Full disclosure: This is going to be 100% based on my cost of living experience here in San Diego. I think the way I live is probably pretty average cost wise so I think this should give you a great idea of what it costs to live here.

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At the end of the day, can you do it cheaper in San Diego than I do? Probably. Could you live here more expensively? Absolutely. This is my take on the cost of living in San Diego and I think what you can probably expect something similar if you live here.

So San Diego is expensive. There is no argument against that. If you look at the Country as the baseline, California ranks about 50% higher in general. When you break that down further and look at San Diego versus the rest of the country, we rank about 60% higher. That’s 10% higher than then the rest of the state and 60% higher than the country. Keep in mind, California is a huge state. Living in San Diego is very different than living in so many other parts of the state. Also, we are less expensive than some of our other major California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. Which one if better to live in you might be wondering? Well I can tell you there is a huge increase in Californians moving south… Not the other way around.

Why so expensive in San Diego?

Simple answer: The weather.

Housing and Real Estate

So let’s get a little more specific. The biggest cost driver in San Diego is going to be housing and real estate. The average home in San Diego at the time of this video recording is selling for just about 3 times the average price than the rest of the country. Meaning if you took the countries average home selling for $231,000, picked it up, and dropped it in San Diego, that same home would now sell for $645,000. Have you heard the term location, location, location? There are homes in San Diego for less but not a lot. For a decent single family home, I would be expecting to spend at least $500,000. Maybe you find a deal but for most of us, it’s not going to come cheap.

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Roughly 48% of the residents in San Diego rent. It’s actually very competitive in the rental market right now. Average rents will vary greatly depending on where you want to live. The most expensive areas will be the new luxury high rises in Downtown San Diego or homes on the water at the beach in neighborhoods such as La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas.

If you were looking for a newer 2 bedroom apartment in the city, you are probably looking at least $3000 or more to rent per month. You could easily get a better rate by renting in one of the many nearby communities such as Golden Hill, North Park, maybe even Clairemont.

Overall, the average rents for San Diego (at the time of writing this blog) are $1,450 for a small studio, $1,621 for a 1 bedroom apartment, around $2,107 for a 2 bedroom apartment, and about $3,019 for a 3 bedroom home or apartment. Rents will vary wildly though depending on where you live and who you rent from.

Food and Groceries

For your food and groceries, San Diego ranks only about 10% higher than the rest of the country. Not really that bad. I get my food from a variety of sources. Too keep it simple (and healthy), I order the majority of my meals from a food prep company called The Lean Machine. That gets me 14 healthy meals a week with delivery for $154 to my door. You could save some money by buying everything at the grocery store and make everything yourself but it doesn’t make sense for me. I’d rather be making selling real estate and making videos than cooking. I do hit up the grocery stores, we have all the major big ones and we also have many weekly local farmers markets to shop. Lots of the vendors are local farmers, vegan specialty retailers, specific health interests, dog food specialties, they are all pretty awesome. I hit up the ones in Little Italy the most but so many of them are great. All in, you should not see a huge difference in food and groceries, we are just about 10% higher than the rest of the country.

Dining Out

Going out to dinner can be a different story. San Diego has great options for dining out. The average meal at a pretty good restaurant in San Diego is going to run you around $60 bucks for 2 people. If you throw in wine or beer, it can gets a little more pricey. It you go a little more on the less expensive side, you can usually get away with about $20 dollars a person. I am not really a foodie but I have my favorite places. Hit me up for recommendations if you need them. Or better yet, let me know your favorites!

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The Beer Scene

Hopefully this isn’t too off topic but I wanted to mention the local beer scene in San Diego. It’s hard to compare our beer scene against the rest of the country because it’s near one of a kind. There is an incredible amount of breweries in San Diego. And not just any brewery’s, great ones. San Diego is actually known as the craft beer capital by many beer enthusiasts.

There are over 150 breweries, local brew pubs, and tasting rooms scattered across the county. It’s an amazing brew scene and for a reasonable price. I highly recommend checking it out. Some recommendations would be Ballast point in Little Italy, Stone Brew in Liberty Station or Escondido, try Green Flash in Sorrento Valley, and Knotty Barrel in East Village.

Healthcare

In San Diego, healthcare is actually 11% lower than the countries average. California in general is about 5 or 6% less than the country but San Diego even beats out California here. If you are adding up those health care figures, expect to pay a little less in San Diego.

Utilities

Utilities on average in San Diego are just about even with the countries average. We rank about 2% higher if you want to be specific. My utilities for a 1 bedroom condo ran about $100 a month for electricity and gas, and I paid about $50 or so for water which included trash and sewer charges. My bills for electricity and gas were about the same or less in my 4 bedroom townhome but I had solar panels helping out there so not a great comparison. The water, sewer, and trash bill was higher, maybe around $120 or so a month. I had a yard as well getting watered so it wasn’t actually that bad. Internet runs around $69 for fast service. Cable will be $100 to $150 most likely if you still get cable.

Transportation

Transportation is San Diego is about 20% higher than other cities in the Country. Before you start wondering why it is more expensive, it might be a moot point. Unlike many other major cities, even ones in California, we don’t really have highly usable public transportation. There is a trolley that’s usable for a small percentage of locations. There is also a train and commuter train that runs north and south on the coast that runs about between $140 – $182 depending on the zone. There are public buses that run about $72 a month currently.

That being said, if you need to get somewhere in San Diego, most people have and use a car. If you need to get around the city or the county, you will need a car.

Something else to know is that gas prices in San Diego are not cheap. Right now, the closest gas station to me is priced at:

• $4.49 for regular,
• $4.59 for mid-grade,
• $4.69 for premium.

Yes, those are the prices. Insane I know. But we pay them.

Taxes

As far as taxes to be aware of, California does have real estate property tax due twice a year, sales tax of 7.75%, inheritance and estate tax, and many local or municipal taxes. Independent not too bad but when you combine them they can add up very quickly. We don’t live here for the tax advantages.

Overall Quality of Life

This is extremely important and you can’t really put a dollar figure on it. Is San Diego expensive? Absolutely it is. Do we pay a sunshine tax? Yes. Did you know San Diego ranks number 12 on the United States most expensive cities to live but it also ranks 6^th for Quality of Life (Indexed by City). People in San Diego are happy. We might pay a little bit more, ok, a lot more for real estate but we are happy. It’s not all just about the dollars and cents. I’ve been her for my entire adult life and I have zero plans to move anywhere else. Unless my YouTube Channel continues to grow and I find myself with Graham Stephens problem {JOKE}.

I hope that gives you an idea of the cost of living in San Diego. I love it, Wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.