dejams, try renting a condo/townhouse at SD Spectrum while you investigate the market. These are brand new units right near your work.

Also try the neighborhood behind Fry’s Electronics off of the 15 (Aero Dr). Those are also new developments (less than 10 years). You can go to Balboa/163 pretty easily using surface streets.

I recommend renting a newer home since they tend to be better built with less maintenance issues.

If school district is not that important, live near where you work. At the low you can buy an older house and put $100k into it to refurbish it — better than paying Mello Roos and HOA.

Gas is back to $3 now. If it goes to $4 this summer, it’ll put a real damper on the market, in my view.