We bought the nice older home in the crappy neighborhood after a few neighbors and our naive new-owner attitudes convinced us the hood was up and coming.
What it was was down and going. More and more renters vs. owners, beer cans showing up on lawns, sheets-for-curtains, etc. as time went by.
Sold it 7 years later for just under what we paid. The new owner went bankrupt, got foreclosed on, and a few years ago it was sold for under $30K.
Today the neighborhood isn’t terrible, but it’s shady. Not where I’d want to be alone at night.
No no, they’re definitely not townhomes. I mean like this:
https://images.craigslist.org/00Z0Z_59miMvctnAe_1200x900.jpg
In the case of SF - the Bayview/Hunter’s Point area is poised to do the same as Potrero Hill.
The streetcar line down 3rd is going to bring lots of cash into the area.
That is one VERY 'Iffy" area poised to be high-rise condos within 20 years.
When you have the dynamics of SF - Silicon Valley has now found it - lots and lots of money chasing fewer and fewer properties - a dartboard will identify a spot certain to rise.
If the “iffy” area has recently had a train (Muni or Bart) line installed, money will follow.
I’m sure there are pockets of “ain’t never goon get better” in the SF Bay Area, but you’d need to look.
Look what happened when BART expanded past Concord and also into Livermore Valley.
I think you’re right about Hunter’s Point, but a lot of that is already priced in and I can’t even afford anything there (just me, no spouse). Lennar is doing a big development and their 1 BR condos start in the 600s. Affordable by SF standards, I guess.
But regardless of how much money is flowing into neighborhoods on transit thoroughfares, they seem to change so slowly. West Oakland is not cheap, but I still don’t think I’d want to live there. Or like, some parts around Ashby or El Cerrito del Norte seem really seedy at night, despite being really expensive. Granted, I’ve been super sheltered, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.
Isn’t that a hazardous form of construction for earthquake country?
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Also this article might help https://tranio.com/traniopedia/glossary/real_estate_liquidity_what_it_is_and_how_to_estimate_it/ it is for investors but you will find there some more useful info
You can tell what your neighbors are like by looking at them? I’ve owned a few homes and have never known my neighbors before buying. How do you do that?
I would never, ever buy in a bad neighborhood. Location is the most important thing. It’s the reason why I am where I am now.
Yep. I work in a rural area so I can live here. My gf spends 3 hours driving each day so that she can live where she wants to live.
How bad is bad? I bought a house in the center of the city. The neighbourhood is near to schools, the library, parks, and the community centre with a pool. That’s what brought me there. What I didn’t know was it was also home to drug dealers and a hooker on every corner, three murders one year, all within a kilometer of my home, crack house full of stereo blasting partiers across the street, minor crime, graffiti, but still lots of families and reasonably safe to wander around.
I won’t lose money when I sell. Real estate, even my dumpy little house, is going up in value, and I could not rent anything even close to what I have (3 bedrooms, a yard and parking) for even double what I pay for my mortgage.
Location, location, location. Completely agree.
You could try renting a house in the town where you might buy, to see what it’s like to live there.
Generally, though, I’m not sure how much help anyone’s input is going to be. You know what the pluses and minuses are, and only you can decide how to weigh them; i.e., how much you value not having neighbors upstairs vs. possibly having crime much closer to home.
You might try researching your target neighborhood (crime rates, property values, etc.) for ten years ago, five years ago, and today, and how those have changed relative to the city as a whole, or to your current neighborhood.
If the neighborhood has been on the upswing for awhile now, it is reasonably likely to continue improving; if it hasn’t improved yet, it might be a long while before it does, if it ever does.
You might also want to look at the overall crime picture, not just specific incidents such as the armed robbery 3-4 blocks away. For example, there have been multiple shootings/stabbings, at least one fatal, within 3/4 mile of my house in the last few years. There are also a couple of bars and a liquor store basically across the street from each other and not quite 3/4 mile from my house–every single one of those shootings/stabbings happened inside or in the parking lot of one of those few establishments. The rest of the area is pretty quiet; it’s just that one little enclave, but looking at gross statistics, it makes the whole area look worse than it really is.
I would never live anywhere that subjected me to a homeowner’s association, which so far as I can tell is the most tyrannical form of government humanity has ever devised. And I’ve never heard of a condo without one. So that right there would decide me in favor of the house, if those were my only two options.
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[li]Location[/li][li]Location[/li][li]Condo[/li][/ul]
Regards,
Shodan
I’ve lived under a few, and I’ve had no problems under any of them. The current one is a 3 unit condo, so it’s pretty low overhead (but more personality issues). The last one was 150 units and a professional management agency. There have been some issues, but nothing worse than the issues from owning a house yourself and being responsible for everything.
Is the bad neighborhood gentrifying? We bought in a bad neighborhood in 2005 that was close in to the center of DC and to a good neighborhood. We did very well out of it since the neighborhood was pretty far along in the gentrification process. We did better than we would have had we bought a condo in a nicer neighborhood or a place in the suburbs.
Here too. The most tyrannical thing that has been imposed is that the new deck that they put in is required to be stained a particular color. One I happen to like. Other than that the grass gets cut, the trash gets picked up and the snow removed.
ETA: there are horror stories about some HOA and it’s probably difficult to find out how bad before you move. But then again you could also move next to a neighbor that makes your life hell and you probably won’t know till after you move in.
Very subjective question but some good information. I live in a 30 year old residential area (been there since the place was new) so there are unfortunately, some run down properties around. Very fortunately, not much for crime.
IMHO, I’m not living in a higher crime area no matter what I have to live in.
You’d think so. Not sure why anyone would think those were a good idea, unless those skinny little posts have titanium springs in them or something.
I don’t know how accurate neighborhoodscout is, but it reports 42.6 crimes per 1,000 residents, and 193 crimes per square mile. The area I’m looking at is not the worst part of town, but not the best either. It’s near the train station, which seems to draw some crime. It’s not Englewood, but if were walking home from the last train I would probably feel a little bit uncomfortable. The armed robbery the other day was right on what would be my walk home.
Yes, that’s true. That’s why I phrased it as what you all would do personally.
It seems to be. But it’s hard to quantify that other than through property values, which have doubled since 2011.
I’m done sharing walls with other people. For me it’s a house or nothing. I don’t think I could ever bring myself to buy a condo. However, if these are the only two choices, take the condo.
My advice would be to keep renting until you find a house you can afford that has enough of what you like to offset what you don’t.