How do you know a "bad" neighborhood

Question

I am reading the BRRRR book, and I am struggling with a simple concept. How do you quantify a bad neighborhood? I feel like this is subjective, and wondering what site or metrics you use to grade a neighborhood.

For example, some might think I live in a rough neighborhood since they live in a nicer part of town or vice versa. I have been looking at the school district and determining if the area would be "bad" neighborhood.

Obvsiouly, there are outliers, but how do you know deceide the neighborhood is bad rather than, "I feel like this is a bad neighborhood."

Steven Foster Wilson · Answer

@Yusuf Qureshi here in Columbus OH, the neighborhoods can be street by street. You could have a million dollar house on one side of the street and an awful house on the other.

The best way to know is to have a trusted boots on the ground person who can tell you. It also helps if that person was born and raised in the area!

Jim K. · Answer

@Timothy FrazierI very simply doubt there's a more challenging city of equivalent size anywhere in the USA to learn well than Pittsburgh. This is not a point of my local pride, just a statement of what I believe is a very clear fact. I'm a transplant.@Yusuf Qureshi

A lot of us use and speak familiarly of an ABCD scheme. Granted, we all have different interpretations of it, but this is a good place to start: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Zeke Liston · Answer

I'm especially fond of Driving Park. Zillow is predicting 12.3% appreciation this upcoming year.

Steven Foster Wilson · Answer

Here are Columbus' hottest up and coming markets!

Remington Lyman · Answer

It seems that every neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio has gotten hit with the appreciation stick. I wish when I started I had purchased houses in rough neighborhoods. My money would have gone a lot further.

Ryan Mainwaring · Answer

@Steven Wilson Could you share your columbus city guide?

Mark Gallagher · Answer

Numerous boarded homes and substantial vacancies would put a property in a D or F class.

You could also use income levels. If the area is well below the poverty line, that would be D or F.

Linda S. · Answer

@Yusuf Qureshi,

To my knowledge, there isn't a universal formula, as it's based on personal opinion of what makes a B/C/D/F area.

However, if you want a giant red flag that it's likely a D/F area, check your local sex offender registry.    Where ever there are lots of sex offenders, it's likely a bad area-- where landlord standards are really low, will accept people with bad backgrounds to fill vacancy.

Price/school district also give you hints, but nothing tells you more than driving by the area-- are they all boarded up, maybe seeing a lot of grafiti, can you tell the people are running the streets?

Aigo Pyles · Answer

We look at it street by street.  You can use neighborhoodscout to see the crime rates and livability factor of that location. The best way is a drive around the neighborhood. When you see many dilapidated houses, broken windows, it might be a bad neighborhood.

Anthony Angotti · Answer

I don't classify neighborhoods as a whole because there is always variation. However when looking at a street there are a few obvious things like boarded up houses, a lot of graffiti (that is not artistic in nature), needles on the ground, uncared for lawn/walkways, people on porches drinking from brown bags, lots of adults up to nothing during the middle of the day (not working at jobs) etc.

More subtle indicators can be the cars around, not brands, but how well maintained they look. I also look at the roofs on the nearby houses. If they all look really old that generally means a lot of rentals and/or people that don't invest in their home. If around any holiday you can look for decorations.  People that don't feel invested in their community don't put up decorations. Paint on houses, if a ton of peeling exterior paint same idea as the roofs.

How do you know a "bad" neighborhood

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