Areas in NE to avoid for living? (Detroit, Grand Rapids: apartments, rent)

[zthatzmanz28]

OMG, I may be headed for GR in a week for work. Job is located near Leonard and the Beltline. I want to be fairly close with a commute of 10 miles or less.
Can I find a studio or 1 bedroom apartment for less than $500 in this area? I checked one today on 36th and Paris, but they will not have a vacancy until April 1. I would also consider a house, but don't really want to go over $600 a month.

[RegalTDP]

10 miles is a big chunk of the area. I think even Ottawa County is within 10 miles of the Beltline.

Have you tried padmapper.com? Just type in Grand Rapids and set your rent range, and it will map all the apartments being advertised on Craigslist, padlister, rent.com, etc. There's a good number of places in the $500-$550 range at the moment, but only a few below $500.

[Jandur]

There is literally almost nowhere on the NE side that is truly bad to live. There are lots of apartments on the Beltline that you can get in for under $600 a month.

[zthatzmanz28]

Originally Posted by Jandur

There is literally almost nowhere on the NE side that is truly bad to live. There are lots of apartments on the Beltline that you can get in for under $600 a month.

Thanks for the info. I was just in town for 5 hours and just saw a bit of the NE area and some of the SE as well. I forget that in places like GR 10 miles covers a whole lot of ground. I am used to 10 mille covering larger areas.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

Thanks for the info. I was just in town for 5 hours and just saw a bit of the NE area and some of the SE as well. I forget that in places like GR 10 miles covers a whole lot of ground. I am used to 10 mille covering larger areas.

No problem. There are some sketchy areas on the SE side, but for the most part it's fine as well. Once you get a couple miles from downtown everything is very tame. Even the "bad" parts of Grand Rapids aren't terrible, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

Thanks for the info. I was just in town for 5 hours and just saw a bit of the NE area and some of the SE as well. I forget that in places like GR 10 miles covers a whole lot of ground. I am used to 10 mille covering larger areas.

Yes, 10 miles will get you pretty far in Grand Rapids. The nice thing is everything is labeled NE, SE, SW, NW. Dead center of those quadrants is Division Avenue and Fulton Street.

Similar to Detroit, 3 Mile road is exactly 3 miles north of Fulton. Going south in Kent County, every "8th" street is a mile. 28th Street is one mile to 36th, one mile to 44th, one mile to 52nd, etc.. It really makes it easy to navigate. And the other thing that struck me when first moving to GR was the nice oversized street signs. Way bigger than they had in Kalamazoo, Lansing, Detroit area where I had lived.

I would caution that anything below $500 is usually pretty trashy. You might try Heritage Hill, where $500 might get you a studio in a big historic home that has been split into apartments.

[zthatzmanz28]

Originally Posted by magellan

Yes, 10 miles will get you pretty far in Grand Rapids. The nice thing is everything is labeled NE, SE, SW, NW. Dead center of those quadrants is Division Avenue and Fulton Street.

Similar to Detroit, 3 Mile road is exactly 3 miles north of Fulton. Going south in Kent County, every "8th" street is a mile. 28th Street is one mile to 36th, one mile to 44th, one mile to 52nd, etc.. It really makes it easy to navigate. And the other thing that struck me when first moving to GR was the nice oversized street signs. Way bigger than they had in Kalamazoo, Lansing, Detroit area where I had lived.

I would caution that anything below $500 is usually pretty trashy. You might try Heritage Hill, where $500 might get you a studio in a big historic home that has been split into apartments.

Understood. I will just need a place until the end of the school yaer in June and then my wife and I will start to look for a full-time residence outside of GR city limits.

Thanks for all the info..

[zthatzmanz28]

So it became official today--I am employed in GR and will start looking for a place later this week.

Greatly apprciat the insights and suggestions.

[magellan]

Good luck zthatzmanz28!

[zthatzmanz28]

Still no success on finding an apartment. Very few places are calling back. I do have a lead on one along Plainfield near 5 mile.