SD R was refering to San Carlos recommendation I believe.
To recap, I am unfamiliar with UC in terms of buying a house there, since it was out of our price range, except perhaps for a couple outliers a year (that were usually tiny or fixers) – so we had little incentive to get to know UC SFRs – diminished returns and focused instead of what was affordable with a decent selection of inventory. I still think that is the case. Not many at all at low 500K in UCto CHOOSE something we LIKE. CAN it happen? Sure, I know I buy only one house, but I don’t know how likely it is. But I keep an eye on it via Realtor.com listings. It is more likely I will find something like that, that we LIKE in SR (which I know somewhat and plan to get to know better). ShortEST commute isn’t everything – I could buy a condo in LJ/UTC or an SFR in Clairemont – which I’ve considered and rejected. 30-35′ is still ok if I get a larger house with some yard in a nice neighborhood with young kids. Most PQ houses have no or very low HOAs and very few have low MRs. Same goes with Scripps Ranch.
Again, depends how each values various trade-offs.
BG, we may just value things differently that’s all.
Before, I used to live pretty much across the lake Hodges from North County Mall. That was an additional 15′-20′ at least at rush hour than Carmel Mtn Ranch or Sabre Springs (all in 92128 zipcode).
Edit: No family in town. I put commute first, before schools.
