Is the Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Scripps Ranch area of San Diego good for living and raising a family?

I would pick Poway- I've heard it has the best school district. It does get hot there. Just remember you will be close to freeway 15 which is one of the busiest freeways. Housing in San Diego areas are very expensive. But all in all you will love San Diego. Great activities, restaurants, shopping and the beautiful weather. I have been in the San Diego area for 35yrs. Good luck.

All those are great areas, but if you have to commute to Downtown, here are some condiserations: The evening commute traffic jam on the I15 NB starts at Carmel Mtn Rd and is solid all the way up to Escondido most nights. They are doing some work and hopefully it'll get better, but even without the traffic, RB is pretty far from Downtown. Wouldn't call Gaslamp close to RB. Nice area but a lot of older homes that need a lot of updating. Poway is a nice area too. They like to stick close to their rural roots and they have a rodeo each year. Poway Rd SUCKS! It takes forever to get to the freeway, so look for something in Sabre Springs...that's a little closer to the 15. Scripps is super nice, although some areas are starting to look a little run down. It's definately a bit more upwardly mobile (yuppie/professional), whereas RB is more retirement and Poway...um...well, they have a rodeo, like I said (even though there are some HUGE multi million $$ homes there...and a stellar school system...plus Blink182 came from there). Scripps Poway Parkway SUCKS too, btw....avoid any home where your main artery to the 15 would be Scripps Poway Parkway! All three are great places for families, but of the 3 I would pick Scripps both for physical location, commute and just because it's really nice with the trees and the lake. Pomerado Rd can be a pain, though. Also consider Rancho Penasquitos. This community is West of Poway, so a bit cooler, there is a great east/west connector (SR56) so you could take either the 5 or 15/163 to downtown. There is also a commuter express bus that goes down there. PQ is also in the Poway school district and it is a multi-cultural neighborhood. The homes range from newer to older and you can be downtown in 30 minutes on most days....you'd be getting off the freeway where the traffic jam starts, plus you could take the Fastrak. Also worth checking out is Carmel Mtn Ranch...but you get more for the money in PQ. The zipcode is 92129.

All of these are excellent, Poway is least expensive, Rancho Bernardo is high end. Consider also Escondido, Visto, Rancho San Marcos, all within range of activities. Best weather conditions in California.

My folks live in Rancho Bernardo, and are only five minutes from Poway. You might want to look into a relatively new neighborhood called 4S Ranch, which is on the west side of Interstate 15, directly west of Rancho Bernardo. There are numerous housing developments in 4S Ranch - everything from condos to 4 or 5 bedroom homes. Earlier this year, a very nice shopping plaza opened up in the middle of 4S Ranch, and the schools there are very good (they are part of the Poway school district). The biggest advantage of Scripps Ranch is that it is closer to Downtown SD than Poway, RB, etc. Except for Friday afternoons, you will never hit traffic on the freeway going between Scripps Ranch and Downtown SD. But I believe the schools in Scripps Ranch are part of the San Diego Unified School District, which is no where near as good as the Poway School District. If you need to be within 30 minutes of Downtown SD, forget about the northernmost cities like Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos, and Escondido. You can go from Carlsbad to Downtown SD in about 30 minutes during off-peak traffic, but never during rush hour.

San Diego is a wonderful place to live, homes are expensive though, lots of entertainment, good schools, good colleges, close to the beach.

All of the areas you mentioned are great areas for families.. going towards the coast, is more expensive however. it is not uncommon to live in la jolla and commute downtown. It's about 20 mins away. Carlsbad is signifigantly longer. And so is Oceanside.. since Oceanside is the most northern city in the county. Poway and even Serra Mesa, as well as Rancho are good places to live. Mira mesa is pretty central too. It's not in the middle of downtown but its relatively close. If cost is important to you, it is cheaper to live in East county, and areas like Rancho San Diego and Jamul are still nice, have good schools, but again commute time would be a little longer.. though less than with northerrn county places.

Those 3 towns are nice but hot, too hot. Travel north of San Diego a few miles and you'll see some of the coolest little beach towns in the USA; La Jolla, Cardiff, Leucadia, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Carlsbad (not so small). Old Town, Gaslamp, Sea World, University district, most of San Diego "proper" and south...a dump sprinkled with druggies and prostitutes. Stay north or east.