CURRENT Cordova/Shelby County (Memphis, Walnut Hill: daycare, big home, neighborhoods)

[Pearlbob]

"East memphis" has a variety of zip codes, but downtown is all 38103 (at least the areas where you would want to live) and midtown is 38104 and 38112.

[jfree79]

If you have to move to Memphis. Don't buy in shelby county unless its very short term even in good areas. I'm leaving the area asap. The area where i live was the place 2 be 15-20 years ago ( i know thats a long time but most house loans are for 30 years). And now there are house in my area that are section 8. Unless you have $$ and can live in Eads, Germantown, or Collierville stay away from Memphis. Every good area will be bad shortly.

[mimismary]

I caught this thread while looking for something else on the net. I live in Cordova in one of the safest, most beautiful neighborhoods in the county. It's called The Gardens of Riveredge. The kids in our neighborhood go to Houston High in Germantown. We are in the 38018 zip. The homes in our community are on large tree lined streets where the kids play outside and the neighbors are friendly. We're closer to Germantown than to the mall area but there is plenty of shopping in the up-scale area of Saddle Creek. However only 15 minutes from the mall. You can get a teriffic deal on a home in our area because of foreclosures. We're trying to sell our 4-bedroom home that listed last year for nearly 500,000 and can't get a looker at $350.000 because folks only want to see foreclosures. Guess it's a good thing we love the house and the community!

[2nomadic4me]

Don't move to Cordova.

I have friends who live around Wolfchase and their neighborhood has gotten bad.

My other friends just moved out of the "Creek" series of homes in Hickory Hill (near Germantown Road and whatever the name of the road is that Raines turns into), I would rather live in Hickory Hill.

I personally don't like mid-town but I would feel safer in mid-town.

[JoeCartpath]

You shouldn't judge Cordova by that one neighborhood any more than you should judge Midtown or East Memphis by one neighborhood. Cordova covers a LOT of area....and there are lots of places that are very nice and very safe.

[heather21365]

Since my last post almost a year ago, I have moved apartments -- I'm now at Walnut Hill Apartments, at Forest Hill Irene and Walnut Grove -- still in Cordova.

This area of Cordova is VERY different than where I was, near G'town Parkway and Dexter. It's much quieter and the area itself seems nicer.

Cordova is so weird -- parts of it are still super-nice -- big homes, friendly neighborhoods, etc. But then other parts of it are starting to resemble Hickory Hill. I don't think that all of Cordova is ever going to turn completely unsafe. The one thing Cordova has that Hickory Hill never did is huge mansion-like houses and more upscale neighborhoods. I don't think a 7000 square foot custom designed mansion is ever going to sell for something absurd like $70,000 then get turned into a section 8 rental.

Still, I would not buy in Cordova (unless you can afford one of the aforementioned big homes) -- the area is too unstable and it's hard to know which areas will still be nice in the future and which ones will fall victim to the "Hickory Hill influenza."

[worried4kids]

Well, it's been almost a year. We moved to the area in September of last year. We chose Fayette County because it was still low and close to my husband's job in Arlington. It ended up that I got a job in Memphis, I don't know what area you consider it, so my drive is 26 miles! But, I'm REALLY glad we didn't choose Cordova. With property taxes alone to consider, that was enough. But in the areas we could afford I think we would have had problems. My son already has very high anxiety so the crime reports would have freaked him out. I'm glad we chose Oakland, but the drive to work each day and to my son's private school is getting old.

[UofMGrad92]

If I stacked a 26 mile commute on top of the other problems with living in Memphis, I think I'd just hang it up and go live in a cave. While the problems of Memphis are well known, Memphis has some really good points. One of them is the ability to live in nice areas with good public schools and relatively short commutes. 26 miles? Is that one way or round trip?

[worried4kids]

Originally Posted by UofMGrad92

If I stacked a 26 mile commute on top of the other problems with living in Memphis, I think I'd just hang it up and go live in a cave. While the problems of Memphis are well known, Memphis has some really good points. One of them is the ability to live in nice areas with good public schools and relatively short commutes. 26 miles? Is that one way or round trip?

It's one way. But either way, I would have had to do it, because our kids have to go to school in private schools that are about 26 miles from Oakland (in Fayette county) We love the area we live in, the schools are more of the issue. Both of our kids have special needs. I'm glad we bought where we did in a way because our house payment and taxes are nice and low. Of course I'm driving a lot but oh well, it's gotta be done.

[UofMGrad92]

The school issue is definitely holding Fayette County back. If good, affordable private schools or good public schools existed in the area, I'd bet Fayette County's population would double in the next five years.

Sorry about the commute, but at least you love where you live. Imagine the commute if you hated going home at night!