Location: On the east side of Mt. Soledad, not far from where the slide on Soledad Mountain Rd was. If you get a slide inside the Ridgegate complex, values in that complex will drop substantially. I have been told that much of the area along Ridgegate Row is not very stable, and that it’s just a matter of time. Access to the North 5 is tough, you need to either go out the 52, loop around at Clairemont Blvd, or just go to the 805. Or, go up Torrey Pines and out at La Jolla Blvd. South 5 isn’t so easy either, since Soledad Mountain Rd is closed, and the intersection of Grand and Mission Bay Drive is always a pain. Of course the access problem is something that’s not unique to Ridgegate but a problem for all of La Jolla.
Floor Plans: While the places are newer than most of La Jolla, and the floor plans reasonably good size, I don’t consider that many of them as well thought out. For instance, in a couple of plans, the living room, kitchen and master bedroom are on the top floor that you come in on. The Family room and other bedrooms are downstairs. Now, I don’t know about other people’s kids, but when my stepson was younger, there would have been no way he’d been okay with sleeping downstairs where the boogey man lives. I know, not a very rational complaint, just one of those things I’ve learned to watch out for in life.
Price: Hard to say how long prices will hold in this community. So far the sellers are holding tough. But not much is selling, and I really don’t know how long they can hold out. One or two foreclosures and the prices will reset down accordingly. PadreBrian claims that most of these places weren’t bought with questionable loans. Maybe so, but I wouldn’t be so sure that recent sales haven’t been on option arms, or that people haven’t refinanced themselves into other not so safe loans.
