If you had $150,000 to spend on a house, where would you live in MS? (Jackson: real estate, home owners insurance)

[bls5555]

The criteria?

An older house in need of work or at the most just updating.

Nice family neighborhood.

Would prefer to be close to a decent size city (Oxford sized would be acceptable, just for an idea of what I would consider decent sized)

So 150,000, an older house with lots of potential that just needs work to bring it out in a nice area of town.

Any thoughts on where YOU would move in MS if you had 150,000?

Thanks for the help.

Let me state that I am not looking for anything grand, and have no clue if 150,000 could buy that type of thing in MS. I am looking for a nice older house between 1000 to 2000 sq ft or so.

Edit: Let me also state I would be moving out of state and not know a single soul. Not sure if this makes any sort of difference but I feel is worth adding. THanks.

[NWS]

Bls5555 the best advise I could give you is find the house that calls out to you.
Since you don't have family here and don't HAVE to live in a certain area you can get a lot of house for 150k in almost anywhere in MS.
I moved here from NY. I went online with one of the free real estate websites.
I set my criteria. Price, acreage ect. I came up with a number of houses. Then I searched city data info pages on those cities.
Some were way out in the sticks too far from the cities I wanted to be near. I settled on central MS.
I came down here with a list of 10 houses I could imagine myself in. When I got here 8 of the houses didn't make the cut.
Out the the two remaining houses one really spoke to me. It needed a lot of work but the bones were there. I love it here.
I can pm a great search site to you if you want. I don't think it can be posted here. It allows you to select all the criteria you want and need.
If you search this forum you will come up with the cities around here that people think are great.
Madison often is mentioned in the central MS area but there are others. I'm not an expert on all the great cities here.

[auntbee]

One thing I would advise is to check out medical facilities before you select a place to live. I lived in Kosciusko until recently. It's a nice small town but a decent hospital is an hour away. Since my dh and I are both "senior citizens", I was always afraid of having an emergency and not making it to the hospital in time. Any place around Jackson would be good because you could find anything you need in that area. Madison doesn't have much in the way of older homes. Most of it is new. Brandon or Raymond might be good places to look.

[bls5555]

Nobody has opinions on this matter?

[Muhnay]

I would live in the Biloxi region.. the gulf coast.

[bls5555]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

I would live in the Biloxi region.. the gulf coast.

How much would this increase Home Owners Insurance as compared to the Jackson area or Oxford area?

[jacksonian]

If you're looking for a selection of older homes to fix up, then I would suggest looking at either Fondren or Belhaven in Jackson. These are some of the older areas of Jackson, actually some of the first suburbans of Jackson. I'm not sure on the exact dates, but I believe they were developed in the 1920's and later. There are lots of nice fixer-uppers, but you can almost get a completely renovated 1500 s.f. house in these areas for $150k.

I must warn you that the soils in MS are not the best around. There is a lot of expansive clay, which makes for lots of movement. So, if you're looking for a house with some age to it, you should expect to see crooked windows, doors, and floors in a large portion of them.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by bls5555

How much would this increase Home Owners Insurance as compared to the Jackson area or Oxford area?

Look about 40-50 miles inland in Stone County or George County. You'll still be close enough to enjoy the coast, but far enough away to avoid the high insurance and storm surge. You should be able to get a decent house with an acre or two for $150k.

The northeast section of MS is nice as well. I'd say to avoid the western edge of the state along the Mississippi River.

[bls5555]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Look about 40-50 miles inland in Stone County or George County. You'll still be close enough to enjoy the coast, but far enough away to avoid the high insurance and storm surge. You should be able to get a decent house with an acre or two for $150k.

The northeast section of MS is nice as well. I'd say to avoid the western edge of the state along the Mississippi River.

Can you give me some nice towns in those two counties?

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by bls5555

Can you give me some nice towns in those two counties?

Either Wiggins or Lucedale. Lucedale is about an hour from Mobile,AL which makes it more convenient for shopping.