Imperial Beach

[Sean19]

I am interested in buying a place to live in Imperial Beach. I have a feeling this will be a very nice area in 10-20 years, if not sooner.

Otherwise I would love to live in Mission Valley but it is a little too expensive for me right now.

ANy other area that may be wise to live in now but looking into the future should develop nicely?

Any insights and speculation is appreciated.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=Sean19]I am interested in buying a place to live in Imperial Beach. I have a feeling this will be a very nice area in 10-20 years, if not sooner.

Otherwise I would love to live in Mission Valley but it is a little too expensive for me right now.

ANy other area that may be wise to live in now but looking into the future should develop nicely?

Any insights and speculation is appreciated.[/quote]

Mexican sewage polluting Imperial Beach has been a big problem there since the ’80’s. Now that Tijuana has a population of well over 3M people, it’s worse and much more frequent.

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/jan/07/stringers-imperial-beach-polluted-again/#

IB is at the mercy of MX to upgrade their sewer and wastewater systems to accommodate their exploding population in the Tijuana region. Until that happens, RE values in IB will likely go nowhere.

I can’t imagine that a 1/1 in MV is that expensive (if that’s all the room you need). Any Pigg please feel free to correct me if I haven’t been paying attention. I would think there is far more inventory (and competition) in MV than in IB (in the condo market).

[gzz]

If you have a budget for mission valley there are a lot of nicer places for the same money.

[La Jolla Renter]

Sure it will increase in value, but I don’t see it being a great place to live in 20 years. IMO, it will always be the least desirable coastal community in San Diego Co, and maybe even in Socal.

I agree with pollution being a big problem, and don’t see it being better in 20 years.

Don’t know the market down there, but if your 10 blocks off the beach or more, aren’t you paying the same as you would pay in Clairemont for a 1200 sqft SFR.

Not that I’m a fan of Clairemont, but I think it has a bigger upside in 20 years.

[temeculaguy]

I think it has huge potential and have numerous friends who own rental property there. You may have missed the boat as property there has already began going up. Is it perfect, no, but it is the cheapest beach community and the values are artificially depressed because it has a reputation for being a rough town while the truth it has quietly become the city with the lowest crime rate West of I-15. In fact it ranks lower than any other beach town, lower than Carlsbad, Solana Beach, Coronado et. al.

Look at page 20 of this sandag report issued today.

http://www.sandag.org/uploads/publicationid/publicationid_2020_20533.pdf

Truth is, only geeks and developers pay close attention to these reports but IB has another thing going for it, The navy is moving half of all the SEAL teams there and putting a billion dollars into the base adjacent to the city, giving the rental market there a strong future.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/mar/20/navy-seals-silver-star-campus-expansion/

to the south is NOLF, known as the helicopter capital of the world. The seals and the pilots are better paid than most of the military, this was also where the beach scenes from top gun were filmed.

This is by no means to say this is La Jolla, you are at the mercy of Mexico for water quality but go to Seacoast Drive, it’s not what you remember. I think of it as nicer than OB, maybe less than PB but for priced below both. But it is not an alternative to Carmel Valley yet I think it beats clairemont and OB. The pollution from Mexico is also better than it was but it is still an issue, no argument there, however it can get better, not sure it can get worse. But you get the discount for it, if it gets better, you reap the rewards.

If it were a stock, I’d rate it a “buy.” I think it has the most upside of any city in the county. I’m not a huge fan of their schools, but it depends on what you are looking for.

IB proper only covers 13 streets from the Ocean, the rest is the city of SD, don’t buy in the city, stay West of 9th street if you can. If you haven’t checked out Seacoast drive lately, it’s really changing.

http://ld.homeswing.com/photos/295/2015/3/3/Th_140026484_0_2223.jpg?size=full

[bearishgurl]

I’ve been down there a couple of times in the past 5 years and saw the newer, larger apt/condo complexes on the beach. However, I have never seen the newer building in TG’s link. The Navy already has a lot more enlisted housing on the Strand than it used to. It remodeled its old enlisted duplexes about 20 years ago and later added multifamily buildings (8 units to a bldg, I think) all surrounding Strand Elementary, which is within the (preferable) CUSD. Yes, there ARE Navy personnel and their families living in IB, but the rent on those beachfront condos exceeds their typical $2000-2200 month housing allowance so they are usually found living a few blocks inland. In addition, they get all utilities paid in military housing except for cable or satellite TV, internet and landline phone (if desired). This makes the (now behemoth) Strand military housing complex even more attractive to enlisted Navy personnel and their families stationed on Coronado, even if they have to sign a 6-month lease somewhere else upon arrival in SD and get on the waiting list for it.

The SEALS infrastructure just above IB (in/near the swamp where the transmitter was demolished a few years back) won’t be completed for several more years. Then it will take another couple of years to fully staff it with trained personnel.

There are much more “bucolic” places in CA than the IB area which I have had to outright reject for retirement purposes (ex: Lake and Colusa Counties) due to (very legitimate) concerns I had about the existing physical environment there. I learned that these counties were “relatively affordable” for good reasons.

I wouldn’t move anywhere that had unfixable environmental problems which could impact my health and well being but that is just me. SD County has a lot to offer and the OP has many choices on where to conduct their search for a home assuming (s)he doesn’t need or care to “shop” public school attendance areas.

[Sean19]

Thanks for your thoughts. I decided on Mission Valley for the time being.

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