Gentrifying?

[Lucille]

There is an area around where I work that is being gentrified. People are buying these old cruddy inner city houses, sprucing them up.
That happened in houston in an area called the Heights which is to me, unique and charming, but the homes are now mostly over $200,000 so I can't live there.

I have a nice tiny home in the burbs with roses and stuff, perfectly adequate. But with the increasing traffic I am losing 2 hours of my life every day in my car.
So I'm thinking over getting one of these old homes and doing it up myself.
Comments?

[_Venom_]

Personally... I don't like gentrification.

It's affecting chunks of Chicago.

It pretty much kicks everyone out that made the neighborhood what it is.

Economic cleansing.

People say it does good for the neighborhood when it really doesn't since it isn't the same neighborhood it once was.

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[Lucille]

I think you might have a point in some hoods. But with the housing crisis, there are some areas where even the people there have left, leaving old empty foreclosed homes.

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[-KB-]

They're doing that around here as well, but we're kind of happy about it, because the areas they are doing it to were not good areas...not like "the hood" or anything, just yucky/trashy/moderate crime areas. Mostly the city has bought up abandoned/foreclosed areas, and offered generous amounts for the property to the people who were looking for an out anyway, and once a big enough area is bought up, they sell it to someone, that person clears it and makes a little subdivision with nice homes. So far its going well, between the renovated houses and the new houses, its looking a lot better. As for the "economic cleansing" part, I suppose that's got something to do with it, but frankly, the houses that are being "cleaned up" needed to be...They didn't even look safe enough to enter! If you want a cheaper home that you can let go to heck, or a place where you can let your kids run amuck & cause trouble, don't buy in this town. The taxes are outrageous because people want this area to stay clean and nice, with nice people. Each year the taxes go up, the city's crime rates go down. I know its harsh, but I work my rear off (and so does my fiance) to be able to afford to live here, rather than 2 towns over where you can get a nice 2-story house with a pool for $200,000, but the schools are terrible, crime rates are outrageous, and you are scared to go to the corner store at night without a gun.

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