Traffic on Via de la Valle is really awful, so personally, I wouldn’t want a condo across from the track.

I don’t think of UTC as coastal, and it seems more cookie cutter than CV will ever be.

CV *is* very homogeneous, but I disagree that it could be anywhere. It’s very SoCal homogeneous, in that shiny upscale kind of way, and you can make your condo feel coastal, so I think it’s a good compromise.

Leucadia is the quintessential SoCal beach town, but in the price point we’re talking about, you’re not going to find anything satisfactory. Same for Encinitas.

Carlsbad (92011) has some condos in the low $400s, even with ocean views(!), but they are really old. The laundry rooms are in separate buildings, the ceilings need to be scraped, there is probably lead in paint and maybe even asbestos in the ceilings. (My idea of a weekend getaway is NOT living in some decrepit building where I have to feed quarters to a machine next to garage – ick.)

And the Carlsbad neighborhoods are really mixed and pretty rundown if you’re just east of the 5 where all the condos are. West of the 5, forget about it (i.e. some nice stuff, but it’s not going to be $400k.)

Obviously, it’s all about your preferences and what makes you happy. My preferences are for something nice and pretty and close to services and the beach. But everybody’s different!