central/lower/upper lawrenceville (Butler, Liberty: for sale, apartments, crime)

[longnamedone]

lawrenceville is huge
what parts of that place are more developed.
i hear bad things and good things about the whole neighborhood

while some have told me upper isn't as gentrified as other parts.
the children's hospital is in the near lower part.

is there some crime around 52nd? i am looking on the crime map on tralia

the central seems just out of place and i am no fan of graveyards.

any advice on the area would be good.
from what i see most of the houses are fixer uppers or houses that have been fixed and are being sold at high prices.
my budget is low..
so any suggestion would be nice. i work in the strip district and i take the bus there..

[ProFiction]

Central is anything but out of place. It's basically the most 'far-along' part of the neighborhood. Unless by out of place you mean that upper and lower are way different, which I still don't think is true.

[theta_sigma]

Upper is really the place that has a fairly long way to go yet. And the most upper parts of upper mainly.

Remember ,"Upper" vs. "Lower" Lawrenceville doesn't refer to the hill that goes up to Bloomfield. It refers to the Allegheny river. "Upper" Lawrenceville is the bit that is the most up-river from Downtown. Around the cementary and continuing up-river until the 62nd Street Bridge is I think what is considered Upper Lawrenceville. Lower Lawrenceville is the bit that is down-river of... the 40th Street Bridge maybe? I'm a little fuzzy on the exact boundaries, but that's what those terms refer to, not the hill that Children's Hospital sits on top of.

[selltheburgh]

Walk the neighborhood to get a true feel.

A lower number than 40th st is "lower"
40th to 51st aka Stanton Ave is central
51st and towards the zoo is upper.

Central has been the most stable for the past decades. It also has the hospital. The hillside was more stable than the flats for a long time. Now they are pretty comparable. The cemetery spreads from Butler to Penn in Garfield. It is huge and a lot of residents use it as a park - for running, biking, etc.

Lower was pretty run down until about 7 years ago. Over the past 3 it has become the more desirable end to some degree. It has definitely seen a lot of development. Possibly the most improvements.

New housing was built at the upper end of central Lawrenceville closer to upper Lawrenceville. Lots of for sale housing 300-420k. New apartments. That caused a spread over to upper.

Upper was terrible a decade ago. Now people new businesses are opening on butler and houses are being renovated on pretty much every block. It is probably the least gentrified, but is still improving.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

Walk the neighborhood to get a true feel.

A lower number than 40th st is "lower"
40th to 51st aka Stanton Ave is central
51st and towards the zoo is upper.

Central has been the most stable for the past decades. It also has the hospital. The hillside was more stable than the flats for a long time. Now they are pretty comparable. The cemetery spreads from Butler to Penn in Garfield. It is huge and a lot of residents use it as a park - for running, biking, etc.

Lower was pretty run down until about 7 years ago. Over the past 3 it has become the more desirable end to some degree. It has definitely seen a lot of development. Possibly the most improvements.

New housing was built at the upper end of central Lawrenceville closer to upper Lawrenceville. Lots of for sale housing 300-420k. New apartments. That caused a spread over to upper.

Upper was terrible a decade ago. Now people new businesses are opening on butler and houses are being renovated on pretty much every block. It is probably the least gentrified, but is still improving.

This is a good summary. The one thing I would add is there's a big difference between Lower between Penn and the Allegheny and Lower between Penn and Liberty. The area between Penn and Liberty (which is often confused for Bloomfield) has only seen like two new construction infill developments recently, and is probably the least gentrified area overall.

O.P. what is your budget exactly? Under $200,000 is doable - you can get a small house which is fixed up. Under $100,000, forget it. You'd get nothing but gut jobs or near gut jobs (e.g., houses which are habitable, but haven't been updated since the mid-20th century - when they were updated poorly).

[shadowfax]

I have a friend who owns a business on Butler st. When I was starting to look for potential neighborhoods to live in, he recommend lower Lawrenceville as a decent area but said to avoid the upper areas. I generally consider him to be a very good source of advice so I would trust him on that.

[FoodPoet]

Yes Upper Lawrenceville is very very dangerous. Do not move there. Please.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by shadowfax

I have a friend who owns a business on Butler st. When I was starting to look for potential neighborhoods to live in, he recommend lower Lawrenceville as a decent area but said to avoid the upper areas. I generally consider him to be a very good source of advice so I would trust him on that.

How many years ago was this? Upper Lawrenceville was very sketch when I moved to Central in 2007. Dresden Way was still known as Heroin Alley. But it cleaned up dramatically around 3-4 years ago, and last year it really took off in terms of housing prices. Went right from seeing nothing but sub-$100K gut jobs to $300K-$400K flips overnight.

The housing stock is still mostly garbage compared to Central/Lower. Too much frame and too much remuddling. But if that's the price point that gets you into the neighborhood, thems the breaks.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by FoodPoet

Yes Upper Lawrenceville is very very dangerous. Do not move there. Please.

Not really, no. I live here and over the past few years Upper L'ville has improved quite a bit.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

Not really, no. I live here and over the past few years Upper L'ville has improved quite a bit.

Looking over the poster's history, he seems to live in Lawrenceville, and is possibly an old timer. My guess is either.

1. His views are colored by having seen the bad side of the area growing up, or...

2. He doesn't want the area to gentrify any further, and is willing to provide false information to dissuade people.