Relocating to San Diego

My brother lives near SD with his wife and one son. If you like, I can ask him for the pros and cons to living out there, and some tips. They've been there for around 7 or 8 years.
We visited once, and went to the SD animal park :) Good luck. J.
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Hi,

I haven't lived in San Diego, but my husband and I have lived in four different states in 10 years. Before kids a day driving around narrowed down the areas for us. This recent move greatschools.com helped me narrow down the areas. Good luck with your move. It sounds like a great adventure :)

BTW...You can change your Mamasource city and start asking questions of the moms in San Diego. It was a big help to me coming to Indianapolis.

We lived in san diego for 10 years and in north county for about 6 of those. It really all depends on your level of affordability. I loved Oceanside, however more inland is your best bet for nicer neighborhoods. Encinitas and Carlsbad are perfect but costly. Vista and San Marcos are also very nice. Escondido is very inland, a lot warmer and, in my opinion, very "iffy" with pockets of great neighborhoods and not-so-great ones. You need to get in touch with a relocation Realtor from that area and they can be a great help. Also maybe check with your husband's future employer out there and see if he/she has any recommendations. I really loved San Diego county when we initially moved there. I think after a while you lose sight of the stunning beauty and it just becomes another place to live - with insanely frustrating traffic! I much prefer being back in the midwest but still do have pangs of missing our other "home" now and then. :-)

I'm sorry to say my info is dated, I haven't lived there in 8 years :(. We lived in Lakeside, it was very nice, the schools were nice the library was close to our home and it was right by a wonderful park with a duck pond, about 30 minutes from DT San Diego as well. The entire area was just wonderful I don't think I saw a "bad" neighborhood even in the surrounding towns. If you can afford it Coronado is beautiful, very very very expensive though. And ya know actually the one time I've been back on vacation, I miss Cali, we stayed DT and it to was very very nice, and we weren't in a chain hotel but in a bed and breakfast in a residential neighborhood, and even there I felt totally safe walking the streets at night. Good Luck. I'm SOOO jealous. Be sure to make one of your first family day out trips Balboa park, and visit all the museums and the zoo.

Here are a few things I wised we would have done when we moved. I wish we would have rented. I know that would have stunk with moving our stuff twice but we would have gotten an idea of where we wanted to live. That would have helped a ton. I know when we moved when I checked houses you could check the schools and how they rated right on the website with the house and that was helpful. Best of luck on your new adventure. I have a great book that helped me a ton it's called After the Boxes are Unpacked by Susan Miller. It helped me and my marriage so much.

My dad lives in Rancho Penasquitos. It is a very nice neighborhood in a mid price range for San Diego.

I'm jealous! My husband and I want to move there so much, but I'm divorced and my 2 kids can't move so far from their dad.

Are you members of a church, like methodist??

If you are, go to their "national" website and start emailing a few churches in the area of interest and tell them of your situation and ask about schools and communities etc... I think for methodist, it is unitedmethodist.com, something like that.

Ask someone that your husband is going to be working with (especially if they have kids) for a referral for realtor, who usually specialize in knowing the neighborhoods and can take your interests, likes, dislikes, etc.. and come up with some suggestions.

If you don't have a church, are you members of any fraternal organizations, like Eagles, or Moose, K of C, etc.... I know the Moose has national website, and again you can email organizations in the general area of interest and they will give you suggestions as well.

I would agree with one other mother, my VERY first outing would be the San Diego Zoo. I"ve never been there, but that is my biggest dream as far as visiting a zoo.!!!!!

we called a realtor for the area we were moving to & asked about neighborhoods that were safe & child friendly, after they gave us some locations we called the local police & sheriffs dept. and asked what the crime rate was in that neighborhood & aksed which neighborhood they thought was the safest. congradulations & goodluck!

We have moves several times on short term basis. I would recommend renting first. have your DH speak to his new employer about recommendations, perhaps they have corporate housing to put you up in while you look around. You can try searching for mom groups in the area now yahoo.com, meetup.com, change the zip on here and start talking to other moms, keep a notebook with recommendations. When you get there, check out churches and just try different neighborhoods, drive around, stop at the parks, connect with other WAHM business women. When asking for the good neighborhoods, also ask where is the *DO NOT recommend places and ask WHY*. Some people have racist beliefs about certain neighborhoods. Once you get an idea of a few neighborhoods you can search for the crime rates and the sexual offenders.

Best of Luck, it does sound oh so excited, I am headed back to Columbus now from the Jersey Shore!

We moved from San Diego last summer and lived there for 2 years. It is a beautiful area. We lived in an area north of La Jolla and a little east of Del Mar. It was called Carmel Valley. The address is actually San Diego though. I would recommend it although it is expensive to live there. If you are looking to rent an apartment, I would recommend where we lived - Del Mar Ridge. It is on El Camino Real. Carmel Valley's zip code is 92130.

Other nice northern cities are Carlsbad and Encinitas.

If you have other specific questions that I may be able to answer, just ask. Good luck with your move!

I lived in California for awhile and we found our home through a realator who knew the area.You can probably find one on line and tell them what you are looking for and they can find you the safest area.Hopefully it will be not to far from your husbands new job.
Folks out west are not as friendly as folks here in the Eastern united staes so don't be surprised if it takes you a while to fit in.
Debbie

My aunt and uncle live in Carlsbad California (right outside of San Diego) and it seems quite nice when we visit, although I have no idea about the quality of schools and what not

we just got back from my sister's wedding in san diego... it's soooo beautiful there! her family is from murietta, which is a very nice city (about 1 hour north of san diego--is that too far?) that seemed very family friendly, safe, and happy.

we LOVED the children's pool-- hundreds of seals that you can see up close... and the ocean! and all the tropical plants and flowers are so beautiful... the weather is great... enjoy san diego! we did!