We looked at a few houses in PHR as well last year. They had some nice houses but to be honest, for the most part, the houses were piled on top of one another with NO privacy at all. Yeah, there were a few streets that weren’t as bad or corner lot houses that were better. But MANY houses had absolutely NO privacy at all with some as many as 5 houses immediately looking into the tiny back yards.
Schools: The schools are great in both locations. I wouldn’t get too caught up in API scores to judge school districts. I think most parents would agree both school districts are great relatively speaking compared to other districts in San Diego.
Mello Roos: I agree Mello Roos sucks no matter which area you’re in. We bought in nearby Santaluz and it’s not fun paying $5,500+ a year in Mello Roos taxes. However, I feel like once you bite the bullet to live in a MR area, there isn’t much you can do about it. You can complain but who will listen??
Parks: I agree with the lack of parks in the PHR area. Yeah, 4SR was better but we didn’t find anything to write home about in way of parks in 4S Ranch. But yes, if this is important 4S Ranch has the nod here.
Weather: We were renting a townhouse in Carmel Valley while we were waiting to move into our house. I found the difference in weather VERY negligible between Carmel Valley and the Santaluz area. Maybe a slight difference. However, we noticed the biggest difference once we passed I-15 but the difference is very little between the PHR area and where we live. But past I-15 for some reason it can drastically vary. For example a few weeks ago, I was meeting a friend for lunch. My car said it was 71 degrees at Santaluz but when I went to lunch at Brigintine’s in Poway it was 79 degrees!
Lot sizes: I totally agree PHR had super tiny lots for the most part. I’m not one of these people that need some huge yard. For us, an 8,000 sq. foot lot is plenty for us. To us, it’s not so much lot size but the way it’s utilized to provide privacy from neighbors and much of PHR was horrible.
Shopping: This wasn’t too high on the priority list for us at all. True PHR doesn’t have anything really to speak of in the area. However, although we don’t live too far from the 4S Ranch town center area …we’ve almost never been to that shopping area. I don’t think in the grand scheme of things shopping is too great there relatively speaking either.
I think both general areas are really great compared to many other areas. Most people that choose to live in the area are doing so I think for school district reasons.
We really LOVE living in the area. The quality of life is excellent for us. We couldn’t be more pleased with the area, the schools and just general high quality of life conditions.
To answer your question, I didn’t find the premium worth it price per sq. foot for PHR vs. other areas. In fact, quite the opposite. I couldn’t understand the desire for many people to pay so much for those houses.
