Are all the steets in the 50's bad? 50th to 59th street? Near University City

[Mimidae]

Don't discount 50th and 51st streets. There are a ton of nice families and professionals who have moved in to those corridors in the last few years, north of Florence and south of Spruce. And the older residents are generally very friendly, in my experience. Look at the businesses that are between 49th-51st: Vix Emporium, Dock Street Brewery, Little Baby's Ice Cream, Taco Angeleno, Satellite Coffee. It's only going to get more gentrified (whether you regard that as a dirty word or not) in the next few years, but home prices on 50th and 51st are already rising rapidly, in line with the rest of University City. I would not hesitate to live there. Just thinking of the people I know personally who own homes on 50th and 51st: 2 lawyers, 2 classical music teachers, a "fed", a food truck owner, a Penn professor, 3 nationally-known musicians, a private school teacher, a non-profit administrator

And 46th & Baltimore is lovely, at least starting on the north side. Yeah there are a couple of gas stations right there, but there are a TON of great restaurants right around there on Baltimore, and I think 46th street between Baltimore and Locust is one of the most beautiful stretches of road in Philadelphia.

Safety-wise, of course there are concerns, but not really more so than in other up-and-coming neighborhoods. A friend who lives on 50th said she knows way more people who have been mugged on the "nicer" 45th street. 52nd street, of course, is a commercial corridor that has some nice businesses amongst the blight.

[mancat100]

I've been showing a lot of properties in the 50's lately - the areas just west of University City. For the most part, it's pretty decent. A little rough around the edges, but lots of good people and many of them take good care of their homes. I think the 50's have a good future whether it fully gentrifies or not.

[FindingZen]

If one identifies as a working-class/lower-middle-class African-American, then parts of that area may be considered decent. If you differ from that description but are open-minded about your neighbors and optimistic about housing values (especially in the lower 50's) then your transition may be okay.