Tracking foreclosures in: Highland Park

I thought I'd give Redfin's new foreclosure listings database a spin, so I plugged in the ZIP for Highland Park (90042) to see what would pop up. It's good stuff — it shows six bank-owned properties, and the information on each listing is pretty extensive, especially for a free, no-registration service. Highlights:

4210 Via Arbolada #216
Last sale: June 2006, $460K.
Now listed: $329,900

6420 La Riba Way
Last sale: Oct. 2004, $325K
Now listed: $285K

6140 Mesa
Last sale: Sept. 2006, $525K
Now listed: $309K

719 Milo Terrace
Last sale: 1995, $160K
Now listed: $380K

5105 Stratford
Last sale: 2001, $170K
Now listed: $429,900

Put me down as a satisfied user. Would like to hear your thoughts on this one, and what other searches you like, and whether you have to pay for them or not.
Photo Credit: Street scene in Highland Park, L.A.Times

A house in the hills for $400K? Foreclosure and opportunity in Highland Park

Last week I published the the stories of three recent home-buyers, and one of them was brave enough (masochistic enough?) to offer a more detailed account of her decision to ignore the  comments on this blog and buy a house. Milla Goldenberg, who writes the blog Milla Times, on finding a home in L.A. for $400,000:

"Originally, I looked at Silver Lake but the fixers there were selling in the fives, so I moved my target east to Highland Park, where prices seemed more manageable.

"I drove around the neighborhood every weekend for about a month, even at night, to get the lay of the land. I had a friend who bought there a few years back, and I was always impressed that her street housed a Buddhist temple, a Baptist church and a Jewish synagogue, and was one block from the Gold Line. Sure, I noticed the graffiti and homeys with tattoos on their necks, but I saw plenty of that all over the city and wasn’t particularly afraid of mingling with the working class. Tons of cool bars, boutiques, coffee shops and galleries peppered York and Figueroa, and the hillside houses remained shockingly affordable. I also noticed that the area’s first Starbucks was being built and figured that if I got in after the first Starbucks but before the first yoga studio, I would be set.

"The landscape was filled with foreclosures, many of which were trashed by their previous owners. I passed on all these dumps and held out hope that I could find something more to my liking. I did, in fact, find many houses to my liking and thought I could score them easily at a bargain price. But something odd would always happen: I was outbid.

"Months of reading L.A. Land convinced me there were no other buyers out there, so I was shocked to discover that I had competition."