I have a 20 year history in North Park with a short stint in Hillcrest. Hillcrest is your better bet, it has maintained throughout the years. North Park gentrified a bit during the bubble, and made it quite desirable–however, I suspect this is NOT long lasting. Take a look around, there are numerous vacant store fronts on University.
I do not recommend buying a condo right now. There is a huge glut of them, and you certainly do not want one of those conversions.
No matter the nice SFRs, there are still tons of apartment complexes and that brings down the neighborhood.
Go into the CVS on University and 32nd. It is ghetto, ghetto, ghetto. Do you really want to be stuck here owning something, and having to shop at CVS for example? Honestly, if my rent wasn’t so good, I would seriously consider moving out of this neighborhood.
