Moving to Carbondale in a few months, I have some questions! (Peoria: rentals, coop)

[sendmorecops]

My husband recently got accepted to SIUC. We're currently in Tennessee, but we're from Illinois so I know what the weather is like and everything.

1. We currently own a home and plan on buying again (we have two dogs and three cats, renting would cost us a fortune). I've tried looking on realtor.com to get an idea of a good median price for a 'starter home', one that isn't very big and isn't perfect but is still nice and in a decent neighborhood. But a lot of the houses don't have a lot of photos so my first question is, are there decent houses up there for around $60k? Our current house was more than that, we're just looking to save money if we can. We'd prefer not to live outside of town because we're a little sick of commuting.

2. How hard is it to find a job? My husband is military and paid into the GI Bill, so we'll be getting housing money but it's just enough to cover things like mortgage, car payment, utilities. I haven't worked in six years so i'm not looking for a great job, just something part time that isn't in the service industry.

3. Lifestyle questions: How are the co-op and health food store? How safe/easy is it to get around on a bike? Here we can't walk our dogs because too many people let their dogs roam loose, is that a big problem in Carbondale?

[linicx]

The median price of a 2000 sq ft home is $144k, but the city has some great incentives if you want to buy cheat and rehab a house. Housing and Neighborhoods | Explore Carbondale l It is not a very user friendly website, but if you did around there is some good information buried in it.

I found a newly remodeled 2 bedroom with a basement for 55K in Murphreborough. That is a low ball price for a 2 bedroom. There is a reason for the price and a reason the owner is willing to sell on a contract. Be careful. :: TheSouthern.com - Southern Illinois' Homepage :: (http://www.thesouthern.com/admarket/real_estate_sales/real_estate_for_sale/ - broken link)

You can find natural foods at St. Louis, Bloomington and Peoria, and probably Champaign.

SIU newspaper Simple, rapid test can detect tainted milk supply

SI Newspaper: :: TheSouthern.com - Southern Illinois' Homepage ::

Carbondale is not the capitol of Southern Illinois. Springfield is the Capitol of Illinois.

[tlw]

Finding a house in Carbondale in the $60,000 might be a bit of a challenge but it could be done. I would recommend renting for a short while to familiarize yourself with the area and take your time to shop.

There is a housing glut in Carbondale, particularly with rentals. SIU just announced their enrollment figures and they are down again. Have been for 15 years running. You should be able to find a reasonable rental in town, perhaps even negotiate a month to month if it isn't offered. There are many rentals sitting empty. Take care in looking as there still are plenty of slum properties. There are all kinds of properties, rental and non-rental, tucked away in the hills and roads still within the city limits and just a few miles outside of Carbondale. Property taxes are high in Carbondale. Not much tax base ......... SIU is the largest employer and the hospital is the second.

You should be able to find a service type job there. Many restaurants, usual chains, some independents and mom and pops.

Sites to look and get a feel........

thesouthern.com
siude.com
carbondazegazette.blogspot.com
craigslist.org Southern Illinois (Carbondale) listings
carbondalerocks.com

Carbondale is very easy getting around on a bike. Many bike paths and the town is more accustomed to bike and walking traffic. There is an excellent locally owned co-op in town. It is located on the west end of Murdale Shopping Center. They have really done a great job. Here's the website Neighborhood Coop - Home | Neighborhood Coop

Very few dogs running loose as the animal control is on the hunt. Folks aren't quite as careful with their cats though.

I might be able to give you some specific information, names, places to go, places to avoid, if you have any questions. Do a direct message to me if you like. I'm not a big poster or a regular, but I will check.

Hope this helps.

[sendmorecops]

Originally Posted by linicx

Carbondale is not the capitol of Southern Illinois. Springfield is the Capitol of Illinois.

I uh...what? I know where the capital is, I used to live there. I don't understand what that has to do with my questions, though.

Thanks for your responses, at any rate!

[linicx]

The newspaper banner: "Carbondale is the capital of Southern Illinois". I answered the question to the best of my ability. I don't like there.

[oriole]

I lived in the area for about 5 years while off and on in school, but it's been about 10 years for me, so some of this info might be old.

I do kind of agree with purchasing a home rather than renting. The landlords there are really quite sketchy at times. We had some trouble, and we were non-trad aged college students. There are a few little towns on the outsides of Carbondale that might have housing stock in your price range. Marion has become bigger than when I was there, so I don't know about there, but if you get off of rt. 13, you can look. You do have to be careful though because there were some areas where lots of undermining was taking place, and it caused some problems. I don't know if that is still going on, but I don't think I'd want to buy where someone was mining beneath my home! If you are looking in the city itself, there were some areas that were big time party areas full of only rentals that were frankly very crappy.

I thought the town was very bike friendly though. We lived off of Crab Orchard, so we couldn't bike in from there, but if you chose to live in town, it'd be doable. Stray animals were definately still a problem when we were there.

I don't know if there are any heath food stores there now. There were not when we were there, and the cities suggested above in another post are quite a ride away! I would never suggest Bloomington, Peoria, and Champaign as an easy ride- you're talking three or more hours there! We did all our health food shopping online and took an occasional weekend trip to St. Louis for stocking up purposes. I understand that Paducah KY is becoming more of an artsy, greener town, so it's possible there's one there now. That would be the shortest ride to a 'bigger' city, I'd say.

Jobwise was a bit tough depending on what you're planning to earn. I got a job on campus and that was a bit over minimum at the time. My husband was working at a few mall-type stores - there were two smaller (compared to up here) malls that had a few good anchor stores. So if you can get by on jobs like that, you should be okay. A lot of the bigger employers were wary about hiring anyone taking classes, so working in service industries were most of the options. Again, that might have changed or not, especially because of economic climate.

In general, I had a pleasent time living down there. I know there are a lot of people that don't like the area, but I guess it depends on what your hobbies are and how you spend your time. I like hiking, trying (and usually failing) to grow my own veggies, outdoor activities, and visiting small town festivals/activities. And I really liked a lot of the things the University and the community college offered for just regular community members. So I was quite happy with all that. My only big complaint would be regarding health care. I found that rather awful, and when I delivered a baby at the hospital in Carbondale, it wasn't a plesent experience.

I hope you enjoy your stay there.

[sendmorecops]

Paducah does have a health food store, but I had forgotten that it's closer than St. Louis so thanks for reminding me that it's an option! I try to avoid a lot of the 'healthy' junk foods so all I really need is a place to buy staples from.

I think we'll be happy in Carbondale. Where I live now, it's four times bigger but has all of the small town disadvantages with none of the advantages. We can't walk or ride our bikes anywhere really, public transit sucks and we only have one car so while my husband is at work, i'm basically stuck in the house. And there is very little culture here. So i'm looking forward to having more things to do and more mobility.

[Drover]

You mentioned weather in your first post. Carbondale isn't that far from Tennessee -- maybe 75 miles? -- so I don't think the weather is going to be drastically different than what you get right now. Of course, whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you. Personally I don't know that I could handle summers in Carbondale.

[sendmorecops]

Yeah, it probably won't be a huge difference. We live right at the top of TN and it's two hours to Carbondale. We're from Springfield and the difference between there and here is only ten degrees, max. And we rarely see snow.

[sendmorecops]

Okay, so my husband went to his student orientation and to meet a realtor and look at some houses, and it was pretty much a bust. The houses he looked at were from $70k to $87k (way more than I predict we'd be able to afford so I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a house that costs that much), and except for one house that was the highest cost, they were all just not workable. We're pretty flexible, like we need a fence for our dogs but we could afford to partially fence the yard if the house was cheap enough or the seller paid our closing costs, nothing we want is 100% set in stone so it's not like we're looking for the perfect house. Most of the houses he looked at were dirty, had incredibly old appliances that we can't afford to replace, or were in awful neighborhoods.

The realtor told him that anything east of route 51 was a crappy neighborhood, but all of the houses she showed him west of that looked crappy to him, and from what I can see on google maps street view. So where are the decent neighborhoods?

So so frustrating.