My husband and I moved to Encinitas May 2008 and had our 1st son Jan 2009. It is amazing how quickly I went from not noticing any of our neighbors with little ones to seeing that our neighborhood has many young families. I’ve met several young moms at the nearest playgrounds,etc. Just last month one of our neighbor’s moved and a young pregnant couple moved in just 2 door’s down. I love Encinitas and am excited to have a great school system. I’ve heard great things about carlsbad too and would be very surprised if you’d be any happier in SEH than Carlsbad. Similar to your wife, I find myself drooling over the shiny granite counters in the new model homes I see on SDLookup, but really I think there are a lot of benefits to the well established communities of the coast. I have nothing against the SEH area, but just think that you’ll be surprised to see that your whole perspective of your community changes once you have kids. I think you’ll find that Carlsbad is very family friendly. Just my 2 cents…