We just wanted to live somewhere central, and I’ve always thought this general area was pretty good bang for the buck. We looked in Clairemont, Bay Park, Bay Ho, and University City. We also looked, just for kicks, in a couple places in more far flung areas (University Heights and Hillcrest, where I’ve lived before, and which I like), as well as PB, but those were never huge contenders.
I will note that we specifically targeted places that are NOT known for their good school systems. People pay a huge premium for areas with good schools, and since we don’t have kids, that would be wasted money for us. If we had kids, the calculus might have been very different.
Another thing to note is that I, personally, put a huge premium on being central. I just hate sitting in the car and consider it wasted time. But I know that’s not the case with everyone. Just worth noting that my “centrality premium” is higher than average.
Anyway, like Bewildering, for us it just came down to finding the right house/neighborhood among the ones we were looking in. That happened to be in Bay Park (the second place one was actually in University City).
As far as living here, I love it. It’s a great house and neighborhood*, at a price we could afford (back then anyway!), and extremely convenient.
It’s convenient both externally and internally:
– it’s very central and close to freeways, so quick to get pretty much anywhere within SD
– but also internally, there is pretty much everything you need here in terms of stores, etc.
* The “hit or miss” nature of this general area has been noted. Some neighborhoods are nice, some pretty dumpy, and then there are some that are quite mixed (nicely remodeled houses right next to ones in pretty bad shape). It doesn’t bother me, I kind of like the variety. But expect to see the whole spectrum here.
Regarding Bay Park in specific, since I’ve moved here it’s become a better place to live as better businesses/restaurants have been opening nearby, including a lot on south Morena.
Also worth noting, they are putting in a trolley… it’s worth considering whether that directly impacts the property you are looking at.
