Commute wise, UC and Mira Mesa would be first choices…(except buying a small townhome in LJ zip code – near LJ Village Square). Schools in those will certainly be good enough too. Now the problem is finding a decent enough house at a decent enough price… I suppose given the schools and commute advantages we should be able to compromise on size (for 500K range).

Edit: A cursory look tells me that there was no SFR currently for sale in UC for ~500K, and just a handful in 600K range. Probably we can’t afford UC area unless we buy something REALLY tiny or a townhome with huge HOAs. It seems that Mira Mesa it is…API scores are better than I thought for those schools. Not that the API is the be-all and end-all necessarily but still.