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

La Presa is a county neighborhood most maps fold into Spring Valley: the streets between Sweetwater Road, Jamacha Boulevard and the Sweetwater Reservoir, on the slopes above the river. It was built in the 1960s and 1970s as inexpensive family housing on bigger lots than the city offered, and that is still the proposition — a detached house with a yard, twenty minutes from the base, at a price the South Bay's newer neighborhoods cannot touch.

Who lives here and why

Junior and mid-grade sailors buying a first house rather than a condo, families who want a yard and can live with older housing, and long-tenure owners who have been here since the tracts were new. The draw is price and space. The trade is age, county services instead of city, a commute that runs through Spring Valley's surface streets to the 54, and the occasional parcel that is still on a septic system rather than sewer.

The commute

Twenty to twenty-five minutes to the 32nd Street gates: Sweetwater Road or Jamacha to SR-54 west, then I-805 or I-5 south to the base. Coronado adds ten. Downtown is twenty minutes on the 94. It is a surface-street start to every trip, which is the practical difference from a Chula Vista address on the 805.

Housing stock and what the appraiser sees

Nearly all of La Presa predates 1978, so peeling paint is a lead-based paint condition. Original roofs, electrical panels and plumbing come up regularly, as do additions and enclosed patios that need a permit history. Some parcels are on septic rather than county sewer: VA requires a septic evaluation in most such cases, and connection to sewer where it is available at the property line and reasonable in cost — confirm which applies before writing. Slope lots toward the reservoir bring drainage and retaining-wall notes. A termite clearance is standard practice. The appraisal page covers how conditions are cleared.

A few manufactured homes sit on owned land here; VA can finance them only when the home is permanently affixed and titled as real property. The tax bill is the Proposition 13 base — no Community Facilities District, and HOAs are rare.

The loan angle

La Presa is where mid-grade BAH with dependents carries a detached house on a VA loan with no down payment and no loan limit; the BAH-to-payment calculator shows it at the plain county rate. For a buyer keeping a VA-financed house at the last station, the second-tier calculation almost always works here without a down payment because the band is low. The Naval Base San Diego guide sets it against Spring Valley, Bonita and west Chula Vista for the same commute; California's benefits are on the California 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
• Eastlake and Otay Ranch
• Imperial Beach
• Jamul
• La Mesa
• 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