The 10 Cheapest Chula Vista, CA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Chula Vista neighborhoods are East Lake and Otay Ranch for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Chula Vista
Source: Wikipedia User 08OceanBeach SD, Port of San Diego, Allan Ferguson | 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 Chula Vista might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Chula Vista 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 Chula Vista are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Chula Vista For 2024

  1. East Lake
  2. Otay Ranch
  3. Eastlake Vistas
  4. Rancho Del Rey
  5. Village Center
  6. Eastlake Trails
  7. Fenton St
  8. Yosemite Dr
  9. Rolling Hills Ranch
  10. Sunbow

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Chula Vista for 2024? According to the most recent census data, East Lake looks to be the cheapest Chula Vista 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 Chula Vista. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

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

For more California reading, check out:


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


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Chula Vista For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 5,839
Cost Of Living Index: 128 (3rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.7 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (2nd cheapest)
More on East Lake: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 36,764
Cost Of Living Index: 135 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.9 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (3rd cheapest)
More on Otay Ranch: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 3,749
Cost Of Living Index: 150 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.3 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (6th cheapest)
More on Eastlake Vistas: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 8,360
Cost Of Living Index: 144 (7th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.5 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (4th cheapest)
More on Rancho Del Rey: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 203
Cost Of Living Index: 131 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.6 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (14th cheapest)
More on Village Center: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 2,782
Cost Of Living Index: 150 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.5 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (5th cheapest)
More on Eastlake Trails: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 1,428
Cost Of Living Index: 135 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.6 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (15th cheapest)
More on Fenton St: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 416
Cost Of Living Index: 154 (13th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.7 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (cheapest)
More on Yosemite Dr: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,360
Cost Of Living Index: 169 (17th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.7 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (7th cheapest)
More on Rolling Hills Ranch: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 8,064
Cost Of Living Index: 151 (10th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.0 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (9th cheapest)
More on Sunbow: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Chula Vista Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Chula Vista, 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 17 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 Chula Vista.” We’re lookin’ at you, East Lake.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Chula Vista. 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 Chula Vista

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

The most affordable neighborhoods in Chula Vista are East Lake, Otay Ranch, Eastlake Vistas, Rancho Del Rey, Village Center, Eastlake Trails, Fenton St, Yosemite Dr, Rolling Hills Ranch, and Sunbow.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Chula Vista aren’t all cheap. Bonita Long Canyon takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Chula Vista.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Chula Vista are Bonita Long Canyon, Terra Nova, Lynwood Hills, Northwest, and Estlake Greens.

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 Chula Vista For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 East Lake 128
2 Otay Ranch 135
3 Eastlake Vistas 150
4 Rancho Del Rey 144
5 Village Center 131
6 Eastlake Trails 150
7 Fenton St 135
8 Yosemite Dr 154
9 Rolling Hills Ranch 169
10 Sunbow 151
11 Southwest 120
12 Paseo Ranchoero 153
13 Estlake Greens 155
14 Northwest 126
15 Lynwood Hills 151
16 Terra Nova 162
17 Bonita Long Canyon 167
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.