Reflections on finding our home

If' you've kept up with my wife's blog, then you may have seen that we found a home while in Philly (for those of you who think of the potential length of purchasing your first home, we found ours in 2 days and will have settled on it in less than a month). I spend a lot of time looking up crime maps, neighborhood statistics, and home values before we left for the City of Brotherly Love, but it still seems as if it is not enough. Of course, most of the data is dated and I think it's difficult to determine what crime will look like from year to year unless there is a trend in the statistics (i.e. a gradual increase or a gradual decrease - spikes will occur, but you just don't know when).

Altogether, I think that we're getting a super deal. Except for the framing of the house, it is practically new (new hardwoods, marble tile, granite counter tops, etc.). The framing itself is old growth wood and our home inspector told us that old growth is 4x's as strong as new growth.

We are still lacking an appraisal, but I'm sure it will come along fine - or at least I hope it will.

Here are a few reflections that probably have less to do with the actual house and more to do with areas and neighborhoods.

First off, we're not really living where I first wanted to live - much of this comes specifically due to price. That's no big deal though, I personally love our location. We're about a 5-10 minute drive from City Center (where all the tall buildings are), really close to Ikea and other big box stores (Lowes, Home Depot, Target), about a 5-10 minute drive from Trader Joe's (who don't sell alcoholic bev's in Philly, unlike California), a 2 block walk from the subway, and very close to various small restaurants and grocery stores.

Secondly, the area in which we live is not necessarily "soft." I hope I don't scare any of you away in this (because we sincerely want visitors to our home - we have a security system!), but Laura found a website that listed areas close to our neighborhood as a "Crime Hotspots." To be sure, North Philadelphia is a far more dangerous area. Still, this has aroused some arguing between us. The offer was already on the table, and I don't think that we can (or would want - either of us) to withdraw it now. In another way, this does excite me though. I think that it may be presumptuous to walk into an area and say, "Geez, these folks really need my help," without thinking that God might be putting you in a place because you yourself need help. So, I don't want to do that. I think it is obvious, however, that the neighborhood could use some tidying. Philadelphia is a generally dirty city, and we're excited to do our part as good stewards of the tamed earth.

A third reflection is gentrification. The very word ties the last two reflections together. It wasn't until after our first day of home shopping that it even occurred to me to think of the financial impact we would have on certain neighborhoods. Before we actually went to visit, my first pick was Brewerytown (not because of the name, but because of the location). Once I started reading a few articles about it, my interest waned. Laura was happy about this because it was hard to imagine waking up every morning to chain link fenced in yards fill with trash and walls covered with graffiti.

A more underlying issue for me (and, even where we're buying now) is whether or not we'll be able to relate to our neighbors. Both neighborhoods are predominantly African American - this is not a dilemma to me, I've had friends throughout my who life who are. More importantly, I think nearly 25% (according to an article 3 years ago?) of the population in the entire city lives under the poverty line. I don't know off hand what it is in our neighborhood, but I know that property values are on the increase. I know that when property values increase, property taxes increase. When that happens, the poor are no longer able to sustain a viable life where they are and are pushed further out.

Brewerytown is already seeing some of the ramifications of gentrification - there has been a neighborhood back lash in some areas in response to the razing of dilapidated buildings and the raising of modern condos. I see some signs of that in South Philly - our own home, in fact, was a shell 4 months ago and was totally renovated.

Altogether, it just seems that it may be difficult to be a good neighbor if we're automatically seen as an enemy (which we more than likely would have been seen as in Brewerytown). If you can believe it, I look forward to seeing how we can overcome social barriers and fit in to the complexity of this social structure.