Having bought several homes, I can tell you what I’ve slowly discovered are my priority when picking a neighborhood:

Proximity:
– 1 hour or less to downtown SD
– 30 min or less to my office
– 10 min or less to freeway entrance
– 10 min or less to nearest grocery store, restaurant, gym

Feel:
– Nice homes between home and freeway
– Nice wide streets
– 20 feet or more setback of homes from sidewalk
– Surrounding properties are kept up
– “open feel” to area

Safety:
– Lack of bars on windows
– Lack of dilapidated vehicles
– Average crime rate or better

If it doesn’t pass those tests, we don’t bother even stopping.

Then we get down to the home itself and price. We’re big on “bang for the buck” which narrows down neighborhoods even more…