PenguinGuy and I lived in the apartments at Archstone Mission Valley. The apartments are newer (<10 years old) and in good shape. Maintenance does a great job of taking care of items. Rent is a bit on the high side, it was most of the BAH for a 2bed/2bath. Utilities were very reasonable, water was an averaged amount that was added to the rent each month. That is, the only water meter was the one serving the complex. So, if the complex used $1000 worth of water and there were 100 tenants, each tenant paid $10 regardless if they used $20 or $2 worth of water. If you have autopayments set up it isn't a big deal. I don't think our water bill was ever higher than $30.
It is a gated complex that actually locks the gates when they say they will. There is a pool and a small but decent fitness center. The fitness center is 24 hours but the pool is not.
This complex is situated directly across the street from Ikea. I mean, DIRECTLY. This has several bonuses: 1. you are on the same block as a starbucks, coldstone creamery, Costco, pizza/beer joint, and lots of other little restaurants/shops. Not to mention being able to walk to Ikea when you are craving swedish meatballs. Between the complex and Ikea is a branch of the San Diego library for when you want to enrich yourself. Looking to party? The trolley has a stop right at the complex. From there you can get into downtown in minutes and not have to worry about driving back drunk. You are also just blocks away from all sorts of shopping/Mission Valley mall. There are restaurants, stores, and banks in the area. (USAA is in the plaza with Ikea.) Nightlife is a short hop on the trolley to downtown.
Speaking of driving, it is located right off of Friars Road. That means you are almost equidistant from 15 (about 2 miles down the road) and 163. It is a smidgen harder to get on 805 but not bad. 8 is practically in your backyard save for the 'river'. PenguinGuy was stationed at 32nd street and he said the commute with traffic was not bad until the main gate. Not sure how it is for other bases such as NI. It is a very reasonable commute to Miramar though. I worked just north of Miramar and we chose the location because it was almost equidistant between the two bases.
The driving does highlight one big negative to this place: stadium events. You are only about 1 mild down the road from teh Charger's stadium. That means on game days and any other really big event the traffic is pretty miserable on Friar's road. My husband and I would hurry home from church on Sunday's and just plan on not going anywhere in the car until well after the game was over. This is a bonus though if you like football you can tailgate/pre-game at home and walk to the stadium.
Outside of Archstone Mission Valley, there are several really nice apartment complexes right there. I don't remember their names, but if you just google for places along Friars Road you should be able to find them. We had friends in several of them and they all appeared to be very nice.
I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have. We just move from there about a year ago (wow, I can't believe it has been a year already!) and would move back to that complex if we still don't have kids by the next time PenguinGuy gets orders there. I hope this helped!
