Del Mar vs La Jolla
Written by Michael Angotta, CA DRE# 02177007 · Updated 2026-09-27
Both coastal, both expensive, and governed by two different city halls. That is the difference that decides what may be built, rented and rebuilt.
Side by side
| Del Mar | La Jolla | |
|---|---|---|
| Governed by | City of San Diego | City of San Diego |
| ZIP codes | 92014 | 92037 |
| Schools | Del Mar Union / San Dieguito Union | San Diego Unified School District |
| Mello-Roos | None named in the county list | None named in the county list |
| What it costs | No cost page yet | No cost page yet |
| Who works it | Michael Angotta | Michael Angotta |
| Full guide | Del Mar guide | La Jolla guide |
Every cell above is generated from the same records the individual guides use, so this table and those guides cannot disagree. The Mello-Roos row reads the County Auditor’s active FY 2025-26 district list.
Is La Jolla its own city like Del Mar?
Del Mar is an incorporated city with its own council, its own municipal code and its own certified Local Coastal Program. La Jolla is a community of the City of San Diego and is governed by San Diego’s rules, a question its own residents have raised more than once.
Everything practical follows from that. San Diego’s 30-foot coastal height limit and its short-term rental license tiers apply in La Jolla and reach no part of Del Mar, where the Del Mar municipal code answers the same questions differently. The La Jolla guide addresses the cityhood question directly and the height limit separately.
What are the real carrying costs in Del Mar and La Jolla?
Neither Del Mar nor La Jolla has a community facilities district named for it in the County Auditor’s active list, so Mello-Roos is not the cost question here. In both places it is Proposition 13 basis after a long hold, and reassessment at sale.
That makes the comparison different in kind from an inland one. A long-held home in either community can carry a tax basis a fraction of what the next owner will pay, and the figure a buyer should model is the reassessed one rather than the seller’s current bill. Coastal insurance and bluff exposure are the other two lines, and both are address-level.
The Del Mar guide and the La Jolla guide cover the permitting side of that exposure.
Which of them suits a particular household is not a question this page can answer, and not one we will answer for you — it depends on budget, commute, and what a specific street holds. What it can do is put the checkable differences side by side so the choice is made on them.
