Any opinions on Hawthorne, CA as a potential up-and-coming area?

[Kevin T.]

I have a friend that recently bought a pretty nice house in Hawthorne. It is an old house from the 40's but was fixed up very nice. Some of the finishes are a a little sloppy, but all-in-all, it is nicer than most apartments in WeHo, and it comes with a big backyard.

Driving around the area, the businesses looked old and distressed - old auto repair shops, no fancy restaurants, a Wal-Mart, some Mexican restaurants. However, the street where the house was located on was cute and looked completely middle-class and safe to me... some people had nice landscaped lawns, some people had weeds. It was a mix of "cute" and old and felt safe.

I did some research, and the location is convenient to the 405/LAX, Beach, Silicon Beach tech center, etc. 

The schools are maybe below-average to average. I think the schools might be a drawback.

Any opinions on this area? Could it be potentially up-and-coming?