Haverhill Neighborhood (Lowell, Lawrence, Lincoln: house, condos, rent)

[fosta22]

Hello,
My wife and I have been looking at purchasing a house and have been looking at propertiers between 12 ave and 16th ave in Haverhill. Any thoughts on the neighborhoods in this part of town. We're expecting our 1st baby early next year and want to be sure we're moving into a reasonably safe neighborhood.

Thanks for all your feedback!!!

[brightdoglover]

I don't know about specific neighborhoods in Haverhill, but the town does certainly have its rough areas. I know people who left Haverhill when they had kids, especially because of the schools.
The part nearer to Lawrence is generally considered an undesirable deal.

[fosta22]

Thanks for the feedback....where we are looking is on the Plaistow, NH side of the city

[Valerie C]

Hi there
I grew up in Haverhill, and there are some GREAT areas, and many many not-so-great areas. As with any city, you're going to find this. Haverhill seems to be doing a great job of transforming many of the former mill buildings into condos, and the area you're talking about is knows as "the avenues" or "the acre"... well I guess "the acre" is the lower aves (4th through 8th ave if I remember right).

Is the house you're considering in the area from Main to Cedar St, or Cedar to Primrose? The schools in that area are generally considered better than some other areas (I hate to rate schools in a public forum...) but in the end, everyone goes to Haverhill High School, or Whittier Tech (the trade school, located on the Haverhill/Merrimac line just off Rte. 110

Feel free to email or PM me about Haverhill neighborhoods, hopefully I can help you.

[carrington]

From what I know...all the "ave's" are pretty bad. I mean there could be better areas that you might want to look into.

[bradfordresident]

Haverhill is constantly caught between what I would deem 3 divisions of land, property value and school quality.

The parts near Plaistow, on the south side of the river (Bradford) and in the East Broadway area seem to be the best places to live. I have spent time downtown, and in the "aves" and have determnined that although not the greatest areas, they are not terrible. Depends of course on one's expectations. Having lived in NYC in Brooklyn, and having spent substantial time in the city itself, it just does not seem that "threatening" and or "ominous" to me. However, that said there are plenty of issues with gangs and petty crime in certain parts of Haverhill. Overall, I think Haverhill is safer than Lowell or Lawrence, but I could be wrong in this assumption, as I have not lived in either Lawrence or Lowell.

The schools in Bradford are the BEST in the Haverhill area, but this only covers K-6. I have heard varying rreports about the highschool ranging from "It's terrible" to "It is what you make it" and "It's not as bad as people think it is...". There are several private school options available, but as you can imagine they are $$$. Alternatively, you could exercise the "school choice" option, which allows your children to attend any area school that accepts school choice options. This is the best bet, and costs you little or nothing. Call the school board administration of the district in which you would like to enroll your children, and ask.

Best of luck.

[buddymass]

Lets start out with the good : Bradford is probably the best part of haverhill, with little crime. Here and there, you can get caught up in stuff but bascially it is pretty clean and if your with someone youll be fine. Another good place is near Plastow NH which is the border of Haverhill and NH and that is almost no crime like Bradford, but the only elementary school near there is Puentuket, which is a great school, but no diversity what so ever.

Bad- stay away from the Avenues and all the streets on the oppisite side of the avenues. 1-4 ave are the best. 5-8 ave are starting to get worst, then ithink it is 8-20 ave, youll have some problems getting down your roads, robberies, car thefts, and gangs. The streets oppistite the aves such as Howard ST and Lincoln ST are also known for high theft of bikes, cars and personal belongings.Behind Blockbuster is the worst part with a lot of diversity, so in return there are gangs, a lot of car theft, and about a 10 arsons a year, also a couple deaths a yearsay away from Washighnton ST and any other side roads branching off this is where a lot of drug trafficing occurs and arsons. Also 2 murders up on washington st this year!

Average parts- Down town is ok with a lot of new condos being buitl in place of old factories. The worst that happens in downtown is petty thefts like being mugged and if you go to the bars at night u might be able to see a fist fight or two, but nothing extremly bad. a lot of cops monitering downtown so downtown historic is very well off on crime.

My advise- Move to Plastow or Bradford, Have your kids go to school there and either go to a private school for high scholl, Puentuket which is very safe and no diversity. Haverhill high is not the safest school with tons of diveristy and has near 2500 students. Haverhill has so much to offer just stay away from the side streets and avenues and ull be having a great time!

[Valerie C]

Have to jump in here and ask why you think Bradford schools only cover K-6. What about Hunking?

School choice is a *possible* option, but never a sure thing. You may or may not be granted permission to enter the school of your choice, and you have to re-apply every year. I do believe, tho, that siblings will automatically go to the same school, once enrolled. Overall, luck of the draw... maybe (after all, it's not what you know, but who you know...)

Best of luck!

EDIT/ADDITION: No matter what area of Haverhill you may chose, all students at 9th grade will feed into either Haverhill High or Whittier Tech. Those are the public HS's that serve Haverhill--you might look into Essex Aggie in Topsfield, they may still accept some Haverhill students if grades, etc are good enough, with parents providing transportation.

Originally Posted by bradfordresident

The schools in Bradford are the BEST in the Haverhill area, but this only covers K-6.

Alternatively, you could exercise the "school choice" option, which allows your children to attend any area school that accepts school choice options. This is the best bet, and costs you little or nothing. Call the school board administration of the district in which you would like to enroll your children, and ask.

Best of luck.

You may have this a little backward... actually the highest avenues (20th on downward to about 9th/10th Ave) might be considered the safest, least petty crimes, etc. 4th through 7th Ave, many multi-family, absentee landlords, etc.

And, by the way, there IS no 1st, 2nd or 3rd Ave in Haverhill

Originally Posted by buddymass

Bad- stay away from the Avenues and all the streets on the oppisite side of the avenues. 1-4 ave are the best. 5-8 ave are starting to get worst, then ithink it is 8-20 ave, youll have some problems getting down your roads, robberies, car thefts, and gangs.

[buddymass]

i mixed things up im sorry i havent lived in Haverhill in 4 years! haha sorry about that. i lived on howard street and was on the police force for about a year and a half then i moved to lowell which is worst but i forgot about the aves and where they start. some of them are pretty bad, and the oppisite strrets to tehm like howard street is also pretty bad with some stuff going on. behind blockbuster is the worst tho, near napalies pizza

sorry for my mistake

[buddymass]

there are other options like in Groveland to go to Puentket which is a great school and also a few private schools in the area.....