coronado and you have some really great restaurants there as well. You’ve got The Henry, which is a great breakfast, lunch and dinner spot.
You have McP’s, which the food is very good. It’s not maybe world class, but it’s kind of American style / Irish style food, good beers, good cocktails, live music, they’re regularly very family friendly, but also very friendly for Navy SEALs and military. They like to hang out there a lot, which is really cool. And Coronado has a huge military presence as well because there’s a North Island Airstation here and the Navy SEALs are stationed here with the Naval Amphibious, so a huge military presence and it also makes it super, super safe as well.
And of course, we’ve got beaches here in Coronado, huge long sandy beaches very deep. So it can get very full during the summertime, of course, because it’s so big, people can really spread out quite a bit as well. There’s also a dog beach on the north end of Coronado, right as you get to the naval base. So if you want to take your dog out for a swim, this is a great area to do it. I know. I love taking my dog there.
And then to the south, you have Gator Beach. This is south of the Hotel Del, and this is not as well known, it has its own little parking lot. There are no restrooms there. So that’s why it’s not as popular but if you’re looking to spend an hour or two here at the beach or you don’t mind using the ocean for your facilities, then you can hang out here and kind of have a secluded beach all to yourself. Well, those are my top five areas in San Diego that I absolutely love.
A lot of these areas I have lived in myself or worked in or essentially vacationed in and played in quite a bit. There are other areas I love of San Diego too. I just can’t cover them all in this post. If you’re looking at moving to San Diego, please reach out to me. I’d love to talk to you more about that. Understand what your plans are, where you’re looking to move. I can help make recommendations of the best areas to move here in San Diego, depending on whatever your unique situation is.
So please reach out to me via phone, text or email. I’d love to have a conversation with you about moving here to San Diego.
Curtis Chism, Realtor
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