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This sentence ^^ sums of the complexity of trying to measure the quality of neighbors purely by socioeconomic class. Some of the points regarding crime, cleanliness, social awareness (i.e. not playing loud obnoxious music at late hours) can improve in a more economically stable area, but the correlation isn't always a perfect one.
There are working class communities with the most honest, down to earth people and wealthy ones where you really have to watch your back. In the wealthier neighborhoods, in my experience, some of the neighbor problems come from neighbors who take the opposite extreme of being not being conscientious and try to drum up unfounded (and will use the legal system to do so) if certain neighbors see others as not living up to their standards. And then there are upper income neighborhoods that are great, where the kindness of Mayberry meets the elegance of Neiman Marcus.
Plus lower and upper income neighborhoods seem to always have that one person who thinks it's okay to rev up the leaf blower at 05:00 several days a week, or be a busy body, or display some other overbearing, obnoxious behavior. And drug issues aren't confined to poor neighborhoods either, even if they're more visible there.
The best indicator is to find out how many rentals are in the neighborhood. Even in starter home areas, if home ownership is strong, they are usually good neighborhoods. In my state I can go to the county assessors website and see how many homes in a specific subdivision are rentals.
Investors love those lower priced houses in working class areas, so it might be hard to find, but I promise this is the best method
IN GENERAL if I bought a home in a lower middle class neighborhood would I expect neighbors to be worse than a middle class or upper middle class area? I can buy a nicer home in these areas for the money but wonder if there would be more crime, noise, etc.
Again I am talking about a lower middle class neighborhood, not a ghetto.
Perhaps.
I would add that you're probably better off buying a lesser house in a better area than a better house in a lesser area, for a variety of reasons.
Addressing the OP's question; This depends on one central factor; whether the lower middle class neighborhood is a working class neighborhood or a government subidized neighborhood. Residents in the working class neighborhood are more respectful of each other's property that they earned.
I've lived in both, and there is a HUGE difference between the two. In the lower class neighborhoods you get more crime, noise, police activity, fights, and trashy people. I never carried a pistol daily until I moved into one of the areas that most people would call lower class. Even walking to and from you car at night was cause for concern.
In nice neighborhoods, like the one I live in now, there is none of that and I can walk around at midnight without the fear of someone mugging me. Anyone who says differently has never lived in one. Go live there for a year and then let's see how you feel about it.
Yes, but not just because of the people. But in nicer areas, homes tend to be more spacious, well-insulated, and are just generally built to provide more privacy. So neighbours are more shielded from each other.
Yep. My first house was a starter home in a lower-middle class neighborhood. We had it built in the housing boom in 2001. It was a nice neighborhood at first, but it didn't take long to realize that their is a direct connection between income and the overall quality of your neighbors.
I was pretty much the only one who parked his car in the garage, watered his lawn when needed, fertilized monthly, mowed weekly, mulched twice a year, etc. Almost everyone else just didn't care, and their yards looked like poop. We had a HOA, but no one really participated and it fell apart. Soon, redneck above ground hillbilly pools were popping up. No one took care of the common grounds at the front of the neighborhood. The grass there just went unmowed and full of weeds for months at a time. It looked horrible.
Then the recession hit and forclosures hit hard. Property values dropped big time. Homes were empty for years. Had a a squatter 2 doors down for a while. When these homes finally did resell, it was for about 30% less the what it cost to build them 8-10 years prior. So now people were moving in with an even LOWER income. Nothing but rif-raff. I waited until last year, and finally put up my house for sale. Since I always put a lot of money in my house and yard, it was in pristine condition and sold in 3 days. But at $10k less than what it cost me to build 13 years prior. But I was happy to get outta that dump.
Looking back, I was naive and didn't know anything about being a homeowner and how income and location determines the quality of neighborhood. We couldn't afford a middle or higher-middle class home at the time. So we got what we could afford. What we should have done is kept renting for another 5-6 years as our income rose and bought when the housing prices crashed.
So you may be a great person, who takes pride in his house and yard. But if it is a lower-middle class neighborhood, you will be surrounded by rif-raff most likely. Proceed with caution.
The neighborhood I live in is mostly inhabited by retirees that worked in the now by-gone heavy industry that used to exist here. Many of them are dying off or going into assisted living so you have newcomers moving in. The newcomers work out of state or in the city for the good paying jobs but are willing to commute for a lower cost of living. The homes in my area were built to support the factory workers in a by-gone time.
Yes definitely. When you buy your home you're not only buying property but buying your neighbors and quality of life. I've lived in a townhome community in a small, affluent city as well as a lower-income neighborhood in a big city. People value things that they've paid a lot of money for. Working class families may work hard, but they're more likely to have lower-class associates (friends, relatives, live-in partners) with bad behavior that may move in. Noise is a huge issue. Because lower income people have to work multiple jobs or odd hours, there's more coming and going late at night and early in the morning, including the weekends. I know this sounds weird and is probably something most people don't think about, but I have never heard horn honking like I did in the lower-income area. Didn't matter what time of day or night--carpools would pick people up and loudly lay on their horn until the person came out. Just maddening. They also either don't care or are too frazzled from work and child-rearing to keep their property looking nice.
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