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Official community planning area: University
Published fit 83 uses default walkable weights and a $2,500 ACS rent budget — the same number as the San Diego table. Your current weights score this 81.
Data period. ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · SDPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM Oct 2026. ACS and SDPD retrieved 2026-10-14; OSM retrieved 2026-10-14. Editorial copy last revised Sep 2026.
UTC and University City are the searches. UCSD sits in this plan, not in the coast village. The official name is University. Median age is 31.7, so this is not a dorm census. Bachelor's share is 76% and rent is $2,728. Cafes are 51 and bars are 3. Property Part I is 22.3 per 1,000 — the malls and the offices write a lot of that. The park count is canyon and campus pieces, not a shop on every block. Violent is 1.5.
Best in San Diego for familiesWalkable San DiegoUnder $2,500 rent
Default walkable weights, $2,500 ACS rent budget. Same axes as the city table and the FAQ.
101 violent · 1506 property · 23.8 per 1k (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026)-18 vs city set
Limited school data0 vs city set
OSM: 21 groceries · 51 cafes · 254 transit · 554 parks+76 vs city set
$2,728 ACS median vs published $2,500 rent budget-4 vs city set
OSM: 51 cafes · 141 restaurants · 3 bars · 554 parks+79 vs city set
From University, a typical weekday is 26 min to Downtown, 6 min to UTC, 16 min to Mission Valley. Not live traffic.
UTC is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Civic Center, Gaslamp · +9 min vs the city-set median
University City, the campus · -13 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
Malls, the stadium · +1 min vs the city-set median
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
The ACS median rent is $2,728 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 29% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($112K) could “afford” about $2,798 a month at 30% of pay.
63% of households rent. Median home value is $1,169,730.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for San Diego city. Up 70% since 2014. University is 18% above the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a short walk of this official community planning area: 21 groceries, 51 cafes, 554 parks, and 254 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 554 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (254 stops or stations).
51 cafes and 141 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the San Diego set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 15 of the other 19 areas in this city.
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 16 census tracts · SDPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM 2026-10-14
Crime is SDPD Part I reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
UTC and University City are the searches. UCSD sits in this plan, not in the coast village. The official name is University. Median age is 31.7, so this is not a dorm census. Bachelor's share is 76% and rent is $2,728. Cafes are 51 and bars are 3. Property Part I is 22.3 per 1,000 — the malls and the offices write a lot of that. The park count is canyon and campus pieces, not a shop on every block. Violent is 1.5.
Scores on this page stay inside San Diego. University is the official community planning area; other names are searches, not extra polygons. School ratings are not in this snapshot. A neighbor on the schematic map is not a shared fence. SDPD counts are the department's FBI violent and property flags — Part I homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, plus burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is not in those flags. Police beats are not this map.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, Boston planning-neighborhood writing, Philadelphia neighborhood writing, Portland neighborhood writing, Washington neighborhood-cluster writing, San Diego community-plan writing, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
Public posts from r/sandiego that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
No r/sandiego posts in this snapshot mentioned University.
Last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
University shows more Part I than most of this San Diego set (safety 32 vs city 50). SDPD logged 1.5 violent and 22.3 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 23.8 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $2,728 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 63% of households rent. Median home value is $1,169,730. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 100 here vs 24 for the San Diego set — a grocery run and a coffee on foot are realistic. Inside 800 meters: 21 groceries, 51 cafes, 254 transit stops, 554 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
Family fit depends on the school rating nearby and how much quiet you want. Nearby school rating is thin in this dataset. Median age is 31.7. That rating is not your assigned campus.
26 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 67,653 people. Median income $112K. 76% have a bachelor's or higher.
Clairemont, Carmel Valley, La Jolla sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official community planning areas, start with University vs Clairemont.
Closest on this schematic map, scored with the same published walkable weights as the San Diego table. Distances here are not street geography.
University vs ClairemontUniversity vs Carmel ValleyUniversity vs La Jolla
$3K ACS median rent
A north-inland plan of 77,845 people. Rent is $2,756. Violent Part I is 1.7 per 1,000 and property is 9.6. Income is $132,721. It is houses and errands, not a beach night. The coast is a drive.
$2K ACS median rent
The official plan is Clairemont Mesa. 78,255 people, houses and canyons, 42% renters. Rent is $2,312. Violent Part I is 2.1 per 1,000. It is a drive to the water and a shorter hop to the valley offices.
$3K ACS median rent
Highest income in this set, $199,791, and the highest rent, $3,374. Violent Part I is 0.4 per 1,000, the lowest here. Property is 5.7, also the lowest. Bachelor's share is 83%. OSM transit stops in or near the plan: 4. Houses and a drive. This is not the coast village.
$3K ACS median rent
Prospect and the coves. Oldest median age in this set, 52.2, and only 29% of households rent. The home median is $1,908,428. Violent Part I is 1.6 per 1,000. Property is 16.9, which is the shops as much as the side streets. The inland campus is a different plan.
$2K ACS median rent
Garnet Avenue is the search. The official plan is Pacific Beach. Rent is $2,427 and the home median is $1,372,211. Violent Part I is 4.5 per 1,000. Property is 18.2. Garnet is the night. The bay side of the same plan is quieter.