Well join the rest of us! Most all of the engineers here including myself work in the Sorrento Valley, 92121. You DON”T want to commute from Escondido. Not a good option at all.
Working outward from Sorrento Valley, to the north is Carmel Valley which is 92130 and has a very very good school district. North of Carmel Valley is Del Mar and Solana Beach which unless you are willing to spend a million bucks you should not bother living in. Of course these neighborhoods are very nice and have great schools as well. North of Solana Beach is Cardiff, and then Encinitas, La Costa and Carlsbad. Less expensive then Del Mar and Solana Beach but not cheap places to live by any means. These are all coastal locations and all of them are closer then Escondido. Due east of Sorrento Valley is Mira Mesa which gets alot of grief from many people on this board. East of Mira Mesa is Scripps where I live. Not a bad place to live. North of Scripps is Poway and north of Poway is Sabre Springs and Rancho Bernardo. Poway and Rancho Bernardo are part of the Poway school disctrict which is a good school district as well. West of Poway but east of Carmel Valley is Rancho Penasquitos which is part of the Poway school district as well. Now, north of Rancho Bernardo is Escondido and San Marcos. Also in Rancho Bernardo is a community called 4S Ranch where alot of engineers live. South of Sorrento Valley is University City and Clairemont. South and west of Sorrento Valley is La Jolla and south of La Jolla is Pacific Beach…
I could go on and on but I don’t think it serves a purpose. You will get alot of responses to this post. People will most likely tout where they live which is a good thing. Better then living somewhere and not touting it right? Pride in your neighborhood is healthy.
My DIRECT advice is to hand out and rent for a year or two if you could afford it. Even if your company is going to offer to pay for closing costs, see if you could negotiate a substitute such as them paying for a couple months rent for you in lieu of those closing costs.
Get to know the city and the different neighborhoods. Learn about the different school districts. In the end you will find that taking your time is much better then buying a home in a city in which you know little about or making a decision based on blog entries.
