Cedar Rapids neighborhoods (Des Moines, Davenport, West Des Moines: for sale by owner, crime, new house)

[leaflette]

Hi,
My family and I will be moving to Cedar Rapids next year. We come from a liberal, diverse part of the country and are wondering which neighborhood in CR would be best for us. We were told the SE is the nicest, with old and new houses (we like houses with "character") and nice areas to walk around. Would you agree that this would be the most diverse, open minded neighborhood? The kids will probably go to Washington High School. We are looking to spend around $150-250 for a 3 bedroom house.
Thank you!

[Dewey59]

Saying the SE is the nicest part of town is a VERY broad statement. Just in case you are not aware, CR's quadrants are divided by the Cedar River and 1st Ave. So the SE is everything south of 1st Ave and east of the Cedar River. This is a very large geographical area, with good areas and bad (as are all the quadrants in CR). To confuse matters even more, the Cedar River does not run north and south through the whole town, nor does 1st Ave run east and west through the whole town.

Many of the older homes with character in the SE quadrant are in the highest crime neighborhoods - most notably, the Wellington Heights neighborhood. However, those neighborhoods are very diverse. So it just depends on where you are comfortable I guess. The area around Washington High School is a little better crime wise, so you might want to focus in that area. If crime is a consideration for you, I would recommend not getting too far south or southwest of Washington High. Another area, just west of Washington is the Mount Mercy University neighborhood. There are some really nice older homes with lots of character over there and not much crime. Because that area is on the other side of 1st Ave, it is considered to be in the NE quadrant.

[Vitae]

Nicest is subjective but I don't think many people would say it is the SE side. It definitely has the most older houses but relatively few of them are well maintained. Some areas I would look at would be the Seminole valley area, stoney point, and the Fairfax area. None of these are in the Washington district, but as a Washington graduate I can tell you I personally don't think the school is anything special, in fact I found it fairly awful in a number of ways.

[69Charger]

Zip code 52411 is by far the nicest area.

You're not going to find liberal diversity in Cedar Rapids. Maybe down in Coralville.

[scimitar12]

I enjoy this thread. My wife and I live in the DC area and will be retiring next year. We were both born and raised in Davenport. While we want to move back to the IA side of the QCs it seems that area does not have the inventory of the types homes in good neighborhoods we are looking for in the less than $240,000 range. CR and Marion appears to have a much larger selection from what we've seen on realtor.com. Will definitely check out 52411.


Edit: Spoke too soon. 52411 doesn't have a lot homes under $240,000 either.

[smpliving]

Originally Posted by scimitar12

I enjoy this thread. My wife and I live in the DC area and will be retiring next year. We were both born and raised in Davenport. While we want to move back to the IA side of the QCs it seems that area does not have the inventory of the types homes in good neighborhoods we are looking for in the less than $240,000 range. CR and Marion appears to have a much larger selection from what we've seen on realtor.com. Will definitely check out 52411.


Edit: Spoke too soon. 52411 doesn't have a lot homes under $240,000 either.

Check out homes around Glass Road (toward Edgewood Road) in the 52402 area code. There are some older homes that I believe may fit your price range. Lovely area and central to other areas of Cedar Rapids. Also further east from downtown Cedar Rapids toward East Post Rd are older homes that should be in your price range. Just be aware of flood zones wherever you go. You may want to follow news as to when the city may get a flood wall for downtown. I'm betting this will affect future taxes, etc. Budget accordingly.

[Dewey59]

Originally Posted by scimitar12

I enjoy this thread. My wife and I live in the DC area and will be retiring next year. We were both born and raised in Davenport. While we want to move back to the IA side of the QCs it seems that area does not have the inventory of the types homes in good neighborhoods we are looking for in the less than $240,000 range. CR and Marion appears to have a much larger selection from what we've seen on realtor.com. Will definitely check out 52411.


Edit: Spoke too soon. 52411 doesn't have a lot homes under $240,000 either.

First, you should be looking on zillow.com, not realtor.com. Zillow shows homes for sale by owner as well as realtor listed homes. For sale by owner is pretty big in Iowa.

Second, have you looked at Marion (zip 52302)? Currently 45 houses listed between $200-250k in Marion on zillow.

[scimitar12]

Thanks to all. 52302 and 52402 appear to have a decent inventory of homes that match our requirements. Davenport doesn't have near the selection.

[Optimistic Sort]

Originally Posted by scimitar12

I enjoy this thread. My wife and I live in the DC area and will be retiring next year. We were both born and raised in Davenport. While we want to move back to the IA side of the QCs it seems that area does not have the inventory of the types homes in good neighborhoods we are looking for in the less than $240,000 range. CR and Marion appears to have a much larger selection from what we've seen on realtor.com. Will definitely check out 52411.


Edit: Spoke too soon. 52411 doesn't have a lot homes under $240,000 either.

Hello. I also was born and raised in Davenport but left in 1988 in pursuit of career opportunities. My wife and I have since lived in California, Kentucky and New Jersey, but chose Iowa as our retirement destination this year, specifically West Des Moines. There are plenty of choices here, but it's important to find a home association that takes care of the yard work and snow removal. We chose the Eagles Landing community in West Des Moines and payed in the 240's for a new ranch detached house.

Good luck in your return to Iowa!

[cpat]

Cedar RApids had a flood back in September. Had the flood risen to cover the entire town, it would have caused a grand total of $21.79 in total damage.