The 10 Worst San Diego Suburbs

The 10 Worst San Diego Suburbs To Live For 2024

We’ll get the ball rolling with Spring Valley, the absolute worst place to live around San Diego according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, Spring Valley beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the worst in the San Diego area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks worst when it comes to home values.

But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Spring Valley.

You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.

Welcome to Escondido. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 22.2 miles to San Diego. Income levels here are the 4th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $77,554 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.

But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.

Back up the highway we go for the third worst San Diego suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see El Cajon on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.

In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other San Diego suburbs.

But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.

If you live in Imperial Beach, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 3rd lowest San Diego suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 5th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near San Diego. Remember, we looked at 17 cities for this study.

Imperial Beach is about 17.3 miles to downtown.

Lemon Grove has the distinction of being a San Diego suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, Lemon Grove has the 2nd lowest home values in the metro San Diego area, where the median price is $705,419. The median income is $185,335.

Lemon Grove has an unemployment rate of 8.18% which ranks 2nd worst.

Vista has 98,392 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)

Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 10.98655866764472%.

Ah, Chula Vista. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around San Diego.

It’s the place with the most out of work residents in the San Diego metro area (8.82%).

Oceanside is a city about 29.9 miles from San Diego, but San Diego probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Oceanside has the 5th most uninsured people, 7th worst incomes, and has the 10th highest unemployment rate (5.86%) in the entire San Diego metro area.

Homes only cost $824,796 for a reason. That’s cheap for San Diego standards.

If you absolutely have to live near San Diego, then La Mesa might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst San Diego suburb.

About 6.5% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst San Diego suburbs to call home is San Marcos.

Located 22.1 miles outside the city, San Marcoss is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 15th highest unemployment rate (4.24%), and poverty is far above the area average.