Here’s some more data that I believe help explains a price premium:

Crime Rates per 1,000 Population for 2005.

http://www.sandiego.gov/police/pdf/ratesjandec2005.pdf

MURDER,RAPE,TOTAL VIOLENT,TOTAL PROPERTY

Carmel Valley:

0.00,0.06,0.76,19.14

Mira Mesa:

0.07,0.14,2.56,22.40

You can also look up school rankings, the San Dieguito Union High District (Torrey Pines, Carmel Valley Middle, Canyon Crest) all receive the highest rankings. As do all the schools in the Del Mar Union Elementary District (Carmel Del Mar, Torrey Hills, etc).

The San Diego Unified District is much more of a mixed bag, with some good, some okay, and some where I really wouldn’t want my kids to go to school.

http://school-ratings.com/cities/San_Diego.html

You can also do the same type of comparisons for Scripps Ranch, etc and it’s surrounding areas to see similar results.