Nor Cal Knottie Needs Help

stbmittleman

Hi Everyone!

I'm a Nor Cal knottie and my DH and I may be moving to San Diego (we'll find out for sure in October). We don't know the area very well and I was hoping for some help on places to look to either buy or rent. If we buy, I want to stay under $450k, and just looking around see that will get us a cond/townhome. Could you recommend any areas for us to look at? Ideally, we would like to be within a short drive of the beach. If not possible, we are okay with suburbs. I was hoping for a yuppie area, with a lot of younger families. We've also looked at Laguna Niguel. Would that be too far of a commute into downtown San Diego? Thanks for any help!

princesskl@hotmail.com

i'm not sure where laguna niguel is, sorry.  mh & i moved here a year ago this august, what's worked best for us is renting an apartment.  i won't lie, it's definitely challenging to do if you've been living in your own home!  we've been able to explore the area more w/out feeling "the pressure to buy before we move here". 

we like where we are right now.  it's called mission valley.  imo, it's a great central location to other areas w/ in the city.  we're about 7 minutes from balboa park & downtown, about 8 miles to ocean beach, 9 miles to mission beach, 10 miles to pacific beach & 11 to la jolla ~ all beach communities.

they apartment community we're in is called archstone apartments.  anytime we've had a maintenance request, it was done w/ in 24 hrs or sooner.  there's a pool & hot tub, exercise room & pretty landscaping. we're also right on the trolley line which is so convenient!

good luck!  hope you guys make it here.  it's great city to live in. 

http://www.archstoneapartments.com/

 

Cristin Welch

Laguna Niguel would be a doozie...I could not do it everyday.It may be a 4 hour commute with traffic to downtown. On a good day....like at 3am when no one is on the 5, that drive is about an hour and a half....

SillyStraw

Laguna Niguel is Orange County - definitely would not do that. It depends on what part of San Diego he will be working in (I assume its for a job...) If it is like downtown, I'd stick to south county. Traffic downtown from north county would be unbearable. (at least for me it is) I'd probably rent an apt first and get to know the areas before buying anything. Obviously the closer you are to the ocean, the more $$ houses are. Sorry I don't really have specific information on prices in different areas, I think you'd be pretty lucky to find something for $450K terribly close to the coast though. Hopefully somebody here who has recently house hunted can be a better help.

stbmittleman

Thank you for all your suggestions ladies! ::fingers crossed:: hopefully I'll be a San Diego nestie soon!

vigiltini

We are buying in Chula Vista (East of the 805 freeway) and the houses are under 450k over here (3-4bd/ 2-3ba). And you can get a decent ocean view for not being that close. I like Chula, it's a little out of the way from downtown, but everything you could need is close, and downtown is like 25 minutes away (if that), but everywhere in SD is 20min! I like the smaller feel of it compared to others. JMO

 

Cheer