Living in San Diego County

San Diego County combines three genuinely distinct identities most other US relocation markets don't share in one place: it is the operational nerve center of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet and the world's most concentrated hub of Marine Corps expeditionary power (more than 115,000 active-duty personnel regionally); it anchors a world-class biotech/life-science cluster (the nation's 3rd-largest, with 1,400-plus companies); and it shares a real, economically significant binational border economy with Tijuana, Mexico across the San Ysidro Port of Entry -- the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere. San Diego proper carries the county's genuine beach/outdoor-lifestyle identity (La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Point Loma) and a mild, narrow year-round climate (a 70°F average annual high), while Chula Vista, the county's second-largest city, offers a more affordable, family-oriented, and rapidly growing alternative anchored by the 22,899-acre Otay Ranch master-planned community. Both cities share San Diego County's Proposition 13 property-tax mechanic, California's 13.3% top marginal income tax rate, and real earthquake exposure via the Rose Canyon and Elsinore faults -- alongside genuine wildfire-insurance-market pressure concentrated in the county's East County/backcountry areas specifically, rather than either city's own more urbanized core.

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Last reviewed: 2026-09-05. Independent research; see individual place pages for metric-level source attribution. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.