10-12 years ago it was relatively inexpensive. If memory serves when we bought at the end of 95, Encinitas was not much more than expensive areas in Poway and RB.
It was (is?) the most affordable beach city not named Oceanside north of downtown. Our criteria was west of I-5, a price that we could survive on my 35K or her 40K salary(provided we only ate ramen), that left out Cardiff on south, and Carlsbad did not have much west of I-5 back then, so Encinitas it was.
I do think a lot of the housing east of I-5 to be at best no better than Carmel Valley and a bit sedating. The strip west of I-5 is a different story. You have Swami’s, you have what appears to me the highest concentration of yoga studios in San Diego, you have old style cafe’s down the street from fancy Italian Restaurants down the street from taco stand on Hwy 101 in downtown Encinitas. You have the beach surf culture. The housing styles and are all over the map. On our part of the street there isn’t even a sidewalk or streetlight. In comparison, I do find Carmel Valley and Poway a bit boring in its sameness.
Personally I prefer Point Loma for the older neighborhood and proximaty to downtown, but we could not afford it back then either (plus there is no beach). PB, OB are certainly funkier, but Encinitas doesn’t feel a bit safer. For us, it was the sweet spot of affordability, , beach, funkieness, schools. Probably still is.
