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A WWYD-real estate related
This is just a lame attempt by me to get the board moving a bit, but I was talking to a friend the other day and wanted to see what others would do in their situation.
About 4 years ago he bought a house in a pretty sketchy area that was supposed to be "up-and-coming". There were a lot of new retail shops and restaurants planned for nearby and people had been flipping houses in the neighborhood trying to fix them up. Historically the neighborhood has been very bad-think drug deals in broad daylight, shootings, etc. However there was a core group of people committed to cleaning up the neighborhood and turning it around, lots of homeowner meetings, etc, so it sounded promising.
Fast forward about 4 years and he's throwing in the towel and selling ASAP. Crime is still a big problem and a large percentage of the residents there are apathetic and have no desire to change anything. He's also looking to start a family soon and I think that is playing into it as well. I think a lot of people had hopes for revitalizing this place but nothing is really changing. He doesn't even want to rent the place out-just wants to wash his hands of it.
So my question is, would you be willing to take a gamble like that? How long do you think you could stick it out and at what point would you say its time to go? I know there has been great success in turning around some neighborhoods but obviously sometimes plans backfire.
Re: A WWYD-real estate related
Well I know that the market is crappy right now. MIL is a REA. Do you know how much will your friend lose if he sells now?
I know we bought our house 4 years ago and if we sold now we would not get as much as we paid for it. We did put $ down so we would still walk away with some after the mortgage is paid off. But not nearly as much as we put down.
I personally wouldn't take a gamble like that. Certainly not now with a growing family. But it does sound like it was promising a few years back and it's a shame nothing has happened. What happened to that core group? Did they all bail?
Selling the house might be pretty hard. We bought our house (in a nice and increasingly popular area) 5 years ago and we'd be lucky to sell it for what we bought it for. We've done some major renos and plan a couple more upgrades before we sell and we hope it'll pay off but those inflated prices from a few years back are killing us.
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
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Decorate This
Warning - this is long - this is a topic I think about a LOT.
H and I have this discussion a lot. I know several people who bought in Pigtown (excuse me, "Washington Village") and it just hasn't made the turn around like Canton and Federal Hill, and now Locust Point as well. Ridgely's Delight was the same way in my opinion - you kept hearing "it's in transition" but for how long? Which brings me to my next point...
It certainly is a gamble and some people are lucky. I would only do it if I were willing to buckle down for the long haul. Neighborhoods don't change over night, or even in a few years. It takes a while and you have to really make a commitment to the neighborhood, and the city has to make a commitment.
My current neighborhood is a great example of this. We live in Otterbein now and my landlords have lived here for 30 years (they are living in their second Otterbein house, and they own a condo in the neighorbhood plus my TH and some other house I think too). They love it here. Now, Otterbein is a very nice neighborhood and houses are pricey here. But they weren't that way 30 years ago. My LLs are very open with talking about how when they bought their first house here, it was a HUGE gamble and they had no idea what the neighborhood would do. Their first TH was a good size here but they sold and bought a 4600 square foot TH (yeah, it's monstrous) in 1991 and firmly implanted themselves in the neighborhood. They are both doctors and make a lot of money and could afford to live in one of the pricey suburbs, but the husband told my mom once that he believed very strongly that the city needed people like him and his wife - professionals with money basically.
Here's a quote from the Sun about this exact thing:
The neighborhood just west of the Inner Harbor [Otterbein] had been entirely gutted when Schaefer started the $1 homesteading program that brought the area back to life.
[Becky's landlord], an Otterbein resident, would have been lying to say she was happy to move to Baltimore 30 years ago. But her husband had won a fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He promised her that after two years, their next city would be her choice.
But there would be no "next city." The [landlords]? who moved from Washington ? stayed. Willingly. And largely because of Schaefer's efforts.
They initially moved into a new house in the neighborhood, and then bought a place that had been previously sold and fixed up through the homesteading program.
He thinks he can get close to what he paid for it if he can list it without having to drop the price. I get the feeling he would even be willing to lose some $ on it. He bought it for so cheap that his mortgage payment is really low, allowing him to save a lot of $ in the past few years.
I don't think anything really happened to the core group, I just think they are outnumbered and after the economy turned, they didn't have the young professionals coming in like they had been.
Becky-that was a great example. Some neighborhoods have been totally transformed (think Canton). My mom says that way back when, Canton was "seedy and full of bikers" and now she couldn't even afford a house there. lol. It really is such a gamble and I honestly don't know if I would have the guts to do it.
~ Kelsey Jean ~
Cooking with Crouton: A Food Blog
I'd be willing to take a gamble like that in the abstract.
But not now I think...we want to have kids soon and the idea of having to deal with not just "not so good" schools, but actually unsafe schools scares the shiit out of me. As does having to budget for private school. But later...when we're kicking the future kids out of the nest? maybe.
My mom bought a house in south philly that is definitely in a transitioning neighborhood. 2 blocks away there are beautiful houses that have been fully renovated. 2 blocks the other direction - it's still pretty scary.
her street is a mix. There are some houses which have been renovated and are owned by DINKs, mostly it's lower-income families, and then there are two houses that have entirely too much foot traffic. It's safe enough that I walk my dog at night without a worry (as long as I don't head the wrong direction), but my sister's car was broken into while parked one block over (they stole her body pillow. Nothing else. Just the pillow. I'm guessing homeless? Or really high. Or both.)
It's interesting watching the pattern though. In philly at least it goes like this - the gay people and the hipsters move in and start renovating and opening really fun bars and restaurants. Then the yuppies come (in the true sense of the word. Young urban professionals. DINKs w/ good jobs). Then the yuppies start breeding. And then the neighborhood has officially "transitioned." If it can't hold out till the yuppies start having kids, then it won't make it. Mom's neighborhood is still in the gay people and hipsters stage. Which she loves because she's one of them...but she's hoping that it makes the next step and doesn't fall back into crap. It seems likely walking around...new fun shops and resturants open within walking distance of her house every time I visit. The vibe is good.
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!