San Diego
California Community Real Estate Information- covering all of the
real estate communities within San Diego, the Directory features top
real estate agents.
AgentDirectory.net is a
comprehensive listing of Southern California real estate
professionals. Only seasoned, licensed California realtors are listed
in AgentDirectory.net. Each San Diego
real estate agent listed with AgentDirectory.net has a link to
their website where you can find detailed, comprehensive information
on the real estate agent and their real estate listings.
Through AgentDirectory.net, San Diego California real estate agents
can quickly and easily connect with California real estate consumers.
San Diego real estate prices
are continuing their steep ascent. The median home price in San Diego
reached a record $485,000 in March, up 23 percent from a year ago,
according to numbers released Friday by market tracker DataQuick.
The San Diego median price is the highest in Southern California, as
it has been historically. No. 2 is Ventura County, at $461,000. The
San Diego figure is more than twice the median for San Bernardino
County.
Prices are rising throughout the region. In every Southern California
county the median home price reached a record last month.
San Diego real estate prices fastest rising - the annual
appreciation rate is 29 percent in Los Angeles County and 33 percent
in San Diego.
Realtors in San Diego rave about its calm
climate, sandy beaches and deep-sea harbors. Coupled with its Hispanic
heritage and attractions, such as the mountains and deserts, whale
watching tours, golfing and wine tasting, San Diego real estate
continues to thrive.
San Diego isn't exactly known as a city of
neighborhoods, but they do exist in this bastion of suburbia. Here is
our guide's Top Picks for urban neighborhoods, based on purely
subjective intangibles and tangibles such as whether the neighborhood
is pedestrian friendly, has an interesting mix of businesses and
restaurants, is close to public transportation, and the cool factor.
Hillcrest: New York has Greenwich Village. San Francisco has the
Castro. Vancouver has the West End. And San Diego has Hillcrest, our
closest thing to a diverse, lively, hip and colorful neighborhood.
This gay-friendly 'hood just north of Balboa Park is a mix of
apartments and bungalows mixed with a pedestrian-friendly business
district. Best Bets: Landmark Cinemas, any restaurant.
Kensington: This upscale enclave on the southeast rim of Mission
Valley is picturesque, with attractive (and pricey) Spanish-styled
homes for upwardly mobile yuppies. It's a peaceful pocket amid the
hubbub of the inner city. There's a tiny business district along the
single main artery Adams Ave. Best Best: The venerable Ken Cinema, the
Ken Club bar, Kensington Video, Ponce's Restaurant.
As you head west on Washington Street, Hillcrest turns into Mission
Hills, and the aura becomes more staid and low-key. With its grand
homes with manicured lawns and winding hilltop streets, Mission Hills
is for the decidedly well-to-do, yet it doesn't have the snooty
essence of La Jolla. Yes, I could picture myself living here. Best
Bets: Mission Hills Nursery, Phil's BBQ.
University Heights is located between Hillcrest and North Park.
Similar in ways to both (not as lively as Hilcrest; not as worn as
North Park), it is a mix of Craftsman bungalows and apartments. Its
small retail area is at the north end of Park Blvd. where it turns
into Adams Ave. Best Bets: Adams Avenue Grill, Twiggs Coffee House,
Parkhouse Eatery, Trolley Park.
Normal Heights Or "Abnormal" Heights, as it's sometimes referred to.
Bookended on the west by University Heights and Kensington on the
east, Normal Heights completes the Adams Avenue 'hood trifecta along
the main drag. Crowded, diverse apartment dwellings on the south side
of Adams, quiet single-family homes on the north side. Best bets: The
Ould Sod pub, Antique Row, Lestat's Coffee.
Golden Hill- With its once stately old mansions, quaint bungalows and
apartment buildings, Golden Hill is enjoying a rejuvenation. On the
southeast end of Balboa Park, Golden Hill (and adjacent South Park)
has some fine views of downtown and pockets of really cool
neighborhoods, like Burlingame. Best Bets: Turf Supper Club, The Big
Kitchen, M-Theory Records, South Park Grill.
North Park: The most sprawling of the urban neighborhoods, North Park
is a hodgepodge. Cozy, tidy pockets of Craftsman homes on the north
edge of Balboa Park (hence the name), dense apartments, and the
pre-interstate retail stretches of University Ave and El Cajon Blvd.
define North Park. Best Bets: "downtown" North Park (30th &
University), Red Fox Lounge, Chicken Pie Shop.
City Heights: East of North Park is San Diego's true melting pot, City
Heights. The newly emigrated is found here: Hispanics, Southeast
Asian, Somalian...you name it. Drive down stretches of University Ave.
and watch the storefront signs change from Spanish to Vietnamese to
Ethiopian. It can be rough at times, but it's also the American Dream.
Best Bets: any Asian market.
Ocean Beach is more like a town within the city, but I'll include it
here because it has a little business district and it truly does have
a neighborhood feel, albeit one steeped in the '60s and '70s. Ocean
Beach has resisted gentrification, and for that it should be
commended. Because it wouldn't be O.B. if it didn't have it's funky
charm. Best Bets: The O.B. Pier, Dog Beach, Winston's.
Pacific Beach: It doesn't really count as an urban neighborhood, but
I've included P.B. because it has its own self-contained retail area
for residents. On one hand, it's the place where all SDSU students
aspire to live. On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to own a
single family home here, you're doing all right. Best Bets: Garnet
Ave. night life, P.B. Pier.
Finding San Diego Real Estate Agents
Along with its beaches and ideal climate, that equals the best in the
world, the housing opportunities in North San Diego county range from
condominiums and town homes to elegant oceanfront estates and
everything in between. Attractions in the North County San Diego area
include the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Torrey
Pines State Reserve and Beach, a nature lovers dream, the Torrey Pines
Golf Course, a picturesque public course overlooking the Pacific
Ocean, and the Del Mar Race Track where turf meets surf. Enjoy the
flowers of Encinitas, with 3,000 plant species at the Quail Botanical
Gardens, and the quaint seaside downtown area of Carlsbad. Golf on the
excellent courses throughout North County or enjoy the nature
preserves. In addition, North San Diego County is one of the emerging
technology centers nationwide.
California's heart and soul reside in San Diego. You can see it in
the romantic architecture abounding in Balboa Park; in the whimsical
red-roofed turrets of the Hotel del Coronado, known by locals simply
as "the Del"; and in the vibrant mix of restored brownstones and
handsome Victorian buildings housing pastel-tinted art galleries and
jazzy restaurants in the Gaslamp Quarter. Sit under the stars taking
in Shakespeare at the Old Globe, enjoy the mariachi band serenading
diners at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town, and get eyeball-to-eyeball
with gorillas at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. You could spend days,
even weeks happily exploring the many faces of San Diego, but then
you'd miss a number of surprises waiting farther afield- the north
county's classic beach towns, a city made entirely out of LEGOs in
Carlsbad, and the old-California beauty of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park
and nearby Mt. Laguna.
Perhaps the best way to think of the San Diego County region is to
picture it as a small state or an island, bounded by some of the best
surfing beaches in California to the west, snowy mountainous peaks to
the east, and an exotic neighbor-Mexico-to the south. Within these
borders is the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, several California
missions dating from the 1800s, a small alpine town packed with
hole-in-the-wall cafes (each selling homemade apple pie that claims to
be "the best"), dense stands of ancient oaks and pine trees, splashing
orcas at SeaWorld off Mission Bay, and coastal wetlands that every
spring and fall attract hundreds of species of migratory birds-Canada
geese, snowy egrets, and green-winged teals among them.
The people here are as diverse as the landscape they live in.
Pacific Beach attracts a laid-back surfing culture, while La Jolla
attracts a more upscale crowd to its chic art galleries and
fashionable shops. North of this village is a string of seaside towns
that are known for their luxury resorts, challenging golf courses, and
spectacular beaches. In Del Mar, the ponies have been running since
Bing Crosby founded the Thoroughbred Club in the 1930s, while flower
fields are the attraction near Encinitas and Leucadia-go for blooming
ranunculus in spring and poinsettias in December. On the island of San
Diego County, there's something for everyone.
