I have to chime in and say I would not be very excited to wake up every day and say, “wow I live in Lakeside or Ramona”. Lakeside and Ramona are not exactly cool & breezy in the summers either (though admittedly much cooler than Phoenix). And I would doubt $350k buys you much out there anyway right now if you really investigated it. Especially when you add in the cost of all the fix up you would have to do on an older property. If I was living in SD I would definitely choose to rent in a much nicer, higher end, closer to the coast communities or I 15 corridor (Scripps, PQ, RB, etc..) with a much more educated crowd vs. buying in Lakeside or Ramona.
True you can get some space out in these communities and elbow room, and if you want to be in a semi rural area with a very blue collar working class vibe with lot’s of “fine” fast food cuisine and old strip centers with liquor stores, it may work. But they just don’t have this nice feel like it’s a place you would really aspire to be. Most educated people are just not going to want to live in East County or Old Chula Vista no matter how much bearishgirl promotes them:) Just ain’t gonna happen. They are just flat out kinda dumpy across the board no matter how you slice it.
Also Arizona in summer you can escape up to the White Mountains on the New Mexico border around Alpine that are cool in the summer, you can go up to the San Juans in SW Colorado near Durango, Lake Powell, Flagstaff, etc…
For the record I personally would choose a smaller place to rent close to coast in SD over AZ if given the choice. But I don’t have kids. But I do not think AZ is that bad as long as you have a plan for those 4 summer mos of pure hell. And I think you can get a WAY, WAY nicer house there than SD.
Even though I would choose SD over AZ if given the choice, I think the ocean is overrated. I don’t live in SD anymore, but when I did I only went there say maybe twice a month and I don’t miss it at all. I don’t see why people go so gah gah over it. I guess maybe if you are a super avid surfer or something. But to me it’s not that great since the water is too cold to swim 12 mos a year and the sand is not like HI, FL or Carribean sand. Also there is only one stretch of beach that has been preserved (Torrey Pines). Most of the rest are so developed with concrete right to the edge and fast food restaurants, traffic and crowds, to me it’s just not the end all and be all at all. Give me mountains, snow, rivers, meadows, creeks, trees over those crowded cold water beaches any day.
