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First time homebuyers - Valley Junction?
Hello!
My husband and I are first time home buyers, hoping to close on a house before May 15th (the day my husband graduates from grad school, and returns to IA). I was hoping to gather some more information about the valley junction area, hopefully from anyone that's lived in the neighborhood. What did you like? what didn't you like?
I love older homes, and that brought me in part to Valley Junction. I've lived in Des Moines for about 4 years, and used to live near DMU, and now am out in the burbs in far west des moines, near Jordan Creek.
I really don't enjoy living that far out in the burbs. We were thinking about Valley Junction since its somewhat central, metro wise, has a few parks, and is close to downtown, and I enjoy the valley junction downtown area. I am aware of previous flooding, and the possiblity of future flooding, so we would be sure to take that into consideration before putting an offer in on a home.
However, what I'm running into, is that people seem to have a knee-jerk reaction against valley junction, even my realtor isn't a big fan. So, peeps that have lived there, or know people who've lived there, what are your likes? dislikes?
A little about us: I work downtown, have family in West Des Moines, and my husband is going to be job seeking across the metro when done with graduate school. No kids, no pets. We would like to be close to parks, good school district, and an active / interactive community.
Thanks in advance!
Re: First time homebuyers - Valley Junction?
Shea lives in VJ.
My husband and I are putting our house on the market in the next few months. We live on the SouthWest side. Just off of Fleur Dr. & Watrus, we're only 9min from VJ, 10 to downtown, 15 to WDM. There is a park at the end of our street, close to Jefferson, which is a VERY good school. LOL YES I'm hustling my house
We also have a HUGE back yard, esablished trees, detached garage, 2full bedrooms, full bath, there is a loft with attached water closet, large closets, basement, dining room, front 'formal' living room, back family room. patio.
I don't know alot about VJ, but have you looked at the Beaverdale area? There's alot of cute, charming older houses in that area. Plus Beaverdale is a very 'close knit' area. We live there (although plan on moving to Grimes this yr for the schools/etc for our daughter) and everyone is so sweet. I love Beaver Ave shops and restaurants.
Sorry, I don't know much about Valley Junction. I understand what you mean that a lot of people don't love the area...not sure why though!
Are there flood insurance requirements? I'm guessing that area you either a) can't even get flood insurance (risky) or b) are required to get it (expensive - $100/mo or more). That is the number one thing that would deter me from that area.
When we were looking for homes 9 years ago, most everything on the market in that area was smaller, older, in need of work and more expensive than what we bought just 1.5 miles to the west (a 1950's home), so we were also turned off of it for that reason. Maybe the realtor just thinks you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere?
I do think VJ has a little bit of a stigma attached to it because of the past flooding and the age of the homes. I think lately, though, they're being renovated and kept up more than they were even 10 years ago.
Victoria is right, Shea would be a great person to talk to. My realtor was def not pro VJ. Her main reasoning was the community has fairly large pockets of rentals, other than that I know nothing about the area.
I would also encourage you to look into the Beaverdale area. We love the area and it has a great feeling of community.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts, i think we need to look a bit more into the flood insurance aspect.
One of the other houses we're thinking of is in the waveland area, still trying to dig a bit into any larger things that might need done ( furnace, water heater, roof, etc)
I'll check out beaverdale as well, and Grandview Park.
My husband and I lived in VJ for 4 years (before being relocated for his job) and we LOVED it. We were between Grand and Vine and we:
*were not impacted by the floods of 2008 (nor was the rest of the VJ area) and I do not recall flood insurance ever being an issue
*LOVED being within walking distance of the Farmer's Market and were never bothered by the traffic despite living on one of the main routes to the festivities
*LOVED the location...less than 10 minutes to downtown, 15 minutes to the western burbs, 15 minutes to Ankeny...nothing was far away
*were totally impressed by the schools in the neighborhood, TOP NOTCH
*would absolutely look to be in VJ again should we be transferred back to Des Moines
We always felt like it was kind of an eclectic, outgoing, energetic neighborhood that we were proud to be a part of!
Happy House Hunting!!!