Settling down in Harbor Town ? (Memphis: condominiums, crime, houses)

[mikellen]

My wife and I are are most likely moving from Miami, Fl. to Memphis within the next couple of months. We recently came back from a house hunting trip in the Memphis area. We really like the Harbor Town area (zip 38103).

Can anyone who is familiar with Harbor Town provide any comments whether good or bad of the area? It seemed like a great place to us but we were only there looking at houses for about a half a day.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Pearlbob]

Depends on what you want out of a neighborhood/home. Most houses are zero lot line, or they have tiny strips of grass and that's it. I personally think the homes are a little overpriced for what you get, but maybe that has gotten better with the market being so poor. But if you want to live downtown, and you want a house, the island is almost your only option. There are also houses in the South Bluffs area, but they will be much bigger, much more expensive, and the inventory is way less. The island has a few things, a great medical office for outpatient visits (not a hospital, just a clinic) but it also has a gym, and there are a couple restaurants, and a 'grocery' store but it's more like an extremely overpriced deli that sells some other items too As for safety, the island is about as safe as you'll get in Memphis.

[kingchef]

i think harbor town is a nice place. a friend and i visited that area in sept '09. she was looking for two-three bedrooms; however, the place she found was about 425,000. she just did not want to do that much. the house would have been just for her. i like that area, but i like the houses in the
south bluff neighborhood, also.

there are those in the memphis forum who could probably give you a quick run down on future commercial building, and downtown memphis seems to have a pretty good zoning effort underway; nevertheless, there is to be several commercial ventures near harbor town, continued housing development in the pinch district, and commercial development just east of st. jude. another possible issue, which will ultimately be a positive as far as access to roadways and traffic, their is an approved street plan/interstate change at I-40 and 2nd or 3rd avenue, somewhere along there. just something you might want to review.

i know that you did not mention condominiums, but you might want to take a look at the goodwyn building or some of the other highrises. some are a mixture of old and modern interiors, some are modern, and some are fairly decent renovations that retain their old charm. just a side bar, if you are interested. best of luck to you, and welcome to memphis.

[mikellen]

Thanks for the replies. We found a nice 3 bedroom 2.5 bath for $215,000.00
with a nice (although small) yard.

I subscribed to the Memphis Police "CyberWatch" and there was a robbery and a few burglaries in Harbortown recently.
I hope this is not a common type of crime occurrence for this area.

[Pearlbob]

It's a safe area. There are "a few burglaries recently" in almost every neighborhood of Memphis

[maximus10]

Speaking of the burglaries, just got done watching news channel 5 and they said the Memphis Police caught the guy who was responsible for the recent string of burglaries. I wouldn't sweat it. It's a real nice area and this is just something that happened all of a sudden.