I think the whole debate here is that people are talking about different parts of OB. The areas where OB is flat (north of Coronado and west of Sunset Cliffs) – I absolutely agree that I would not raise kids there because of the things people have raised – ‘colorful’ people, the trolls, demographics, etc. I would not recommend it to someone moving here.
But, if you go further down the point – definitely any place south of Point Loma Ave. – it is an entirely different neighborhood despite technically being ‘OB.’ One with a decent number of kids, friendly neighbors, good elementary schools, and no cars cruising around trying to sell your kids pot (really, other than on Sunset Cliffs, no cars cruising around at all – we used to joke about how we knew every single person going down our street). While there haven’t been massive drops, $1- 1.5m will get you something that is pretty nice with ocean views, and possibly something with a decent sized lot.
My whole point in saying this, as someone who lived in that neighborhood for several years, is that in many places in the actual city of SD, you have to consider sub-neighborhoods in your decision on where to buy. OB/Sunset Cliffs is one of those places where, if you don’t know the neighborhood/have a good realtor, you could end up on a “bad” street (or in what my OBecian husband calls “the war zone”). The upside to CV, La Costa, etc (and what makes it easy to generally characterize these as “good” neighborhoods), is that you don’t have to worry about “bad streets” so much because it is tract based. But I wouldn’t rule out a nice neighborhood based on the fact that the general city has a bad rep.
