Hillcrest sure does have a lot of very high end condos.
It is a lovely area, but I don’t feel like it will appreciate much compared to other areas, mainly because current prices are high and infill development is high for an older area.
I have a friend who owns a triplex there. He lived in the largest unit and enjoyed entertaining until he had another baby and wanted a place with a bigger yard and not 3 floors.
In many ways it is the single most walk-friendly California neighborhood outside of San Francisco.
Sure there are denser area than Hillcrest, but it terms of the ease of actually getting out and walking places, I think Hillcrest by a small margin beats Santa Monica and Downtown LA and SD because traffic is so limited and the blocks are small and human scale.
Maybe a few parts of the West Side of LA and areas right outside of downtown like Echo Park can compare.
