Moving from Salt Lake City to Lexington in Aug. (Richmond: apartment complex, vacation)

[mlpslc]

Hi there,

My husband and I will be moving to Lexington the 3rd week of August, and I was hoping to get more info about the city/neighborhoods from locals before we move out there. (See, we're just packing up the moving truck and driving out, as we can't afford to fly there and find somewhere to live beforehand...although my husband was there for exactly 1 day when meeting with the dean of his graduate program in January )

So we're looking to rent at first, and being students, we can't afford a lot, probably from $400-600/month...but we're also a bit older than the average student (we're 26), and don't really want to live in a "student" neighborhood as we value our peace and quiet. Does $400-600 seem like a reasonable price for a 1-2 bedroom apartment in a quiet, safe area, not too far from UK or with public transportation available?

I'm sure this has been discussed on the boards before, but I've looked over 4 pages or so and even though I've seen a lot of names being tossed around, I can't really get a handle on the general area these neighborhoods are in (as in north-south-east-west, you know), seeing as how I've never been there before. I've heard the south and southeast areas are nice and safe, is that true? Any places we should definitely stay away from? Any apartment complexes with good reputations (and those with bad reputations?) Ideally we'd like a duplex, townhouse, or something smaller than an apartment complex, but I have no idea where to start looking for one. The online classifieds in the Lexington paper route directly to a rental website that has apartment complexes only.

We won't have a lot of time to find a place (about 3 days, maybe) before we have to return the truck. I realize this isn't an ideal situation, but we can't afford to do anything else at this point. The days are counting down to moving day and I'm starting to freak out a bit! Other than my husband's day trip in January (literally, he was there for less than 24 hours), neither of us have ever been east of Wyoming (not even on vacation).

Also, although we are from Idaho originally, we've lived in Utah for the past 6 years for school/work. I've been told we'll probably get a lot of questions about Mormons and if we're Mormon (we're not, but our family and friends are), or people might think we're backwards hicks (or polygamists!) being from Utah Would people think differently of us if they knew we moved from Utah? I'm totally unfamiliar with the culture in Lexington and the greater Kentucky/south/midwest area, but I assume people are pretty friendly, right? I'm pretty shy and have a hard time making friends, so I don't want to make it even harder for us to get acquainted with people in our new city.

Thanks for any advice or information you may have! We really appreciate it.

[lexingtongal]

Wow. What a situation. Have you looked at the Lexington Herald Leader online? There is a rental column and usually Sunday has the most listings. There are several areas that I would concentrate on. If you want to be close to UK and have reasonable rent and not too many other students there is a neighborhood close to Lafayette High School that has quite a few duplexes. This is not right off of Nicholasville Rd which is where you would find more of a student housing area. Reed Lane is one of the streets in the area I'm referring to. I lived in a duplex in that area years ago and it was fairly quiet (but there is a train track nearby). UK is walkable from this area.
There are some duplex and four plexes in Ashland Park but I think the rent would be at least the high end of what you're after if not more. I would avoid the areas off of Euclid as this is more of a party central student housing area.
Concentrate on central and southern Lex and you should be okay. Areas off of Nicholasville Rd (once you get past Central Baptist you get away from student housing), Harrodsburg Rd, or Richmond Rd are all good.
We Lexingtonians are used to people from all walks of life since we have UK here. So don't worry about feeling out of place; there will be plenty of people in similar situations.
I'll keep my eye out for "for rent" signs and PM you if I see any that look nice.

[nlschr0]

One place that I would consider checking is Ball Homes's rental website:
BallHomes.com-Rental homes

In addition to building new homes, they also manage quite a few rentals and duplexes. Specifically, they have a specific floorplan that is pretty nice and should be in your price range - they are in the Belleau Wood and Hartland areas in Lexington, and also in Georgetown (which would be a much longer drive to UK and not as accessible to amenities as those in Lexington, so probably not going to fit your needs). None of them are super close to UK, but I would think that some of them would have decent access to the bus routes. To give you a rough idea, I just saw some listings for Georgetown and they were under $500 for a 2 bdrm/2bath with one-car garage, w/d hookups, and patio and lawn area. The listings for Lexington will probably be slightly more expensive but not too much.

I had some experience with these a few years ago, and they were really a nice option. Most had young couples, grad students, small families, retired couples, or older single professionals. As far as I know, most of the rental areas are safe and quiet, and mostly in the southeast of Lexington. There is an issue of some locations getting electric service by Bluegrass Energy instead of Kentucky Utilities - you definitely want KU because Bluegrass can be 2-3x more a month.

Oddly - the last couple that I knew that lived in one was a young couple from Utah who were studying at UK. They were Mormon and had several young children. For the most part, Lexington is a pretty open and accepting place. If you're living in the suburbs, it might be a little more difficult to meet people than in downtown or campus areas. However, people are generally pretty friendly and there are a lot of options for activities and clubs to participate with. If either of you will be in school or working in the area, that is an easy way to start meeting people. Otherwise, just going out on the town and getting involved in some of the arts programs, community events, neighborhood restaurants, churches, sports/fitness clubs, volunteering, etc will probably help you to start meeting different people.

[mlpslc]

Thank you both so much! That's just the kind of information I was looking for. The more I learn about Lexington, the more I'm looking forward to living there. It's a big move for us but UK is my husband's first choice for grad school as his particular program has a great reputation...and we figure we need to see more of the country while we're young.

[BuckeyeBroad]

About ten years ago, I was in a similar situation. Drove from Redding, California with a moving truck, towing my car. Yikes, what a trip it was. I had already arranged to live at Cloisters on the Green so had an apartment to go to. I was happy there. However, they do not have washers and dryers in the apartment. Have you checked apartmentratings.com?

[mlpslc]

Yes, I've been looking at apartmentratings.com for the past day or so...at least I have an idea of what to stay away from now! Seems like the nicer/better rated complexes are always more $, but that's how it goes I guess...I guess we'll never really know for sure until we get there. I'm just too nervous about the whole situation to commit to a place without seeing it though.

This may seem like a silly question...but what kind of bugs live in Kentucky? I've heard some things about cockroaches (ie they are unavoidable)...heh, cockroaches are not native to Utah or Idaho so I've never seen one. Oh, and someone told me they can come with wings too. Special We have hobo spiders here though I've never been unlucky enough to see one of those up close, nor brown recluses, but I've heard they have those back east/in the south too.

[Crystaldreams]

Me and my husband moved from SLC to KY in april and we have never been asked yet about mormonism shocking as that is because everywhere else we do gets irritating especially being we are not mormon. I must say I just absolutely love it here in KY, be cold day in Hell I ever move back to Utard (utah) :P will go back to visit as for thats where all my family is. Being I was born and raised in utah the people are rude as for here in KY everybody is so very nice and so helpful when need help in any kind of way and the people are very accepting I have at least not ran into anybody that has been rude.

[nlschr0]

Can you do a one-bedroom? Shadeland Crescent is in your price range for a one bedroom according to this site:
Lexington,KY apartment community details and pictures Shadeland Crescent Apartments

It is close to Uk without being in a party/student central location. It is in a pretty quiet neighborhood, just off of Alumni south of campus. I haven't been there in a few years but when I was last there they were pretty nice. I don't think they have W/D connections, though.

[nlschr0]

Another thought - check out the classifieds at the Kentucky Kernel - UK's student newspaper:
KY Kernel -- go to "Classifieds" then "for rent"
They often have a lot of rental ads that are not featured anywhere else, and many are affordable. The downside is that they are geared to students and staff and many of them will be in student neighborhoods. However, there are often several in nearby, quieter neighborhoods as well.

If you find any good ads and can get an address for the rental, I'm sure someone on this board can give you an quick idea of the neighborhood - whether its mostly students or famililes, whether it's safe, etc.