Gravois Park (Rea: hardwood floors, for sale, real estate)

[tanachke]

Hello,

My fiance and I are looking at homes in the Gravois Park neighborhood. I've done a search for this through the threads and have found a few negative comments, but I would like more information. Is this area completely out of the question? I teach during the day, and my fiance works in the evening, so we will both be home alone a lot.

Thanks-

[BoomBoxing]

Gravois Park certainly has a bad reputation on the south side. If you look at a homicide map of 2008 you will see that most south side homicides happened in that particular neighborhood. That's not to say it is a bad place...Cherokee street is booming and a pretty cool place to check out. Overall I would say you will probably be fine, but there are far better south side neighborhoods to look at, especially if safety is a big concern for you.

[aragx6]

Given the relatively low prices on nice homes in much safer parts of South City, I have yet to see (and I have looked into it some) how the quality of life issues are significantly offset from the savings/upswing potential of a home in GP.

There are simply better places for the money. How much were you looking to spend and what would you like in a home?

[aaronstlcards]

Well, I can tell you a few things that the other posters didn't. The racial demographics from that area are:
White %: 36
Black %: 55
Hispanic %: 5
Asian %: 6
From living on the southside my entire life I can tell you a few things. You will find that most of the houses in Gravois Park are inexpensive, small, 1 or 2 story homes. Honestly, the area is mostly lower-middle class as far as income goes. Most of the area west of highway 55, south of Arsenal Street, east of Gravois Avenue, and north of Marquette Park is where most of the crime on the southside is located. Also, as I do adore the Shaw neighborhood, the area isn't exactly the safest (A few years ago at my school, we had to go inside during recess when two gunshots were fired about two blocks west of my school). On the southside, generally the farther south-southwest you go, the safer the area. And generally the eastside of the southside is less safe. TGS summed up a nearby area very well on the thread "Grand and Gravois...".

[TGS]

Thanks for the props, aaronstlcards.

Tanachke, is there any particular reason you are looking in Gravios Park? It is a very high crime area with drug dealing and gang warfare. People do get shot and killed in that neighborhood on a frequent basis, though most of the victims were involved in crime.

Gravois Park does have benefits: some good brick houses at dirt cheap prices. It is likely that the area will eventually gentrify. Some people like the challange of living such areas. It is also relatively close to some nice areas. That said, I can't think of a reason I would live there when the nice areas nearby are also pretty affordable.

[tanachke]

We are looking at spending about $75,000. This will make our mortgage extremely cheap and allow us to pay off all our student loans in a timely manner.

[tanachke]

We are finding a lot of cheap homes in GP, more so than in other areas, that we like. A couple friends of ours live there and haven't had any problems (2 friends, 2 separate homes). But after reading all of this, I'm not so sure I want to live there. We are looking for homes that are brick, hardwood floors, have 2-3 bedrooms, and if we can find it 2 bathrooms. We do not have a lot of money for a total gut rehab.

[tanachke]

Thank you all for reading my thread and helping with this decision. I don't want to end up a statistic, or robbed just because I'm in the market for a cheaper deal.

[BoomBoxing]

No problem. My cousin recently bought a house in my neighborhood, Northampton for 73,000. It obviously needed some serious updating, but it was all cosmetic and they have a fantastic backyard and basement. Not to mention that Northampton is one of the safest neighborhoods in the city.

There are plenty of great deals out there, and if safety is one of your top concerns I would suggest sticking to the 63109 and 63139 zip codes. There are some safe neighborhoods in 63116 and 63110 too but it isn't as uniform as in the other two. To get a good idea of how safe a neighborhood is, check out the crime stats from the SLMPD at SLMPD: Crime Statistics. Good luck!

[aaronstlcards]

I found 6 homes that seem to match your criteria and might help.
63104 Real Estate Listings and 63104 Homes for Sale - REALTOR.com®