Buying a house in Grand Rapids (Richmond: for sale, to rent, condo)

[jared188]

I'm looking to buy a house in Grands Rapids, I live here now in the alpine area and I'm just tired of renting. I have a couple years left for undergrad and then I will also be here to obtain my MFA. I go to Kendall and I would like somewhere close to downtown but I know a lot of those areas are pretty crappy. We've viewed a couple houses but they needed to much work so we moved on. The one we are most interested in now is on North Ave. Which from what I know is the Creston area 49505. I'm still pretty new here but is this a bad area? should I look somewhere else? My price range is $70,000 and we want a smaller house. I guess what I need to know is, is North ave. a bad area? Thank you!

-Jared

[daniboi81]

I live on the NW side of Grand Rapids (near Richmond Park) and can tell you that this area is nice and relatively close to downtown (2.5 miles on bike) though we currently have our house on the market. Houses on the NW side go for around 100K - 130K depending on size and condition.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by jared188

I'm looking to buy a house in Grands Rapids, I live here now in the alpine area and I'm just tired of renting. I have a couple years left for undergrad and then I will also be here to obtain my MFA. I go to Kendall and I would like somewhere close to downtown but I know a lot of those areas are pretty crappy. We've viewed a couple houses but they needed to much work so we moved on. The one we are most interested in now is on North Ave. Which from what I know is the Creston area 49505. I'm still pretty new here but is this a bad area? should I look somewhere else? My price range is $70,000 and we want a smaller house. I guess what I need to know is, is North ave. a bad area? Thank you!

-Jared

From my experience, anything less than $100K in the city is going to be in a "marginal" area. $70K is less than half of the average house price in Kent County, so you obviously are getting what you pay for.

[somuchbetter]

Have you checked out Heritage Hill area? I know you said you didn't want to rent but that's a nice area, there might be things for sale there. East town area is mixed but it has great community and is really charming, so its kind of a hit or miss for that area if you can find it.

I concur with Magellan. You may want to consider a condo. There are a ton of new ones being built downtown that are beautiful!

Good luck!