Moving to Sgreveport... (Shreveport, Bossier City, Haughton: low income, mineral rights, rent)

[zita]

My family and I are moving to Shreveport/Bossier next year, We have a daughter (Soon to be 2 years) and A baby boy on the way. Can anybody tell me what area would be best to live in, I'm especially thinking regarding to school and crime???

[hdwell]

Hi Zita
From the perspective of schools and crime-southeast Shreveport by far. North or South Bossier City would also be excellent choices. All three areas are safe, family friendly with good schools and plenty of activities for children and adults.

The borders of these communities are:

SE Shreveport- Kings Highway on the North, Fluornoy-Lucas Rd. on the South, and probably Fairfield ave on the west. The Red River is the border separating Shreveport from Bossier City to the east.

North Bossier would be from I-220 north to the town of Benton roughly.

South Bossier would be from Barksdale AFB south to Sligo Road.

Now to be fair, whats outside of SE Shreveport or between North and South Bossier can be very livable; however, there is a larger criminal element in these areas and the schools are not great academic performers.

Hope I've helped. If you think up anymore questions, just ask away! Myself and another fellow on here (hindsight) are pretty good at answering most anyones questions.

[zita]

Thank you

[redbean]

If you need to be able to send your kids to public schools later on, many people like to live in Benton or Haughton and commute. I would not send kids to any public school in Shreveport if you can help it. Crime is an issue also. The above areas commented on by Hdwell are very nice.

[anchor]

Hey zita, I'm 23 and I have lived in shreveport all my life, I have lived in almost every part. (except the ghetto but I know shreveport/bossier like the back of my hand) I live on one of the best sides of town (near Flournoy Lucas like that guy said) and it is great, there is a good school called Captain Shreve (high school) and Youree Drive (middle school) and A.C. Steere (elementary) and all are great schools. Loyola is a good private school but somewhat expensive. You do NOT want to move to Haughton, it is trashy, Benton is not so bad but if you can stay on the Youree Drive/Bert Kouns side of Shreveport (if you can afford it) then do it. Ellerbe Road/Norris Ferry is really nice too, and Bossier has some nice spots if you like being pulled over for anything at all, the cops are MAJORLY strict, you won't get away with anything, not even a right tail light just being blown out, you get a ticket.

[hindsight2020]

I think it's fair to say that in order for you to take advantage of many of the aforementioned areas housing wise, you need to be able and ready to cough up the $$$. My fiance works in landscape design in Shreveport and has pretty much seen the demographic composition of most of the communities in Shrveport/Bossier/Benton/Haughton so I've been able to further educate myself on who are your neighbors, so to speak, in Shreveport/Bossier.

You didn't say what your employment and income picture is, and what you hope to attain by relocating, but SE Shreveport, the ellerbe rd area in particular, is outright expensive and there's a reason for it. You'll be competing against ole' money, tons of retirees, and haynesville shale beverly hillbillies. All these factors coupled with white flight into north/south bossier and SE shreveport create an upward pressure on housing prices on these areas, coupled with mineral rights fever in the local market. So it really boils down to what your housing price range is. I can tell you in all these areas it will be rather difficult to settle in if you're looking at under 250K; yeah you'll find some bargains in the area but most are backing up straight into ellerbe which is the only outlet in the mornings, good luck with that. If you look online you'll see the median price in SE shreveport more closely resembles 300K than anything, so that's your target price. Not quite as competitive for a smaller city in NW Louisiana when I can actually get the same square footage in decent parts of Ft. Worth for less money, and have the transportation and income options I have in the metroplex vis-a-vis the Ark-la-Tex relative regional desolation. Granted the comparison isn't apples to apples (commute times) but that price disparity shouldn't happen if the economic demographics are the same in both cities. Of course, housing proves they are not the same, the only reason for the disparity is because of the established money (retirees and older households) in the SBC area, which puts the 30-something working family at a disadvantage in the desirable areas of Shreveport Bossier. You'll find many of the opinion that Shreveport Bossier is a great bargain for retirees, not necessarily a no-brainer for working households. You need to crunch the numbers and see what's the best fit for your situation. Putting the kids on a private school may be cheaper than living in overpriced ellerbe or north bossier just for the schools, but that's going to be a personal decision driven by a lot other factors.

You can look at areas of SW shreveport, there's plenty of affordable housing there, but since Shreveport is block to block, you get pockets of low income housing next to truly right-priced decent housing, and the school district argument gets the upper hand; hence why most here won't tell you to look in those areas, because the schools kill the deal. Schools aside, there's tons of OK affordable areas in Shreveport that are not a bona fide filming set for Boyz-n-D'-Hood (although it may back up against one).

The poster above who suggested that Haugton is trashy clearly has a sheltered perspective of what it takes to pay bills for many folks in SBC; sure, if one lives in Captain Shreve Blvd then yeah Haughton is straight up redneck, but who didn't see that coming? If I'm rich there's no expectation I display empathy, how could I? It's not in my working construct. What you'll see with areas of NE Bossier is that many communities border Haughton proper but are still NE Bossier/ Stockwell Rd Area in practicality. The farther east you go the cheaper prices you'll find and the longer your commute will be, so again that's another oportunity cost to consider. But you're not living in the trailer park by virtue of having a haughton zip code, that was straight up clasist non-sense from our sheltered SE shrevport contributor.

Good luck in your move, I think you'll come to like Shreveport Bossier for what it has to offer in terms of weather, cost of living (Im still willing to declare the area as affordable, but mind you I rent and a lot of folks in town are living TIGHT, so that claim is getting harder and harder to sustain), and general pace of life (unless you want the hussle of metroplexes). I'll openly admit that if it wasn't for my military commitment I probably wouldn't have remained in the area, as jobs here don't pay well, you have to come here with an established competitive offer or other incentives (family in town etc) to offset the low income potential. Outside that constraint (which is a big deal admitedly), it's a great place to live.

[becoming]

I'd check out the Broadmoor area of Shreveport for housing. I can vouch for Arthur Circle Elementary being a good school.

You might also look out in Stonewall if you don't mind being a few miles from Shreveport.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by anchor

You do NOT want to move to Haughton, it is trashy

I take issue with this comment. While much of the town of Haughton, and surrounding rural areas commonly referred to as "Haughton" are pretty trashy, not all of it is. Three years ago my wife and I moved to Haughton, and besides my 30-minute commute to the office, we've enjoyed it. It's very peaceful and quiet, people mostly seem to keep to themselves, and there is a high concentration of fine military families.

I paid far too much for my home to hear someone call the area in which I live "trashy." I am a city boy, born and raised, and as a child I had to live in some of the worst neighborhoods in all of Shreveport-Bossier. Compared to some of those neighborhoods, Haughton is like Uptown Dallas.

I actually would, and do, recommend Haughton pretty highly to someone who doesn't want to be inside the city limits and doesn't mind a relatively long commute. As I said already, it's quite nice and peaceful. I've had to leave my house at all hours of the night to get somewhere, and never once have I felt anything but calm and serenity in the hours of darkness out there. That's a long shot from how I've felt at similar times of the night in both Shreveport and Bossier City.

[erinbearin]

Hey Zita! I actually wanted to post that I've been house hunting online and have found a lot of cute starter homes in the SE Shreveport area that HDWELL mentioned above. It has all been under $200k, as that is the top end of my budget. If you're willing to live with only 1 bath, or perhaps a carport in lieu of a garage, then some of the older properties are super cheap, like under 150K. Now I cannot totally vouch for the actual neighborhoods...but this is the ONLY area I am shopping right now. Quite a few of the properties have been moderately updated as well. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Good Luck!

"SE Shreveport- Kings Highway on the North, Fluornoy-Lucas Rd. on the South, and probably Fairfield ave on the west. The Red River is the border separating Shreveport from Bossier City to the east."

[Nikki Shinn]

Won't retype = added my 2c here:

//www.city-data.com/forum/louis...las-vegas.html

And if we're voting on Haughton, it's perfect if you're of the cowpoke variety, or as we call em, rednecks and goatropers (relax, you know we do) it's for the country sorts. If you're looking for a little more cosmopolitan upscale or at least pretty white collar metro, then south Shreveport by far and Ellerby, etc. because you would find Haughton trashy, boring and disturbing. That's just relative to what you're looking for. I tried to steer clear of it, however Hilltop was awesom to hang out and camp without being in the wilderness! ;p

I take strong issue with whoever it was up there who mentioned the weather being great. That's so wrong it must be objected to. Weather in Shreveport, or anywhere in the state is pitiful. It's hot, humid, muggy and almost constantly raining for days on end...with about 3 weeks break before another round. Summers are muggy and miserably hot, spring and winter are brutal for severe storms with tornados, especially north Bossier and Benton - who got nailed by some nasty tornados, in fact that's why you couldn't pay me enough to live in Bossier - tornados do hit there pretty often of varying scale. Winters are miserably bone rattling cold without the advantage of a nice snow to justify it...only ice and slush. Then, of course, it'll be 82 degrees Christmas day and drop to 28 degrees December 28th.

The temps can be considered perfect and dry from September to October when it starts getting cold, then it deteriorates from there. Get used to near constant rain and muggy uncomfortable heat. And don't think for a second that you'll have more good hair days than afros in Shreveport! Humidity is hell and it'll wreck a pretty hairdo in no time. Friz city! (No, I'm being serious - tiz why you will still find tons of females in that area who have stock with Aquanet).

Don't believe me? Turn on the weather channel no matter where you are and just watch every night for the weather and mark your calendar every day you see the big red severe storm warning box covering almost all of north central or north central south Louisiana...do that for a few months and see how many "beautiful perfect days" happen compared to "duck and cover".

Shreveport would be a pretty great place to live were it not for the weather and the increasing crime in central areas. There are far better places in the US to live that blow it away so if there's a choice, if it were me, I'd consider other options. Otherwise, take care with the weather - they don't make houses with storm shelters! At least make it brick and steer clear of mobile homes anywhere in Bossier...the phrase twister magnet was invented there!