If you’d call a 1990s home dated then your options are going to be bit limited. I fear the stability factor is also going to be limited with a newer home – the reason they’re renting it out is because they couldn’t flip it.
Anyways, SC is in the O.C. and it is that much closer to those employment centers. You’re probably not going to see as much price movement there as you will in N. SD County. The whole reason the outlying areas are most affected by deteriorating economic conditions is because they are less desirable due to their greater distance from employment.