New Condos Downtown San Diego - San Diego Lifestyle

What Price To Live In San Diego?

One of our United Kingdom clients is very analytical and he is trying to decide on a downtown San Diego purchase. Victoria is very analytical and answered the number crunching, but I realized as the years have passed, I have started to give weight to other less "number" oriented issues. I thought I could make this part of my blog...

"Although my background is mathematics and analysis, I am going to leave the analytical end to Victoria. Rather I am going to give you my thoughts from a different perspective. When one's brain is analytical, it is analytical about everything. It is the way the head is wired. However, as I have gotten older I have realized there is no analytical way to review quality of life. That is soley an emotional decision. So let's go back to your original thoughts about San Diego and work forward from there.

If you were thinking about buying in San Diego so you would have somewhere to reside for 4-6 months of a year, then that puts a different slant on your purchase. Yes, there is the analysis of the numbers. But how do you analyze the ocean breeze hitting your face as you walk from Aqua Vista to one of the neighborhood coffee shops. How do you evaluate the fresh mountain air if you take a trip into the mountains to Julian and sit at a cafe enjoyng some Julian apple pie? How do you evaluate the beauty of the Anza Borrego desert when the cacti are in bloom? What price is there if you walk along the Embarcadero and watch the activity in the harbor, or see the sea gulls swoop down on an unsuspecting fish? How do you feel when you cross the Coronado Bridge and see the panoramic view of Pt. Loma,Coronado and south to Mexico? There is no analytical value on these soul touching experiences. You cannot put a money evaluation on these purely human experiences. This is what you cannot add into your mathematical equation.

So....to answer your question from my perspective. If I were 25 and making a purely financial decision, I would probably not purchase in San Diego because it would be so far away from my personal residence in the UK (remembering I am assuming I live in the UK under this scenario). However, at my age of 61, the practical aspects of such a purchase are important, but they are weighted with the purely emotional aspects of quality of life. I have traveled. I have been to the south of France, Monaco, and San Remo. They are beautiful areas, but they are no more beautiful than the harbor and ocean of San Diego, and they are a lot more crowded. I would emotionally pick San Diego."

Thanks to Frank Slack for the use of his photo. He has some terrific San Diego pictures and if you would like to see more of Frank's just go to his Flickr site at http://flickr.com/photos/slack12/1801424334/in/photostream/

By Sharyn & Victoria Crown, Downtown San Diego real estate agents

This is part of a series of articles entitled, New Condos, Downtown San Diego Style