Best I can tell, Santa Fe Hills are also between RSF and Santaluz or, more accurately, between the The Crosby and Santaluz. I think that is still Rancho Bernardo, but the lots seem very large from what I was able to find yesterday.
I have looked at a few homes in Del Mar Mesa and Del Mar Meadows. Too dense for my taste and the homes more McMansionish than I want, though a few were large enough. Overpriced too. I saw one that has been on the market for 250 days or so that is listing for probably $500k more than it should compared to comps in RSF. And every house on the street looked virtually identical. That is what I have now and I am trying to get away from what I have now.
I am not against McMansions per se, Cielo is McMansions and even Santaluz, but I want at least the illusion of variety. Those areas you mention left nothing to the imagination, your neighbor had a virtually identical house. In Cielo for example, you may find the same model in many places, but not usually on your street. You may not even see it on the way to your street. But there are clearly many of the same models scattered throughout the area, others not so much. Some even look semi custom.
I view $1 million+ homes as tract, McMansion, high end McMansion, semi custom, and custom. I am on the left of that hierarchy now in, as my father would say “an overpriced cookie cutter home.” He was a building contractor. I prefer the far right custom homes (Fairbanks Ranch, the Covenant, RSF Farms, Rancho Valencia, Del Mar Country Club), but am not above a high end McMansion that is one of 20 models in a subdivision/area (Cielo, Santaluz), rather than 3-4 (my current neighborhood).
Essentially I am looking for the opposite of what I have now, which is why I am not looking in Carmel Valley. I have a 2,600sf 4BR, Mediteranian tract home that I paid way to much for 8 yrs ago in a semi-gated community, on a wopping 4k sf lot that is one of 4 floor plans and 4 exterior models to choose from in the neighborhood and where you can pick from 6 exterior colors and trims. In other words, too dense, and you may have trouble identifying your own house without an address cuz it don’t stand out. It is “expensive” (a relative term) only becasue it is in a “nice” part of San Jose (don’t confuse with what you in SD consider nice, even in the city of SD, you have to lower your standards in the Bay Area) near key highways and employers, and at 17 yrs old, is very new for the Bay Area where there is not much new construction in popular areas and 30-60 yr old ranch homes are a dime a dozen.
To me, the nicest parts of the Bay Area are Los Altos Hills, Woodside, Portola Valley, Hillsborough, and Los Altos. They are also the most expensive, along with uberpricy Atherton. But none of those towns are as nice as RSF, Del Mar, or La Jolla IMHO. They are nicer than Santaluz, but Santaluz still wins b/c it is in SD and you get twice the house per $$ in Santaluz than those Bay Area towns (though Santaluz is still overpriced for SD).
To boot, you get a much bigger house in SD. In those nice parts of the Bay Area above, a 6,000 sf house on 1+ acre will set you back $7 million or more, although you can find either very old or low quality newer ones for $5 million or so. In RSF you can find that for $3 million or so, less than 1/2 as much.
There is a 5,800 SF 5BR custom Mediteranian 1/4 mile from my current house for sale (not in my tract neighborhood, just beyond it) on 4/10ths of an acre selling for $3.5 million. Overpriced, yes, but it would cost double that in one of the above towns (as would my own 1/2 the size on 1/4 the lot cookie cutter abode). Homes that large are very rare up here and common down there. Believe it or not, in this general neighborhood of San Jose, the average home is 1,800-2,000 sf. My house is considered big, over 3,000 sf is considered huge. The one above is by far the largest I have seen in this immediate area.
Apologies to 4SBuyer for hijacking his/her thread. And no disrespect intended for residents of Del Mar Medows, Mesa, or CV. After all, I live in a tract home. I actually like my current house and neighborhood quite a bit and used to live in CV and loved it. I just want something different now, for many reasons.
