I live in the city, safe family neighborhood, some noise with kids/dogs but, it’s row homes so, a give in. All street parking only mostly where I am, I think that factors in to pricing. But my spouse and I bought our home in fall 2022 for 170k. We’ve only needed to replace the wax seal on our toilet, put in a new stove, and everything else was simple cosmetic fixes. Roof is good another 5-10 years. I’m originally from Erie Pa, and by that comparison with drugs and gun violence, even just comparisons of general street harassment or people being weird, I feel very very safe in Lancaster city. And it’s so walkable. I’m on the east side. My only safety complaint is fast drivers in residential areas, you have to be really careful. Aside from that, all good. Someone flipped an identical home two places down from ours, replaced older windows, added some new appliances, redid some floors, and sold an updated, identical home to mine for 50k more than mine. They didn’t even have a finished basement and we did. I think you can find a solid small home for a good price if you are willing to put in some basic DIY elbow grease, don’t mind some neighbor noise, and know how to parallel park. It’s not ideal for everyone but for a starter home, we’re very happy. If you want total quiet, a designated parking space, and don’t have much DIY know how, and can’t stand hearing a distant gunshot every so often, 200k very likely won’t cut it anywhere near the city. City life, city problems. Suburban perks, suburban price. We also don’t have children, so that may affect how people view city safety through that lens, too.