Oceanside has at least one area that is a relatively great bargain when you look at southern, or for that matter all of coastal CA. real estate. Fire mountain is a unique little oasis in Oceanside and it is adjacent to Carlsbad so you can enter and leave and never know that on the other side of the hill Jimmy the pimp is rounding up his ladies for the night. The schools are still bad though.
The other thing it has going for it is gentrification. It is just a matter of time before Oceanside is quite a bit nicer. I don’t have the data handy, but a couple of months back I was looking at Fire mountain and plotted some home price data for all of southern CA. within 3 miles from the beach and Oceanside was by far the best deal price wise excluding the border area. This gradient is going to cause young couples who aren’t afraid of a little grit and who love the beach area to move in. If I was 10 years younger, a gun enthusiast and did not have kids I’d live there now.
