At the time I hadn’t considered Vista because I had little pre-schoolers and everyone in Carlsbad and Encinitas had me convinced that any school district other than Carlsbad, San Deguito or Encinitas was sub-par and my kids would probably need to learn how to fight. This turned out to be the furthest thing from the truth.
So I would sit on the deck at Sander’s Social House after a round of golf and admire the beautiful view of the golf course, lined with homes, mountains and blue skies. There is a reason the town is called Vista. There are incredible views everywhere. I thought to myself. This is crazy… this is such nice place. Why wouldn’t I consider living here. So I started looking at homes for sale on my phone while sitting on the deck and quickly realized I could get a full 3 bedroom detached home with a backyard for about the same as a townhome where I was renting.
As it turned out my kids just started kindergarten and I wasn’t particularly impressed with the school in Carlsbad my kids had just started at. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t worth the extra $250k for a house in Carlsbad. At least not to me. For that kind of money I could pay for private school and have some money left over. I was still a little cautious when it came to the schools due to all of the peer pressure so coincidentally we came across a charter school right next to Shadowridge and that was enough for us to get serious about making the move.
So we did it… I would take my kids with me after their golf lessons to go look at houses close to the golf course. Primarily homes in the Shadowridge community. I picked up what was probably the last short sale of that era and we settled in. With the money we saved on the house we had plenty of money left over to do the things we enjoyed. To me that is a huge benefit of living in Vista and for me in particular Shadowridge. Living here made housing for us very affordable so that we could actually have a nice lifestyle.
P.S.
About the school situation.
That charter school we enrolled our kids in lost their charter and fell apart after the first school year. At that point we had already bought the house and we decided to give Lake Elementary a go. This is a story for another time but in short, the school district and zip code envy that had tainted my perspective was shattered. We had a great experience at Lake Elementary, the parents were friendly and highly involved, youth sports is top notch and there is a real sense of community. I am so glad we made the move.
If you are thinking about Vista, the 92081 zip code or Shadowridge hit me up. I’m happy to share my experience in detail so you can get an idea if it might be right for you. Call or text at (442) 264-7109.