Is Mira Mesa a good place to buy near MCAS Miramar?

Mira Mesa is the neighborhood that grew up with the air station. It sits on the mesa immediately north and west of the runways, between I-15 and I-805, and it was built almost entirely between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s as the tract housing that made a central San Diego assignment affordable. It still is, relative to everything around it, and that is why it is the first place a Miramar family looks.

Who lives here and why

The buyers are junior and mid-grade Marines and sailors, dual-military couples with one member at Miramar and one at the bay bases, and second-tour families who want a house rather than a condo without leaving the base's neighborhood. The draw is simple: proximity and price. Mira Mesa Boulevard and Black Mountain Road reach the gates in minutes, the neighborhood has its own retail and schools, and the price band sits below every neighborhood to its north and east. The trade is age — the housing is fifty years old, the lots are small, and the streets are dense — and the housing is denser than in the neighborhoods north and east of it.

The commute

This is the shortest Miramar commute in the county: five to ten minutes to the north or west gates from almost anywhere in the neighborhood, without touching a freeway. For a household with a second commuter, the 805 reaches Kearny Mesa, Mission Valley and the bay bases, and I-15 reaches downtown; both are congested at the peaks but short in distance. A spouse at Naval Base San Diego is looking at twenty to thirty minutes on the 805 and I-5 outside rush hour.

Housing stock and what the appraiser sees

The single-family stock is 1970s and 1980s tract construction — stucco, composition or tile roofs, small yards, attached garages that have frequently been converted. Pre-1978 homes bring the lead-based paint condition on any peeling paint. Converted garages and unpermitted additions are common enough that the appraiser will note them as a matter of course; a permit history from the city resolves most of it. Roofs on the original 1970s homes are often at end of life, and a termite clearance is standard practice on California VA purchases. The appraisal page covers how conditions are handled.

The condo and townhome share is large — it is where most first VA purchases in Mira Mesa land — and the condominium project has to be VA-approved before a VA loan closes on a unit. Most of the large complexes are; check the project before writing, per the condo answer. Leased solar is common on the tract houses; the solar answer covers transfers and the PACE-lien problem. Mira Mesa's older tracts are not in a Community Facilities District, so the tax bill is the standard Proposition 13 base.

The loan angle

For a first-use buyer with full entitlement, Mira Mesa is where the VA loan does the most work in central San Diego: no down payment and no loan limit, on a house or condo that Miramar BAH carries at mid-grade with dependents. For a buyer with a VA loan still open at the last station, the second-tier calculation often works here without a down payment because the price band is the lowest near the base; the entitlement calculator shows the number. The Miramar base guide covers the neighborhoods to compare against; California's benefits are on the California page.

Next

• See BAH for MCAS Miramar →
• Compare nearby neighborhoods →

Around MCAS Miramar

• Buying Near MCAS Miramar: The Central San Diego VA Loan Guide
• California Veteran Home Buying Benefits: CalVet and the VA Loan
• Rancho Peñasquitos
• Scripps Ranch
• Serra Mesa
• Tierrasanta
• The PCS Home Buying Guide