Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I guess a lot of this will come down to opinions. But can you please list safe ( low crime) areas where I could find a single family home in a good school district?
I read that some of north Lexington has crime issues. But what towns & zip codes are considered some of the best?
Most of south Lexington is considered safe. Chevy Chase and Southland (40502 and 40503, respectively) offer both public and parochial good schools. The Stonewall and Beaumont areas are also good, as are others.
What is your housing budget? Southland is a LOT less costly than Chevy Chase, yet offers similar amenities.
Most of the smaller towns near Lexington also have good schools and housing areas. Check out Nicholasville and Versailles, the two closest towns.
We are in the 200-240,000 price range. I was hoping for a 4 bed 2 bath. Hopefully a basement. At least 2000 square feet. Prefer not to old of a home. Maybe 10-15 years old or less. I thought I read that Versailles had crime issues?
Thank you
Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigCreek
Most of south Lexington is considered safe. Chevy Chase and Southland (40502 and 40503, respectively) offer both public and parochial good schools. The Stonewall and Beaumont areas are also good, as are others.
What is your housing budget? Southland is a LOT less costly than Chevy Chase, yet offers similar amenities.
Most of the smaller towns near Lexington also have good schools and housing areas. Check out Nicholasville and Versailles, the two closest towns.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 01-14-2017 at 02:43 PM..
Reason: Fixed formatting
There were a few terrible crimes in Versailles in recent years that were due to people from outside the community - Versailles itself is very safe on a day to day basis. People are friendly and look out for one another. There are some newer neighborhoods on the outskirts of Versailles which may fit your needs - some of my friends live there now and seem satisfied overall. None of them have young children at present, however. Versailles public schools are considered satisfactory to good.
Your money would also go farther in Nicholasville, which is a little downscale from Versailles but also a nice small town.
Your budget would do well in Southland but would not do at all for Chevy Chase, which has become quite costly these days due to demand. Both neighborhoods are older (Chevy Chase is considerably older than Southland) but their houses are much better built than most current construction and are well-maintained. They are also not the cookie-cutter productions seen in newer areas, but are more architecturally diverse, especially in Chevy Chase, which dates to the early 1930s on its older streets.
Southland was developed in the early 1950s, and has lots of Cape Cods and ranch houses. Some have been enlarged - the house I used to own in Southland was originally a three-bedroom, one bath ranch with a pull-down attic, but the original owners added a large family room and half-bath, plus a room adjacent to the separate garage (which was much better built than my current old garage in Chevy Chase). I had a large fenced backyard and lots of trees.
Other benefits of such neighborhoods include good-sized lots, separate garages, mature trees, and easy access to schools, churches, and shopping.
Have you visited the Lexington area previously? I'd suggest visiting here before seriously considering a move. Get a good realtor to show you around - make sure they know you're just scoping out the area so you can avoid high-pressure sales techniques.
Overall, Lexington is very safe just about anywhere. Cars and houses occasionally get broken into all over town. Businesses get broken into on the south end of town as much as the north.
In your price range, you won't find any places that are scary. You are also above the price range for most north end neighborhoods. You will probably end up in the southern half of Lexington between Winchester Road and Harrodsburg Road. Since you want a house less than 10-15 years old, you will be around Man O War. Getting a basement might be difficult. In the past 20 or so years, builders have gotten away from digging basements around here. Most of the time (unless it was a higher end or custom home) you only see basements if the lot sloped so much that the builder had to either do a basement or a very tall crawlspace.
There is no reason to avoid Versailles. It is a very nice small town. There are only a few neighborhoods that will be in your price range and also be less than 15 year old.
I would focus more on the school districts instead of crime. The south end of town has the most well rounded school districts. It is easy to get a good elementary and middle and high school on the south end. The Hamburg area has a couple of good performing elementary schools and is getting a brand new high school.
I know it is hard to get a feel for somewhere based only on what you see or read online. I often have clients moving here from out of state who find that it is very different than they expected. Some say traffic is worse than they thought, some say we don't really have traffic. To some this seems like a huge crime ridden city, to others it seems like a sleepy college town. It all depends on where you are coming from I guess.
For what it is worth, I've lived here for over 30 years. I have only known two people involved in a violent crime. One was in a poor section of downtown. The other was when a south end pharmacy was robbed at gunpoint. I know that sounds scary as all get out, but I know a lot of people and that is it in over 30 years.
Lexington as a whole is considered to have a very low crime rate, especially for it's size. It is a relatively affluent city and makes the top 10-20 most educated cities most years The housing prices aren't bad compared to national averages but are high for Kentucky. The surrounding counties are cheaper, sometime significantly so.
The Fayette County School system has always been listed as a top school district in multiple national lists. Even their lowest performing high school, Bryan Station, outperforms most high schools based on raw test scores. There are more marked differences in schools at lower levels, however if you concentrate on avoiding struggling middle schools and the elementaries which feed them you'll be more than fine. Lexington does have a fairly flexible magnet school system that helps allows kids to attend schools outside their assigned area for parents wanting to pursue it. The private schools in Fayette County are good enough but unless you want to do it for religious reasons I wouldn't because they aren't academically superior to the public system. The schools in the surrounding counties as a general rule are not as good as Fayette County, although some are much better than others, so they would need to be individually checked out.
__________________
When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
