Southwest Madison Neighborhoods (Fitchburg, Verona, Dane: renting, crime rate, home builder)

[luvmeasim]

My husband & I are planning to move to the West side (where we never purchased a home before), we came across a few reasonably priced homes in the Southwest neighborhoods.

I learnt from other threads that Meadowood & Orchard Ridge could be a bit challenging to live in (regarding the increasing crime rate), but what about Greentree (South of Schroeder)? Does anybody know about it?

One of my friend suggests us to move far west side, those quiet neighborhoods built by Veridian homes. Any thoughts on that too?

We want to start our family soon & raise kids in a safe community, without worrying our child walking to shcools or bike around. Appreciate any opinion or suggestion. TIA.

[Megan1967]

I would never buy a Veridian home. I have a Don Simon home, Don Simon and Midland combined to form Veridian, and I've had problems with nail pops, weird cracks in the dry wall, a major crack in my foundation and cheap leaky windows. I got lucky and had hail damage a few years ago so I got a whole new roof put on, but the rest of my neighbors have real problems and the neighborhood is only 10-12 years old. Two of my neighbors driveways have sunk over 3 inches below the garage floor. Another had their sidewalk between their garage and driveway cave in. Don Simon/Veridian says they're not responsible..... I heard about a class action suit regarding the roofs, but I'm not sure what happened with that.

[luvmeasim]

Originally Posted by Megan1967

I would never buy a Veridian home. I have a Don Simon home, Don Simon and Midland combined to form Veridian, and I've had problems with nail pops, weird cracks in the dry wall, a major crack in my foundation and cheap leaky windows. I got lucky and had hail damage a few years ago so I got a whole new roof put on, but the rest of my neighbors have real problems and the neighborhood is only 10-12 years old. Two of my neighbors driveways have sunk over 3 inches below the garage floor. Another had their sidewalk between their garage and driveway cave in. Don Simon/Veridian says they're not responsible..... I heard about a class action suit regarding the roofs, but I'm not sure what happened with that.

Thanks Megan. I'll take that into consideration.

[pinkgonegreen]

I'm so glad we didn't move into greentree...it has a lot of shady people lurking around at all hours. Closer out by Verona & Fitchburg is a better bet...the closer to the beltline, the higher the crime rate it seems.

[luvmeasim]

Originally Posted by mommyntheoc

I'm so glad we didn't move into greentree...it has a lot of shady people lurking around at all hours. Closer out by Verona & Fitchburg is a better bet...the closer to the beltline, the higher the crime rate it seems.

Thanks for your advice. I guess we would just walk away from it. Seems like the neighborhood had a series of breaking-and-entering (or sth like that) in the past few months

News "Greentree neighborhood is hit by a rash of burglaries"

Greentree neighborhood is hit by a rash of burglaries

[Chelito23]

That is the one area on the inner Southwest Side that is having problems and has been for a few years now. Look pretty much outside of the boundery outlines in that article since the adjacent areas are much nicer. It isn't bad, but it is an area transitioning from lilly white to a more diverse population demographic, but moreso than that, there also seems to be some riff raff moving in and renting in that area.

[gold*dust1]

The Veridian neighborhoods would be much better than Greentree OP. Just for FYI purposes, Don Simon had been building for at least 20 years, if not more, before they merged. During the early 90's there was a mass housing boom and houses were thrown up quick. I assume you are talking about a resale home, so just make sure you get a very good home inspector. We had a decent one for our first home and he really went above and beyond to bring maintenance issues etc. to light.

We've been living in a Veridian spec model home for around a year and have had no problems. It had around 18 months to settle before we bought it, and there were just some minor issues. They have a one year warranty and a long dry basement warranty, but for a resale you would have to transfer the basement one over for $500. There is a state 10 year lemon type law for houses, so I don't understand why someone with a foundation problem wouldn't have taken advantage of that.

Veridian is the biggest home builder in the state. They use 30 year architectural shingle roofs. Nail pops are common and are not necessarily indicative of shoddy building. My neighborhoods sidewalks and driveways are fine and it's been a development for 6 years. Veridian has over 10 developments in Dane county, which is a lot of home building. I know that if you have a build contract you have to go to arbitration, and can't sue, but it seems hard to believe it wouldn't come to the publics attention if consumers were having serious problems, and like I said, there is a state law.

Just think about the fact that if a basement is finished you won't even know what cracks exist? The 50 year old home we sold had noticable cracks in the basement and it was never an issue at inspection as it wasn't a foundation problem. Keep in mind old houses settle and get new cracks. There are only so many builders to choose from that build in Madison at certain price points and for many that is the deciding factor.

[Megan1967]

I didn't know about the 10 year law but, unfortunately, it wouldn't have mattered as the crack appeared in the 11th year after the house was built. I'm glad you've had a good experience. My neighborhood was built in the 90's, as you noted. Hopefully they've cleaned up their act since then, but they do have a bad rep in the area. I guess I was ingnorant when I built my house. I assumed the city inspector would catch any defects, but since then I found out you should alway hire an independent inspector, even when building.