Ten apartments

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in St.Louis and I ended up seeing ten apartments/houses/condos. These were all over the place, ranging from $950 a month down to the low $500s. Some were less than a mile from campus while others were more than five miles away. 

There was one apartment in a very sketchy neighborhood that had apparently been caught on fire by one of the former tenants, and which was a total disaster inside. This was actually the one that Saori and I had both liked based on what we saw on the internet (obviously the before photos) and the location on the map (without understanding what the neighborhoods were like).

There was a fantastic apartment, not too from campus but unfortunately located in a sketchier neighborhood, that looked essentially unchanged from the 1940s, complete with arts&crafts leaded glass doors in the bedrooms, decorative iron radiators in all the rooms, enameled iron sinks, and even the built in ice box. Not an old refrigerator, an actual piece of integral cabinetry that you would stick a big block of ice in to keep your food cold. Amazing place, cheap, I was almost sold on the charm, but the reality of having no central ac or heating tempered my excitement. If we wanted ac, we would have to put down a deposit for a window unit for each of the rooms.

I learned a lot about apartment hunting. Having never really apartment hunted outside of Phoenix, it was a new challenge. Here are some things I learned about looking for places in St.Louis

• Location, Location, Location. Old realtor's adage holds true. The city of St.Louis is ranked in the top five most dangerous and most segregated cities in the US. Some of the places I looked at were clearly in a bad area, some looked not so bad, but when I looked at crime maps of the area, were actually several times as dangerous as our current neighborhood in central Phoenix. 
• St.Louis is an old city. Most of the apartments I was looking in would count as historic buildings in Phoenix. Some were over a hundred years old. Things to check for: sufficient water pressure, updated piping, updated wiring, double pane windows.
• Parking is an issue. Some places only had street side parking. When school starts, its going to be a hairy mess. We get back home at odd hours in architecture and I don't really want to be hiking a million miles late at night, regardless of where we're living.
• We went in dead set to get a place with a washer and dryer. The reality is that unless you get a townhome with a private washer dryer in the basement, most places don't have them, since the buildings were built before the time of the washer dryer, and there's no utilities running to them.
• Rooms are a lot smaller. My current bedroom size is about 14 by 16 feet. Most places I saw had bedrooms much smaller than that, probably because people lived in smaller rooms back when things were built. There was also a great lack of storage. A few token closets in these places were maybe a foot or two deep, and there were not many of them. Much less storage space than here, unless we get a place with a basement.

Right now we're kind of playing the location game. Proximity to campus vs neighborhood safety. There's one place that we can see the crime stats that look pretty grim. Not bad at all for the city overall, but worse than the crime in our neighborhood, or even really central Phoenix. It's right by the light rail, 1.4 miles to campus, and to get to school, we would bicycle past all the old mansions lined up in front of the huge forest park. It comes with a washer and dryer in unit, wood floors, granite countertops, a nice sun room/bedroom, and an actual parking lot in the back. During the day I visited, I would not peg it as a bad neighborhood. Crime maps of St.Louis aren't reassuring. 

I did a contrasting study, I looked at the police beat where we are currently living in central Phoenix, and looked at all the crimes in January and February. There were 105 crimes, including property crimes. I did a similar study in the neighborhood we were looking to rent, in approximately the same area, and the number of crimes for the same time period was closer to 350. So, you could say that the neighborhood is three times as dangerous. Most of the crime is vehicle related- auto theft or theft from vehicles, although there is the periodic assault, robbery, and burglary. It's questionable. We're currently living in a higher crime area of Phoenix, and we take precautions here, and I think its reasonable that we could stay safe in St.Louis with further precautions, not traveling alone, not bicycling or walking home after certain hours, things like that.

The other place we're looking at the owner originaly rejected Suki, but has since negotiated a $300 pet deposit, and a slightly increased rent. It's really pretty, I really liked it and the neighborhood, the one on Tulane Ave I mentioned in my first blog from St.Louis, but the problem is 2.6 miles from campus, which pretty much means we either have to drive daily to bike since its about a mile from any public transportation. However, this old, private residential neighborhood is very safe, and I'd feel more comfortable walking around at night here.

Its a tough call. I'm leaning more towards the safer property, but I'm checking out one more place thats closer to campus than either one, in a safe neighborhood, but has no washer or dryer. We shall see.

But can't wait too long. I need to reserve the moving van before the end of the week, I'm sweating already since its not done. There's a bajillion things to coordinate, shuffle, plan, toss, and switch before we move, which would theoretically take place in about three weeks. Once I get the housing thing settled, I'll feel like I;ve got a better grasp of the situation. (although we still need to actually apply for the lease, be checked out by the landlords, and get accepted and sign the lease).