Buying and Owning a Home in San Diego

Explore

Explore Just San Diego

Guides for buying, selling, and living here.

San Diego housing types and eras

Most of what people buy in San Diego falls into a handful of eras. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you a lot about construction, likely repairs, and which rules may apply.

• Spanish RevivalThe 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park gave the city a taste for Spanish and Mediterranean Revival it never lost: stucco walls, clay tile roofs, arched openings and courtyards. Look for it in Mission Hills, Kensington and the streets around Balboa Park. Original tile, plaster and windows are part of the value; so are the old roofs and drainage that need watching.
• Craftsman bungalowsEarly twentieth-century wood-frame bungalows with deep porches, exposed rafters and built-ins, concentrated in the older streetcar neighborhoods such as North Park, South Park, University Heights and Mission Hills. Many of these blocks are now inside City-designated historic districts, which shapes what you can change on the outside.
• Irving Gill modernismIrving Gill came to San Diego in 1893 and, in the years before and after 1910, stripped houses down to flat roofs, smooth walls and simple arches, often in concrete, a decade before modernism had a name. His houses are rare, frequently designated, and among the most important early modern buildings in the country.
• Mid-century ranch and modernAfter the Second World War the city grew fast, and neighborhoods like Clairemont filled with single-story ranch houses. San Diego-born Cliff May defined the California ranch house, and hillside modern homes followed in Point Loma, La Jolla and the canyon neighborhoods. Original post-and-beam houses now draw a dedicated buyer.
• Coastal homesBeach cottages, mid-century apartments and newer houses west of Interstate 5, from Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach to La Jolla. These homes sit inside the Coastal Zone, under the city’s 30-foot coastal height limit, and closer to flood and sea-level questions than homes inland.
• Downtown and urban condosDowntown neighborhoods such as the East Village, Little Italy and the Marina are largely mid-rise and high-rise condominiums. Buying one means buying into a homeowners association, so the budget, reserves and rules matter as much as the unit.

Explore San Diego neighborhoods in detail

Architectural homes in San Diego

San Diego is one of California’s great architecture towns and one of the least talked about. Irving Gill worked out his stripped-down modernism here; the George W. Marston House on Seventh Avenue, designed by Hebbard & Gill in 1905, is now a museum you can walk through. Richard Requa and William Templeton Johnson gave the city its Spanish and Mediterranean accent. Cliff May, the father of the California ranch house, was born here, and Lilian Rice shaped Rancho Santa Fe just to the north in the county.

Many of these houses are hiding in plain sight. Buyers who know the architecture find them; buyers who do not drive past them. An architect-designed or historic home has a different buyer pool, different inspection priorities, different rules for change and often a different property tax picture than the house next door.

Debbie Pisaro’s architectural homes practice is documented at debbiepisaro.com, and the people behind San Diego’s buildings are profiled in Faces of San Diego.

Before you buy

What San Diego buyers should know

None of these is a reason not to buy. Each is a question to answer before you remove contingencies, and each has an official source.

• The Coastal Zone and coastal development permitsMost development in the city’s Coastal Overlay Zone needs a coastal development permit unless it is exempt. The City has issued most of these permits since its Local Coastal Program was certified in 1988, while the California Coastal Commission retains jurisdiction in some areas. If you are buying near the water with plans to remodel or add on, ask early.
• The 30-foot coastal height limitProposition D, passed by city voters in 1972, limits new buildings and structures west of Interstate 5 to 30 feet, with exceptions including Downtown and Barrio Logan. It shapes views, additions and what can replace an existing house.
• Houses 45 years old or olderWhen a project needs a construction permit and the site has a structure 45 years old or older, the City screens it for potential historic significance first. Plan for that review if you intend to remodel, add on or demolish. City of San Diego: buildings 45 years or older.
• Historic designationThe City’s Historical Resources Board designates individual landmarks and historic districts. Exterior changes to a designated property are reviewed for consistency with preservation standards. Find out whether a house is designated, or inside a district, before you write an offer. City of San Diego historic preservation planning.
• The Mills Act programOwners of designated properties can apply for a Mills Act agreement: a ten-year contract that renews automatically and offers a property tax reduction in exchange for maintaining and restoring the house. The agreement stays with the property when it sells. City of San Diego Mills Act program.
• Property taxes and Proposition 19A purchase generally resets a property’s assessed value to the price paid. Proposition 19 lets homeowners who are 55 or older, severely and permanently disabled, or victims of wildfire or natural disaster transfer the taxable value of a primary residence to a replacement home anywhere in California. State Board of Equalization: Proposition 19.
• Canyons and brush managementSan Diego’s canyons are one of its pleasures and one of its responsibilities. Homes next to native or naturalized vegetation must maintain 100 feet of brush management: Zone 1, typically 35 feet from the house, and Zone 2, the remaining 65 feet. San Diego Fire-Rescue: defensible space for property owners.
• Flood zones and sea-level riseFEMA flood maps show the city’s high-risk flood areas, and a seller’s Natural Hazard Disclosure will say whether a property is in a FEMA flood zone, a very high fire hazard severity zone, or an earthquake fault or seismic hazard zone. The City’s climate plan treats flooding and sea-level rise as primary hazards for low-lying coastal and bayfront areas. Climate Resilient SD: sea-level rise.
• HOAs and condosCalifornia law requires a condo seller to provide the association’s governing documents, budget and reserve information, assessments and any rental restrictions. Read them with the same care as the inspection report.

Official San Diego resources

The places to check facts about a specific property, straight from the source.

• San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk: property records
• City of San Diego: historic preservation planning
• City of San Diego: Mills Act program
• California Coastal Commission
• California State Board of Equalization: Proposition 19

Frequently asked questions about buying in San Diego