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Have not lived in an apartment for 30 years, moving to a new city and am planning on renting a house but honestly if an apartment was quiet enough I would consider an apartment over a house; cheaper, and maybe (or not) not so strict on a year's lease (i have another post on lease length, this post is more about the noise in apartments). Just wondering from anybody here who lives in an apartment how bad is the noise issue? I would be willing to rent a nicer upscale apartment, ie i am not talking about slummy apartment rental. Do apartments generally have a written noise ordinance clause so that if i was hearing noise from other renters through my walls/ceiling/floor that I would have a remedy, viz get the manager to have the other renters turn volumes down so i do not hear their stereo or home theater or drums set etc?
Honestly it all depends on who your neighbors are & if you get along....
I currently live in a studio & can't stand the noise of the people in this building....
For instance I like to meditate & do my yoga in the morning-
every morning the idiots in this building slam doors, stomp around needlessly, etc.
A year or 2 ago I was in a condo (better rental environment)
the noise levels there were fine, because we all looked out for each other,
& we respected each other for the most part.
For instance I could crank up my workout music all the way up & everyone was cool w/ that-
plus I had a hot personal trainer on the first floor under me, lol
We were kinda like family in that building....
I wish I could find a place like that again--
But to get back to my point- ya' never know until you actually live there...
Go for the 6 month lease.....
Honestly it all depends on who your neighbors are & if you get along....
I currently live in a studio & can't stand the noise of the people in this building....
For instance I like to meditate & do my yoga in the morning-
every morning the idiots in this building slam doors, stomp around needlessly, etc.
A year or 2 ago I was in a condo (better rental environment)
the noise levels there were fine, because we all looked out for each other,
& we respected each other for the most part.
For instance I could crank up my workout music all the way up & everyone was cool w/ that-
plus I had a hot personal trainer on the first floor under me, lol
We were kinda like family in that building....
I wish I could find a place like that again--
But to get back to my point- ya' never know until you actually live there...
Go for the 6 month lease.....
After I started this thread it hit me-- a compromise might be to expand my search for a rental from single family homes to include townhomes (is a condo the same thing? townhomes and condos are different checkboxes on zillow so i am not sure), maybe forget about apartments. A townhome would have a shared wall, but if the floor plan layout was smart the bedrooms would be far away in both units with living rooms + kitchen sharing the common wall. At least with a townhome it would be one wall for potential noise and as you said more of a sense of community, respect at least a little.
city-data rocks! you guys rock who respond, so nice to have this forum to figure things out prior to a move!
I know I'll sound boastful if I call myself a walking encyclopedia on this subject. I actually acted pro se in federal district court over the issue--and did not lose. (It got to arbitration and settlement, with no gag order.)
I wear headphones 24/7. Earbuds throughout the night. I won't sugar-coat the issue: you will *always* live in fear in an apartment building. But if the choice is between that or suicide, I would advise suffering. You can die a martyr to a cause--and it's a cause I've waged a battle for for thirty-five years.
Best of luck to you, because luck is the frightening, operative word--luck, and being courageous enough to be called a "crank" by the feeble-minded who live large on a small planet, mindless of the misery they cause others and the havoc they wreak on their own health and well-being.
Last edited by Purplecow; 12-08-2014 at 07:38 PM..
Expect to always be aware of your neighbors. Get an apartment on the top floor. Have an escape plan. Really, if you have any choice at all, don't get an apartment. Some are better than others.
I will never live in an apartment again, ever. Upstairs neighbors stomping around, drunks passed out on my patio, rampant drug use, dogs barking. All condoned by management. Rent a house.
In my experience it depends on price of apartment and whether or not they are privately owned (condos).
The cheaper the apartment the more riffraff comes in, there tends to be more crime and careless tenants. IF you are renting at a higher price or in luxury apartments then you won't have to deal with these types and it is usually quiet, albeit loud parties on the weekends (understandable). This is why some apartments tend to be pricier, so they can weed out the bad tenants.
Expect to always be aware of your neighbors. Get an apartment on the top floor. Have an escape plan. Really, if you have any choice at all, don't get an apartment. Some are better than others.
Very well-said, and the EXTREMELY depressing thing about this is that even if you had [pick your favorite holy man and his "wife"] as neighbors, it's the awareness that you must have awareness of them that makes life so hard. Insufficient privacy in twentieth and now twenty-first-century housing is the under-discussed and, I believe, absolute source of 99% of the world's miseries.
I disagree with another poster who talks about "riff-raff" and price of rent. In my experience, there is NO correlation whatever between the two.
Last edited by Purplecow; 12-09-2014 at 04:50 AM..
Reason: omitted word
In my experience it depends on price of apartment and whether or not they are privately owned (condos).
The cheaper the apartment the more riffraff comes in, there tends to be more crime and careless tenants. IF you are renting at a higher price or in luxury apartments then you won't have to deal with these types and it is usually quiet, albeit loud parties on the weekends (understandable). This is why some apartments tend to be pricier, so they can weed out the bad tenants.
In my experience, price has nothing to do with it whatever--and in fact, renting even a stand-alone home in a cramped neighborhood is as bad as renting an apartment.
I owned and lived in my own home near a barking dog-from-hell. For ten years--ten years of my precious life--my daily activity and that of others in the neighborhood was structured by a chained dog in a backyard owned by human garbage. Ten magistrate hearings throughout the years. I ended up selling and moving.
Before I owned the home, in an infinitely more upper-class neighborhood with my parents, another chained dog, chained conveniently for the trash who owned the home at the far edge of their yard but feet from my family's bedroom windows, turned 1981 into a literally bedridden nightmare.
Money has nothing to do with it. It's overpopulation. There are too many of us, all colors, all nationalities. When you have too many humans, the likelihood of your having too many unfeeling morons increases as the population increases.
It's LUCK. Scary? Yep, as all H*ll. Scary, but true.
In my experience, price has nothing to do with it whatever--and in fact, renting even a stand-alone home in a cramped neighborhood is as bad as renting an apartment.
I owned and lived in my own home near a barking dog-from-hell. For ten years--ten years of my precious life--my daily activity and that of others in the neighborhood was structured by a chained dog in a backyard owned by human garbage. Ten magistrate hearings throughout the years. I ended up selling and moving.
Before I owned the home, in an infinitely more upper-class neighborhood with my parents, another chained dog, chained conveniently for the trash who owned the home at the far edge of their yard but feet from my family's bedroom windows, turned 1981 into a literally bedridden nightmare.
Money has nothing to do with it. It's overpopulation. There are too many of us, all colors, all nationalities. When you have too many humans, the likelihood of your having too many unfeeling morons increases as the population increases.
It's LUCK. Scary? Yep, as all H*ll. Scary, but true.
Unfortunately, I can identify with NNM. Not even the law can force idiots to be quiet. Listen to me on this: Find out what local noise ordinances exist in the area that you are interested in moving to. If there are none on the books, you are scr*wed. They cannot enforce what isn't in writing.
I've lived in at least three places considered to be "in the country". There are still problems with noise, mostly barking dogs. There is no guarantee that you will have quiet, no matter where you live.
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