I have lived in San Diego for 23 of my 24 years of life. So this may help you.

La Jolla is the cream of the crop beach town in San Diego. Clean, well mannered, high end beach town. Probably only half a mile away from the other popular beaches in Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. Think of it like this. In La Jolla, wearing a nice summer white polo and khaki shorts while pulling in to park anywhere in a BMW is somewhat the norm.

Chula Vista however is totally different. The west side of Chula Vista or what we South Bay folks call, “Old Chula Vista” has a much different climate of folks. I’d say the range is between middle-class and lower-income folks. Definitely a ton of retirement homes and communities set up there. However! Just to the east of Chula Vista, what we refer to as, “east of the 805 folks” it’s another totally different lifestyle. Only middle-class and upperclass could survive to afford the homes here. It is a beautiful suburbia. The two main towns in the east Chula Vista community are called, “Eastlake” & “Otay Ranch.”

Also to add, Chula Vista runs its own council and I believe La Jolla falls under San Diego council. Chula Vista is also more vast. It ranges from Eastlake all the way to Imperial beach. While La Jolla is pretty much just sitting next to the shore.

Of course just like any other city correlations to demographics play a role in the housing prices. In Eastlake, Bonita and Otay Ranch (east chula vista) I personally know two handful of families here and they consist of retired Navy dads with really good credit scores or both parents hold down college degrees. I know of one family with no college education and they lease a home in Eastlake working as bartender and manager of a retail store also with extremely good credit.

For the most part just keep in mind the closer to the beach the more pricier the houses become, and the more northern suburbs consist of more white people. On the other hand the Chula Vista suburbs of East Lake, Bonita and Otay Ranch consists heavily a mixture of races. I couldn’t tell you which race in particular stands out more in East Lake, Bonita and Otay Ranch, it’s that diverse.

I grew up in the South Bay, in south east San Diego town called Paradise Hills, if there’s anything close to the “projects” in San Diego Paradise Hills could count to be a runner up. La Jolla is always a nice place to go to. Beautiful cliffs near the ocean and beautiful views. Not to mention it’s near by college is UCSD. While on the other hand the only college in Chula Vista is in the town called Bonita which is Spanish for beautiful girl. It’s the community college called South Western Community College home of the Jaguars.

Some quirky things that stand out in Bonita is that there is a huge park. More inland than La Jolla is that’s for sure. Bonita is kind of a luscious country side but not too inland in San Diego. People in Bonita tend to be really friendly and have kind of a southern vibe as far as friendliness is concerned. Folks here also love horseback riding, and golf. And of course golf also exists in Torrey Pines which a La Jollan community.

I believe La Jolla stands spanish for the, “Of Jewels.”

When you Google search “Chula Vista map” and see the freeway 805 just look to the east of that and in that town of Chula Vista are the nicer parts.

To answer your south San Diego question about housing prices it’s because those homes and communities are just not as “in demand” or “trendy.” Alot of apartment communities and middle to low income families live down in San Ysidro and the border towns. It’s not to say that it is straight up ghetto. There is a wonderful shopping center outlet in San Ysidro called Los Americas, home to tons of shopping stores. That’s pretty much all I’ve got so far? Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Houses are often valued for sale based on the latest sale prices of houses in the area around them. When someone sales a house for less than the price of comparable houses around them, it starts bringing prices down. For example, if the average price of houses in my area are $200,000 and I absolutely have to sell my house because I’ve moved to find another job. I can’t afford two mortgages, or rent and a mortgage. I’m willing to let my house go for $170,000.

Now your house is worth $200,000 and is comparable to mine. If you have yours on the market for $200,000 and I have mine on the market for $170,000, what house do you think someone is going to be more interested in buying? The cheaper, similar house. So prices start dipping to the lowest level in that area.

This is just one of the reasons.

La Jolla has a better name. Seriously, people are just that stupid.

The perception is that the closer you are to Mexico, the worse the neighborhood is. Many houses in Chula Vista and it’s neighbors National City and San Ysidro are surrounded by wrought iron fences with gates or even the stucco walls with barred windows you see south of the border. The crime rates in that area are much higher than La Jolla.

The quality of the ocean water is much worse as you get closer to Mexico, because untreated sewer water flows directly into the ocean south of the border.

@cheebdragon : It’s amusing that affluent (generally white) people flock to a place that has a “pretty name” but phonetically sounds like “The Pot” in Spanish. >.>

@sinscriven Who doesn’t love pot?