South County

National City | Chula Vista | Otay Ranch | Bonita | Imperial Beach | San Ysidro

National City is a diverse city close to both Downtown San Diego and the Mexico Border. It is one of the more affordable areas of San Diego and boasts a car mall known as "Mile of Cars" where there are 21 different franchise car dealers.  

Chula Vista is broken up into West Chula Vista aka "Old Chula Vista" where the original 1920s-1970s homes were built. It is a rare instance where the homes closer to the water are actually less expensive than the homes further east. East Chula Vista or Otay Ranch is a newer region of San Diego where a lot of San Diego's military members purchase. This area is constantly undergoing new construction and has high-rated schools and shopping plazas. 

Bonita is a semi-rural and equestrian community. It has an extremely low crime rate, great schools, and large homes with some of the largest sized lots in the Southern San Diego area. 

Imperial Beach is one of the last somewhat affordable beach towns in San Diego County and lies directly adjacent to the Mexico water border making it the most southwesertly city in the US. Although much of this coastal region has undergone significant redevelopment in the last 10 years they are still plagued with ocean water quality issues from sewage overflows from Tijuana. Fortunately, the movement to alleviate this issue has gained momentum and there has been 300 million allocated to start working on remedying it, once the legislation passes.  

San Ysidro is the border crossing town at the US-Mexico border. It is one of the busiest land border crossings in the world. It is also home to a small population and the largest outlet mall in San Diego. Many commuters and frequent travelers between Tijuana and San Diego opt to use the Sentri pass when driving which allows a much shorter crossing time than the often 3-hour border crossing time from Mexico into the US. Walking across is typically much shorter as well.