Gulseth St? (Madison: real estate, to rent, mortgage)

[van_sii]

I'm moving to Madison this fall (from Iowa) and I was up looking at houses recently. My husband and I saw one on Gulseth St. that seemed pretty nice, but it has been on the market a while and we are wondering if there is something we don't know about the area. I know the east side is seen as somewhat less desirable than the west side (based on real estate prices, if nothing else), but this seemed like a decent little neighborhood.

Please let me know if you have any experience with or opinions about this part of town. We're just starting to learn about the many neighborhoods in Madison...

Thanks in advance!

[MidwesternBookWorm]

As an east-sider myself, I'm hardly objective, but I think the east side is a great place to live. I won't make judgemental comments about east-siders vs. west-siders, but there's a lot to love about the east side, and I would not eliminate it from your consideration just based on real estate prices.

Gulseth Street is not in a bad neighborhood by any means, although I'll warn you that it's really close to the airport. Madison's airport is not a very busy one (though the managers would like to change that) but there's a National Guard unit here that has a bunch of F16s that they like to play with on the weekends, and those babies get pretty noisy when they fire 'em up. We live a couple miles away from the airport, and if the Nat Guard is out there playing with their toys on the weekend, conversation just kind of stops until they go past.

I would strongly suggest that if you can manage it, plan to rent for the first 6 to 12 months you live here. Taking on a 30-year mortgage is a huge commitment, and it's scary enough to do when you've lived in a community long enough to get to know it. I would not ever buy a house anywhere (including Madison) unless I had first lived there long enough to learn a bit about the community.

Good luck to you!

[Megan1967]

Gulseth street is fine, although I would have an inspector go over it with a fine tooth comb. The daughter of a friend bought on that street and was horrified at the heating bills the first year (esp considering the house was always cold). Turns out they hadn't put *any* insulation in the attic. Apparently a lot of inspectors don't look at the attic, at least on new construction. They are supposed to, but they don't always.

Just an additional note, Gulseth is considered to be on the Northside technically. I live about 10-15 minutes from there and I'm definitely on the East side, so I think it is splitting hairs, but just thought I'd share that.

[van_sii]

Thanks for the responses! Your replies are pretty consistent with what our real estate agent told us, but I just wanted to be sure there wasn't anything she didn't know about.

We'll be back in Madison this coming week to see more houses in the east/north parts of town, and I'm guessing that will give us a better idea of how this house compares to others in the area.

This forum has been very helpful in our search thus far, and I'm sure I'll be back if we have any more questions. Thanks again!