I know the area very well, if you are refering to the hills of Alta Vista it is all off the Escondido ave exit, N. of 78 and above the library and city hall, south of but close to brengle terrace park, it is all customs, most are larger and have been there 20+ years. If that is what you are talking about it is nice but like any pocket of nice, you eventually have to send your kids to school or go to the store. The crime rate has fallen and the downtown area has gotten a lot of improvements but I personally couldn’t conduct the social experiment of making my kid the only blonde kid in his class. The further east you go the nicer and bigger it gets. Drive on Postal Way and Townsite drive, both within 1 mile of Alta Vista on either end and if you are cool with that then you should be fine. This is a short term real estate question so you also have to think that potential buyers may also look at the schools and those pesky online stats that show huge numbers of english learners, free lunch recipients and rotten scores at your school so they will factor in the cost of private school when comparing to carlsbad. It’s a shame that areas within a mile are so seedy because the houses are really cool up in the hills, unfortunately you can hear the drive by shootings from the top of the hill, this is not a joke, go to the house you like at night on a weekend and you will hear gunshots from the townsite area.
