Advice on buying a house near Cambridge public housing (Boston: condo, crime)

[abm44]

My husband and I have been shopping for a 2-bedroom condo in Cambridge (Central Square, Cambridgeport, Mid-Cambridge area) and recently found one that we liked (nice yard, layout, affordable, etc). It's across the street from the Putnam Gardens public housing project, though, and I'm not sure how much that should give us pause. We've looked into crime reports and we didn't find anything that concerned us there, but should we be concerned for noise/parking or re-sale purposes? This condo is at the bottom end of the price range (~$320K, compared to many other Cambridge 2-bedrooms which are $400K+).

Thanks for your advice!

[xS☺Be]

I lived in a similar neighborhood in Lower ROX. Our problems were filth, noise, boom boom cars, car alarms. Safety was not too big of an issue.

The noise can be attributed not to the projects but due to living on Tremont St on a corner with a nightclub, a traffic light and several retail stores including a liquor store.

I'd eyeball the area for signs of the broken glass theory - trash, evidence of auto window glass on the street, rodent activity, graffiti. Having driven around those 'hoods in CAM I'd say it's no big deal - might even be nice.

A lot of college kids from Northeastern lived in areas directly surrounding the projects. They seem ok.

Car alarms seem to big a bigger problem in the hood. For some reason people who own $5000 cars seem to feel they need car alarms and when cousin Fred installs it, he doesn't calibrate it right so it alarms every time a fly lands on it or a Harley goes by.

The biggest burden about living in / near a hood is not hostility. Most people there are actually pretty nice. It's a matter of being able to tolerate the ghetto manners. A lot of people of color would themselves tell you how they'd like to divorce themselves from some of the lower level conversation and habits they are stuck with. Boom boom cars blasting "F**k N*gga F**k N*gga F**k N*gga F**k" up and down the street does get old.

[goyguy]

I've lived in that area for 18 years and love it.
Putnam Gardens is a low-density development, very well maintained, with next to no crime in the vicinity. It's even where I go to vote. The noise issue is much worse on the part of the yuppies and Harvard students who infest, excuse me - inhabit, the surrounding neighborhood. Intoxicated women shrieking "I know, right? And I was like, o'm'GAWD, and he was like..." for hours on end is far more obnoxious than the occasional "boom boom car" (gonna steal that term) rolling by. All it usually takes is one call to the cops to solve that problem, 'cause the Cambridge police don't play. If they're dispatched to the same address a second time there's hell to pay. "Buffy" and "Zach" know about the weekly newspaper's crime log that "everybody" reads, and "SO" don't want to turn up in print.
You're within an easy stroll from Harvard Square as well as good public transportation into Boston and other places in all directions, and the popular Petsi's sandwich shop is "right there," yet aside from the teens-to-thirties partiers the environment's tranquil. Word to the wise, though, the more stable streets to buy on are Putnam and Kinnaird. Howard, Magee, and Callendar are less of a sure thing, seeing as how they were a step down the economic ladder to begin with.
DM freely if there's anything more I can impart.