Lexington, ky (Louisville, Frankfort, Ashland: houses, safe neighborhood, to buy)

[Topo]

Hi, I have driven by Lexington many times and have never really ventured into the city proper so I really don't know anything about it. Does it have a small city college feel to it with coffeeshops, bookstores, quaint shopping? a fairly cool downtown? Is it safe to go to these places? I may drive up there and see what is there. Also I would be most interested in walking/bicycling there so what is there for parks, greenways, streets have sidewalks? Is it something like Louisville? Old and historic? I guess I will have to venture up that way. Where would I go? I would be interested in finding a small fixer upper for under $100,000 or so.....one bedroom maybe and be in a safe neighborhood. Zipcodes would really help me so I can get a feel for the houses I see on realtor.com! Just a safe quiet neighborhood I could walk in, maybe walk to some cafes, or even the library........

[timelesschild]

Lexington is very safe. Look in the area of Woodland Park for the cafes/bookstores/quaint shopping/historic/picturesque. That is around the corner of Woodland and High.

LBAR.com - Listing 644302 - LBAR

here is a good sort of a fixer upper in a safe, historic neighborhood. I just checked lbar.com and entered 40502 with your price parameters. There are other good zip codes.

[LEXpert]

Yeah, use lbarmls.com instead of realtor.com The same listings, just more info. Every memeber of LBAR also pays to be a member of the NAR, which runs realtor.com. Downtown zips are 40507,40508. Near downtown to the east is 40502. Getting a little away from downtown, but still having some cool older places is 40503 and 40505. My bet would be north of downtown between 2nd and 7th street. That area is really changing and prices are LOOOOOW! That is how it works you know. The average old house lover can't afford the already cool places so they find the cools houses in a cheap area and turn it into the next expensive, hip neighborhood.

[Pilot1]

Check out South Limestone Street from Main St to 3rd St. Lots of restaurants, shops, etc.

[teebird1012]

Check out Ashland Park and Chevy Chase if you want to see some older homes. lbar will have all of this info on there, but most anywhere in 40502 will have older homes.

[LEXpert]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

Check out South Limestone Street from Main St to 3rd St. Lots of restaurants, shops, etc.

I think Pilot means North Limestone since 3rd Street is on the northern part of downtown. Just wanted to clarify that since the person looking isn't from here This is a good bet for the under $100,000 fixer upper. 40502 doesn't have as much in that price range, other than the back of Kenwick.

[censusdata]

To me Lexington is more of a small city (like Chattanooga, Toledo, Akron) that happens to have the state's largest university rather that being a large college town. Not that UK isn't a major part of the city, but to me Lex is nothing like true college towns such as Charlottesville or Gainesville. Outside of UK Lexington has the state's 2nd largest mall and largest shopping center, 2 major hospitals, and tons of office parks. The state capitol & all its high paying jobs are only 20 miles away.

Louisville has a totally different feel to it. To me it feels like a mini Baltimore with lots of great historic neighborhoods and parks, a great waterfront, and lots of slums, and a moderatly good economy if you have a college degree - it is a very tough market to get a job in service or manufactoring. The city limits has lost ONE THIRD of its population since 1970 (county and metro have grown) so the infrastructure is way overbuilt in the older areas, meaning traffic flow is great. In Lex it takes 15 minutes to go through 2 lights near UK, in Lou you can get from U of L's campus to Bardstown Road (a 4 mile trip) in 15 minutes

[gimme it]

We've been to many, many college towns, and Lexington, while being nice overall, did not feel like a true college town. What I found missing was the centralized downtown with numerous cafes and shops. Rather, there were pockets of this scattered through the city. I loved the public library, and I agree that there are some nice neighborhoods that were mentioned above. If you want a true college town, you need to look at towns like, Athens, GA or Bloomington, IN or Amherst, MA for examples.

[censusdata]

Originally Posted by gimme it

We've been to many, many college towns, and Lexington, while being nice overall, did not feel like a true college town. What I found missing was the centralized downtown with numerous cafes and shops. Rather, there were pockets of this scattered through the city. I loved the public library, and I agree that there are some nice neighborhoods that were mentioned above. If you want a true college town, you need to look at towns like, Athens, GA or Bloomington, IN or Amherst, MA for examples.

Lexington is like Lincoln, NE; Madison WI, Raleigh NC, & Columbia SC - it is a college town, state capitol (Frankfort only 20 miles away) and a regional shopping, job, and medical hub all rolled into one.

[Pilot1]

Originally Posted by LEXpert

I think Pilot means North Limestone since 3rd Street is on the northern part of downtown. Just wanted to clarify that since the person looking isn't from here This is a good bet for the under $100,000 fixer upper. 40502 doesn't have as much in that price range, other than the back of Kenwick.

Sorry, you're correct. I'm talking about the stretch north turning right off of Main St. as you're proceeding into Lex. And I was really talking about places where there are restaurants and shops, not to buy a house, as I don't know much about the R.E. market downtown.