Our month living in the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego was quite eventful. It started with a whole lotta water, as we describe in detail in episode 9, We're in Point Loma. Then Tre' got sick, Na got some vertigo (probably from doing too many somersaults in the condo pool), and we had a whole bunch of family come into town to visit the nearby Superfam (Na's brother, wife, and kids).
The way we see it, being near family is actually one of the primary benefits of living in San Diego and it does have us wondering if family = home, but that's only a small part of the puzzle for us. It doesn't hurt that also San Diego has beautiful weather, great restaurants, and plenty to do.
So are we moving to San Diego, California? Let's see what the numbers have to say.
Table of Contents
Overall Score
Scores by categories
Affordability
Cannabis
Coffee
Community
Diversity
Dog Friendly
Grocery Stores
Magical Spirit
Natural Beauty
Parks & Rec
Political Climate
Restaurants
Sustainability
Walkability & Bikeability
Weather
Wine & Beer
Summary of San Diego's Livability Rating
Overall score: 84 / 100 = Great!
We were both elated to see San Diego get a score of 84. Compare this to Berkeley, CA , which scored >80 points and Imperial Beach, which landed under 70 and it is immediately evident that San Diego may be a strong contender for home.
Here is the summary of how these points breakdown in each of our 16 categories:
Affordability
Rating = 1
Weighted score: 1.9
As of February 2022 Imperial Beach Median Home Prices are 825K (and trending up). This actually covers a whole lot of different neighborhoods, including some that are affordable but not necessarily desirable for us.
Some neighborhoods we would consider:
- North Park with a Median Home Price of 685K and trending down in 2022, which is surprising! But upon closer inspection, prices for single family homes have jumped up dramatically +40% so our guess is there is just less of this type of inventory in this neighborhood.
- Hillcrest with a Median Home Price of 760K and trending up.
However, Point Loma (the neighborhood we stayed in during our visit) with a Median Home Price of 1.7M is out of reach.
Our ideal home would be a 2 bedroom 1+ bath (approx. 900 square feet) home with some outdoor space. We would expect to pay a minimum of $450,000 in North Park or Hillcrest, and would likely have to choose a condo or townhome. One other observation is the inventory is slim, so we would likely have to put up with quite a bit of competition and losing bidding wars to find a place here.
Cannabis Culture
Rating = 3 average
Weighted score: 3
There is one cannabis shop in the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego.
Golden State Greens has a good selection, but it is located on the outskirts of the neighborhood in a warehouse district, which is why we give Cannabis Culture an average 3 rating. We do note that there are a number of other dispensaries in San Diego, and if we were too zoom out of Point Loma the rating could go higher. However, we do tend to focus in on the immediate area where we are living as we rate.
Coffee / Cafes
Rating = 4
Weighted score: 4
We were really happy with the selection of coffee shops in Point Loma, which is why this category earned an above average rating. Some of our favorites:
So why not a 5? While the variety of coffee shops is impressive, the density wasn't as convenient as we would like. We definitely had to hop in our car to hit some of these places. The only one within comfortable walking distance from our place was Phatties (and we did go there more often because of that reason).
Community
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 9.5
Our San Diego superfam living only 30 minutes away in North County really pushed this category to the max score. Living near our nieces and nephew while they're little and growing is really a treat, and we created a lot of wonderful memories during our stay. We also note that the kids act as a magnet for other family members to come visit. We'd benefit from this magnet if we lived close by.
The other thing that pushed the community category all the way to 5 is that people in San Diego are generally open and easy going. We both found it really easy to meet people, and had we already successfully shed our Bay Area guard, we would have been more successfully at making friend connections. As it stood, we were able to have interesting and unique connections with strangers such as the folks we met volunteering for the Famosa Slough and random people who we met along the way.
Diversity
Rating = 4
Weighted score: 5.2
San Diego is considered an extremely diverse city with a diversity index of 80.
Here's how the racial demographics of San Diego compares to the United States.
| Race | % Population in San Diego | % Population in U.S. | SD Vs. U.S. |
| Black | 6% | 13% | -7% |
| Hispanic / Latino | 30% | 18% | +12% |
| Asian | 17% | 6% | +11% |
| White | 62% | 76% | -6% |
We know this chart is not all inclusive, but we hope it illustrates the demographic makeup of the area vs. the country.
So why not a 5? The Bay Area really showed us what a fully diverse community is like, and while we definitely experienced racial diversity in San Diego, we felt that other types of diversity weren't quite as prominent, including gender and sexuality.
Dog Friendly
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 5
We had no trouble finding dog friendly restaurants and comfortable outdoor patios in this nice climate are abundant. We talked a lot about these places in our San Diego restaurants episode. Two notable mentions from this episode include winners of our ultra-dog friendly category: Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar and Voltaire Beach House.
The patio at El Indio Mexican Restaurant & Catering
What's more, there are numerous dog friendly parks and beaches to take your dogs including two of our favorites: Ocean Beach Dog Beach and Fiesta Island Dog Park.
The only time we encountered a not-so-dog-friendly attitude was in La Jolla, at the Torrey Pines Reserve, and within the inner grounds of our very own condo complex 😆. However, these moments aside, it's really easy to travel around with a dog in San Diego and you'll find plenty of other dog people to connect with.
Grocery Stores/Farmer's Market
Rating = 4
Weighted score: 5.2
A variety of grocery store options and the abundant San Diego farmer's markets put this category solidly in the above average score.
Why not a 5? Having just lived in Berkeley, we are accustomed to incredible local grocers such as Berkeley Bowl and Monterey Market who have set our expectations for what makes for the highest score in this category.
Magical Spirit
Rating = 2
Weighted score: 2
Magical spirit, to us, is defined by the availability and ubiquity of various spiritual practitioners such as yogis, Qi Gong and Reiki teachers, psychics and more. In some cities, this magical spirit is loud and proudly on the surface (think about places like Joshua Tree, CA and Sedona, AZ, for example). In Imperial Beach there was even a pretty obvious wellness center, which led to the city getting an average 3 score.
The visible magical spirit in San Diego is strangely lacking. We even took time to try to find practitioners via online searches and our searches came up empty. We do suspect that there could be an undercurrent that we just didn't have time to find during our short stay, but until we learn otherwise, this category is "below average" for us.
Natural Beauty
Rating = 4
Weighted score: 4
With access to beaches along the Pacific, the San Diego Bay, parks, and hiking trails, San Diego definitely sits in the above average category for natural beauty. We also really appreciated the rolling hills in the Point Loma neighborhood (hence "loma" in the name).
However, at the end of the day, San Diego is still a city and the grime and grit of the streets and sidewalks detracts from the natural beauty, which is why we can't give it a perfect 5 score here.
Parks & Rec
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 5
In our rating episode, we go into some detail about the huge variety of parks, hiking trails, and beaches that San Diego has to offer. The Point Loma neighborhood is home to a few of our favorites including Sunset Cliffs, Ocean Beach, and the Famosa Slough.
If you venture out from the neighborhood, your options are even greater with beautiful cliff and ocean hikes around La Jolla and a variety of beaches all up and down the coast. If you are interested in more urban exploration, San Diego's 7 Bridges Hike takes you around a variety of San Diego neighborhoods as you cross, yes, seven historic bridges.
Political Climate
Rating = 3
Weighted score: 4.8
San Diego is a moderately liberal city It's challenging to understand the nuances of the politics of a place in one short month. Coming from extremely liberal Berkeley, we could see some differences. For example, mask wearing--a practice, which we feel has become unnecessarily politically polarized--was not fully adopted by all citizens, suggesting a conservative leaning in the area. Grocery stores would have a 50/50 mix of people wearing masks or not even during periods of mandates.
We didn't notice an overt pressure in the area to be politically vocal from either side of the political spectrum, and the area felt relatively well balanced.
For a place to be even more highly rated in this category, we'd have to feel as if local politics were moving the city in a progressive direction, for example providing social safety nets, equitable rights to all, and aggressive climate action plans (a topic which we also cover in our sustainability section). We'd also want to see a place where average citizens have political clout, making positive change for the collective possible, and where corruption and greed hold no sway.
Restaurants
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 5
With a huge variety of veggie and dog-friendly restaurants, San Diego scored a perfect 5 in this category. We covered 14 of our favorites in the San Diego food tour episode.
A couple of Point Loma neighborhood favorites include Don Tommy’s and Pizza Nova.
Sustainability
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 6.5
We were shocked (and delighted!) to discover that San Diego was recently rated the Greenest City in America barely edging out our beloved San Francisco. It appears that the biggest area for improvement on this report is San Diego's transportation sector. Transportation is definitely the "black mark" on the city's sustainability efforts with an overall ranking of 25 in this category, and this is pretty evident by the limited public transportation options, heavy highway traffic, and average walkability score.
San Diego's Climate Action Plan was adopted in 2015 and is reviewed and updated every year with input from citizens. It's robust and unequivocally calls out The Climate Emergency for what it is, an emergency.
The city is working toward its goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. According to its 2019 update, the city is a decade ahead of this goal in large part due to it being the largest city to "purse a community choice energy program" via the successful launch of San Diego Community Power. Go San Diego!
Walkability/Bikeability
Rating = 4
Weighted score: 4.4
San Diego has a 53 "somewhat walkable" walk score. Walkability definitely varies widely depending on the neighborhood you choose. The condo where we stayed in Point Loma had a 67 (somewhat walkable) score and that turned out to be true.
We were able to walk to some nearby grocery stores, such as Barron's Market, and up the Famosa Slough to the Point Loma Heights neighborhood for coffee. One day, Na even walked to a nearby dentist for a cleaning. However, crossing West Point Loma Boulevard is a hassle, as the crosswalks are spaced out quite far and the traffic moves fast.
Weather
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 8
San Diego, California has a primarily cool and comfortable climate with some periods of warmth, with temperatures ranging from 50 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, and rarely going above 84.
San Diego is a large city and the temperatures vary depending on the neighborhood, with areas closer to the ocean being noticeably cooler than areas further inland.
We gave San Diego a top score as we've visited several times over the years and usually feel comfortable. The sun is definitely strong in San Diego though, so Na is always wearing a hat, sunglasses and SPF.
Drought, wildfires, and sea level rise are among the top climate concerns for the city, and as time goes on these problems could become more challenging to live with.
Wine & Beer
Rating = 5
Weighted score: 5
Breweries and great beer are the name of the game in San Diego. It's a local past time, in fact, to go for a long hike and then cap the day with a tall glass of cold brew. We found no lack of great breweries in the area, and it's true the San Diego beer game is on point. Our faves in Point Loma? Eppig Brewing and Modern Times.
So that's our experience living in Point Loma, San Diego for a month. We'd love to hear from you. Hop on over to our contact page to leave us a message and share your experience with San Diego. Did we miss something that you love about the city?