The 10 Cheapest San Diego, CA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2025


The cheapest San Diego neighborhoods are Gaslamp Quarter and Palm City for 2025 based on Saturday Night Science.

By: Chris Kolmar | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: October 22, 2025
Worst Neighborhoods In San Diego
Source: Wikipedia User Tomcio77, User:Nehrams2020, Michael Seljos, Jackson, William Henry, User:SusanLesch | CC BY-SA 3.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in San Diego might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those San Diego neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in San Diego are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In San Diego For 2025

  1. Gaslamp Quarter
  2. Palm City
  3. Bay Terrace
  4. Webster
  5. Sky Line
  6. Midtown District
  7. San Carlos
  8. City Heights East
  9. Core
  10. Paradise Hills

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in San Diego for 2025? According to the most recent census data, Gaslamp Quarter looks to be the cheapest San Diego neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in San Diego. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around San Diego that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in San Diego.

For more California reading, check out:

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In San Diego For 2025

1. Gaslamp Quarter

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 1,003
Cost Of Living Index: 112 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.2 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (5th cheapest)
More on Gaslamp Quarter:

2. Palm City

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 6,059
Cost Of Living Index: 118 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (28th cheapest)
More on Palm City:

3. Bay Terrace

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 22,838
Cost Of Living Index: 129 (26th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.2 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (19th cheapest)
More on Bay Terrace:

4. Webster

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 10,383
Cost Of Living Index: 127 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.4 (18th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (22nd cheapest)
More on Webster:

5. Sky Line

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 10,572
Cost Of Living Index: 127 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.2 (14th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (39th cheapest)
More on Sky Line:

6. Midtown District

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 10,962
Cost Of Living Index: 123 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.1 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (52nd cheapest)
More on Midtown District:

7. San Carlos

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 13,423
Cost Of Living Index: 154 (64th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.1 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (9th cheapest)
More on San Carlos:

8. City Heights East

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 38,743
Cost Of Living Index: 108 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.8 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.03 (77th cheapest)
More on City Heights East:

9. Core

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 3,770
Cost Of Living Index: 102 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.9 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.033 (82nd cheapest)
More on Core:

10. Paradise Hills

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 17,552
Cost Of Living Index: 127 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.6 (22nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (43rd cheapest)
More on Paradise Hills:

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest San Diego Hoods In 2025

To rank the cheapest places to live in San Diego, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 85 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In San Diego.” We’re lookin’ at you, Gaslamp Quarter.

We updated this article for 2025. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in San Diego. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In San Diego

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in San Diego where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in San Diego are Gaslamp Quarter, Palm City, Bay Terrace, Webster, Sky Line, Midtown District, San Carlos, City Heights East, Core, and Paradise Hills.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in San Diego aren’t all cheap. Horton Plaza takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in San Diego.

The most expensive neighborhoods in San Diego are Horton Plaza, Rolando, Ocean Beach, Wooded Area, and East Village.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more California reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In San Diego For 2025

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Gaslamp Quarter 112
2 Palm City 118
3 Bay Terrace 129
4 Webster 127
5 Sky Line 127
6 Midtown District 123
7 San Carlos 154
8 City Heights East 108
9 Core 102
10 Paradise Hills 127
11 Columbia 145
12 San Ysidro 118
13 Del Cerro 160
14 Darnall 129
15 Kearny Mesa 137
16 Gateway 134
17 Allied Gardens 130
18 Mission Valley 131
19 Mira Mesa 143
20 Grantville 131
21 Nestor 114
22 Alta Vista 136
23 Mission Bay 137
24 Torrey Pines 188
25 Bario Logan 110
26 Oak Park 121
27 Kensington 156
28 Rancho Penasquitos 165
29 Clairemont Mesa 144
30 Miramar 148
31 Rancho Bernadino 160
32 El Cerritos 129
33 Encanto 131
34 Jomacha-Lomita 129
35 Lake Murray 146
36 Valencia Park 128
37 Balboa Park 135
38 North Hills 142
39 Sabre Springs 164
40 Talmadge 133
41 Carmel Valley 191
42 Normal Heights 132
43 South Park 150
44 North Clairemont 146
45 Bay Ho 155
46 Chollas View 119
47 Cortez Hill 112
48 North City 225
49 Marina 155
50 Sorrento Valley 148
51 Scripps Ranch 167
52 La Jolla Village 142
53 Tierrasanta 145
54 West University Heights 147
55 Egger Highlands 124
56 Emerald Hills 128
57 Southcrest 120
58 City Heights West 120
59 Roseville 180
60 Moreno Mission 137
61 Little Italy 142
62 Del Mar Heights 222
63 Loma Portal 156
64 Bay Park 157
65 University City 154
66 Mountain View 113
67 Mount Hope 124
68 Carmel Mountain 163
69 Bird Land 137
70 Serra Mesa 138
71 College Area 142
72 Grant Hill 126
73 Midtown 146
74 Old Town 151
75 Lincoln Park 127
76 Pacific Beach 167
77 Memorial 124
78 La Jolla 251
79 Park West 161
80 Linda Vista 136
81 East Village 136
82 Wooded Area 187
83 Ocean Beach 172
84 Rolando 138
85 Horton Plaza 139
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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