I live in that area and can give some opinion. I only rent in the area, but I do like it there. I spend some time in SEH at friends and a couple of the parks there with my children, but have never spent much time in 4S or Scripps Ranch.
The area around Stagecoach is pretty safe – I doubt that it is significantly different than SEH. The area is in the Encinitas School district (even though it has a Carlsbad zip code). In that particular area your child would attend Mission Estancia Elementary I think, which is a very good school – SEH elemetary is very good also, but feeds into San Marcos High School – which is an okay shcool, just not as good as the schools in Encinitas.
2 “negatives”:
1. The high school is just up the street, so you do have to watch out for certain periods of time with heavy traffic consisting mostly of high school drivers. If there is something in the area I have thought was unsafe, it is the proximity of the intersection of Calle timiteo and Camino de Los Coches to the children’s play structure in the park. It is only a matter of time before one of the high school kids who speed around the corner hits a tree there (but it has not happened yet that I know of).
2. I do walk through the neighborhood you are talking about once a week or so with my wife and daughters. The yards are very small (front and back), and the street is really narrow – meaning no street parking for visitors, just a few “visitor” spots. It is quiet though so it is safe for children to be on the street playing and I see that pretty regularly.
I know at least one family who lives in there and they seem to like it. I have not been through there recently, but for a while there were quite a few for sale signs – even 2 listed next door to each other by the same agent.
The houses to the north and east border on the walking trail and people on the trail and in the apartments behind there will have a view into your backyard and rear windows. The Rancho Santa Fe side is pretty protected from the street from what I can tell.
