SAFE places to live in San Diego (Navy couple)?

Question

My fiance and I are looking for safe places to live in San Diego. We are a US Navy couple, and BAH allows for about $1900 a month. He will be gone often, so my safety is a concern for my fiance and I.

I know in the recent years Chula Vista has become not such a great area. I am caucasian with blonde hair, so I don't think Imperial beach would be a good idea either. We are looking for somewhere south of the 8 freeway, and north of the 75 (Coronado bridge). We are able to go a few miles north of the 8 if necessary. Unfortunately we have to live in close proximity to Coronado, so that limits our options greatly.

How is point loma? North park? Mission Hill? Pacific Beach? We are a young couple, I will be transferring to SDSU,but we are not interested in party areas nor business of downtown.... Are there any family oriented suburbs that are safe and affordable?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!!
Thanks

Answer 1

My dad was in the Navy and worked in Coronado. We lived in west Clairemont. My mom and I were home alone many times and never encountered any problems. For $1900 you can rent a nice condo or house in a good open section of Clairemont or a gated condo complex.



Pacific Beach is my personal area of choice to live in. When I grew up I moved to PB. There is so much to do there and if you use common sense, like anywhere else, you won't encounter any safety problems. You said you are white and blonde, so is half of PB. It's the beach area where white people go to get tan.



Both west Clairemont and Pacific Beach are minutes from Interstate 5, so getting to the Coronado Bridge will not be a problem. If you get on the 5 at either Balboa Ave., Grand Avenue or Clairemont Drive it's less than a 20 minute ride to the bridge.



I think you will have the worse commute when you start attending SDSU. The morning class traffic going east on I-8 sucks. You mentioned Point Loma, maybe that would be a good place to live also. It's just that the single family houses there maybe out of your price range while the apartments are not the greatest I've ever seen. But who knows, you might get lucky and find a real value there.



Call a relator and enlist their help in finding what you want. They are free to use and abuse. Best wishes to you and your husband and thanks for being the type of family that has chosen to protect our country.

Answer 2

Navy Life San Diego

Answer 3

Positioned in Southern California, not definately not the Mexico border, San Diego may be the oldest community in California, started in 1769 and if you wish to know an area with a wonderful normal splendor and a pleasant climate, with slight temperatures and plenty of sun with hotelbye you should start. In San Diego you can visit: museums, gardens, Spanish Colonial style architecture present in Balboa Park, the planet famous San Diego Zoo, and the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. SeaWorld San Diego is one of the city's major attractions, especially for families. It is located over the waterfront in Mission Bay. For all American's SeaWorld has been quite a while household tradition, having existed because the 1960s. One of the shows will be the myriad of reveals offering monster whales, sea lions, dolphins, and different sea life. You will find all sorts of flights from roller coasters falling into water, to more sedate carnival type trips for tots. SeaWorld is definitely an aquarium which allows for close-up discusses sharks and other sea animals that may be seen via an acrylic canal, along with touch tanks, and shut activities with dolphins and inhabitants of tidal pools.

Answer 4

Why aren't you looking at military housing in San Diego? It's managed by Lincoln Military Housing (a civilian contracting company), so you'll have all kinds of amenities like landscaping, free house maintenance, security (military security if you're close enough to a base), and all utilities, trash, etc covered by just your housing allowance. Considering the cost of living in San Diego (think avg $1200 rent plus utilities and everything else), you'll have bigger, nicer, and more well maintained quarters by staying in housing instead of renting on your own. You can still compare renting areas to housing though, it's not like you have to choose one or the other. Housing is just more convenient and more bang for your buck. Not to mention, being in a community that fully understands sea separation and Navy lifestyle.



Rank, number of dependents, and whether your husband is officer or enlisted makes a difference on what housing areas you can live in. Officers can live in housing on base, while enlisted live in housing communities off-base. Some enlisted communities are large enough to be split by rank, so that the E1-E6 with fewer dependents live in smaller quarters, and E6 and above with more dependents live in larger quarters.



Having been in San Diego for 20 yrs, of all the cities there I'd say that Coronado is by far the nicest, safest, most quiet and non-partying suburb you could live in. The only reason I wouldn't recommend it is it's so high-class that the rent is out of your budget, BUT the housing is just the BAH and nothing more. That's the great thing about housing - you can live in a very, very nice part of town and pay a fraction of what civilians pay to live there.



Coronado's Silver Strand housing is also near three major bases - NAS North Island (has a commissary, NEX, major MWR amenities), NAB Coronado (two mini-NEXs and a few MWR amenities), and is across the bay from NAVBASE San Diego (the central hub of the Navy in San Diego, so it has literally everything). NAB is actually so close you could walk there.



If not Silver Strand, then Admiral Hartman and Chesterton are also fairly nice. Murphy Canyon will put you closer to San Diego State (about 10 mi away). Lincoln website for San Diego: http://www.lincolnmilitary.com/Installations/naval-complex-san-diego/



Pacific Beacon is also cheaper, but according to their website it's currently open only to service members w/o dependents (single and geographic bachelors). However, I've heard a rumor that they may open it up to service member plus spouse. Check on that by the time you get here, because you'll be able to keep the difference in you BAH if you don't spend all $1900. http://www.pacificbeacon.com/

Answer 5

Definetly look into clairemont mesa, as alot of Navy personnel live in that area, Pb would be the last place to live if your not looking for a party area or somewhat of a crime rate spike...Pb has numerous bars and a very lively nightscene because of it!! My friend lived in Pb and more then once hes had people pissin on the side of his car, or knew someone that had a passed out partier in there alley!!!...