All San Diego Suburbs Explained
Are you moving to San Diego but you’re not sure about all the different neighborhoods of San Diego? You want to get the lay of the land? Well in this video we’re going to go over all the different neighborhoods in the city of San Diego and do a let’s deep dive into the neighborhoods, the roads, how to get around, what type of features are here, places to go and visit all the things to do. Geography of San Diego San Diego is really unique and diverse geography that we have here in San Diego. Obviously we’re located in the very Southwest corner of the United States right along the U.S. Mexican border with Tijuana right next to us. If we take a look at the satellite map, you’ll see how diverse the train is. You’ve got the Pacific Ocean here and you’ve got kind of the lower lying areas of San Diego right in here but it’s San Diego. The beautiful thing about it is actually fairly hilly like a lot of hills and a lot of valleys, canyons going through here. It’s really cool because as you’re driving around you always have some feeling of elevation. You never feel like you’re kind of boxed in. I’ve spent a lot of time in other areas in California like Los Angeles or in the Midwest where it’s so flat. It’s weird and it kind of feels like a dome which you might know coming from other areas. But with San Diego because of all this terrain variation, you can see very far all the time and I really love it; it feels very open. In the lower lying areas that are all cut up with canyons as you kind of zoom in you can see all these canyons that run through here and the roads are all built around these. Because of that, you can see how the roads really kind of wind around. If you look at those, the roads are all very windy, very few actual straight roads for long periods of time. You really come and have to know your way around or definitely use your GPS, your Google maps, your Apple maps to get around. And honestly, even though I live here, I’ve been here for my entire life, I still plug anywhere I’m going into my maps so I can get the best route and make sure I’m avoiding traffic as well. As you head further East into the mountains, you’ve got Cleveland National Forest and Cuyamaca State Park. These are our hills, we’ve got the Town of Julian out here — that’s kind of our little tourist mountain town. I really love going there and some really fantastic hiking all throughout this mountain range here. And then you get out into the desert out here and there’s some great off-roading out here, great camping say Ocotillo Wells and Vallecito and then of course a lot of off-roading dune buggy. You’ve got Glamis out here and you’ve got Ocotillo Wells up more in the north part of it. A lot of people go shooting out here as well. There’s a lot of BLM land which is a Bureau of Land Management and you can shoot on that BLM land. That’s kind of the overall terrain of San Diego. South and Central San Diego I’m going to head back into the traditional map view and give you an idea of kind of the quadrants of San Diego and then the main road. You’ve got City of San Diego itself so this whole area here is considered San Diego and oddly enough this part here, although it’s not connected to the City of San Diego is considered South San Diego and that’s part of San Diego as well right up against the border. That’s kind of San Diego but really this area right here is Central San Diego and that’s going to be of course your Downtown; Point Loma, Uptown, Serra Mesa, Mira Mesa, Sorrento Valley, La Jolla; all these areas right here, kind of Central San Diego South Bay Then, you’ve got a couple other quadrants here you’ve got the South Bay which is essentially this whole area right here which is National City, Bonita and Chula Vista. Into the South San Diego that would be considered South Bay and Imperial Beach. The bay referring to San Diego Bay and the Southern part of that. Then you’ve got East County, essentially starts at La Mesa. La Mesa is kind of right on the edge of everything; Central San Diego and East County but you’ve got La Mesa, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside and out into Alpine. And as you kind of go a little kind of Southeast County, this area is called Rancho San Diego, then further East into Descanso. Usually when people are talking about “oing to East County, or we’re going to live in East County”, they’re typically talking about La Mesa, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside or maybeAlpine. North County North County is divided into North Coastal and then North Inland. North County is really starting essentially at Del Mar or the 56 freeway. The 56 is a newer freeway in San Diego and that cuts East to West from Del Mar all the way over into Poway (Essentially North of the Scripps Ranch area). Rancho Peñasquitos is starting to get into North County. Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Ranco Santa Fe; these are all North County neighborhoods. On the coast, we’ve got Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Leucadia which is part of Encinitas. Then you’ve also got Cardiff right here between Solana Beach and Encinitas or Cardiff-by-the-Sea as it’s actually known. Then north of that is Carlsbad and then an Oceanside. Oceanside stretches Inland quite a bit and then you get into Vista and San Marcos. Carlsbad also stretches Inland. All these cities here; Oceanside, Carlsbad, they’re Coastal but they stretch quite a ways Inland. There’s a lot of diversity terrain-wise and home prices wise within these neighborhoods. San Marcos is going to be very definitely Inland area. These are San Marcos and Vista. This starts to get North Inland so there you have Escondido. Over here Valley Center, Fallbrook, Bonsall, these are very North County Inland. Almost getting into Riverside and then you’ve got Fallbrook. Once you get past Fallbrook, you drop over the hill into Riverside and into Temecula where you’ve got Wine Country. Temecula is right here, wonderful wines come out of Temecula, that’s about an hour from the City of San Diego. As you go further East and Northeast you’ve got the City of Ramona. People that live in Ramona and then further into Santa Ysabel and Julian. Whenever they’re referring to going back into San Diego, they call it “going down the hill” — going down the hill into the City of San Diego. Main Freeways in San Diego We’ve got the 8 freeway, it is definitely one of your main arteries through City of San Diego and that’s running East to West all the way out into Arizona. Certainly one of the primary freeways here. Then they’ve got running North to South, you’ve got the 5 freeway, the 805 and the 15 freeway. That’s something that we refer to freeways here, I think it’s specifically a Southern California thing and we always refer to the freeways here as “the + whatever freeway” it is. We never call it the I-5 or I-15 or I-8, it’s always “The 5”, “The 805”, “The 15”, “The 8”, etc. I think originally because a lot of the freeways used to have actual names so we have Pacific Highway but there’s other freeways in L.A. that have names and they were referred to as the whatever that name was, I guess it’s just stuck that we just called the 5 and the 805. Those are kind of the main arteries through here. We also got the 52, the 52 runs from the 5 out into Santee and connects with the 67. The 67 runs from Santee up into Ramona and then in the South and then East you’ve got 94 freeway which runs from Downtown out to East County that connects up with the 125 here. Down the South Bay you got the 54 that connects with the 94 and 125 that takes you up into La Mesa, Santee area. Neighborhoods of San Diego – Downtown Little Italy We’re against going to be covering the City of San Diego, we’re not going to be covering the Suburbs of San Diego that’ll be a different video. Starting in Downtown San Diego, I really love Downtown San Diego. Born and raised here in San Diego, third generation. I used to be a construction project manager and I built some high-rises down here in Little Italy in particular. I built Sapphire Tower and ArielSuites and I spent a lot of time here in Little Italy. There’s some really fantastic restaurants here. We’ve got Born and Raised — a fantastic steak restaurant, absolutely incredible get ready to spend probably 300 bucks. Easy for a couple going out for dinner if not more. Craft & Commerce has great cocktails, great craft beer. A very decent food menu as well. Ironside is a fantastic restaurant there. And a lot of Italian restaurants, some kind of old school ones like Mona Lisa and Felipe’s, definitely worth checking out. And there’s a farmer’s market in Little Italy that’s every Saturday, worth going to support the local farmers and other merchants. And definitely a really fun area just to walk around. It’s mostly low-rise buildings. There are some high-rise. It is near the flight path of the airport so as you can see the airport is right here so here’s the approach coming right just over Little Italy. The high rises tend to be kind of down this way, kind of towards Ash. Cedar/Beach, Ash that’s kind of where the high rises are. And then they drop into mid and low rises as you go a little bit further North, really love that area. Downtown San Diego It is made up into these different districts: Little Italy, the Marina District, technically the core Columbia area that’s pretty much just office buildings for the most par. Gaslamp Quarter is very very touristy so there’s some good bars and restaurants down there. Some good hotels but there’s not really a lot of condos so best thing with downtown is mostly it’s pretty much all condo. If you’re looking to live in Downtown, it’s going to be all condos, no single family homes in Downtown San Diego. And a mix of some okay condos and then some really really high-end luxury condos that are going for $3 to $6M. Then you’ve got East Village as well. Those are kind of the main areas and then on Cortez Hill up here. Cortez Hill, there’s a really old hotel of the old Cortez that was converted into condos. Historic which sounds cool not the greatest condos in there the really small windows kind of feels like you’re in jail cell when you’re in there. Petco Park What’s really cool about Downtown is you got Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play. Also gets turned into other events for concerts. They’ve helped revitalize the area helped revitalize East Village that kind of thing. Right across from it is the San Diego Convention Center and all these are right along the San Diego Bay which is just an absolutely incredible bay. I love going there. You’ve got the USS Midway which is a little aircraft carrier that was converted into a museum, definitely worth taking your family to and learning the history of the Navy. There’s just all kinds of shopping and restaurants all along here and you got the cruise ships to come here if you ever have a chance to take a cruise on the Bay. Hornblower Cruise, I would definitely definitely recommend doing that. So that’s kind of the Downtown area. Coronado Island Right across the Downtown area is Coronado. Coronado is Coronado Island. It’s technically an island but is connected to the mainland by this thin strip of essentially sand which is called the Silver Strand and its six miles of sandy beaches. The only thing here is most of it is owned by the military so as you can see here two-thirds of the island is taken up by North Island Naval Air Station. This is where obviously our Navy is flying a lot of aircraft, a lot of helicopter and jets. We’ve also got a military installation here. Military and Navy ships that are coming in here as well. They owned all this beach right here basically you got this couple mile, mile and a half, two miles or so of beach all the way down to the Naval Amphibious Base. Then it picks up again and it’s all for the most part Navy owned until you get down to the Silver Strand State Beach. Then that becomes another stretch of beach that you can actually go and enjoy yourself there and it’s an RV park. If you’ve got an RV, great place to stay. I’ve stayed there myself with my trailer. It’s a lot of fun and you’re right on the beach, it’s pretty cool. Then you’ve got the Coronado Cays, super cool, very very expensive homes but a lot of these homes have their own private yacht slips ranging from anywhere from about 30 feet up to about 85 feet. Combination of condos and single family homes in there. I just love going to Coronado. I just always feel like I’m on vacation when I go to Coronado. Whether it’s for an hour or a whole day and I have a whole video on Coronado. You’ve got The Hotel Del in Coronado and a huge sandybeach, Dog beach at the North end of the park and a lot of really cool restaurants and shops. I love going to Clayton’s Coffee Shop, kind of an old school cafe. The Henry has a great breakfast and then you’ve got McP’s which is a really cool little Irish Pub. Glorietta Bay And then there’s a lot of little parks and bays in here. You got Glorietta Bay and there’s a Marina over here. Glorietta Bay Park, great place to picnic and have parties and launch kayaks from or paddle boards that’s what I do routinely with my family. Then a little bit north up here you’ve got Tidelands Park, also a good place to have picnics and parties and launch kayaks from. Then you’ve got Coronado Ferry which is the Ferry Landing. Something’s really fun to do is to watch the Red Bull Flight competition that they do it’s really really fun to see these old little fighter planes basically buzzing around and doing cool acrobatic stunts around there. But you got the Coronado Ferry Landing, here’s the ferry line that you can see. I’ll do a bike loop, I like to take the bay shore bike loop which basically takes you from Downtown all the way around the bay up the Silver Strand and ends in Coronado. You can take the ferry back across and take the car back home or what I like to do is my wife will come pick me up and I’ll go have breakfast with her and we have a great time in Coronado. That’s the Coronado Island, definitely worth checking out either for a home very expensive homes here you’re looking for a coastal kind of vacation style, definitely worth checking out. If you’re looking for an Airbnb type thing then that’s not the place for you because this is a 30-day minimum rental. Point Loma and Ocean Beach Point Loma has a great Rio National Monument out here and absolutely fantastic views of the Pacific Ocean, of Coronado Downtown of the rest of the City of San Diego. Also really fun place to bike out there’s a nice long hill you can even bike out to it. Really amazing homes, oftentimes have really fantastic views. And then on the Ocean Beach side is also getting rather pricey as well. It’s going to be not as high-end as Point Loma, it has a fun rich history. More of a hippie vibe that’s where you pot smoke marijuana, for a long time. A fantastic neighborhood, fantastic beach for surfing. You got to be experienced though. If you crash you’re in the cliffs so you don’t want to learn how to surf at sunset cliffs, you want to learn how to surf probably at La Jolla shores or Tourmaline but definitely fantastic neighborhoods. All kinds of cool little shops in the Downtown, Ocean Beach area as well. And before we leave Point Loma, we do have Liberty Station. Liberty Station is really really cool, they’ve got a public market located in here and what that is they have a whole bunch of little shops in there and you can go order food and you can go into a kind of a public seating area and eat your food there. They have got Bottlecraft, a cool bottle shop and craft beer bar and wine bar and so what you can do is order your food from the other restaurants and then go to Bottlecraft and sit down and enjoy your food with a beer or wine there. Then they’ve also got Stone Brewing, world class brewery and they’ve got a fantastic restaurant and beer garden, definitely worth checking out. Shelter Island and Harbor Island And then over here we’ve got these two little, what we call Islands, they are really just a peninsula but you’ve got Shelter Island and Harbor Island. Shelter Island has a marina on it and a couple marinas here actually. It has the Bali Hai Restaurant, really really great for the Mai Tais, definitely worth checking out but they make them really really strong so be careful. Don’t have too many of them. Really fantastic high-end restaurant and just absolutely incredible views. Then you’ve got Ketch. I really love Ketch, it’s right on the harbor and you can check out all the different sailboats there and yachts and then have some fantastic food and beer or wine. They’ve also got great cocktails too. You’ve also got Harbor Island right across from the San Diego Airport and really the grouping of restaurants is right here. These are all Cohn Family Restaurants. Cohn is a restaurant group here in San Diego that owns a number of restaurants throughout San Diego. They all have different names but they are technically a chain but a local chain of different restaurants. They all have their own style and they actually tend to change the restaurants over every so often to different concepts and types. Right now we’ve got C Level Lounge and right next to it is Island Prime, they’re actually in the same building. We walked into the same entrance and you tell them what you’re here for, C Level or Island Prime. Both are on the pricier side, C Level used to be a little bit more affordable. Absolutely incredible views, really fantastic beer, wine and food menus on both sides but Island Prime is definitely going to be your higher end, special occasion, your steaks, your high-end seafood that kind of thing. Then there’s also Coastera right next to it that is a kind of a high-end Mexican restaurant as well. Pacific Beach and Mission Beach Mission Beach is kind of this area right in here and then you’ve got Pacific Beach which is this whole area. And you also have North Pacific Beach. Now most San Diego just referred to Pacific Beach as PB and also Ocean Beach as OB. Mission Beach is always referred to as Mission Beach, we don’t call it MB, that’s what we do —PB, OB and Mission Beach! Mission Bay is a really fantastic bay much smaller than San Diego Bay but really a lot more fun for small watercraft so kayaks and paddle boarding and jet skis. It’s just because it’s smaller it’s not as windy as the San Diego Bay can get. You’re not going to have big boats on there, big yachts. It’s a lot calmer to spend your time on Mission Bay and you’ve also got Fiesta Island which is this big island that kind of crops out here. Big huge dog park on Fiesta Island and what people will do is they’ll just there’s a lot of sandy areas so people just park either right off the road or in the sand if you got four-wheel drive and set up and picnic for the day launch their kayaks launch their jet skis right from Fiesta Island. This is also where the Over The Line Tournament occurs every single year as well which is a really fun event to attend each year. Pacific Beach is definitely like your surf community for sure. Most people when they first move to San Diego especially when they’re young, they move to Pacific Beach first. This is where almost everyone comes and they want to be right near the beach that surf beach community is kind of crowded. A lot of traffic to get in and out of here. You got Garnet and Grand so as you can see it merges into one road. It’s heavy traffic, you get from here at the beach back to the 5 freeway. It doesn’t look that far but it’s a solid 15 minutes especially if there’s traffic. You’re definitely looking at 20 minutes to get back to the freeway from here’s a lot of traffic lights and a lot of traffic. Really cool restaurants and bars all located along the beach here. Fantastic beach here in Pacific Beach and same with Mission Beach. Mission Beach is really cool, it’s got this thin stretch of land so you’ve got any of the homes you’re going to have. Easy access to either the Pacific Ocean or the Mission Bay as well. La Jolla As you head up just a little bit from here, then you get into La Jolla. You have Mount Soledad which is a National Veterans Memorial, it has a huge cross at the top of it which I personally like. Most people like it but there was a huge fight recently the last couple decades to try to get it removed. Fortunately it hasn’t been removed yet so we’ll see but there’s a big memorial up there. Really great place to bike as well. Very steep climb to bike up there but really fun to come down from there. Then you got the La Jolla Village. Tons and tons of shopping and restaurants in La Jolla Village. These are all cliffs along La Jolla Shores just absolutely incredible views. They are being slightly eroded unfortunately but that also creates the beauty of it.Then you’ve got La Jolla Cove and there’s all kinds of sea life in here and what a lot of people like to do is to swim the cove and the swimming the cove could be anything from swimming out to the buoy markers, I think they have a quarter mile and a half mile marker. And you can also swim all the way to La Jolla Shores which is a full mile from the start of La Jolla so La Jolla Cove over to La Jolla Shores. And La Jolla Shores is honestly it’s one of the best beaches in San Diego, I absolutely love going to La Jolla Shores. La Jolla is a very very high end area, a lot of very large expensive homes and you got to have money to live here but it’s free to visit so we really love going to shores. There’s a bonfire pits here as well. As well as bond for our pets down in Coronado, we love going here and it’s right next to University of California San Diego so you or your kids or whoever are looking at going to UCSD, that’s in La Jolla and it’s just up the hill right up here. You just pop right down the hill and you are in La Jolla. That kind of covers the Coastal areas of San Diego. La Jolla technically is its own city. Well it’s part of the City of San Diego but if you address it La Jolla it’ll get to them people prefer to think of it as their own city but it’s technically not. Uptown Let’s drop back down into the City of San Diego and Uptown neighborhood. Uptown is basically everything just outside of Downtown so that’s all this area which is just East of the 5 and actually that’s something to keep in mind anywhere in San Diego people kind of refer to West of the 5, East of the 5. Anything less than five is going to be more expensive in general. Any East of the 5 is going to generally be cheaper unless you’re talking about Rancho Santa Fe which is way up here. The median price there is I think $3.5 Million right now. But generally West the 5 would definitely be more expensive. There are people that they just want to live, work, play West of the 5 they never want to go East of the 5. For the rest of us, we’re okay with being East of the 5 and so this is the Uptown area, it is going to be all these areas here. Mission Hills Mission Hills, that’s actually where my dad grew up, is in Mission Hills on Fort Stockton Drive and it’s right next to Hillcrest and then you got Bakers Hill. These are all kind of connected so it’s the same zip code, 92103 but they all have kind of a slight unique feel to them as well. Then you’ve got North Park, South Park, Golden Hill and then up here you got University Heights, Normal Heights and then that starts getting you into Kensington and City Heights. These areas here: University Heights, North Park, South Park, Golden Hill and Normal Heights have undergone a lot of gentrification in the last 15 years or so. These are going to have all kinds of Craftsman homes and Spanish homes for the most part, some condos as well. North Park has the most condos followed by University Heights and Normal Heights. South Park has not too many condos, mostly single-family homes, some apartments. There’s also a lot of apartments up here. Golden Hill is a mix of condos, single-family homes and apartments but a lot more condos and apartments for sure. All these areas are super super walkable absolutely incredible restaurants and bars, really really fun vibes. If people want to be living in the City of San Diego where all the action is, this is where you want to be. Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Bakers Hill. These are larger homes also Craftsman homes, Victorian homes definitely going to be on the more expensive side. Absolutely incredible bars and restaurants in here again super super walkable. I lived in North Park for about almost 8 years and I lived in South Park for about 4 years so I know these areas incredibly well so it’s obviously bordering Balboa Park and it has the world famous San Diego Zoo. I love going there with my family it’s so much fun to walk around and Balboa Park is just incredible. Tons of museums and just really great areas to walk around as well. Also a cool restaurant there called Panama 66 that you can walk to and have a beer and usually have music on the weekends. Morley Field which is a really huge sports field complex. You’ve got a velodrome, you’ve got tons and tons of tennis courts. You got wall ball, a public pool, dog park definitely worth checking out. Frisbee golf as well, a lot of people love going there and just walking around exercising on the grassy fields all kinds of things. There’s also a really large golf course here at this Balboa Park golf course which is this whole area right in here. If you’re a resident of the City of San Diego it’s very very cheap to play at this course. Also a dog park here in South Park which is a really really good one actually one of the best. The one at Morley Field is a big one, it used to be grassy but you know something we experience here is drought all the time so finally the city just let all the grass die so it’s a big dirt field. That’s kind of the Uptown area. College Area There’s a whole mix of neighborhoods out in here and mainly you’ve got the College Area. That’s where San Diego State is located. None of these areas are really walkable necessarily definitely any driving places and something to keep in mind in these other areas in Uptown, you definitely want to have off street parking when you buy a house because otherwise you’re going to park blocks away from your house at night it’s going to be a hassle to get home. It’s just not fun to be parking blocks away and walking home late at night. Anytime you want to be able to drive in, park in your driveway and go home. And there’s homes that don’t have parking and they sit on the market they’re the ones that no one wants so if you were to buy a house like that it’s going to be hard to sell you definitely want to get off street parking. Going back over to this area, College Area again some really cool homes here but definitely if you’re looking for investment that could be a good thing for college students. Rolando Village is really kind of an up and coming area. Talmadge is up and coming as well, Rolando Park, Redwood Village, all these areas are kind of starting to come up in value. And then we have La Mesa which is one of the suburbs of San Diego. Then as we head North of the 8 freeway, right through here the 8 freeway you’ve got a Mission Valley. It has what used to be the Qualcomm Stadium or before that Jack Murphy Stadium. The San Diego Padres and the San Diego Chargers used to both play there. San Diego Padres has moved to Petco Park Downtown. The San Diego Chargers abandoned the city, we’ll never forgive them for it. They do not play there anymore and unfortunately the Chargers became the Los Angeles Chargers and staff is on the back. That has since been torn down and San Diego State has taken over and they’ve built new stadium for the San Diego state. Aztecs’ is going to be a really incredible facility. There’s going to be student housing, apartments, shops, restaurants and all kinds of things that are going down here into Mission Valley so that’s going to be pretty cool to see when that’s all done. Civita You’ve also got Civita, a really fantastic neighborhood. I’ve got videos on Civita Park, I also have videos on the Uptown Area and all these different neighborhoods too go check those out. Get more in-depth detail of all those neighborhoods. Mission Valley runs basically out to the water here at Mission Bay and it runs east out here into San Carlos so Mission Valley has two big shopping malls: Mission Valley Mall and Fashion Valley Mall. Fashion Valley is higher end mall both have movie theaters but Fashion Valley is going to be definitely a very high-end mall. With kind of your more major department stores high-end department stores as well but all kinds of shopping down there. If you live in the Uptown Area or you live north of it in Serra Mesa or Clairemont, you’re probably coming down here to Mission Valley do a lot of your shopping. Serra Mesa and Clairemont This is a really fantastic area right here is Serra Mesa. This is actually where I grew up so that’s why I think it’s fantastic but it really is. When I grew up no one really knew where Serra Mesa was. I’d say I live in Serra Mesa, no one knew where Serra Mesa was but now it’s been discovered because people realize it is so central in San Diego. So let’s zoom out and you can see, here’s the City of San Diego before you get to North County right here. This is all San Diego and Serra Mesa is right here as well as Clairemont and Kearny Mesa. All these areas are super central and you can get really anywhere in the city in 10 to 15 minutes. You can basically be downtown to the airport in less than 15 minutes from Serra Mesa. A lot of mid-century homes were built here. A lot of 3 bedroom and 4 bedroom homes. Smaller lots for the most part sometimes you can find some bigger lots and varying levels of repair as far as they’re needing to be upgraded but a lot of them have been upgraded or just been really well maintained by their owners. It’s also next to the small municipal airport called Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. When I grew up it was called Montgomery Field so a lot of times just refer to that as a Montgomery Field but this is a really fantastic area to look at living if you’re looking for something that’s very central to all of San Diego. And same with Clairemont. Clairemont and Serra Mesa have really similar vibes to them. A lot of canyons that cut through these neighborhoods which is kind of cool especially Serra Mesa. Kind of cuts up the roads, creates a lot of cul-de-sacs kind of thing Kearny Mesa In Kearny Mesa it’s going to be much more commercial industrial. Very few homes are actually in Kearny Mesa but a lot of ethnic food up there and a lot of breweries are located up here in Kearny Mesa. As you head a little bit more north, we’ve got Miramar which is a military base, Marine Corps Air Station. North of that you have Mira Mesa and Sorrento Valley. Sorrento Valley and University City area. That’s University City you’ve got right here and then Sorrento Valley and Mira Mesa. This is where your biotech is, Sorrento Valley, University City. Of course you got UCSD so you’ve got a lot of education here as well. If you’re looking to be close to any of those areas biotech you’re probably going to be looking at Sorrento Valley or Mira Mesa or potentially University City. A lot of these homes were built in the 1970s or 1980s. Some are built newer, there’s a big new construction area going into Mira Mesa but it’s not done at the moment. Then we move into Carmel Valley which you starting get in North County. These are going to be much higher end homes. Much larger homes as well. All these areas have exactly what you’re looking for as far as shopping and amenities that kind of thing but definitely higher-end living both here in Carmel Valley and out here in Scripps Ranch as well. Curtis Chism, Realtor858-281-2568 | Mobilemailto:info@sandiegohomes.ioChism Team | DRE #02105113brokered by eXp Realty | DRE #01878277
Read MoreWhat is it like to live in La Mesa, California?
Thinking about moving to La Mesa in San Diego, California? Read on or watch this video to learn all about what it’s like to live in La Mesa California La Mesa is located just East of San Diego. It is the first city that you hit as you move East from the City of San Diego. It is located in the County of San Diego. It is considered the first part of East County, San Diego. East County, San Diego is made up of a number of cities and communities, including La Mesa, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside, Alpine, Jamul, and a few others thrown in there as well. The main freeway to get to La Mesa from San Diego is going to be the 8 freeway. It cuts right through La Mesa and it’s border on the East by the 125 and by the 94 freeway to the South. And some of the main roads through La Mesa are La Mesa Boulevard, University Avenue, El Cajon Boulevard, those run East to West. And then you also have Lake Murray Boulevard runs through there and Spring Street. These are going to be some of your main roads getting through La Mesa. Also, Jackson Drive is a pretty big road right off the freeway as well connecting parts of La Mesa. What is La Mesa Like? A lot of people really love the Mesa because it’s super quaint and it’s a lot more affordable than the City of San Diego. Actually, what a lot of young professionals that are now turning into the young families are doing they’re moving from the City of San Diego out into La Mesa because there’s parts of La Mesa that actually feel a lot like North Park can kind of that Uptown area of San Diego, but without the sticker shock of North Park. That being said, La Mesa is certainly getting more expensive as the whole entire county rises in price. Home Prices in La Mesa La Mesa has been kind of discovered a little bit more because of some of its affordability. Depending on where you are in La Mesa, the median price is going to vary a little bit. There’s a couple zip codes here. If you’re in the main part of La Mesa right now, the median price is just under $900,000. But if you’re more in the Mount Helix area of La Mesa, the median price is over $1.1 million. And realistically to buy a home in Mount helix, you’re going to be really paying anywhere from about $1.5 million on the low end, but really about $2 million on up for a home of Mount helix. And we’ll cover a little bit more about what Mount helix is in a minute. Types of Homes in La Mesa A lot of the homes you can find here are going to be 3 bedroom homes. A lot of mid-century homes that you’ll find here as well, but because like I said, it’s a lot like North Park in an Uptown area, there’s a lot of Craftsmen and Spanish style homes in the older part of La Mesa. Most of those homes were built 80 to a 100 years ago in the older part of La Mesa right around the Downtown La Mesa area. The rest of La Mesa was built out in the 1960s-1970s. Search All Homes for Sale in La Mesa California And so that’s where you get the more mid century homes. Now, what people really love about La Mesa is the Downtown La Mesa and people come of course, from all over La Mesa, but also from San Diego and other parts of East County to spend time in Downtown La Mesa or right around there. Downtown La Mesa has La Mesa Boulevard cutting right through it. Restaurants and Bars in La Mesa And it’s a really, really quaint area, but super cool restaurants and shops that you’ll find here in La Mesa. Some of the places that I really love going to are Hoffer’s, which is a cigar lounge and beer bar; absolutely fantastic beers that they have on tap. And if you like smoking a cigar or pipe, they have a back area, you can sit and do that as well. You don’t find that too often in San Diego is most people don’t smoke, but a lot of people do like to enjoy a cigar every once in a while. There’s also City Tacos, which is a really great Mexican restaurant here. They also have craft beer on tap, but they’re really, really well-known for their tacos. And of course their burritos, they kind of put a gourmet spin on the typical Mexican fare. Another really popular restaurant is Farmer’s Table. It’s a farm to table fair, of course. And it is rather expensive. Be prepared for that, but people absolutely love that. And BO-beau’s Restaurant is also a fantastic restaurant, kind of a higher end restaurant as well, definitely worth checking out great wine selection and old fashioned that you’ll find there as well. And if you’re looking for a great breakfast or lunch spot, then you’ll want to check out Sheldon’s Service Station. It’s an absolutely fantastic breakfast and lunch spot, not open for dinner. And they converted an old gas station or service station into a little restaurant. Absolutely fantastic place to go for breakfast and lunch and enjoy a meal with a friend. And another place that I really love going in La Mesa that’s right outside of Downtown La Mesa, but on La Mesa Boulevard still is called The Hills Pub. I’ve been going to this place for years and they have an absolutely fantastic happy hour from about 3pm-6pm.You can get $4 beers for happy hour. They might raise the prices soon, you never know, but right now, absolutely great happy hour and great appetizers. Just good pub food in a really, really fun environment. They really make a point to know your name if you go there regularly, But even if you just walk in for the first time, they’re going to ask you what your name is, and they’re going to refer to you by your first name, the whole time you’re there, which is really, really cool. They do a spin the wheel thing for happy hour for different specials. And they have a whole backyard area that they built in 2020 and 2021 during COVID. But fortunately they kept it open. So that provides an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while you’re enjoying the beer, which actually in San Diego, believe it or not even with the great weather that we have, we tend to not have a lot of places that have patios. You can actually enjoy the sunshine while you’re eating or drinking. The Hills is definitely a spot worth checking out. My family, and I love to go there and I love going to meet people for drinks as well. Activities You Can Do in La Mesa & Schools La Mesa is right next to Lake Murray. So Lake Murray is an awesome lake. You can walk around. A lot of people walk, run, or bike it. You can’t go all the way around it, but you can do the loop and come back. And it’s about 5 miles in total. It borders Lake Murray and then just to the North of La Mesa is Cowles Mountain. Cowles Mountain is the highest peak in the City of San Diego. And you have a 360 degree view at the top. It’s about a 3 mile round trip hike, and people really love doing it just for daily exercise. My dad used to hike Cowles Mountain and regularly every single week, sometimes a couple of times a week. And people will use this mountain for training for other more strenuous hikes throughout the Sierras of San Diego. We are not in the Sierras, but people will train here in Iron Mountain to get ready for hikes in other parts of California. That’s just right outside of La Mesa. La Mesa is also right next to San Diego State University. If you’re going to school there, you have kids that are going to school there, La Mesa is a great place to be cause you’re right next to it and can easily commute over. Or if you’re looking for rentals that would service the college area or the San Diego State University area, La Mesa is a great place as well. La Mesa really is a fantastic place for families. There are so many families that moved to La Mesa. As I mentioned, a lot of young professionals are moving from San Diego into La Mesa, but a lot of people grew up in La Mesa and just stay there because they absolutely love living in there. And it’s so family friendly. There are some really good schools in La Mesa, Helix High School being a main high school there, and people have a lot of affinity for Helix High. That is definitely a fantastic high school. Homes you can buy in La Mesa Now, again, diving into some of the homes you’re going to find here, a lot of mid-century homes, as I mentioned. And you’re going to be finding a lot of 3 bedroom, 1 bath; 3 bedroom, 2 bath; and some 4 bedroom, 2 bath as well. These are going to range from about $850,000-$1 million now. Again, prices are really moving around a lot right now, so it’s hard to dial in a bit right now, at this time in the video, that’s about the price that you’re going to be paying for a home. And again, a lot of these are going to be mid-century homes. If you’re looking for more of the Craftsmen style or the Spanish style and the older part of the homes, those are going to be breaching a million dollars. And then there’s the Mount Helix area. There is an amphitheater on top of Mount Helix. And so there’s a lot of plays that run throughout the year at Mount Helix. And the homes on Mount Helix tend to be much larger estates, typically a third of an acre, half an acre to an acre or so. You’re going to be paying a lot more for these homes and also much larger homes ranging from 2,500 on the low end, up to about 6,000 or 7,000 sq ft on the higher end. Search all homes for sale in Mount Helix And you’re going to find a lot of homes here with pools as well. Some with views, kind of rural so you can also have chickens here as well. I think you can have livestock on some of the properties, depending on exactly how it’s zoned. But if you’re looking for that kind of life where you’re still in the city, but have a little bit of land, this is the place to be. But these homes are going to be on the pricier side, be prepared to be spending about $2 million and potentially more as you get on Mount Helix. Now, another area of La Mesa that’s definitely worth checking out is called Fletcher Hills. Fletcher Hills is also shared with El Cajon. Depending on where you are, you might have a La Mesa zip code or an El Cajon zip code. And the top part of Fletcher Hills, not all the homes, but some of the homes do have some really incredible views to the East, overlooking El Cajon and looking towards Lakeside and Alpine and the mountains to the East, like El Capitan. Search all homes for sale in Fletcher Hills These homes also are going to be right around in the $1 million price range now. But this is a really great neighborhood of La Mesa. Just to the North of La Mesa is a neighborhood called San Carlos. San Carlos is technically part of the City of San Diego, but it’s worth including here because a lot of the people that live in San Carlos kind of consider themselves La Mesan’s as well. A lot of people kind of go back and forth between the two. So San Carlos has a lot of mid-century homes and you’re going to find a lot of 3 bedroom and 4 bedroom homes also around the $1 million or so price point. And it’s right next to Grossmont Community College, which is a really great junior college or community college that we have here in San Diego. Search All Homes for Sale in San Carlos California Shopping Areas in La Mesa. We going to find most of your shopping, other than kind of the quaint areas of Downtown La Mesa is going to be off of Fletcher Parkway. And you’re also going to have it in Grossmont Center. You’re going to have your Costco’s, your Walmart, your Trader Joe’s, all your chain restaurants and the different activities that you’ll want to find like Jujutsu and boxing and CrossFit. You’re going to find more in these areas as well. That’s kind of where your main shopping area is going to be in La Mesa. If you want to be super close to it, then you’ll want to be closer to Fletcher Parkway or near Grossmont Center. But honestly, any of these shopping centers, if you’re in La Mesa, you’re going to be able to get to those in 5 to 10 minutes at the most. That’s an overview of the city of La Mesa. Curtis Chism, Realtor858-281-2568 | Mobilemailto:info@sandiegohomes.ioChism Team | DRE #02105113brokered by eXp Realty | DRE #01878277
Read More5 Things I Hate About San Diego
What are the Top 5 things that I hate about San Diego? We’re going to get after that right now. These are not going to be a big deal to everyone, but as a local, these are the things we think about and the things that we maybe don’t like so much about it. Some people may not think they’re a big deal, so let’s get after it right now. The top five things that you need to know before moving to San Diego, that I might not like so much about it. #5: Traffic We’ll start with number 5 and that absolutely has to be the Traffic. Traffic’s bad here in San Diego. Let’s face it. I mean, fortunately it’s not as bad as say Los Angeles, but it is certainly heavy traffic at certain times of the day when people are trying to get home from work or go to work in the morning, there’s very heavy traffic on certain freeway. Some are worse than others. Some aren’t so bad. The worst freeways are the 805 coming out of the South Bay. A lot of folks from either Mexico or Chula Vista or National City coming up into the City of San Diego to work. Also traffic, I mean from North County into San Diego. So kind of the coastal 5 freeway or the 15 freeway, those can back up the 5 gets worse than the 15 freeway but a lot of people live up in those areas and say, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista, Escondido. And they’re coming south to work in the City of San Diego for the traffic backs up in the morning. And then also an East County, folks that live out in Santee, Lakeside, Alpine, El Cajon, they’re coming west into the City of San Diego. The 52 freeway and the 8 freeway can really back up as well. Now again, on the flip side in the afternoon, people are going back home and the freeways can back up going that way as well. Weekends coming from Los Angeles, there are a lot of people that love to visit San Diego on the weekends. So traffic can get really, really gnarly on Saturday morning. Sunday evenings when people are going back on specifically the 5 freeway because even though it’s a 4 lane highway, it’s just not enough to handle all the traffic from people coming from Orange County and Los Angeles. Traffic is definitely one of the biggest downsides to living here in San Diego. Fortunately, the traffic patterns are somewhat predictable. Like I just described it’s that morning rush hour, that evening rush hour as well, unless there’s a traffic accident in the middle of the day, you’re probably not going to get stuck on other cities like Los Angeles. I lived in Los Angeles for over a year and enjoyed my time, but was glad to come back to San Diego. And man, the traffic was terrible there. You never know when the traffic’s going to be. They got rush hour; morning, and afternoon, but really any time during the day, it could be terrible. You just never know. It’s hard to make plans for how long does it take you to get anywhere? San Diego is a lot better about that. No matter what you want to plug your destination into your Google maps or your apple maps, whatever you use, you can calculate that traffic pattern and see how long it’s going to take you. It’s always a good idea to do that and plan ahead. You can also maybe avoid some of the traffic as well. #4: Weather The number four thing that I hate about San Diego is the weather. That sounds crazy to say right? San Diego supposedly has some of the best weather in the nation and around the world. “It’s always 70° and sunny.” That’s actually the average temperature in the city of San Diego itself is about 70°. Now that being said, the City of San Diego is pretty temperate. It stays pretty stable, but we certainly have our hot months and we have our cold months. In the summertime, especially maybe July a little bit, but really August and September and really October as well. Those are the hottest months in both the City and the County of San Diego. The county of San Diego is huge. It’s a huge land area and it covers a huge range of geography. Everywhere from the ocean, all the way to the mountains and to the desert as well. It can get insanely hot in the desert. I mean, we’re talking 110°, 120° routinely during the summer. The desert is kind of off limits in the summertime, you don’t really want to go out there. You’re not going to be doing the dune buggy, the motorcycling and the camping that you might want to do during Desert Season. Desert Season is really from about maybe October, but really November through the early part of April. April gets a little bit, but in the City of San Diego, in the more immediate surrounding counties like Santee, El Cajon, Alpine or North County in Escondido, San Marcos; it can get really hot during the summertime into the 100s°, the low 100s°, high 90s°, low 100s°, it gets hot. Some of these homes that were built, they were built in the 1970s or before. And a lot of them don’t have air conditioning because not that it wasn’t really around per se, it’s just that it wasn’t really needed. It was a little bit cooler environment than it is now. And so a lot of homes don’t have air conditioning. If you’re buying a home, you definitely want to make sure that it has air conditioning or that you can easily retrofit it because a lot of homes may not have air conditioning. So keep in mind, it can get super hot here. Even in the City of San Diego, we can have some really hot months where it gets into the 80s° and 90s°. That’s hot for us when you’re not used to it. You’re used to be more 70° when it spikes to 95° in the city, it feels really hot. On the flip side, it can get rather cold, both in the city and in the counties as well. Again, we got the mountains, there’s its snows in the mountains, definitely during the winter time. You’re definitely going to be in the 30s°, the 20s° routinely at night, but back in the more of the city and kind of more immediate surrounding areas of the city, it can get really cold as well, routinely into the 30s° at night. You just don’t realize it. And in the city, it’s really kind of a wet cold because we have the marine layer that comes in from the ocean. It’s this heavy kind of wet cold. It might only be 60°. That doesn’t sound that cold to most people, but it actually feels really cold because it’s damp. People that come from drier climates, where they’re used to it being kind of cold, you know, and it’s snowing and it’s in the 10s° or 20s° or whatever sometimes, they come here and they’re actually surprised that it can be kind of cold. That’s really like January. That’s probably the coldest month and a little bit into February. That’s where it can be a bit colder. #3: Only So Much You Can Do The third thing that I hate about San Diego is there’s only so much you can do here. I know people come here and they think: I’m just going to go to the beach every day and I’m going to surf every day. It kind of wears off after a while, unless you’re just a really avid surfer. You’re probably not going to go to the beach every single day and surf every day. It gets old after a while. There’s other things you can do like hiking, but again, some of those hikes might become kind of routine. We’ve got Cowles Mountain, Iron Mountain, Potato Chip Rock and other trails around in Mission Trails. But how many times do you want to do these? It can get kind of routine. But on the other hand, it’s kind of nice to have a routine and know that like, “Hey, I’m going to do this hike. I know how long it takes me. I know how hard it is and you can plan accordingly”. There’s only so much that you can do that. We do have 1 professional sports team now, as far as Padres. We have a soccer team as well.. But as far as like football, baseball, basketball, we only have the Padres. Baseball team used to have the Chargers, but they decided to ditched down and, and leave us all behind and moved up to Los Angeles. A lot of San Diegans are still pretty bitter about that. And they’re not that great usually. Every year people get excited at Spring Training and everyone’s like, “this is the year”. And then every year they end up sucking just like usual. Padres have never won a championship, that’s kind of disappointing, but you know, it’s fun to go to nonetheless. Petco Park, it’s a really fun experience for the family. Bringing a date, whatever it might be. How many times can you go to the Padres game? So that’s something to keep in mind just that sometimes things might come become routine. You think you’re moving to a new city, you’re going to all these different things. And then you may settle into a routine. You really gotta make an effort to actually keep finding new themes to do. #2: Fires We do have fires in the County of San Diego, not really in the city, but we do have a very rural area here in the San Diego County. As I said, it covers a wide range of land and geography. We’ll have fires out in the countryside. We had a big fire in 2003 called the Cedar Fire, the Witch Fire believe in 2007. And fortunately I haven’t had a major fire recently, but fires do still pop up. And because so many homes have been built in rural areas, they do threaten people’s homes, their lives, their animals, their livestock, and it creates a ton of anxiety and of course, property damage for people when it happens. That can happen, especially if you’re moving to a more rural area. What’s happening now is that anyone that lives in a rural area has to have a 100 foot defensible space around their house to help keep the fire from actually threatening their home if it gets too close. Also everyone has to have fire insurance if they’re in a high fire hazard area, and that can be really expensive. Oftentimes you have to go through a state fund in order to get it. And that can be $3,000 to $4,000 per year for that extra insurance if you’re in a high fire hazard zone. #2: Cost of Living And the #1 thing I hate about San Diego is the cost of living. It is very, very expensive to live here. In fact, there was recently a report that came out that says “San Diego is the least affordable city in the entire country, even worse than Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City”. I mean, it’s really actually kind of hard to believe, but the way that they’re looking at it is because the median price of homes and the median income that people are actually making here. Folks that live in San Diego tend to make a little bit less money as compared to San Francisco and Los Angeles or New York. And so therefore the cost of living for home buying is higher. If you’re moving here and you’re trying to buy a home, most likely you’re going to need dual income in order to do it right now. The median price is approaching a $1M in the County of San Diego, and it seems to be continuing to rise. You have to be prepared for a high cost of living. As far as home affordability, probably going to have to have 2 incomes in order to buy a home here. If you’re buying a condo, maybe not, maybe you can get away with 1 income. But that’s certainly a really high cost here you have to factor in. We also have high utility costs. Our gas prices are very high. There’s a lot of state income taxes on our gas. Gas can be really expensive. I mean, right now when I’m recording this, high inflation, so gas prices are right around $6 a gallon. They should go down soon, but you never know. We’re usually about $2 higher than anywhere else in the nation. That’s always high. And then San Diego has one of the highest utility bills, as far as our gas and electric provider, San Diego gas and electric, they’re owned by Sempra energy and they’re the most profitable company in their portfolio. And it’s because they charge us so much money. So depending on the size of your house, I mean, you’re going to be paying probably anywhere from $150 on up to probably $400-$500 a month, depending on how large your home is, how much your heating and cooling, where you’re located. If you’re in a hot area, you’re going to be spending more, pretty expensive for gas and electric here. And the water’s a little expensive too. It’s not as bad, but it’s certainly expensive as well. Cost of living is pretty high here. You got to keep all those things in mind when you’re looking to move to San Diego. One great factor though, about San Diego and about California is our property taxes are actually relatively low. They’re capped at 1% of the purchase price. If you bought a home for $1 million, the purchase price or the property taxes on that are going to be 1% or $10,000 per year, they can go up at 2% of that $10,000 every single year. This is a result of Proposition 13 that was passed quite a while ago now, about 40 or 50 years ago. And so it caps the property taxes. There’s a lot of folks in the legislature that are trying to undermine that and get rid of that. But it really helps provide a lot of affordability for people, through their property taxes, to stay in their homes. And now there’s a new proposition that came out that allows senior citizens over 55 to actually sell their home and then move that tax base over to their new home. If you have a home that you’re paying $3,000 a year on, but you sold out for a million dollars and you want to go buy another home, that’s a $1 million, you can actually pay that $3,000 still instead of that 10,000. That’s actually a cool feature about California and our property taxes. Those are the 5 things that I hate about San Diego. Curtis Chism, Realtor858-281-2568 | Mobilemailto:info@sandiegohomes.ioChism Team | DRE #02105113brokered by eXp Realty | DRE #01878277
Read More
Categories
Recent Posts