Get to Know San Diego

San Diego is a beautiful place to live. It’s also quite a bit more expensive than many other places in the nation. However, with beautiful weather, access to beaches, and even skiing a couple hours away, it’s easy to see why San Diego is so popular.

For many people, the quality of the local schools is a prime consideration when buying a home. There are some great school districts in San Diego. The Poway Unified School district is truly excellent, as you can see in the 2005 Academic Performance Index (API) Base Report. Many other excellent schools are available.

For neighborhood safety, I love checking out ARJIS. You can’t just look at one neighborhood and understand the crime rate; you need to compare to get an accurate feel for how much of an issue crime is in a particular area. Just click on Crime Maps and start checking things out. It’s very educational and not all realtors have discovered this resource yet.

The coastal zones, of course, tend to more moderate temperatures than the inland or mountain areas of San Diego County. During the summer, it is not all that uncommon for inland areas to be over 100 degrees. It’s pretty unusual for coastal areas, however, to get that hot. It does happen though.

Snow is extremely rare in San Diego, even in the lower mountain areas. Climb a little higher, though, and you will find snow most winters. It’s only a two and a half hour drive to Big Bear Lake for those who love skiing.

Finding the right realtor is always a bit of a bear. Using a site such as Home Gain can really make it a bit easier. Home Gain will help you to choose a realtor knowledgeable about the topics that are most important to you. All you have to do is fill out a form and realtors will contact you with their credentials, experience and market knowledge.
If foreclosures are more your style, RealtyTrac is a great resource. They have a free trial you can use to see if you’re interested in finding a foreclosed property. With housing as expensive as it is in San Diego, buying a foreclosure can save you some serious money.

San Diego is a beautiful place to live. With all kinds of outdoor activities available, plentiful sunshine, friendly people, sports teams and a generally beautiful city, you’ll love living here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Home Buying, San Diego. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.