Regardless, sdduuuude, the SD East County areas within 30 mi of dtn SD (or OB, if you go straight on I-8, instead), are ESTablished. And the areas zoned 3 units to an acre (or less) are full of VERY UNindebted (read: “established”) owners and VERY well-heeled families.
My experience out there has been that most Gen X owners (still raising a family) who are living in SD East County on =<3 units/AC lots are an anomaly, of sorts, in comparison to a "typical" SD County homeowner raising a family. I have come to the conclusion that there are no doubt thousands of East County homeowners who can actually live anywhere they want. They either have relatives they need to be near in East County, a business out there and/or need a property suitable for large animals. These owners are driving pickups to work and paying much lesser mortgages for a custom home with more land and have no MR, unlike the typical North County suburban/exurban tract-dwelling parent who is striving for a particular “lifestyle.”
Contrary to “popular belief,” SD East County is not a “ghetto.” Of course, like nearly ALL other micro areas in CA, it has its “low-income” pockets. But it also has many fabulous areas to live in. Really, if one doesn’t have to commute over 40 mins to work from there, the only drawback I see to living there is the need for A/C part of the year.
I like East County’s communities for the fact its jurisdictions didn’t have the massive land tracts available for Big Development to come in and build “planned communities” with shacks 3′ from one another and charge exorbitant MR to all the *new* owners. This practice caused nothing in recent years but grief, distress and foreclosure which adversely affected ALL adjacent property owners. Southeastern Chula Vista is a prime example of this sad debacle. I was on one of those “shack” streets (circa 2001) in that area last night and an oncoming car had to pull into a driveway (no st pkg avail) in order for my vehicle to pass thru. It was a street of single family homes! In addition, the driver could only pull her Honda Accord partway into the driveway because it was not long enough for her *entire* car :=0
I looked up the street on SDLookup and SDTax this morning and it not only has 8 recorded currently distressed properties and two tax defaults on it, the avg shack on it currently sells for about $250K!
Ask yourselves what positive things communities like the above have done for longtime surrounding homeowners.
Every so often, I read comments on this board that dismiss SD East County is somehow primarily “low-income” or a “lesser” place to live than SD or North County. Absolutely NOTHING could be further from the truth. Many parts of it are positively dripping with money.
And no, I have never resided in East County and have no contracts with any Chambers of Commerces out there.
