Is Bonita a good place to buy near Naval Base San Diego?

Bonita is the green valley between Chula Vista and the Sweetwater reservoir — unincorporated San Diego County rather than a city, with a golf course, riding trails, and a housing stock that runs from 1960s ranches on half-acre lots to 1990s custom homes. For a Navy family it is the closest thing to country living within twenty minutes of the 32nd Street base, and the price band reflects it.

Who lives here and why

Senior NCOs, officers, and second- and third-tour families who want a yard, a garage for the boat, and a quieter setting than Chula Vista's tracts. The draw is space and the semi-rural feel; the schools are the same Chula Vista Elementary and Sweetwater Union campuses as eastern Chula Vista. The trade is price — a step up from Chula Vista — and the rural-property questions that come with larger lots: septic on some parcels, floodplain along the river, and comparable sales that are thinner than in a tract neighborhood.

The commute

Fifteen to twenty minutes to the 32nd Street gates: Bonita Road or Highway 54 west to I-5 or the 805, then north. Highway 54 is the main route and it moves well outside peak. North Island adds the bridge; Point Loma is thirty minutes or more. Eastern Chula Vista's shopping and the 125 toll road are minutes away.

Housing stock and what the appraiser sees

Pre-1978 homes bring the lead-based paint condition on peeling paint, and Bonita has a lot of them. The larger lots draw the findings tract neighborhoods do not: unpermitted barns, workshops and second units; a private septic system on some parcels, which needs an evaluation in most cases; and lots in the Sweetwater floodplain, where flood insurance is required and escrowed. The appraiser also has to find comparable sales, and on a custom home or acreage parcel that can trigger the Tidewater process — the appraisal page covers it. Roofs on the older stock are often at end of life; a termite clearance is standard. The established areas are on the standard Proposition 13 base with few HOAs, which keeps the payment honest relative to eastern Chula Vista's Mello-Roos tracts.

The loan angle

Bonita prices put a full-entitlement buyer's absence of a loan limit to work on a no-down-payment purchase of a house and lot that BAH carries at senior grades. A buyer keeping a VA-financed house elsewhere is on remaining entitlement, and at the upper South Bay band the second-tier calculation often produces a down payment — the entitlement calculator gives the figure. The Naval Base San Diego guide compares Bonita against Chula Vista and Coronado, and the state side is on the California benefits page.

Next

• See BAH for Naval Base San Diego →
• Compare nearby neighborhoods →

Around Naval Base San Diego

• Buying Near Naval Base San Diego and Coronado: The San Diego VA Loan Guide
• California Veteran Home Buying Benefits: CalVet and the VA Loan
• Imperial Beach
• Jamul
• La Mesa
• La Presa
• Lakeside and Alpine
• Lemon Grove and Spring Valley
• National City
• Point Loma and Ocean Beach
• San Carlos
• Santee and El Cajon
• The PCS Home Buying Guide