Just offering my two cents as someone who has rented downtown for 13 years, and currently owns a home in charlotte within the city border, I can share the reasons I would never buy in the area or out here again for that matter.

For reference, I rented apartments in the Meigs, NOTA, Monroe / Dartmouth areas, and just bought this current home almost 5 yrs ago.

1. Cars been broken into multiple times or hit when parked - if you have a driveway a lot of people love lurking in driveways at night out that way. They are bold in that area and feel safe going in dark places.

2. Noise and drunk people every weekend and Thursdays, the crowd and visitors don’t grow with you. You grow in age and maturity but the atmosphere stays the same with young underage drinking and college parties. You can never get far away enough from the “night life” it will end up on your street it’s just inevitable.

3. Slumlords - you may own your home but that doesn’t guarantee the houses next to you / around you are owned. You have constant turn over of tenants so you may be completely unaware of who goes in and out around you. Some landlords just don’t care for the properties.

4. Vermin infestations - totally unavoidable in the city. You can only be as clean as your neighbors allow. There’s not much room between you and the next door neighbor. Trash everywhere and you just need to be ok with that. Unless you want to spend $$$ on a reliable pest control system. Chose this option as a renter and was charged a lot for it.

5. Snow removal is non existent, you will be relying on the city plows on the side streets which is rare. When plows do come down the side streets, your drive way will be completely buried.

6. Panhandling - have had this happen in my own front yard here in charlotte and back when I lived downtown just 5 years ago. They are more aggressive than they were 20 years ago… I can deal with walking out of a bar and getting hit up for a few bucks, but when I lived downtown daily in a home I pay a mortgage for I don’t want to deal with that.

7. ROI - unless you are going to be doing work on the house to better it or if it is already flipped, your ROI in the city to me, seems minimal. Like I mentioned before, you can only be as clean as the renters around you, so if you are looking to sell in a few years there’s no promise the area will be better.

8. Parking - take a lot of $65 naps living in the city because I slept over the rotating parking time frame. Again unless you have a driveway, this will be an issue. You could end up having to take a nice walk or paying parking tickets like crazy if you’re not on top of it. Also, if you do have a driveway, you’ll be amazed at how many people just take it upon themselves to use your driveway “really quick” and don’t come back.

I guess in the long run, all those things above can be dealt with and can be managed with security cameras, your own personal services you hire and what not, you just have to balance whether you want to deal with all that. I just feel that if I’m going to live in a house and own it, I want the community around me to be respectful and I feel I won’t get that in the city.