By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff Monday, September 8th, 2008

Since the mortgage crisis spawned the downturn in the residential market, regional experts have said the Central Coast communities are largely sheltered from – though not immune to – national economic trends.

Indeed, the Tri-Counties have been affected accordingly by the housing slowdown. Some cities have shown relatively minor price reductions and sales slumps while other cities – like Santa Maria and Oxnard – were harder hit by foreclosures and an excess of new residential projects.
So what about the city within the city: Oxnard’s RiverPark?
The master-planned community has been developed in partnership by three builders [Shea, Centex and Standard Pacific] with each taking responsibility for their own housing communities. But the units unfortunately came online in the midst of the housing meltdown, raising questions about how the developers would fill hundreds of for-sale housing units and a half million square feet of commercial space.