Durham's Safe Areas? (Raleigh, Wilmington, Chapel Hill: countertops, condo, high crime)

[Lindengirl]

We are looking to buy a condo in the Durham area--the closer to Chapel Hill, the better. Can anyone tell me what areas to stay away from? I've heard that there are a lot of neighborhoods in Durham that are not that safe, but I'm not familiar with the area. Thanks for any input!

[coltank]

There are actually very few areas in Durham that are not safe. Most of the violent crime is very concentrated to the east of central downtown. And, part of Chapel Hill is actually in Durham County.

[MrsSteel]

The western side of Durham - that part closest to Chapel Hill - is quite safe. You should be fine.

[Lindengirl]

That was quick! Thanks for your feedback!

[clockwork]

I live in a condo in Downtown Durham and find it is quite safe, even at night.

[scorp200]

Originally Posted by clockwork

I live in a condo in Downtown Durham and find it is quite safe, even at night.

That's good to know - I'm looking very seriously at the border of Old North Durham/East Durham (on the East side). Many lovely old homes. OK so a lot of them are boarded up. Er, those that are not boarded up seem to have normal people living in them. Definitely an area in transition, but it would be nice to show up a little early to the party than after for once!

[ibeg4sushi]

Yeah, it's hard to find concrete information on things like that about Durham. There are alot of people who seem to think that it's all hoodlums and hooligans. Then there are others who say it just ain't so.

But take me for example. Tonight I found this bungalow type house, obviously been redone to some extent, even granite countertops, but it was only $84,000????? I have no idea if the area is a high crime area or not.
But it sure looks tasty from where I'm sitting. I'm a sucker for old homes!! *sigh*

[findingmesomeday]

I've been wondering if downtown Durham is safe. You know, if you're working late and it's dark and you have to walk out to your car alone?

[9/9]

Originally Posted by NChomesomeday

I've been wondering if downtown Durham is safe. You know, if you're working late and it's dark and you have to walk out to your car alone?

I don't know anything about the stats and such, but I have walked around downtown Durham at night alone more than a handful of times and never had any problems.

[tarp]

It seems pretty safe to me.

This whole "Durham is unsafe" thing is overblown. Most of Durham is actually very nice. There are beautiful houses in the southern and western parts of Durham, and the northern parts are really nice as well once you get a few miles away from downtown.

I drove around the supposedly bad parts of Durham many times at night, including east central Durham, and never saw anything alarming. I'm sure crime does occur in those parts of town, and the bars on the windows of the businesses in those areas is a good indication of that. However I have seen much worse in southeast Raleigh including streetwalkers, gangbangers and drug dealers, late at night. This is the area encompassing Bragg Street and the vicinity. I was actually quite alarmed because the scene I saw was, in some ways, worse than what you would see in the ghettos of Baltimore and D.C.

The thing with southeast Raleigh is that the riff-raff stays away from the major streets going through it. If you drive through on MLK Blvd, Hammond St, or S Wilmington St you will probably not see any hookers or drug dealers, or maybe just a few shady characters. But if you turn off into Bragg St, Hoke St, Bledsoe Ave, all of these streets can be quite a ridiculous scene at night even with the presence of law enforcement.

Maybe I just didn't venture into the back alleys of Durham, and I may have missed the "action", but southeast Raleigh at 1:30 AM actually scared me off while Durham did nothing of the sort.