Memphis Neighborhoods

In My Humble Opinion
1

There is a strong possibility that our family will be relocating to the Memphis area this summer. We’d like some input on where to live if we go. HoosierDaddy would be working in Midtown.

Number one priority in choosing a neighborhood is the quality of the elementary school. If everyone posts back and says the pubic system sucks, the Montessori school in Harbortown is an option. From what I’ve seen on the internet, that area seems like the most fun and most suited to our lifestyle, but I’m worried about flooding living right on the Mississippi. Any input regarding that most appreciated.

Number two priority is commute length/time. We’ve heard Germantown area is nice and our housing dollar would go father there than in Harbortown, but does anybody know realistically how long the commute would take to Midtown from there? What about Chickasaw or Bartlett?

Number three priority is age of house. Since HoosierDaddy is VERY handy and I’m kind of handy, we could conceivably take on an older home. But I must say that the ones built in the early part of last centry in the midtown area scare me a little. Also worried about crime. I’ve never even visited Memphis so I wonder if it is like Raleigh where near the historic downtown district you may have beautiful restored homes on one block, and then a block over, there are bars on windows.

Number four is size. Need 3 bedrooms. Would prefer four. Really want a garage. I imagine the further from town we get the more house we can get.

Number five is price. Just tryng to strike a balance. If a 3 bedroom/no garage with a good public school and short commute is $350k, it might be worth it to us to spend that. But for a 4 bedroom with a garage and a long commute in an area where we might need to shell out for private school, then we’d need to spend considerably less.

Would love some feedback from anyone in the know.

THANKS!
HoosierMama

2

All I know is there are maybe two good public schools in Memphis, if that.

And you can get a palace there for 200K- I can’t imagine what 350K would get you.

And pretty much anywhere in the city limits you are a mile or two from a very bad neighborhood. And no commute, even from the suburbs, would be more than 30 minutes or so. I don’t think the river has ever flooded.

3

This is going to sound bad, but…

If you are moving to the Memphis area, please avoid the whole of Shelby county. If you simply must live in the county, stay out of the city limits of Memphis. Germantown does indeed have enough economic power (for now) to remain viable, but may not in the next decade or so.

As for schools, as a parent I can not honestly recommend the public school system (Memphis / Shelby) at all. The surrounding counties (Desoto in Mississippi, Tipton or Fayette in Tennessee) fare better, but still have signifigant issues. My daughter starts fourth grade next year, and I am switching her to private schools - the opportunity gap is shocking if your children are above average. Or conscious, in the case of Memphis public schools.

If you could indicate an acceptable commute time, I’d be glad to give some suggestions and or websites that might help. I moved here for work and have regretted it ever since.

PS - www.memphisflyer.com is probably a better source of accurate information than the Commercial Appeal

4

You must not have been there in 1927 :wink: . It also froze one time; and ran backwards one time.

AHoosierMama, my brother lives in Cordova. I can ask him your questions if you like. I’m afraid that Grave has got it pegged, though.

I’m going to look up a link for you, to the flood insurance rate map.

5

See if this link works for you. (sorry for the long url).

You should get a page at the FEMA Map Service Center. Under menu item 4, click on ''Get FEMA Issued Flood Maps". The next page will be a listing of the map panels. (sometimes it’s very slow to load). The map you are looking for is panel # 471570C0170E. Click on the green dot out at the right (the icon has a magnifying glass on it). A viewer will pop up in a separate window. If I’ve found the correct school and neighborhood you are talking about, they are located on Mud Island between the Wolf River Lagoon and the Mississippi. According to the map, some areas on Mud Island are subject to inundation. If you were to get serious about a house there, you should get the seller to show you an elevation certificate so that you can compare that with the Base Flood Elevation.

6

I couldn’t disagree more with this statement. I live in Midtown and work in Cordova, and Cordova is a depressing suburban strip-mall shithole full of poorly planned neighborhoods and crappy houses. Midtown has beautiful pre-war houses and great culture and community. And if you work in Midtown, it has the advantage of a very, very short commute. I would kill for that commute. Driving time in from Germantown will be at least 20 minutes every morning, maybe more.

I’ve lived in Midtown for 17 years, and I love it. If you’ve got a job in Midtown, there’s no reason not to live here. Neighborhood-wise, check out Central Gardens, the Snowden/Annensdale area, Cooper Young, and the neighborhood surrounding Rhodes College. There are also some nice houses a little farther east around the University of Memphis area and Chickasaw Gardens, and even farther east in the High Point Terrace area. There’s plenty of nice nieghborhoods in East Memphis, too. Downtown and Harbortown are cool (they’re the county’s lowest-crime neighborhoods, BTW) and full of new development.

7

Moving to Memphis in the summer? Whooo boy: I’ll cross my fingers and hope for mild weather for you! (Heat and humidity. Uggg.)

You could pick up a house that’s been flipped/renovated, but be aware that the quality of these renovations varies widely. There have been a lot of developers taking larger lots with one (maybe two) homes on them, tearing them down, and plunking down lots of homes close together: if this is something you don’t mind, this could also be an alternative. And yes, the further in towards the city proper you are, the more $$$ you’ll need to shell out to get a place with the space you need in the type of neighborhood you want. (Heh, there’s a place by me for sale that might fit the bill except for the schools, but I think it’s overpriced for what you’re getting.)

The neighborhoods here are really schizophrenic: from where I’m at, for instance, I walk a block over and I’ll be in million dollar plus homes. Walk a block another direction, and I’ll be amongst itty-bitty cottages that range anywhere from ‘nicely kept up’ to ‘you can tell they don’t have time/money but are trying’ to ‘house and yard work? what’s that?’. Bars on the windows will be found more where there are more ‘house and yard work? what’s that?’ type houses. The further out from the city you go, the less schizophrenic it gets but the higher the chance of ‘cookie cutter’ developments.

Some random notes:

*The commute factors are pretty much down to distance and how much flexibility you have in your route.
*Housing market seems to be slowing down here, mostly where new construction and recently flipped houses are concerned.
*Midtown –> say hello to the FedEx and Northwest planes going by overhead! :smiley: (Actual noise/plane sightings will vary depending on the day’s flight path and your exact location.)
*Car/smog inspections are needed.

And hey, if you spot listings on-line for potential housing, if you want you can run them by me: I can give you the scoop on the surrounding area.

<< It’s not hard to meet expenses, they’re everywhere. >>

8

The schools in Memphis are not that bad. The one in Snowden is very good (my nephew goes there), and it is near to Midtown.

I personally live in DeSoto County, which is in Mississippi, just below Memphis. The schools here are very good. My ex works in Midtown; his commute is about 20 minutes. For $350k you can live in an EXTREMELY nice home. There are a lot of new developments, but some nice older ones too (Try Carriage Hills in Southaven).

Memphis is more expensive than Mississippi, and I have lived here most of my life, so I don’t plan on moving any time soon, but I dream of living in Midtown. It is fun and artistic, and I would put my little ones to school there in a second. I think Memphis is an absolutely terrific city that often gets a bad rap, which I’ve never really understood. At any rate, I think you’ll be very happy here.

9

More details on what you meant by that, please.

Let’s go with 30 minutes as our limit.

Why the regrets?

I’m getting the idea that Memphis is like Detroit or something. Was there an industry that moved out of town and left a wasteland? Why are the schools bad? Why are the property prices so low? What isn’t being said about Memphis? I really know next to nothing about the place so let’s hear the straight dope.

10

More like Dresden, circa 1946. Miles and miles of adandoned strip malls, rundown houses, etc. No amusement park, no water park, no real arts to speak of. No aquarium, no attractions at all to speak of really. High crime, high gang activity, bad schools, etc. etc. I recommend 100% NOT moving there, if you have a choice. I honestly cannot think of one positive, and I have no hidden agenda. At least with big cities like LA and NYC, high crime and the like is a tradeoff for the good things the city has- Memphis has all the negatives no perks.

No one here has said, but many feel that the reason is that businesses and the like have moved to suburbs, as that’s where the whites have moved in the last 10 years, virtually abandoning the city. If there was a large retail store in the city limits 15 years ago, more than likely it closed since then and relocated to the suburbs. One demolished mall in the city, one more about to be.

11

I don’t feel like going into it right now (too busy, amybe later) but I completely disagree with this. 100% totally and completely. There are parts of Memphis that are rundown, there are parts that are high crime. It is a city. But there are parts (and Midtown is one of them) that are growing, vibrant, and artistic. There is a wonderful zoo, downtown is a lot of fun, there are good restaurants, fun museums. It isn’t New York, but it’s affordable to live here, and I love it. The reason it’s affordable is because its always been a poorer city, and the industry that ran out is cotton. But poorer does NOT mean “bad” unless you are a snob. Memphis is growing, and getting better all the time. New stores and malls being built, all kinds of great new stuff. And it is a city with a lot of soul.

I just want to say, I completely disagree with Wee Bairn. Please, come see it for yourself if you are tempted to believe this.

12

Sorry for the post and run earlier. Work and all that…

Anyway, some statistics. Saying a neighborhood in Memphis has lower crime than another is flirting with delusion. Memphis has the second highest crime rate of any major city in the US (cite ). For an idea of how that scales to you, try this site > AreaConnect < and compare it with a city you know. This is one of the key reasons property values are low here, coupled with the building boom currently underway in the surrounding counties. Properties inside Memphis just don’t have the appeal to people who do their research.

I’m afraid the links I had to TerraNova results seem to be non-functioning, but perhaps some Google-Fu will let you see comparitive charts on the school system here. I will admit that there are a few good schools in the system (and yes, Snowden seems to be one), but when the good schools are so rare that their names are well known the problem begins speaking for itself. I also had a link to a story that claimed Memphis was on the high side of private schools per capita, but alas it is dead as well.

As for Germantown… well, it is the ‘wealthy’ 'burb. Most cities have one, and Memphis is no exception. G’town is current the largest concentration of high incomes in the area, but it has two problems. One, the five largest employers here represent almost 90% of that income. If one or more were to leave or downsize the impact would be tangible. Two, there is very little undelevoped land left inside the city’s boundries. This is causing the property values to rise faster there than the economy dictates… bubbles have a way of busting. It also appears that a new form of ‘white flight’ is underway here as well, that is also draining Germantown’s traditional constituents away.

Regrets… hmmm, I’ll try to keep it short. If you have ever visited large cities, or perhaps lived in one for a while, you’ll quickly discover that Memphis falls short of anything that doesn’t involved alcohol, music, and BBQ. I find that on a regular basis I am traveling to Atlanta or Nashville or other metropolitan spots so my daughter can see traveling art shows or scholarly events. When traveling presentations came to Memphis (the completely entrancing but now dead to us Wonders exhibits for one) the turn out was generally abyssimal. The two (yeah, just two) real museums here are nice, but both are small. The town just has a… stuck in the past feel to it compared to other places I’ve been.

Also, the amount of racism I encounter here is disturbing. Others may dispute me, but once you get beyond the lipservice there is a strong undercurrent of ‘Us vs Them’. I guess I might hear more since I am white (so, automatically, one of ‘Us’ I suppose), however it is so prevalent as to be sickening.

The Detroit comparison is apt… while some people will be happy living there, and may even extol the virtues of their particular area, the large view is not good. While there wasn’t a particular industry to crash here, attracting industry is a serious chore due to the poor national image we have, and the craptacular city government. My employer has begun recruting companies to Desoto county, along the I-55 corridor. At least the elected officals there work to better their communities and not just skim cash. (google ‘Tennessee Waltz sting’)

bah, work again. Hope I helped some.

13

no hard feelings, miss e, but as you said, you don’t live in the city limits. And I am fairly certain no large scale stores or malls are being built in the city limits. Agree to disagree.

And yes comparing it to LA or NYC is unfair. Other medium sized cities that are thriving beautiful palces to live include San Antonio, Austin, and Nashville- Memphis pales in comparison to those- a more apt comparison would be to Little Rock or Jackson, MS.

To add to what Grave said, when you have to leave a city of a million people and drive 200 miles to a city of 25,000 people (Hot Springs, AR) to go to a water park or amusement park, somethings wrong.

14

I lived in Germantown for a while, but it was 20 years ago. It was very nice then, fairly upscale. Not sure about now.

Both my mom and stepdad teach in the Memphis City school system. It’s pretty bad. Mismanagement is the norm and they keep coming up with inneffective teaching theroies to try out. I’ve spent the last 20 years hearing the stories.

They live in Oakland, which is about 45 minutes out, I think. Outside your range. They don’t have much good to say about the city of Memphis, but I think it’s mainly the “city” part, not necessarily the “Memphis” part. It’s probably similar to most largish cities. Corruption on the city council; gang activity here and there, blight, but with nice places as well.

15

(how do you delete a duplicate post?)

16

One last thing, IME people who “love” Memphis are either from small towns, or have never been anywhere else. I can’t imagine anyone who has lived in San Antonio, Austin, Atlanta, St. Louis, Etc. who would prefer Memphis over those, all things being equal.

17

On the bright side - if you love college basketball - the local university, the University of Memphis, should be good enough to make a legitimate run at the national championship next year. That always makes the city much more interesting and a nicer place to live.

18

Just realized I mis-pasted my second link. This is the correct link for crime comparisons.

Also, I notice that there seems to be more negative voices here than positives… there are good points to Memphis, and I’ll try and post more tonight. as Wee Bairn noted, though, they do seem to be less than the bads.

19

My brother had this to say:

20

Really appreciate all the good information and links from everyone! Since it is almost a sure thing that we’ll be headed that way, I’m going to be optimistic and focus on finding the best things the area has to offer and will keep my eyes open regarding the negatives.

Some of the posts have me much more interested in midtown now. Pretty much all of my professional life I’ve been trying to eliminate a commute and have yet to achieve it. Maybe this is our chance. While we’re on the subject - HoosierDaddy’s got a job lined up but now it is my turn to look. There was reference earlier to the big five employers. I’m guessing Fed Ex is one. Who are the others? My skill set is a combination of marketing, technical writing and illustration, graphic design and web development. Who should I be trying to work for?