Rancho Sante Fe (San Diego, Beverly Hills, Rancho Santa Fe: houses, construction, best schools)

[Phillly girl]

I am thinking of relocating to the San Diego araea from a suburb of Philadelphia. I wanted to know what people thought of Rancho Sante Fe and also the quality of the schools, publlic and private. Also is RSF a frinedly community?
Please let me know.
Many thanks,
Philly Girl

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by Phillly girl

I am thinking of relocating to the San Diego araea from a suburb of Philadelphia. I wanted to know what people thought of Rancho Sante Fe and also the quality of the schools, publlic and private. Also is RSF a frinedly community?
Please let me know.
Many thanks,
Philly Girl

Are you very wealthy? It's the most expensive zip code in the entire *country* by some estimates.

Best schools, large mansions on large lots, an uber-wealthy, uber-private enclave for the mega-rich. Comparable to Holmby / Beverly Hills or Bel Air but with a more rural, hilly feel.

[tande1n5]

I'd say it's for you if you want a large lot and away from the noise. In my opinion, here are the ups and downs:

Ups:
The nice thing is that it seems private since there are (if I'm not mistaken) certain restrictions of house placement, lot size and such in many areas that eliminates the wall-to-wall houses feel. Often times you can't actually see the houses themselves since they're tastefully set away... which naturally means large lot, which is a plus to me at least.

On the other hand, to many, living in Southern California is all about the location to the ocean, and the natural beauty. RSF is hilly and country like. Personally, I keep my address in SD to enjoy the coast. In my humble opinion, San Diego is beautiful by the water, exactly like what people think socal looks like, and looks like the middle of the desert everywhere else (not the beautiful, red-rock kind either), and that's what turns me off about RSF - since it's a little more inland, I think it looks like the latter, especially the far Eastern parts. Also, since you said schools, I assume you have or want a family. They're great, so that's not the problem, what may be is that there aren't really sidewalks for walking down in many areas (if/when your kids are at the age where they are old enough to go out on their own with friends on bikes or what not). I'm thinking the downtown area's calm enough for pedestrians to use, but other than that, it's a lot of windy 2 lane roads that everyone drives at 60 mph on since their European cars are built to do it rather well. Since it's safe enough crime-wise to let your kids out to play, it kinds stinks if the reason you couldn't let them off your lot is because of the unfriendly roads in many places, you know what I mean?

Those are just my thoughts... overall very nice, comfortable, and seemed welcoming enough, I don't know exactly since I don't live there.

[ARQUIMEX]

Was visitng from Philly a few months ago to look at RealEstate and RSF was very very impressed by the spectacular hilly area and the high cost. High quality home materials & construction, beautifully designed homes with central courtyard and fountain, large open lots with low level illumination for roads and signage to minimize light pollution at night, can see stars for miles. Disadvantage is the lack of pedestrian access anywhere, lack of community diversity as tande1n5 described. Would choose that area over the coast if I could afford it and if it was not so isolated.

[jksouthbay88]

Wow from Philadel to Rancho Santa Fe?That's a big difference,unless you had tons and tons and tons of money over there too.You might want to check this out if you haven't already.

Rancho Santa Fe, California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia