housing blues

A little over a week ago, I saw a news-story on tv about an armed house invasion/burglary in which one person (one of the criminals) ended up shot dead. The house they showed looked very familiar, and I soon realized why - it was the first house I was somewhat interested in, when I started looking for a house this spring. This was very surprising and shocking to me - that something like that had happened at a house I had considered living in. (I had eventually decided I didn't want to buy that house - partially because this was early on, and I wanted to see more houses before choosing one, partially because I had some misgivings about the area, and partially because there were a lot of trees on the south side which might block the winter sun.)

Now this evening, I come across a news-story about 2 people having been shot today in a subdivision where I had been considering buying a house last month - I had even put in an offer for this house, although someone else ended up getting it, not me. The people were shot on a street right next to the one where the house I wanted was. And this is an area which from my own limited research, and from first-hand reports of people living there, was supposedly low-crime! And it seemed to be in a good location for me, so I've been looking for other houses in that area.

My dad was just emailing me this morning about how I should move out of this neighborhood and look for a house in a safer area.... and about how much less crime there is in the Massachusetts town where he lives, than there is here.

And yet, I was also recently thinking about how interesting it is, at least, with all the things that happen here on this street, and about how it might even seem boring by comparison, living somewhere else "safer".