Is this area safe? (San Diego: for sale, apartments, foreclosures)

[pinkie798]

[LEFT][/LEFT]
4646 Hartley St San Diego, CA 92102. Thinking about moving over there but I'm not sure about the area and I know that City Heights isn't an area to play around with...

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by pinkie798

[LEFT][/LEFT]
4646 Hartley St San Diego, CA 92102. Thinking about moving over there but I'm not sure about the area and I know that City Heights isn't an area to play around with...

Its not City Heights, its Chollas View. I would say depending on your threshold and exposure to an urban lifestyle, its ok. There are some documented gangs in these areas but are spread out. I like that address becuase its fairly close the 47th st trolley line and with some of the new development activity going on from the Jacobs Foundation off of Euclid, will definitely help build a focal point in the area. The Village at Market Creek

Were you looking to buy the house for sale there at that address?

My personal story was that I was in contract for a house not far from there in Mt Hope (down the street) and bailed at the last minute for several different reasons.
One of the reasons was the fact that during escrow, when I drove by the house once a week, the alley wall behind the house and retaining wall were repeatedly tagged after calling the listing agent to have it repainted. More than likely it was just some kids having fun as they were not gang tags according to the SDPD gang unit.
At first I didnt care much because this is a neighborhood in transition, whatever. What really made me jump ship was the amount of foreclosures in the area and not a lot of turn over. I could care less WHO was moving in for the most part. Its just living in area with zero neighbors bothered me a lot. The folks I was talking to in the neighborhood were super nice and mostly families with kids. However, they were squatting in the homes they were in only waiting to be evicted due to foreclosure either from themselves or the landlords. That part def sucked to hear but a reality.
When the 8k tax credit was in effect, flippers were flipping in this part of town. When that died off, I started seeing very little activity. There is still is some, but not at the pace of this past year.

Areas like this will eventually develop more positively, meaning some of the homes will be refreshed.When that will happen is a total unknown. It could be 10 years, 20 years who knows?

BTW the other reason I bailed on the purchase was the house didnt appraise. Areas like this are extremely difficult for a bank to appraise simply due to the fact that most of the sale are foreclosure sales and comps are difficult to nail down. THe house I was contract for had comps from South Park to Chollas View. The range was from the 400's to 150s' for comps. That made the lenders very nervous to gauge a solid valuation.

A final thought. Go to the area, get out of your car and walk around with an open mind. If you still feel that you can walk around that neighborhood and not get weirded out, then trusting your instincts is your best guide. Do it a couple of times.

[socketz]

Wait for Sassberto to respond. He knows this part of town really well and has posted lots of commentary in the past.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by socketz

Wait for Sassberto to respond. He knows this part of town really well and has posted lots of commentary in the past.

Yeah Sass lives in Rolando but knows SESD pretty well.

A quick forum search yields this result

How is Mt. Hope/Chollas View and the Gompers area?

[Kristina Leyva]

If you want the most accurate crime stats (directly from the SDPD) check at the ARJIS website at ARGIS.org. You can narrow down by specific crimes and exact areas, to the street. It is pretty awesome.

[Sassberto]

Avoid. The area just north of 94 is not much better either. Gateway / Ridgeview area is somewhat OK for single family homes. If you are looking at apartments, I would avoid any of these marginal areas. You can find houses on decent streets in a quiet neighborhood throughout those spots, but the apartments are going to be a nightmare. I would even venture to say that the whole Gompers / Chollas View area on both sides of 94 is best avoided entirely.

[Newbe10]

I would say just avoid the ENTIRE Southeast side of San Diego and you should be fine.