Inbound to SD County; where to live?

[CardiffBaseball]

SD Realtor, Torrey Pines, is San Dieguito schools. Torrey Pines, all the way north to La Costa Canyon, is all the same school district (in terms of high schools).

So basically Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, and South Carlsbad (La Costa) are all the same school system, much like RB, Poway, RP, and Mt. Carmel are all Poway schools.

There are also smaller, lottery type high schools (Canyon Crest, and San Dieguito), but basically anyone living in the towns mentioned are tied to either Torrey Pines, HS or La Costa Canyon, HS.

[JES]

Another Marine here! I came out here in 98′ and served 6 years in the Corps and a few years in high tech sales driving all around the county every day. I second the advice to stay away from 15 at all costs and focus on the areas between South Carlsbad and the Carmel Valley area along the 5. Inbound traffic from Riverside County commuters has made the 15 an unpredictable nightmare most hours of the day. The 5 backs up, but you can generally plan around it and it is clear sailing very early when I assume you will be driving. To contrast, I’ve tried hitting the 15 at 0530 a few times and encountered grid lock traffic at the 78/15 merge and all the way south!

There are some very nice communities in South Carlsbad/LaCosta/Encinitas with 10-20 YO homes, great schools, low to no HOA and mello roos and prices in the 700-900k ball park right now.

Here’s an example of a home in a great area of Carlsbad and close to the beaches in the 700s right now:

http://www.encinitascarlsbad.com/page.cfm?page=HomeDetail&ID=467043

Even better, here is a home in a fantastic area of Encinitas with no HOA, no mello roos and listed at 689+. I know – I’ve lived in this neighborhood. Having lived in Carlsbad, San Marcos, Temecula and Encinitas I can say this was the most family oriented neighborhood I’ve seen in San Diego so far. It’s right next to very upscale areas and new shopping and good schools, but is unpretentious and in this particular neighborhood you ever get access to a nice community pool.

http://www.encinitascarlsbad.com/page.cfm?page=HomeDetail&ID=438069

[SD Realtor]

Thanks Cardiff, I did not realize that! Any thoughts on the quality of the schools within the district? I have always been told for instance that as you head south the quality improves but I have not done any hard searching of data to prove that.

SD Realtor

[JJGittes]

API scores are easy to get at greatschools.net. Regarding La Costa, be careful, the northern part of it is in the San Marcos school district. Most of the new homes in La Costa Greens for instance are in the SM school district. I wouldn’t send my kid to high school in the SM district. The elementary schools close to the coast when you get north of del mar can also, interestingly, be a little sketchy. The ones a bit more inland, like El Camino Creek and others however are excellent. I am also not a fan of Carlsbad High. La Costa Canyon High and others in San Deguito school district I think are much better. Also, San Deguito School Dist. has full day kindergarten, as opposed to half day in Carlsbad. San Deguito is also on a modified year roud schedule which means a shorter summer, and a 2 week break just before Halloween (like now).

[USMCBunny]

PD,

I am a hornet guy, and probably know your husband. Not a lot of hornet drivers called Bunny that I know of around here.

Flywestcoast

[CardiffBaseball]

SD Realtor, a lot of communities have their own elementary system. Cardiff where I live is actually separate from Encinitas. Solana Beach I believe is separate from Del Mar for instance. Not sure about RSF. In any case, you have slight differences among LCC and Torrey Pines, but I can’t imagine a few API points here or there tipping the balance that much.

For my money I’d take a nice home in Encinitas over a condo in Carmel Valley, all things being equal. However some people really want to get in TP High School. Depending where you are in CV, everything you do might be more convenient and walkable compared to Encinitas. However much of the growth in CV is in the outlying areas.

LCC and TP aren’t perfect. Nice schools yes, but quite huge, and I would think they totally cater to the achievers, but the middle of the road kids who aren’t that smart or athletic, are probably easily overlooked. Santa Fe Christian, and Cathedral Catholic are also growing in Coastal North County.

[John F]

There’s a lot that sucks about living in San Diego including traffic and the cost of living. However, a positive aspect is the multi-culturism. Although it’s not Fargo, ND these areas (Carmel Valley, Encinitas) are homogenous by SoCal standards and you lose the benefit of interacting with people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

There are nice parts of San Diego (RP for example), Escondido, and Chula Vista that have nice neighborhoods, good schools, and are culturally diverse. They’re typically cheaper too.

Ultimately however, my number one suggestion reverts to the first sentence; live as close to work as possible to minimize your driving time.

[PerryChase]

The poster wanted the best public schools for the money. In San Diego, I think that it’s Carmel Valley. That’s why many Chinese families live there for their children. It might become become more diverse over time (a long time).

However, I agree with you, John F, about living in a culurally diverse area. That’s why I want to move out of my homogeneous neighborhood as soon as the time is right.

My Swedish ex-neighbor moved to an old house downtown despite warnings from others. She wanted her two kids to interact with different types of children. She’s not afraid of poor Black and Latino kids. In fact she thinks that it’s good for her kids to be exposed to different people. In the end, I think that her kids will have a great education, in Europe and in America, and perhaps in other parts of the world, learning to get along with all kinds of people. There are certain things that they don’t teach in school.

[CardiffBaseball]

It isn’t little poor Black latino kids you need to worry about. It’s the Jr. High age and up when it starts to get a little scary. My wife taught in this kind of school back in Ohio, and trust me their are a ton of good people in the inner city, and she kind of misses that school. However had we stayed there, she didn’t like it quite enough for her to put her own kids into that school.

The reality is most people are safe if the parents are involved. Howard Stern often talks about being pissed at his parents for moving him into a 90% black school for “enrichment”. He got his ass kicked a lot.

One of her good kids (some would call poor white trash), got shot and killed recently, over some boyfriend stuff. Some gang-banging girl, pissed at some other girl over a boy, (two sista’s getting after it) one pulls out a pistol, misses and hits the other girl. I think that’s the kind of thing that ultimately kept us out. You can have easily have the wrong friends, or be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However if one is willing to work at it, they can get a good education anywhere, with alternative schools, magnet schools, etc.

[JES]

“…you lose the benefit of interacting with people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds”

Give me a break. I live in Encinitas and come in contact with people from every ethnic group imaginable every single day. You don’t need to move your family to the Barrio Logan or downtown Detroit to experience cultural diversity. And the idea that we need to appreciate and champion every aspect of other cultures is also an misguided notion. There’s a big difference between moving to a middle class black suburb of Atlanta where your children can interact with black families who have strong values, culture and have been sucessful and moving the urban ghetto in St. Louis where crime is rampant, gangs rule the streets and white people are attacked for being white. Now that whites are a minority accross California you should consider moving to a place like Rancho Santa Fe or Del Mar to experience a ‘diverse culture.’

[CardiffBaseball]

Diversity is overrated. It’s not like all whites are the same. We have Italians who are different from Jews, who are different from WASPs, who are different from eastern european immigrants. On my sons’ little YMCA basketball teams, I coached a couple of black kids, a couple of Mexican kids, a pair of Serbian twins, an Indian (Asian) kid, a Chinese girl, and for good measure some bi-racial kids. Plenty of diversity in Encinitas if you ask me.

For socio-economic diversity, in our town, there are a sizeable number of kids in the elementary school that live in a big apartment complex adjacent to the 5. There is also a little immigrant area forming, and each class has several kids who are 1st generation English learners with parents who don’t speak English.

[MANmom]

MANmom

MH, we are retired USMC couple living in Penasquitos. When we retired and moved back to SD after Yuma, we looked at the same areas. La Costa/Carlsbad has some great areas, but you have to be careful about schools, some are San Marcos, not as good as Carlsbad/La Costa. Look up the API scores of the areas you are looking at, we found PQ to be the best for us. For the “800” club for high schools (best scores, see San Diego Mag. for info) three of the four were in Poway Unified, the fourth was Torrey Pines. PQ is great for sports (we have three boys), wrestling, baseball, football, softball, a great sports town. See http://www.pqsports.com if you don’t believe me. I found that the coastal areas were in general less diverse than PQ, if that means anything. Lots of military and former military here. I found LC/Carls to be a bit snootier, more BMWS and Mercedes, and the only military I ran across (a very limited search when we were looking) was a navy doctor. Another great thing for PQ is the canyon. The PQ park is a great place to experience the natural beauty that is CA. We both run through the canyon daily. We hike with the kids, walk the dog, etc. Being close to the canyon (we are renters) is something we are greatful for and when we buy, we will stay here. Great Schools, Great people, Great place!

[MH]

Thanks… just from this thread I learned to look up their API scores – that’s been a big help.

Any thoughts on what the downturn will do to the schools? I.e., RP seems to have a TON more listings than other areas (at least in the limits I gave Zip); is the area (and its schools) going to suffer more / less than others when tax revenues decrease?

[powayseller]

RP is an older area, mainly built in the 1970s and not maintained well. Most of it looks like rental neighborhoods with lots of junky cars and RVs parked on streets, yards poorly kept, asphalt shingle roofs. Certainly not prime real estate. OTOH, it is not far from the coast. I looked at homes in RP, but after seeing the junky look of it, decided against it. I think RP will suffer more because of its lower appeal. I am curious though if there are any parts of RP which are nicer than what I saw, i.e. newer or better kept, on quiet streets (no road noise or noise coming up a canyon), with a decent sized yard.

[sdcellar]

There are plenty of nice areas in Penasquitos. I’d say the percentage of older homes is similar to Poway. They have their share of new construction as well. Poway is nice, but I’d say it has higher highs and lower lows. PQ also feeds what I believe is the newest high school in Poway Unified as well.

So I’d say the answer is yes, there are definitely parts of Penasquitos that are nicer than what you saw. Good of you to rip on an area that somebody just said they liked a lot.

[Author]

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