Apartments in Madison... (Algoma, Washington, Dane: cheap apartments, rentals, house)

[movingtomadtown]

Hi
I need to find an apartment in Madison near the east side.
I am a single female so I don't want to live in the shady parts of Madison.
Is the area near Algoma Street, near Ellas Deli, safe?
There is cheap apt offered there but I don't know if it is a safe neighborhood.
I was also considering the Londenderry Apts. Is it safe there also?
I am looking for an efficiency/studio or 1 bedroom apt for under $750 a month. I need it to be a safe area and also a clean/quiet place. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for any advice.

[MidwesternBookWorm]

The area near Ella's is a mixture of decent places and not-so-great ones. I wouldn't rule it out, but definitely take some time to walk around the neighborhood a bit before you sign anything.

I'm not familiar with Londonderry Apartments; do you have an address? I know a lot of the near-east side neighborhoods in Madison and might be able to comment if I knew where they are.

While cheap apartments in Madison are just about as common as hen's teeth, your price range for a studio or one-bedroom should get you something decent. If you're comfortable breaking the $700/month barrier, you'll be able to find a place. You might try this website: Start Renting - Search for your Madison, Wisconsin Apartment which has a pretty good variety. You can also find rental information in the local paper, which is at madison.com

Do check out the Tenant Resource Center before you sign a lease. They can give you valuable insights about all the city ordinances that protect your rights against predatory landlords. You'll find them here: Tenant Resource Center

And once you find an apartment you like, visit this website to see what to expect on those January utility bills: Average Energy Use and Cost for Residential Addresses

Good luck!

[movingtomadtown]

Originally Posted by MidwesternBookWorm

The area near Ella's is a mixture of decent places and not-so-great ones. I wouldn't rule it out, but definitely take some time to walk around the neighborhood a bit before you sign anything.

I'm not familiar with Londonderry Apartments; do you have an address? I know a lot of the near-east side neighborhoods in Madison and might be able to comment if I knew where they are.

While cheap apartments in Madison are just about as common as hen's teeth, your price range for a studio or one-bedroom should get you something decent. If you're comfortable breaking the $700/month barrier, you'll be able to find a place. You might try this website: Start Renting - Search for your Madison, Wisconsin Apartment which has a pretty good variety. You can also find rental information in the local paper, which is at madison.com

Do check out the Tenant Resource Center before you sign a lease. They can give you valuable insights about all the city ordinances that protect your rights against predatory landlords. You'll find them here: Tenant Resource Center

And once you find an apartment you like, visit this website to see what to expect on those January utility bills: Average Energy Use and Cost for Residential Addresses

Good luck!

Thanks for the extra info~!
I know that you said some areas are decent, but is the area behind Ella's Deli (less than a 10 min walk north of the deli and close to E. Washington) safe? I drive by it but haven't really taken a close looks. I can't really tell if its really safe or not.
And the address for Lodonderry Apts is 2034 Londonderry Drive Madison WI 53704. Its near the Dane County Airport.

Thanks~

[MidwesternBookWorm]

The neighborhood behind Ella's is a mixture of solid blue-collar homes, some rentals, and a few very run-down places. I really can't tell you unequivocally that "it's safe", or "it's not safe"; you need to park the car and walk around some afternoon to assess the feel of the neighborhood yourself. I live fairly close by, and while my immediate neighborhood is a good cohesive safe one with mostly owner-occupied small homes, there are areas within blocks of my house that are mostly low-income rentals. I happen to like living in that kind of mixed and eclectic region, and I have never felt unsafe here, but everyone has a different tolerance level for living near people who are not like them. What I find interesting and enjoyable might be intolerable to someone else.

The apartment on Londonderry Drive is likely to be the same kind of situation. We have good friends who live near there (on Vahlen Drive a bit south of Northport) and their home is a lovely little well-kept place in a nice blue-collar neighborhood. Just a few blocks away, you'll also find apartment complexes that cater to lower-income residents and that do occasionally have problems. I don't think that makes the neighborhood bad, per se, but you just need to be aware of and expect a wide range of socio-economic conditions in the area. Again, my best advice would be to go park your car in front of the building that you are considering and walk the neighborhood for half an hour or so. You'll get a much, much better sense of the character of the area that way.

The other thing that I would strongly recommend would be to contact the Tenant Resource Center about both places. They can very likely give you details about the property owners, known problems, and potential future issues that nobody else will tell you. You'll probably do better calling than trying to contact them on line; it's a largely volunteer-run organization, and while they provide a great and much-needed service, it can be difficult to get hold of them sometimes. They are also likely to be busier than usual, since we are approaching the big campus-area move-out/move-in date, when 30,000 or so college students move out of and into apartments in one 24-hour period. Avoid the downtown and campus area from about August 10 to 20, unless you really enjoy chaos, traffic jams, and huge piles of trash on the street corners.