Real Estate Agents in San Luis Obispo, CA

It's a distance squared problem from Cal Poly if you want to avoid students. Anything lower Broad is fine. ​ Nowhere in SLO is "dangerous"

The neighborhood behind San Luis High School along San Luis Drive is definitely one of the safest and has little to no Cal Poly students living in it. That said, I'm not sure it'll be in your price range. There is a lot for sale, but you'd have to build your own house: [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2151-San-Luis-Dr-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93401/97293166\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2151-San-Luis-Dr-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93401/97293166_zpid/)

Laguna lake area for sure.

Old Country Club area would be a good bet. Very quiet, great schools.

We live in a newer neighborhood currently growing called Margarita Ranch. Its in the southern part of SLO but still near downtown and hiking trails. There are young families as well as retirees living in the area. It's a very quiet area and there are plans to expand over time. One thing lacking are parks in the neighborhood. Currently only walking trails exist. Hope this helps!

Lots of good info here. We live in the French Park/Islay Park area on the south side of SLO. Very family oriented. Great neighborhood school (Los Ranchos) but I think if I had to do it over again I would buy near Sinsheimer School. Also a good school and the kids can walk or bike to school. Los Ranchos is not bikeable/walkable for the majority of students. There is a bus but you have to pay for it. Also, the after school childcare is not as convenient. Los Ranchos is outside city limits so the after school care is not run by the city as it is for all the other SLO schools. Houses in our area run from about 720k for a 3br, 1400sf house and go up from there. There is a new housing development, Righetti Ranch, that seems to be very nice, with lots of families moving in so far. Prices start in the high 700s.

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If you’re anywhere in SLO proper, you’re going to be outnumbered by Cal Poly students. We have elementary age kids and love living in the Village in Arroyo Grande. It’s way less expensive and we have more space and everything is geared for families instead of college kids. SLO residents tend to be pretty SLO-centric, forgetting that other communities exist. I’d be surprised if many SLO residents have even spent any time in any of the other cities in the county. Whatever you choose: avoid Pismo. It’s just a tourist trap and vacation rental / RV camp.

Although laguna lake has some students, its quite quiet down there. I lived near Costco for a year. Anyone who likes to party and make noise lives closer to campus.

I lived in the neighborhood just south of laguna lake for a while, sounds it could be a good fit. Mostly families, a few college students but never noticed any parties or late night noise. There’s a couple of schools right around the area, plus a nice park across the lake

I know this is coming on top of a lot of other commentary, but as a transplant to this area from some time back, and as someone who lived in three distinctly different neighborhoods in this town, allow me to make a few comments. First and foremost, the difference in the neighborhoods in San Luis Obispo is **nothing** like a difference in the neighborhoods in most urban/suburban areas where a school district, or a couple of apartment complexes, or some other such thing can make or break property values and affect the neighborhood character. It's not that local neighborhoods do not have character or individuality, but by far and large it really does not matter that much from a QoL point of view which neighborhood you live in. The **actual house** matters much more. Even the school district thing is sorta manageable - you can petition to send your kid to any school (although some are overcrowded and might reject your petition), or choose to go for Teach or Pacheco, which are district-wide schools. The number of students in the neighborhood varies, but houses are for rent everywhere (less than 50% of single-family homes are owner occupied, I live on a street where we are one of two owner-occupied dwellings out of roughly 15. This has NOT bothered) - so students live and will continue to live in pretty much every neighborhood up to $1.2 - 1.4 mil houses. So, in various ways, it's all a wash and really depends on what housing stock is available. The closest San Luis has to traditional suburbia are the Arbors and the French Park neighborhoods on the south side of town, separated by railroad tracks, and occupying the wedge between Tank Farm road, Broad St. and Orcutt rd, and backing (in case of Arbors) to Islay Hill. These two neighborhoods look as faceless as the rest of suburban America, but offer newer, more spacious houses, and occasionally, a semblance of a backyard (although not always). There are nice trails, and the Los Ranchos elementary happens to be a fine school. The neighborhood nearest to Costco off of Los Osos Valley Rd. and Madonna Rd. (known colloquially as de Vaul Ranch) is the cheaper wannabe traditional suburbia. Also newish, although not as well built houses. Some houses are quite large, and back out to the Irish Hills. Your $750K price range is just about adequate for a smaller house there, up it by about $100K and you have options. Further along Los Osos Valley Rd. are the older, more established neighborhoods. Older houses = smaller houses. Housing stock on the Laguna Lake side as typically single story ranches, 2-3 bedrooms, or smallish 4-br houses. The Irish Hills side has all sorts of houses, from really fancy ones, to the same 2-3Br "starter" ranches. A lot of stock is from the 1960s and 1970s - depending on your opinion of the design sensibilities of those decades you may find it an advantage of a disadvantage. Going down Los Osos Valley Road and taking right turn on Foothill, and going past a few farms gets you back into town, on Cal Poly side. The Bishops Peak side neighborhood houses Bishop's Peak Elementary, Pacheco Elementary, some of the better homes in the entire town (once you drive high enough up the slope), as well as the very mundane 1960s ranches in the valley part of the neighborhood. Student rentals are abound in the "valley", less so, up the slope. The neighborhood on the Cerro San Luis side (along Ramona Rd.) has some of the older stock houses, not necessarily in best shape, lots of rentals. A couple of streets high up (like Serrano) are much nicer, but have rentals too - cannot run away from them. The neighborhood between Foothill and downtown (along Broad and Chorro), Anholm, is among my favorite in town, but houses in that neighborhood are overpriced for their size. The neighborhood on the other side of the tacks, closest to campus (Kentucky Rd. and such) is turning into 100% student rentals, as long time residents move out. Downtown neighborhoods are always fun, and walking distance to everything, but houses vary, and prices are at the top. The neighborhoods along Johnson Rd. are also quite livable. The higher streets (on the high school side of Johnson) feature fancier, more expensive dwellings. The other side is more "democratic" and has the benefit of reasonable houses, reasonable (for the town) prices, and nice established neighborhood. Also, people swear by Sinsheimer elementary. At the heart of SLO, wedges between South Street and Broad Street is another established and reasonably affordable neighborhood with older houses. There are some newer developed streets there as well.

Copy-pasted from some advice I sent to new Cal Poly faculty colleagues, for what it's worth: *San Luis Obispo, in the city limits.* Junior faculty tend to live in the [Laguna Lake area](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Laguna+Lake/@35.2612313,-120.7048091,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x80ecf0930ef908b1:0xbb9709a810809665!8m2!3d35.2658779!4d-120.6911616) or [close to downtown](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Downtown,+San+Luis+Obispo,+CA/@35.2789165,-120.6711352,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80ecf1030ff688ff:0x6a4b5b51685d9512!8m2!3d35.2809634!4d-120.6616912). This is where there are smaller condos and apartment complexes. Some more senior faculty, especially those with working spouses, own homes [by the airport](https://www.google.com/maps/place/San+Luis+Obispo+County+Regional+Airport/@35.2459576,-120.6459677,14.13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x80ecf6bf3876b9f1:0xf486acd07a0f3bd2!8m2!3d35.2374865!4d-120.6409032). Anything [North of 101](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.2953018,-120.6829315,14.95z) is essentially student territory; a few people own houses up there, and the [Faculty Housing](http://www.bellamontanahomes.com/) is up there, but I would recommend strongly against any rental properties in that area. The advantage to living in the city itself is that most events - festivals, free concerts, etc - happen in SLO, and people come in from the surrounding county. It’s also nice to have a nonexistent commute to campus. The downside is that it’s more expensive by a good amount, especially if you are walking distance to downtown. It’s also still a student-dominated town - you learn pretty quickly which bars and restaurants are “adult” territory and which belong to the students. *“Five Cities” means Oceano, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, Shell Beach (20 min commute)* Many people live down South, mainly because it’s cheaper, but also because you can live walking distance to the beach. This is a nice area - downtown Arroyo Grande/Grover Beach (they’re essentially the same city) has great restaurants and a few bars. It’s definitely quieter than SLO, in good and bad ways. *Morro Bay and Los Osos (20 min commute)* Up to the Northwest is the Morro Bay area. It is cheaper than downtown, and it’s very very beautiful. There is a nice coastal boardwalk area that sometimes has festivals and so forth. It’s foggier and colder than SLO, and much smaller and older. There also aren’t as many rental properties or condo complexes; it’s more larger single-family houses. *“North County” means Paso Robles (40 min commute) or Atascadero (15 min commute)* A handful of people choose to live up North a ways. Most do this because they want to be able to afford the full “white picket fence” house situation - Atascadero is a little cheaper than SLO, and Paso is MUCH cheaper, but quite far away. Paso is awesome; lots of wineries, great restaurants, a fairly active cute downtown area. However, everyone I know who has lived up there ended up disliking it, because of the distance from SLO. It’s hard to, say, grab a dinner with a colleague if you have a 40 minute drive home.

The neighborhoods surrounding Sinsheimer School/Park and Terrance Hill are very family friendly. Lots of nearby space for kids to cruise around all day, and little to no college students. Would definitely recommend that area for young families.

What is your price range?

1. [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/585-Branch-St-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93401/249762501\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/585-Branch-St-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93401/249762501_zpid/) = 600k 2. [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3591-Sacramento-Dr-APT-3-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93401/2080269129\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3591-Sacramento-Dr-APT-3-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93401/2080269129_zpid/) = 639k 3. [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1787-Tonini-Dr-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93405/61205382\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1787-Tonini-Dr-San-Luis-Obispo-CA-93405/61205382_zpid/) = 679k Here are three listings under 750k I found after doing a quick search on zillow. SLO has great schools anywhere you go. The police are very diligent. Sometimes even a little too much. I'd rather have that than the alternative though. The closer you get to Cal Poly or downtown, usually the more expensive it gets. Housing is always in demand because of the local colleges. Overall, SLO is a great place to live, and very safe. A bit overpriced, but you're paying for the beautiful area and good weather year round. Hope this helps! :)

I don't have pics, I don't think.. the dinette table is bamboo with a glass top... the bookshelf/desk is Ikea Expedit in a dark wood finish...