Questions about Charles North & Mt. Vernon areas (upper-class, for sale)

[emmiesix]

Hi all,

I am new here, and on my daily commute down 83 through downtown & on to 95 South, I get to drive through what I guess is called the Mt. Vernon Cultural area (starting from the St. Paul exit down to Lombard Street).

The houses you pass on St. Paul are really beautiful. Some parts in this area remind me of a small New York.

So, my boyfriend and I have gotten interested in this neighborhood as a place to live. Some questions that have arisen:


1) I realize it is probably yet another small enclave caught in between "bad" parts of the city, but how is safety here? Is it improving? Can you walk around at night?

2) How connected is it to the Charles North/Arts district over by the Charles Theater? Is this walkable? Are the two neighborhoods ever likely to become one "revived" area of the city? They seem pretty close.

3) Checking redfin, there are almost no houses for sale here! Why would that be? People do live here, right? I've noticed a lot of the buildings are also offices (law in particular)?

If anyone has insight or perhaps lives here, we are interested to know your thoughts on the area!

[GunsMass]

1. Charles St. and St. Paul St. are the safest streets in that area, which is already a safe area.

2. Mt. Vernon is the closest you'd want to live near Station North to be able to walk to it. Everyone would like the area around Penn Station and North Ave to be great, even the city, who drummed up this whole Arts District thing. The process will be very slow.

3. I imagine a huge house on St. Paul would be worth a million dollars. Anyone who owns that sort of real estate is renting it out.

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by emmiesix

Hi all,

I am new here, and on my daily commute down 83 through downtown & on to 95 South, I get to drive through what I guess is called the Mt. Vernon Cultural area (starting from the St. Paul exit down to Lombard Street).

The houses you pass on St. Paul are really beautiful. Some parts in this area remind me of a small New York.

So, my boyfriend and I have gotten interested in this neighborhood as a place to live. Some questions that have arisen:


1) I realize it is probably yet another small enclave caught in between "bad" parts of the city, but how is safety here? Is it improving? Can you walk around at night?


2) How connected is it to the Charles North/Arts district over by the Charles Theater? Is this walkable? Are the two neighborhoods ever likely to become one "revived" area of the city? They seem pretty close.

3) Checking redfin, there are almost no houses for sale here! Why would that be? People do live here, right? I've noticed a lot of the buildings are also offices (law in particular)?

If anyone has insight or perhaps lives here, we are interested to know your thoughts on the area!

1. This area you describe (St. Paul south of Mt Royal) is Mt Vernon, and Mt Vernon isn't tiny. Safety is above average, there is a lot of foot traffic, including at night, which helps. I don't know if its improving or not, it's been pretty well gentrified for decades.

2. It's connected, literally and figuratively. If not for Mt Vernon, Station North's revitalization probably not be happening. Maryland, Charles, St Paul, Calvert and Guilford Avenues all cross the railroad tracks. It's a very quick walk up Charles from Mt Vernon. And yes, Charles North/Greenmount West/Station North/Whatever Whatever is headed in the right direction.

3. In the area you described (St Paul south of Mt Royal), most houses are large and have long since been divided into apartments. In the area north of the tracks, a lot of houses are being "sat upon" until time is right to turn a major profit. Search around in SDAT sometime, you'll see the same name owning several houses on one street, etc.

[KLynch10]

When I was a realtor about 6 years ago, I had a client looking for investment properties.. and there was a good amount of Condos available in Mt. Vernon. There are some smaller houses also once you get a little farther west, on the side streets, or into the Seton Hill area.. which is decent, but not quite Mt. Vernon.

I'd recommend searching for homes with the 21201 area code and see what comes up.

[davecj]

I've shown many in station north and Mt. Vernon. Definitely nice areas and the homes are incredible.

[emmiesix]

Originally Posted by davecj

I've shown many in station north and Mt. Vernon. Definitely nice areas and the homes are incredible.

Yes from what I have seen driving by & from the few I saw on redfin (as someone pointed out, a whole building is $1million...), these are clearly upper-class houses from the old days. You can't by that kind of architectural detail on a new home for love or money today! I was hoping more of them would be divided into condos, as we are probably going to be looking to buy something in the next year to few years. But, the rents actually do not look bad...

[davecj]

Many of the MV homes are split into condos.