TRIGGER WARNING: Talks of Gun Violence
For background, the city we live in has a crime rate that’s “higher than average” and typical homeowners are in the median to low income range. However, the city is decent in size (population of 34,000) and borders other cities that are similar in size but have better schools, lower crime, and multi-income ranges. We all reside in a county that shares jurisdictions (this is important to note for later) and most schools have a “school-of-choice” option, meaning you don’t have to attend the school in your district if a close neighboring school district has openings and willing to accept your transfer.
My (31F) husband (M32) and I bought our home in this neighborhood 7 years ago for a listing price of $127k. It has been the perfect starter home for us, single story brick ranch, 3bd, 2bth, finished basement, two car garage, fenced in yard, and we have made updates to it over the years such as a deck in the backyard, new landscaping in both the back and front yard, fresh insulation, and a new water tank. We refinanced in 2020 so we’re sitting pretty with a 3.25% interest, and we love our neighbors and neighborhood.
We adopted a dog shortly after moving in and over the last 6 years of consistent walking, we got to know a lot of the people living in the neighborhood! We observed that we’re right on the border of three cities, so we get a consistent patrol from one particular city’s law enforcement (like it’s their route or something). There’s a lot of retirees living out their paid off mortgages, a handful of DINKs, some families taking advantage of the free pre-k offered at the local elementary (US, MI), or empty nesters. I say all this to bring in a full picture of a quiet, peaceful area, with nice curb appeal, and good neighbors that look out for each other and are friendly. It’s a rare find in our city, but we consider ourselves extremely lucky.
This year, hubby and I both had a lot of professional growth, our incomes combined have provided a nice padding to our savings and we are living comfortably. Also with the increase in the mileage over the voting years, the city has started to invest more into its beautification, roads, and schools, as well as improvements to parks and locally owned businesses so property values are up. Over the summer we considered moving as the house now has a good amount of equity in it, and we don’t intend on this being our “forever home,” but ultimately decided to take advantage of our positions to live below our means for the next several years so we can save for a sizable down payment to buy a home closer to my husbands work (bigger city, bigger homes, bigger properties).
That was… until the home three doors down had a holiday party where someone brought a gun. This is a new neighbor, that we believe are renters. We saw the house go up for sale over the summer, but the listing came down quickly, and according to public records it didn’t actually sell. But there are definitely new people living there that are rough around the edges. Shooed away neighbors coming to introduce themselves, cursed out anyone who looked their way, had late night parties (some of which spilled out into the front lawn), and have just been overall unpleasant to be neighbors with.
We woke up to 6-7 gunshots being fired at 1:37 am on a Sunday night, and screaming and yelling in the street. My husband called 911 and we saw the neighbor city’s police show up before our own. The shooter then ran up our yard, hopped our gated privacy fence, then hopped into my neighbors yard. He eventually got to his car, but by then 3 more cop cars showed up (a mixture of our city and the other’s). He was blocked in via road, so the shooter drives over our lawn, past the cops, and begins a high speed chase down the main road. This was all captured on our Ring doorcam footage. We do know the shooter was caught, it was an isolated incident with family, and no one was seriously injured.
This has me noticeably shaken. It was one incident but with the history of this renter, I’ve seen this play out before. This is exactly how my husband and I ended up at our existing home. We were renting in the same city we are in now, and the house down the street started being rowdy. Cops called daily, all walks of life going in and out of the house, parties and disruptions were the norm, and we left as soon as we could. That house we were renting has stayed at the same value since we left and when we drive past that block it’s just dark and disheveled.
My husband wants to fight the good fight, report the bad apples when they act up, take action with the landlord, and go all the way to the city if we have to. I would much rather get ready to move in 2026. Give ourselves a tight budget after the new year, save up as much as we can, and then when the market swings, cut and run. But I think that’s just my fear. We worked so hard on this house, and we truly love it and love the neighborhood. But others on our block are also considering moving, and have been long before this happened. Like I said, all of our property values are up significantly that folks could make a good chunk of change back in their property investment and retire somewhere warmer.
What would you do?
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1ppq6td/to_move_or_not_to_move_post_shooting/
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