Moving to Peoria- Where to live and go to college? (what's the inside scoop?)

[sandiegomama]

thanks so much. almost all of the listings we found were in that area you warned me about. you've definitely given us a better idea of where to look. this has been a huge help. do you know about the area south of downtown toward bartonville? Two listings we have left are on Millman and Kettelle, which are south of Dr. MLK jr. Drive, west of MacArthur hwy, and north of Lincoln Ave. The last one is on Malone south of Dr. MLK jr. Drive, west of MacArthur hwy, and north of Starr St. Do you happen to have any suggestions about those? We'll definitely start looking in Peoria Heights. Do you know where we can find more listings? Pretty slim pickings so far.

[runninfiend]

Originally Posted by sandiegomama

thanks so much. almost all of the listings we found were in that area you warned me about. you've definitely given us a better idea of where to look. this has been a huge help. do you know about the area south of downtown toward bartonville? Two listings we have left are on Millman and Kettelle, which are south of Dr. MLK jr. Drive, west of MacArthur hwy, and north of Lincoln Ave. The last one is on Malone south of Dr. MLK jr. Drive, west of MacArthur hwy, and north of Starr St. Do you happen to have any suggestions about those? We'll definitely start looking in Peoria Heights. Do you know where we can find more listings? Pretty slim pickings so far.

Anything south of downtown almost all the way to rt. 474 is very bad. The south side of Peoria is high crime, poor schools and not desirable. Stay far, far away from Starr Street and MacArthur Hwy. These areas are much worse than Averyville and north of downtown, and those aren't great. You will hear gunshots at night. I can't stress this enough.

Bartonville itself is not bad. It is a blue collar, working class town, and there are affordable houses in the town proper. You might also try West Peoria. Some smaller, older, and affordable homes there, and the neighborhoods are much, much nicer than the south end.

[sandiegomama]

[quote=runninfiend;2563523]Anything south of downtown almost all the way to rt. 474 is very bad. The south side of Peoria is high crime, poor schools and not desirable. Stay far, far away from Starr Street and MacArthur Hwy. These areas are much worse than Averyville and north of downtown, and those aren't great. You will hear gunshots at night. I can't stress this enough. quote]

You have been a wonderful resource. Thanks again for your help. We will continue our search in the areas you've suggested, and hopefully we'll find something we love.

[runninfiend]

Originally Posted by sandiegomama

You have been a wonderful resource. Thanks again for your help. We will continue our search in the areas you've suggested, and hopefully we'll find something we love.

No problem. If you want to share your price range, I can be more specific. How close to Peoria do you want to be? Are you willing to live in a outlying small town?

I live 20 minutes from Peoria and love it out here. Countryside with quick access to town. Peoria does have much to offer, but there are definitely parts you want to avoid, like the ones listed in previous posts.

[shamrocker]

Don't forget to look at Marquette Heights! We're a small quiet city right off of 474 near Creve Coeur.

I commuted from Bartonville to ISU for two years. It's about 40 minutes each way, but it is still less expensive than attending Bradley, which is also a very good school. Good luck and welcome to the area!

[boiker]

As a resident of Peoria, I've lived 2 blocks north of McClure and 2 blocks west of Knoxville for over 4 years. I also work for the City in a planning/zoning capacity and can say that anything north of Forrest Hill is generally ok. Anything north of McClure between Knoxville and University is spotty- some good areas and some bad/borderline areas. My area is great IMO. I have not been subject to property crime, threatened, or assaulted in my 4 years. My neighbors are great. There is a mix of rental and owner occupied and luckily we have good landlords and tenants.

You will not find a house for rent under $900 in a good neighborhood in my experience. You may get lucky, but rental houses and apartments are surprisingly high here for such an affordable area to purchase a home.

[pbussey]

Sorry to butt in, but this shouldn't be too off topic.

I recently graduated from college and picked up a job in Bartonville. I am moving from Atlanta at the end of the week and having a hard time figuring out which neighborhoods to stay away from. I guess I'm looking for somewhere where there will be some younger people living ( I would rather not **** off old neighbors with noise) and somewhere I won't have to worry about if I forgot to lock my door.

Thanks for any help.
Parker

[KitKatLuvr2]

With the exception of a half a dozen years spent in Va Beach, I have lived in the Peoria area my entire life. In the past few years, I have been amazed at how Peoria has grown and spread. If you want to live in a safe neighborhood where you can get away without locking your doors, then you definitely don't want to live inside the city limits of Peoria. There are so many good and bad areas literally within blocks of each other. As far as real estate goes, you will get what you pay for. You may see a $96,000 house in North Peoria, but that could mean it's priced that way because you can't walk the street at night. I was raised in West Peoria, which is "okay", but declining rapidly as far as safety and home values go because so much of the real estate has become lower class rentals, and less and less homeowners. As the forum already suggests, Morton is a very nice, clean, safe town with good schools. I worked there for years. It has a Walmart and some strip malls. I live in Bartonville, which is VERY safe, and yes, we leave our doors unlocked....day and night. There is one grocery store (Kroger), a DQ, a couple dollar stores, but no real shopping center. We travel to Pekin (10 minutes away) which is larger and has a huge variety of shopping and restaurants (and a hospital). Pekin is generally pretty safe, but it has some questionable neighborhoods, too (nothing like Peoria's unsafe neighborhoods, though). Pekin is not known for their diversity, however. Dunlap area, (north of Peoria) is fairly safe, but expensive. Metamora is a great, safe, smaller town with it's own high school. Germantown Hills is a good area. Washington is also nice, with lots of restaurants and shopping. I hope this helps. Again, I would be VERY careful with any Peoria location. The police can always provide honest, candid answers about neighborhoods and crime.....I don't think real estate agents are ethically allowed to really elaborate on specifics like police can. If you have a particular area you want feedback on, feel free to post it on this forum and I'll reply back.