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I would be concerned about resale value.

I probably would not. My neighborhood has several luxury rental apartment and town home complexes alongside just as manu singke family sub divisions. The cars and people we saw coming in and out of the rentals did not alarm us when we were house shopping.

Have you seen anything in particular you don't like? For me litter, loitering, and disabled vehicles would have caused me alarm. Your local police department may be able to tell you about the crime.

I think it depends on the overall feel of the town/area and crime rate. I might ask a few of the nieghbors that don't live in the complex what their experience with it has been.

P.s If you are looking in Reading/Wakefield, let me know and I'll ask around

I agree with @ElbieKay: the resale would be a huge factor for me.

I'd be more concerned about living near a college-y apartment complex. Like with any house I'd drive by at night and early morning and see what's going on. We didnt go with an apartment because of the very loud rowdy neighboring house after seeing them at night.

Ask the nearest gas station employer what the neighborhood is like. Heck if I were a single parent I would've qualified for low income housing with my bachelors and masters degree and social services salary

Ea- does your paper do a crime report? I'd look, our last town did one by zip code and it was helpful.

@NovBaby1112: I was going to ask where! Love Marblehead! Yeah, calling police station was a good idea - check police logs maybe too - I would think about re-sale. That's a great community though - I'd prob go for it!

I would worry about resale. We looked in a neighborhood we LOVED but then found out they were putting a low income housing apartment complex outside of the neighborhood and decided not to. Since then, housing prices in that neighborhood have gone down.

Since the complex is already there, if it was affecting resale value, it should have done that already? It's like living next to train tracks - you won't get as much when you sell, but you also buy it for less. Talking to police was a great idea. For me, it would depend on the area. I've lived in apartments that were nice areas and that were next to low income housing. I found it was mainly families living there (and they were mainly refugees). Perfectly nice people just trying to make ends meet. In bad parts of town, I would expect to see more gang activity but I wouldn't live in those areas if you paid me.

@NovBaby1112: Haha I'm sure we've been over this before but I grew up in Reading!!

I was originally going to comment that we owned a condo in a high rise luxury building that was adjacent to low income housing and I would never do it again... most days we kept our windows closed because of the pure racket coming from the low income housing neighborhood. Loud music, moms screaming for their kids to come in for dinner... of course that's to be expected anywhere where there's people, but multiply it by 50... yeah. Not cool. We still have this thing, years later, whenever we hear a mom calling out for their kids... we immediately say "JAYDEN!! JALEEL!!! DINNER!!!" (I think Jayden and Jaleel lived in the unit right under our window.)

BUT! Obviously Marblehead is very, very different from the area our condo was in!! Which was basically IN the city. I would be just as hesitant as you but I think calling the police station and getting their opinion is a really smart idea. I have a friend who is a Boston cop and he would tell us stories about the low income housing right behind our condo and how they'd do drug raids and there would be 20 undocumented immigrants living in a 1000 sq foot apartment. Seriously. I don't see that happening in Marblehead..!!!

I'm almost positive that every town has some sort of low income or otherwise subsidized housing, and many towns have really nice complexes for that. My friend's parents always lived in subsidized housing because her dad was disabled, and their apartment was always nice and in a good town with good schools.

Good luck!! So exciting!!!!!!!

@NovBaby1112: I would pass.

I would be worried about resale. We passed on a house we loved for that reason. It eventually sold for 40k less than it was listed.

@Orvis18: we are in reading too!! love it!

also - just because i'm a freak -- i always check this site: http://www.familywatchdog.us

it looks like there might be, like 1, in marblehead, not surprisingly... but always good to check!

@Mrs. Jacks: yes - you're definitely right! marblehead is a great little town!

My prime concern would be the resale value.

It would have to be THE house. And not because of the people but rather the property value of my house upon resale.

What's throwing me off is the fact that you initially said "in a really great area"... So it sound like it WAS a great area until you learned about the neighboring property... How big is the housing building? It is one building or more than one? I don't think it would be a complete deal breaker for me.

Never. It seems like, aside from the safety issue, you would have issues with it's value increasing/resale, which is ultimately what you want to look at when buying a property. It's an investment, and for financial reasons, youwant to do what you can to make sure you get return on your investment when you sell it. Living across from a low income housing will always be a detriment to the value of that property.

An ex of mine bought in an up and coming neighborhood a few blocks away from a less desirable area. The foot traffic in front of his house at all hours of the night was crazy (as they prob didn't have very many cars), and we never felt safe walking the dog. His next door neighbor was murdered in a robbery and he moved out at that point and it took him over a year to sell it. He would have had a tough time even w/o the murder, just bc of it's proximity to that area. The house was really nice, but I learned from his mistake and I'd never sign a mortgage on a property that had a very questionable location. Honestly, location is everything when it comes to real estate!