Northpark is a slum, mostly. I know I live there. Its main attraction is that its cheaper than Hillcrest but not as crappy as city heights. My neighbors and I all go into Hillcrest to do our shopping and dining.

There are some very nice houses in the morely field area and a few on the rim of Mission Valley. That is a tiny percentage though. The only reason I can think that a house would be priced at 600k in NP, is because the seller thinks he can get it.

Josh

I especially love the hookers and sex parlours in NorthPark. Shampoo baths, prostate massages or just plain sex. that place is a slum. The only good thing about North Park is the Turf Club and Lefty’s pizza.

I like Northpark. However the houses are small, old and in need of major updates. I don’t deal well with no air-conditioning, no insulation, and bad plumbing. The price per square foot need to be low enough to justify buying and renovating (and I mean a thorough update job).

I think that Northpark is the “bohemian” part of town with high occupancy rates propping up prices.

Raybirnes – the houses you are whining about are exactly what I was referring to in my recent post

This is STUPID activity occurring as part of the last gasps of the RE boom

I recently walked through a large part of Normal Heights north of Adams – numerous properties in the process of major upgrades – IMO these are F’d flippers who may or may not realize yet how F’d they are

The properties are very nice when completed – fresh stucco, landscaping, etc and would have drawn top dollar in mid-2005 – now however, they are over-done for the location / market conditions IMO

Note to flippers: it isn’t mid-2005 anymore and many of the upgrades you are doing will be WASTED MONEY (assuming you can sell the place at all)

~

Some more stupid building that I didn’t mention in previous post:

> Genessee and Clairemont Mesa Blvd: apartments? townhomes? being build a stone’s throw from this intersection with almost no setback from the sidewalk/Clairemont Mesa Blvd

Again, IMO we are seeing the last gasps of the dying/dead RE boom – picture the death throws of a cockroach – lots of frantic, meaningless activity but the roach will be dead soon

Used to live there, I would say its a combination of appraisal and mortgage fraud. Tho there are some rad homes in the area.

I got mugged outside of the Albertson’s by Texas St., so yeah it can be kinda slummy.

Rustico
I used to own in Normal Hts.,South of Adams and bought there(twice, 1992&1995) because I knew that being sandwiched between Hillcrest and Kensington couldn’t be a bad move and it was dirt cheap then as most of you know. I used to say it wasn’t a neighborhood watch area it was a watch your neighbor area. Not liking guns, in the first house I kept an axe by the side of the bed at night . Then the transvestite across the street was stabbed to death by her boyfriend who was mad when he found out after several years that he had been duped.(from across the street I was duped too!) As soon as I had my first son I wanted the hell out and fast. The gentrification wave had already done wonders and the new 39th street park practically speaking, put us more in Kensington than lots of houses actually in Kensington.It is still not and never will be an ideal place for a family. Hopefully the good location is enough to keep it from going completely down the tubes again. What is nice about the marginal neighborhood thing is that people talk with each other, they have to. I did make friends in the neighborhood which is more than I can say for any suburb I have ever lived in.