Uptown or University Area? (Charlotte, Concord: apartments, rentals, house)

[uncrick]

Hello everyone,

Finding a place is a headache as usual.

To recap, I'm a single male moving to Charlotte at the end of this year and be working at UNCC. Easy access to both nightlife and places having crowds, like a square, mall and etc., is important to me. At first I thought about living in a quiet area with lots of trees, but I can give up on it. I was a bit confused. Since I want to spend less than $1000/month for rent, I discarded the house option and am focusing more on apartments.

From my research of today I found two places that I liked - uptown and university area.

Uptown seemed nice - it seemed to have many people all the time (please correct me if I'm wrong), I can walk to bars, restaurants and etc. But, the rent was usually way more than $1000 for a 1 bedroom apartment.

Apartments in university area were much cheaper, but I couldn't confirm if it was also as (in my impression) vibrant as uptown. If university area is as fun as uptown and has some places with crowds, I'll get an apartment there.

I'm assuming that there are safe places in both areas.

Is my impression about uptown and university area correct? Which place
would be good for me? There are five main considerations:
1) rent preferably less than $1000, but if uptown is the only place I'm willing to pay a bit more.
2) safety
3) easy access to UNCC
4) easy access to nightlife
5) easy access to crowds in the evening and weekends

Thank you for your help!

[jadedSOUL83]

University area has some bars. Its more sprawled then uptown, its not like a city-city, but each bar is a very short drive. Flying saucer, Boardwalk Billies, Midtown Sundries, etc etc. They're usually packed on the weekends. In this area you have about 10 minutes to both Northlake Mall and Concord Mills Mall. Many people still go Uptown on the weekends for the real "nightlife" scene, where you can walk from bar to bar, pick up a taxi, etc etc. From my apt in University (Mallard Creek actually) it only takes less than 15 minutes to get uptown on weekend nights (since theres not really any traffic) I have a brand new, top model 2 bedroom apt and I pay 843 a month plus my utilities are dirt cheap (last month 40 for electric and 17 for gas). I havent had any issues with safety, and besides the little hoodlum children running around from 2-5 (while school is letting out), its a pretty quiet neighborhood. Theres tons of apts in the area. Colonial Grand Legacy Park would be one to check out. I like that community as the pool area is large with a nice barbecue pit, music, tons of chairs etc. Good place to have a bbq and some friends over. Its a big community as well, so theres plenty of people to meet. It was our 2nd choice but we decided with a smaller community down the street. Good luck.

[Luv_homes]

jadedSOUL83 said it all very well. You may wish to check out another web site...if you havn't already... APARTMENT RATINGS It's a great place to check out places and hear what the locals have to say.

[ultraviolet*]

The one caveat I would add about apartmentratings.com is that people won't usually go to a website like that to say nice things about where they live. Someone who's angry has a lot more drive to post there than someone who thinks everything is just great. So, as with the rest of the internet, take all posts with a grain of salt...

[Luv_homes]

Originally Posted by ultraviolet*

The one caveat I would add about apartmentratings.com is that people won't usually go to a website like that to say nice things about where they live. Someone who's angry has a lot more drive to post there than someone who thinks everything is just great. So, as with the rest of the internet, take all posts with a grain of salt...

Absolutly, As with every "forum" style web site, one should always take what is said with a grain of salt. I presume people will know not rely 100% on it, its just a starting point to know where the most trouble could be.

[uncrick]

Thanks JadedSOUL83. Thanks to your help, now I have a clearer picture. University area seems to have way better apartment options than uptown with a small number of but packed bars and more convenient access to big shopping malls. If I can ask one more, how is uptown after 6pm during weekdays? In several posts in this board, I read that it used to be like a ghost town. Are there many people walking around on the street even in the evening? I might do some advertising on the street like giving out flyers and talking to people, if it is allowed. Does university area have such a street or place?

Also thanks to Luv_homes and ultraviolet. I've checked apartmentratings.com. Indeed there were so many angry tenants. I'm going to avoid the apartments with a series of only low ratings (e.g., 4 people in a row talking about bad management or 3 people in a row talking about leaks in the ceiling).

[Luv_homes]

Glad I could be of some help. Remember if you don't want to be in a complex environment, Realtors have access to rentals through their MLS system. I would be happy to check for you should you be curious.

[uncrick]

Thanks Luv_homes. I decided to try uptown, if it's not a ghost town in weekday evenings. I'm guessing the answer to this question will be negative, but since you mentioned rentals, is there any rental affordable with $1000 or $1200/month uptown?

[XNYgirl]

Uptown, especially if your working up town. It will be so worth avoiding the traffic nightmares in the university area if you don't work out there. I drove back and forth to University area for 8 years and it was a night mare and it kept on growing. It's a little hard to get around in rush hour, ok, that's a like. It's hard to get around in rush how. YOu sit often on Harris or Tryon along with the 100's of others who get off at the same time.

Good Luck and go for Uptown.

[Whytewulf]

If you are looking to keep rent under $1000, you pretty much need to go University for a decent place. As others have said, Close to 2 very nice malls, restaurants, greenway, retail, bars, etc. Northlake has a wine bar, fox and hound, and few other places. Also, uptown is 15 min away. Uptown is a growing city area, but even in uptown, you may have to drive to get to the more common places, like Thomas St. and the English Pub. The area is ok during the week and getting better. During the summer there is live after 5, which is very fun, until its too hot. Depends what part of UNCC you are going to, but I still don't think there is much traffic issue going up there. Its not perfect, but less than 30 minutes, more like 20 in most cases, which isn't bad, especially compared to most other big cities. Let me know if you need any more detail.