What's more important....the apartment or the area??

Ok....so I'm preparing to look for a new apartment and am in the process of figuring out my budget. I've been doing a lot of browsing on the net to see different price ranges for the areas I am interested in and basically what it boils down to is this.....I can get a really nice (some updates such as in kitchen and bathroom) apartment in a slightly crappy area or I can get a somewhat decent apartment (i.e kitchen and bathroom are clearly older but the apartment is clean) in a nicer area.

I currently live in a relatively safe but slightly crappy area (crowded, hole in the wall stores you dont want to go into, hard to find parking) and would like to move into a nicer area. However moving into a nicer area means that the apartment I get wont be as nice as the one I have now. Essentially I would pay a little bit more for a little bit less.

What would you all prefer? I'm trying to not overthink this.....it's not working LOL

 

I'm currently looking for my first apartment ever... I imagine it would depend on HOW crappy the area is... I'm trying to decide do I want to be close to school or away from school... what's the cheapest I wanna pay and what do I want to give up to be paying less?

 

Yeah im gonna be getting my first apartment here soon. and my friends are moving out of one into a new one. id say the apartment is the most important thing as long as youre getting atleast a decent location. i dont really care about if its a "bad" area

 

for me it would for sure be all about location, because i have had horrible crackhead neighbors in the past, but some people dont mind and just like having the nice digs, but like i said , location location location

 

I Would Go For Nice Area Plain Apartment.

Peace Of Mind When You Walk Down The Street At Night To Get A Pizza Without

Getting Mugged, Has To Be More Important Than A Kitchen Update...



Cheers Glen.

 

This is a good question, almost philosophical. As long as your car is safe where it's parked and it's not so sketchy that you have to worry about getting raped walking to it from your aparpment, I would go for the bigger one in the worse area. Because
1. You'll be spending the majority of your time in your apartment, hopefully not roaming the streets around it, and it's important to be comfortable. I cook a lot too, like having friends stay over, etc..
2. Most importantly, it costs less. Personally, I can take care of myself (and I have a big scary dog ) I would never pay more for a smaller place just to live in a nice area. Unless it's a really bad ghetto with gunshots and sirens 24/7. I can deal with crackheads, they tend to not fuck with you if you take a proactive approach.

 

Well funny enough, I just went through the same thing.
I however lucked out. I ended up in a luxurious high-rise apartment in one of the worst sections in town, the State for that matter.

Anyway we did not even look at it, but an ad caught my gf & my eyes at the same time.

In the back of my mind while searching for apts. (a month or a bit more) I was always looking at what was included with the rent.
It turns out that the rent covers just about everything i.e. Heat/Hot water/Air Conditioning/free wifi, and basic cable coverage. The rent was much higher than my price range, but added up, it turned out cheaper.

I thought it was too good to be true, but went there-the security is amazing, an actual covered parking garage. I filled out that lease ASAP, and have been very happy hear since July.

I hope something similar can drop into your lap CrazyDreamer.
And congratulations for this and what you have mentioned in other threads. It is not easy to do what your doing, but I can already tell how happy and relieved you are.

 

I was always afraid of "bad" neighborhoods until my friend moved out to a run down townhouse downtown in the city. Everyone on that block was either cracked out or fucked up on some kind of drug...and those days at that house are some of the best memories I have. If you wanted to score weed all you had to do was go door-to-door shopping and you'd surely find something somewhere because EVERYONE smoked. And back then I didn't have a job, so every time we could scrape up the $5 for the gas money to drive the hour, we'd go to our friend's house and live like really poor people until we could scrape up the cash to get home. Haha, I guess bad is subjective...and it obviously wasn't horrible, the gangs didn't really hang out much on that block and the cops made rounds every hour or so. Several years ago, I probably would have advised you to go for mediocre in a safe place, but adventurous me wants to tell you to do what you feel safe doing. Not necessarily what feels safest, but if you don't feel at least a little safe, you can't enjoy life. I live in a private owner's association on private land and never hear a peep out of my neighbors these days. I think I'd rather live in the old townhouse.

 

if you have kids...a car ...or are a light sleeper take the lousy apartment in the good area


if you sleep like a lumberjack ...have no vehicle to worry about and no kids then take the nice place with the lousy area

 

it's usually simpler than this. generally the nicer apartments are in the nicer areas and you don't need to worry about it.

when there's nice apartments in bad areas, that usually is a sign that the area isn't that bad. but there are exceptions to this of course.

personally, i think it's slightly less stressful to live in a good area with a bad apartment than a good apartment in a bad area, but if the good apt in the bad area is cheaper, that could be enough to even them out. really, this is not something anyone else can really offer good advice about, because it's too subjective. my advice is to go with your gut, only sign a one-year lease at the most, and learn from it.

 

It depends how "bad" the area is. If you don't/won't feel safe walking in the area, then I'd skip it. If it's a matter of "just don't leave shit out in the open in your car"; I could live with that (heck we do that now here; and I live in a "good" area - but cars can get "clouted" overnight if they have obvious good shit sitting in plain view in them).

One of the main exceptions would be if it's one of those areas where the city/state/whatever govmnt org, gave financial "incentives" like tax breaks or grants to "fix up" a bad neigborhood. That can result in a bad area having nice apartments - and I still would not want to live in them (usually those areas are "pretty bad" but if you don't know the neighborhoods you might not realize that due to the nice "fixed up" places that were only fixed up due to grants/tax breaks). Here in St. Louis tehre are several such neighborhood - I stay very clear of them no matter.

 

I live in a fairly rough neighbourhood and it's fine. I get on fabulously with most of the neighbours and it's a pretty safe place to live. Ever heard the expression "don't shit in your own back yard"? Any peeps who are up to no good do it elsewhere and no-one is going to come into our neighbourhood with the intention of doing anything criminal - they wouldn't dare. you do have to be pretty sure of yourself though. Any sign of weekness and your fucked!

 

The nicer area is probably a better and safer idea, imo.

"crappy area" reminds me of where my sister used to live, the people next door dealing drugs out of their basement apartment window, and the crack head that fell (or was pushed) off their balcony across the street. More than one murder happened around there while she live in that area...

She also had mail stolen and the people used her credit card statements to make purchases...

 

it's all in how you rank your preferences.

i would choose the nicest place regardless of the area. if you get a crappy place, you'll end up paying for it in other ways. for instance, if the place has no insulation, old windows, etc. you'll be paying higher energy costs to heat/cool the place.

i don't mind living in so-called "bad areas", i actually prefer it. keeps things interesting.

 

I would go with the nicer area and a little less inside my apartment.

It may not be any guarantee about safety and such but chances are it should be slightly better as an environment and if you are living alone that is important.

Good luck with your hunt, no matter which way you go.

 

I would go with the nicer area, because that's something you're stuck with. You can always fix up the apartment a bit if you want.

 

property values always drop when i move in...

 

:2thumbsup:

 

I Would Have Expressed Suprise If They Didn't...:coffee:



Cheers Glen.

 

damn...does she live in my neighborhood?? LOL Yeah, I have seen crack heads get beaten up and ever since I moved to my current area my credit card has had to be changed like 5 times because of fraudulant activity on it. But in terms of walking around and being outside here I feel fine, people dont bother me and I grew up in a worse area so its kinda normal. I would however like to stroll outside everyonce in a while without feeling like my neighborhood annoys me.