answer:I have lived in San Diego for 23 of my 24 years of life. So this may help you. La Jolla is the cream of the crop beach town in San Diego. Clean, well mannered, high end beach town. Probably only half a mile away from the other popular beaches in Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. Think of it like this. In La Jolla, wearing a nice summer white polo and khaki shorts while pulling in to park anywhere in a BMW is somewhat the norm. Chula Vista however is totally different. The west side of Chula Vista or what we South Bay folks call, “Old Chula Vista” has a much different climate of folks. I’d say the range is between middle-class and lower-income folks. Definitely a ton of retirement homes and communities set up there. However! Just to the east of Chula Vista, what we refer to as, “east of the 805 folks” it’s another totally different lifestyle. Only middle-class and upperclass could survive to afford the homes here. It is a beautiful suburbia. The two main towns in the east Chula Vista community are called, “Eastlake” & “Otay Ranch.” Also to add, Chula Vista runs its own council and I believe La Jolla falls under San Diego council. Chula Vista is also more vast. It ranges from Eastlake all the way to Imperial beach. While La Jolla is pretty much just sitting next to the shore. Of course just like any other city correlations to demographics play a role in the housing prices. In Eastlake, Bonita and Otay Ranch (east chula vista) I personally know two handful of families here and they consist of retired Navy dads with really good credit scores or both parents hold down college degrees. I know of one family with no college education and they lease a home in Eastlake working as bartender and manager of a retail store also with extremely good credit. For the most part just keep in mind the closer to the beach the more pricier the houses become, and the more northern suburbs consist of more white people. On the other hand the Chula Vista suburbs of East Lake, Bonita and Otay Ranch consists heavily a mixture of races. I couldn’t tell you which race in particular stands out more in East Lake, Bonita and Otay Ranch, it’s that diverse. I grew up in the South Bay, in south east San Diego town called Paradise Hills, if there’s anything close to the “projects” in San Diego Paradise Hills could count to be a runner up. La Jolla is always a nice place to go to. Beautiful cliffs near the ocean and beautiful views. Not to mention it’s near by college is UCSD. While on the other hand the only college in Chula Vista is in the town called Bonita which is Spanish for beautiful girl. It’s the community college called South Western Community College home of the Jaguars. Some quirky things that stand out in Bonita is that there is a huge park. More inland than La Jolla is that’s for sure. Bonita is kind of a luscious country side but not too inland in San Diego. People in Bonita tend to be really friendly and have kind of a southern vibe as far as friendliness is concerned. Folks here also love horseback riding, and golf. And of course golf also exists in Torrey Pines which a La Jollan community. I believe La Jolla stands spanish for the, “Of Jewels.” When you Google search “Chula Vista map” and see the freeway 805 just look to the east of that and in that town of Chula Vista are the nicer parts. To answer your south San Diego question about housing prices it’s because those homes and communities are just not as “in demand” or “trendy.” Alot of apartment communities and middle to low income families live down in San Ysidro and the border towns. It’s not to say that it is straight up ghetto. There is a wonderful shopping center outlet in San Ysidro called Los Americas, home to tons of shopping stores. That’s pretty much all I’ve got so far? Let me know if you have anymore questions.