How much extra a month do you spend to live in a "nice" neighborhood?

[curse of greyface]

Another poster below made me think of this.

This isn't about race. The closest bad neighborhood near me is quite Caucasian.

But I spend an extra $350 a month, I really don't have, to live a few miles away in a quieter place with no real crime.

Include everything, the extra you pay to commute to work as well as your rent/mortgage.

I doubt I'm the only person who doesn't live in the cheapest neighborhood in their town or county.

So how much extra do you spend on housing to live where you do?

[readmoreoften]

1. Can I substract since I live in Bloods territory?

Or am I a gentrifier because I'm gay. Hey, I bet my neighbors wish I was a gentrifier since I can't afford to repaint my house and it looks like shit.

[pinto]

2. I live in HUD subsidized housing, nice neighborhood, nice town.

[mokawanis]

22. I live in a HUD-subsidized low-income neighborhood

in large part because my wife's job requires her to live in the neighborhood she works for, a neighborhood that is 1/3 caucasian, 1/3 african-american, and 1/3 hmong.

I raised three kids in this neighborhood and none of us were ever the victim of crime. My wife and I have organized voter-registration, reading programs, poetry slams, a chess club, and done a lot of other activities to support the neighborhood.

We are about to buy a house and leave the neighborhood (because I will retire in not too many years) but we will aways have good memories of the neighborhood we have lived in for so many years.

[Trajan]

3. I live in a middle middle class neighborhood in Portland ...

A modestly appointed single family home, with 3 bedrooms and a sitting room, a full unfinished basement, 2 baths and a living and dining room.

We pay just over 1000 per month rent ...

If I lived where I wanted to, I would be paying 1500 per month, which would be a serious constraint on my family .... I could save 200 or so dollars per month if I moved to a 2 BD apartment ... Such an apartment would be in a 'good' part of town ...

Even if I moved to one of the 'worst' parts of town, I would save maybe 100 dollars per month more .... So the rent differentials between 'modest' areas arent that great here .... I could pay more, but not much less ...

[curse of greyface]

6. I'm Jealous of the Northwests electric rates. My girl used to live there.

And once a month all I hear is why is our electric so high when I lived in Washington...

[Tom Kitten]

4. 650$ a month

for a one bedroom plus "bonus" room (use it as library and office room) plus walk-in closet.I live in a nice neighborhood a few blocks from our soon to be ex-mayor. I absolutely love it here, possibly the best place ever for me, but I might have to give it up soon if I can't find any sort of job at this point. But let me tell you, if I have to leave here, I'm selling as much as my stuff as I can, I'll cash out what's left of my retirement funds, and driving south, past the border if I have to, where I am sure to meet my eventual fate.

[chalky]

5. I'm paying around $200 more per month, but since that's more for proximity

to my job than for safety, it's probably more like $100 if I include savings in gas. And the savings in commute time is worth the $100.00 to me.

Incidentally, I recommend checking the statistics in your area vs other parts of town before you label your area "safe". It might be an eye opener. My so-called "nice" (read "predominently anglo") neighborhood has more violent crime than my parent's neighborhood (in the traditionally AA part of town).

[PeaceNikki]

7. I live in a "nice", "white", "red", "safe" community because it's under 2 miles to work.

Living in a less "desirable" neighborhood here wouldn't really save me much due to the significantly higher property taxes in other county and the commute it would involve.

[CTyankee]

8. A nice, modest area of New Haven, not too expensive, on two bus lines

to downtown (Hubby rides bus to work at city hall). We have retirees, cops, a state trooper, families, blacks, orthodox jews (shull within walking distance), gays, our mayor, a local ABC affiliate news show host (next door to me). Not many Yalies since we are too far from classy downtown or East Rock. Joe Lieberman's old house is 4 blocks away but it is in a fancier neighborhood than mine.

[curse of greyface]

9. I used to live in East have in a cheap rental. Walking distance to the "beach" and a grocery that

had 8 piece day old chicken for a dollar.

[CTyankee]

10. East Haven?

It has some unfortunate racist types living there but there are good folk too. My physical therapist is a wonderful progressive and she lives there, so it ain't all bad (but I doubt it went for Obama)...

[curse of greyface]

11. Well not the nice part. actually the east side of New Haven if I recall correctly. nt

[CTyankee]

13. The nice part would be East Rock. Some lovely homes there but

there's a dividing line, just one street, and all that changes. I'm talking about where Albertus Magnus College is. It faces beautiful Prospect Street. It's back is on a slum. Got my Master's there so I know the area very well...

[curse of greyface]

14. Yeah I was definitely in slum.... nt

[WindRiverMan]

12. I live in the country and have 22 acres.

I live out here so I don't have neighbors. I don't hear yelling kids at eleven at night. I don't have fighting neighbors. I don't have to listen to someone else's music that they feel they must share with the entire world. I don't worry about speeding teenage drivers when my little ones are outside playing.

I have a kennel house full of hunting dogs, and my neighbors don't hear them bark, so they don't complain.

I have deer, antelope, and an occasional moose in my yard. I watched two buck antelope fight like hell this last September right outside my bedroom window.

The best thing about where I live is:

I can take a whiz in my front yard and nobody sees it!!!!!!!

[MadHound]

15. I live out in the country,

And while my mortgage is higher, that is more due to having twenty acres and a house twice the size of the one I had in the city.

Yes, I spend a bit more in gas for travel, though not that much more because I'm riding a Bajaj scooter, which gets 100 mpg.

I also save on food costs by gardening, something I couldn't do in the city. Same with heating costs, since I'm installing a woodstove, something I couldn't do in the city. Here in a few years, I'll realize even further savings by putting in solar panels and/or a wind turbine, neither of which I could do in the city. All in all, I imagine that my costs for living out here in the country, which I do indeed consider a nicer neighborhood that where I previously lived, will be much less than what I spent living in the city.

[Giant Robot]

16. Well let's see

Someone was shot across the street from us a couple years ago. Downstairs neighbor was beaten severely by her boyfriend, which we could hear. Person in the apt diagonal from us went after the police with a sword. Yes, a sword. Do I get to subtract money?

Our apartment is great, a good size place, we are so conveniently located to everything, and heat is included, which for northern Michigan is a blessing. Otherwise the neighborhood is kinda shady.

[gollygee]

17. I looked it up, and houses my size/age in a worse part of town cost $90k

mine is more like $160k.

[surrealAmerican]

18. This is the sort of thing that get very hard to quantify ...

... when you have children. Yes, I could live in a cheaper neighborhood, but then I would have to send my kids to an expensive private school. It might not be safe for them to play outside, so I would need to pay for activities. They wouldn't be able to walk to school, so there would be additional transportation costs. By the time you add in the additional expenses, the better neighborhood turns out to be a bargain. There are also adverse psychological effects involved when your children grow up believing that they are surrounded by danger.

[ogneopasno]

19. Who says we all live in "nice" "neighborhoods"? And honestly how can you quantify that?

[curse of greyface]

21. Well do the cops visit the neighborhood with their lights on more than once a week?

Do your neighbors throw their fast food packages on the street?

Do people park in the driveway and not in the yard?

Do thier cars have tags? Wheels?

Do you hear gunshots? (And if you do is it because someone got shot)

Do you hear loud music at all hours?

Do entrepreneurs of various stripes have businesses on the street corner.?

Do you lock your car?

Does anyone ask for a handout or a cigarette between your front door and your car?

If your neighborhood is on the news is there a suspect involved?

Does it cost more to live practically anywhere else?

[iris27]

20. I don't.

We own a 2 bdr, 800-sq ft house in an area where a feud between neighbors led to one of them shooting through the window of the other (just as a threat; no one was home...but still).

Similar homes in the nicer-but-still-working-class neighborhoods where my parents and siblings live would've cost us about $300-400 more that we just didn't have. Of course now with the housing market the way it is, what we paid for this place ($95k in Feb. 2007) will get you a 3 bdr/2 bath/2 car garage in their area for the same price...and our home's worth has dropped to about $65k.

[curse of greyface]

23. That sucks you know if it wasn't for the neighbors most bad neighborhoods wouldn't be that bad. NT

[goodgd_yall]

24. I don't live in a nice neighborhood

Funny, I was just talking about this to my mother----how a community nearby, just on the other side of the main thoroughfare, which is actually part of my town likes to call itself another name and how people who live there use that name rather than the name of our town. It's a place with more expensive homes. Also its grocery store goes by another name (shared by one of the poshier neighborhoods in Los Angeles) while its other name is used in the lower-income parts of town. It's the same grocery chain, but it's got a frou-frou name in the higher-income community. That's because my town has a bad rep. It's not as bad as the list for what a bad neighborhood would be like, but another part of being in a "bad neighborhood" is that it's the perception of other people. I live in a more diverse town and we get in the news with crime stories every now and again, so it's a "bad neighborhood" in others eyes.

[curse of greyface]

27. Reputation is a funny thing.

In New York city the south Bronx is no filled with overpriced lofts and downtown Brooklyn is the hip place to be.

I always imagine people from the midwest taking a tour of the bronx not realizing that those apartments cost 3 times their house.

Still the stigma lives on. (I still think of the lower east side as a drug filled hellhole for God's sake. It's been what ten years)

[City of Mills]

25. I live in the middle of the city

I can afford to pay more to live in a so called 'nicer' community but I really like living here. I grew up in the city and feel more comfortable living in higher populated areas. Plus, my work commute is a two minute walk :)

[MazeRat7]

26. Nothing "extra" about where I live... it was the place I chose to live...

So basically I don't pay anything "extra". I pay my mortgage, utilities, HOA dues, maintenance, etc. It was all factored into my choice when I purchased this property in '97.

Peace,
MZr7

[Generic Brad]

28. Define "nice"

Nice - to me, means a place where there is a mix of people from every ethnic background under the sun. If it's not diverse, I don't want to live there.

[curse of greyface]

29. I defined it above. However I'm not sure what ethnicity has to do with diversity.

I live in an ethnically diverse are. But economically it is solid middle class. Sure there are African American,Asian and White families living in close proximity. But they are self selected. To live here you need good credit. Alas that keeps out a lot of the poor people. There are whites but no rednecks, there are middle class blacks but they are all professionals.

We had years ago a few section 8 residents move in. They didn't fit with their neighbors and were quickly driven out of the neighborhood.

There are plenty of colors in my neighborhood but no diversity. Everyone is in the same boat.

[Generic Brad]

30. My neighborhood also has a variety of socio-economic backgrounds

We have the impoverished, the middle class, the upper middle class and a smattering of millionaires living in the same area.

[Esurientes]

31. Only for upkeep.

My mortgage and commuting costs are the same since I moved from a blue-collar neighborhood with graffiti, drugs, and unsupervised kids shooting birds with b.b. guns to an older college neighborhood with "just" an occasional car break-in.

I have to spend more on the yard, probably $125 a month extra. People here expect weekly mowing, leaf blowing (I envy people who live places where that's illegal), mulching, seasonal flowers, and all that. I feel like they look down on us because we don't do much outdoor decorating at holiday time. I have no idea what our electric bill would be for lighting up at Christmas the way everyone else does.

[Cleita]

32. It has a lot to do with poverty.

Nice neighborhoods have good schools and a lot of police protection. When people who can afford that move out, the protection and schools go down. We really need to have our police and our schools to be the same no matter how tony or how poor the neighborhood is. That takes laws and some socialism.

[curse of greyface]

36. I agree but he problem seems to be more than money.

Not that money isn't the issue in many places. But there are plenty of areas with county schools and county sheriff yet with very good neighborhoods and definite no go areas.

I think the problem is class and upbringing more than race as well.

[dysfunctional press]

33. around $1500 extra per month...?

when we sold our two-flat in the city for a semi-rural ranch house on over an acre, we had to get a second vehicle and a riding mower. both were bought with cash to avoid having any payments. we also lost the income from the rental unit, the taxes are higher and although we had the two-flat paid-off, we took out a small mortgage on the new place. we also got a mid-size dog(black lab), which we didn't have room for in the city

[Jed Dilligan]

34. $175 more got me a yard, garage, and a puke/litter free street.

You gotta hunt up the bargains.

[Catherine Vincent]

35. I basically bought a home where I could afford which is your basic cookie cutter home.

My house is below the green arrow. :)

[Nikia]

37. We live in a town of less than 10,000 people

It is hard to quanitify what is a "nice". The average home value is around $100,000. There is mixed housing ($40,000 house a few houses down from $200,000 house) on many blocks. There are some blocks where most of the houses are small, older, and not kept up well that are probably all under $80,000 but they might only a few blocks away from homes that are mostly over $100,000. We live a few blocks from the nicest older home neighborhood populated by professional class people but are also only a few blocks away from an apartment complex that is always in the police blotter. We live relatively close to my workplace, about a mile away. It is in an industrial park. We did look at a couple of houses that were closer to my workplace. I guess I considered that neighborhood less "nice" because it was on the edge of an industrial park. The smaller house was significantly cheaper, but the house of the same size of our current wasn't any less expensive. Although it has some nice new updates that probably brought up its value, it had some quirkiness that made it less acceptable to us than our current house.
We probably could live in another less expensive town in our county. It would mean a longer commute to work and even less amenities than we have in our current town, like a hospital, pharmacy, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.

[Retrograde]

38. cost of house or total cost of living?

When we were looking to buy our first house, we selected one of the more expensive areas on the SF peninsula in terms of house prices since it was convenient to work. We could have bought a larger place in a cheaper area, but then we would have had to buy a 2nd car so we could both get to work. So in addition to the extra commute time we'd be looking at additional car payments, insurance, gas, wear and tear on us - the extra expense of the house didn't seem so bad.

[curse of greyface]

39. Total cost of living.

It is cheaper (over the long term) to have an apartment in the city with no yard and public transportation. But the initial cost maybe higher and the taxes will be higher.