Where should I buy a home in San Diego?

May 22, 2015 3:02 PM

In a few months I will be moving to San Diego to start a (permanent, hopefully) job at UCSD. I’m beginning to look at buying a home in the area and I would love to hear some advice about where I should live. What neighborhoods would work best for me?

I saw this previous question and it is similar to what I’m asking except I’d like to buy something, not rent: http://ask.metafilter.com/255665/Where-should-I-live-in-San-Diego

Here are a bunch of details about me: I’m single and will be living alone. I don’t need much space, but I would like to have 2 bedrooms (1 for me, 1 for guests). I don’t care at all about the quality of nearby school districts. I will be searching for a house or condo <$600k. In the past I have lived in Berkeley, CA and Tucson, AZ and LOVED both places. I like hipster-y coffee shops. I would love to live by the beach, but recognize this might be too expensive. I also love the desert, and would be willing to live inland. Someday I'd like to get a dog and have somewhere for it to run around. In a perfect world, I'd want to have a backyard with lemon and grapefruit trees. A short commute to UCSD would be wonderful, but I’m willing to trade off commute time for living in a nice place.

Things I would hate: living anywhere that has a golf course nearby, isolated subdivisions with nowhere to walk, malls.

I can imagine enjoying these kinds of places to live:
1) a house or condo near the beach
2) a house or condo in a cool neighborhood where I could walk to most places
3) a house somewhere farther from the city but nearby lovely nature areas (canyon, open space)

Thanks for your help!

posted by kms to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

from what i know of the area, probably pacific beach? my brother used to live there, and it seemed pretty walkable and happening. not crazy cheap, but there's some stuff in your price range. ~20m/7-8m from UCSD.
posted by koroshiya at 3:17 PM on May 22, 2015

You should totally call my friend Ken Schwartz. We went to UCSD together and now he's a real estate agent in San Diego specializing in the types of property that are right in your range. He's super helpful and is normally happy to discuss the types of neighborhoods that might be a good fit for you.

If I were moving back to SD, I would look at either North Park or Hillcrest for "a house or condo in a cool neighborhood where I could walk to most places" which is also close to Balboa Park for your dog friendly needs.

For "a house or condo near the beach" I'd look at Pacific or Mission Beach.
posted by Arbac at 3:47 PM on May 22, 2015

I also went to UCSD and have lived in san diego for 13 years. check out the uptown neighborhoods of hillcrest, mission hills, north park, normal heights, south park and university heights. all are walkable, packed with great stuff, and near balboa park. with a ~500k - 600k budget, you'll definitely be able to find a house or condo in any of those neighborhoods (normal heights and north park being the cheapest). ocean beach is about fifteen minutes west. commute to UCSD from uptown is around 20-30 minutes depending on traffic. bonus! there is a free UCSD shuttle that leaves every half hour from the hillcrest medical center (right where hillcrest and mission hills meet) and heads straight to campus, if you'd rather read than drive.
posted by changeling at 6:39 PM on May 22, 2015

Great suggestions for neighborhoods above. I suggest you spend a little time every morning and afternoon checking out sigalert.Com to see what the traffic patterns are going to and from your work area. Also, I know you said you don't care about schools but when talking about real estate investing I think it's always smart to consider what the school district is like, both to determine if the sales price is inflated, and to protect your resale value in the future. For that, spend some time on greatschools.com.
posted by vignettist at 8:38 PM on May 22, 2015

Hillcrest, for the shuttle. Or another neighborhood around Balboa Park. There's actually a lot of lovely natural space, in the form of the park and canyons through the neighborhoods, right in those neighborhoods.

Pacific Beach won't likely be to your taste if you like Tucson and Berkeley— it's more bro-town. And you can walk to a few shops in the business district, but it's disconnected from other neighborhoods.

Also keep the connections to the future UCSD trolley in mind:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jul/21/mid-coast-trolley-sandag-la-jolla-utc/

If you want uncool/cheap/inland, La Mesa is relatively walkable and is still a place where transit commutes are possible.
posted by akgerber at 9:19 PM on May 22, 2015

How attached are you to your vehicle? If you embrace public transit, definitely consider going up the coast a bit. Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, etc. Otherwise, I'd opt for a condo walking distance to Balboa Park, probably even more than Ocean or Pacific Beaches, but those are worth a look.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 1:10 PM on May 23, 2015

I just moved away from San Diego--a city I loved dearly. Other folks are right that the Hillcrest/North Park/Normal Heights/South Park/University Heights/Mission Hills neighborhoods would fulfill the "cool neighborhoods where you can buy a place with a yard" category. I wanted to live by the beach and rented in North Pacific Beach, which would be a pretty easy commute to UCSD and lacked the "bro" culture other MeFites didn't like about Pacific and Mission Beaches. (That said, there are plenty of non "bro's" in those areas too, and they're very walkable.) Bird Rock and La Jolla itself are also beautiful and near the water, but they start to get pricey. You may want to consider Encinitas and Leucadia--funky beach towns that should work for a commute to UCSD. (I'd've lived in Encinitas except the commute wouldn't have worked for me.) I'd recommend Ocean Beach, except I think in practice the commute would be a drag.
posted by Nx at 4:54 PM on May 23, 2015