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Middletown is a middle class city. I wouldn't call it affluent by any means. CT is ridiculously expensive, that's all. There are nicer towns with 1 br apartments going for $1695 or so.
Middletown certainely isn't affluent..You can do much better than $1100 living in Middletown.
Dear God, get me out of here now! Why are new construction apartments built so cheaply these days? Why didn't they put soundproofing in the celings/floors? Why not build garages so we don't have to deal with the snow?
I can't WAIT to move out of here and into a house, where I can have maximum privacy!
I think the biggest problem with apartment living is the cheap construction.
The other problem is a design / urban planning problem. They plunk these huge, cookie cutter complexes down in the middle of suburbia so that you get all of the annoyances of high density living, but none of the advantages. EG. You still need a car to get everywhere and transit is inconvenient or non existent and there are often no stores to walk to. If there are stores within walking distance, they are car oriented strip malls that are have deisgns hostile to pedestrians.
I live in an older apartment building from the 1920s. It's 16 units. Plaster construction. Lacking in typical "modern" amenities like a dishwasher, and doesn't have enough electrical outlets. But the walls are thick, so I rarely hear my neighbors. The mailboxes are downstairs & the dumpster is just outside. The grocery store is 3 blocks away. The library is a block away. The movie theater is 4 blocks away...you get the idea. I'm happier living here than any other apartment I've lived in my entire life.
The key is to avoid the large, cookie cutter apartments if possible, although I know that's not always easy. Older, smaller, but well maintained apartments (with fewer or no amenities) are often a better value.
As far as having a garage goes, those are expensive. So you're going to have to pony up more rent and/or rent a condo if you want a place with a garage.
Is Middletown a highly affluent area (obviously I'm not from the Northeast)? Paying over $1100/mo for rent seems like that could be going to a monthly mortgage payment on a house...just saying.
CT is expensive. $1129 for a 1BR there may not be that out of line. Where I live in California, that's pretty cheap for a 1BR.
I knew someone who was paying $1400 a month for a suburban cookie cutter place with all the "bells and whistles" several years ago in my part of California. I'm sure it's more now.
Lessons learned is all. When you look for a home, you will have experience on what you want and don't want. Not a bad thing considering purchasing a home is a big investment.
I don't know why they can't make buildings quiet. It's not hard, but it costs an extra couple of hundred bucks per unit.
My criteria for an apartment. Penthouse, corner unit only, only one adjoining wall, and not the bedroom.
The quietest buildings are made are masonry... nothing defeats noise transfer like concrete sub-floor.
Many modern high-rise buildings in San Francisco are built with concrete and steel... lots of both due to earthquakes... it is also very costly due to the engineering...
I've had success with wall to wall carpet over premium pad and floor to ceiling drapes... the difference is night and day over hardwood and blinds... Add quality windows with cast-iron plumbing and you're home free.
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 01-20-2011 at 05:34 PM..
CT is expensive. $1129 for a 1BR there may not be that out of line. Where I live in California, that's pretty cheap for a 1BR.
I knew someone who was paying $1400 a month for a suburban cookie cutter place with all the "bells and whistles" several years ago in my part of California. I'm sure it's more now.
I pay $1450 for a one-bedroom inlaw apartment with all the bells and whistles. On the way to landing this place, though, I saw a $1600 one-bedroom in Menlo Park built in the '50s with no insulation and a $1750 one-bedroom in Castro Valley on a horse ranch which smelled like horse pee because it was right over the stables.
Before that, I paid $1200 for a two-bedroom scraper house in a neighborhood where I heard either gunfire or fireworks almost every weekend. That place completely cured me of the desire to buy a starter house. Compared to that, this apartment is heaven.
if people can not put up with a set up of a place they should have never moved in did they ride the short bus to school and could not for see the facts before their face
Kind of ironic that someone would use the term "short bus' (which is offensive, BTW) when talking about someone else in a sentence void of punctuation and grammar skills.
Kind of ironic that someone would use the term "short bus' (which is offensive, BTW) when talking about someone else in a sentence void of punctuation and grammar skills.
it a blog so who gives a dam on punctuation and grammar.
and i rode the short bus do to a handicap that was physical. and no i am not pc.
this person is a self righteous jerk they way he came off!
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