Tough day

I am so tired of living in this neighborhood.

There. I said it.

I hate it here.

When we bough this townhouse, we bought at the height of the market. Prices were astronomical. We would have preferred not to buy, but we were left with few options other than continuing to move every 6 months. Every house we had rented over a 3 year period was put on the market time after time because the landlords were realizing that the market was getting soft and they were trying to offload their rentals at a still decent profit. This meant we moved about every 6 months. And doing that really bites, especially for the kids.

This townhouse, in this crappy gang infested neighborhood, is what we were able to afford at the time. And "afford" is a word I am using with some sarcasm, because it is certainly not cheap. But there was nothing, and I mean NOTHING at all in this area that cost less, and if it did cost less it was not in liveable condition. We saw some dismal homes that were going for $360K back in December of 2006.....broken windows, unfinished and unusable bathrooms...roofs that leaked and floors with holes in it...just crazy. The townhouse was nicely restored and in move in condition, so we decided to go for it. Stable rentals were just not around and we had less than a month to find a new place unless we wanted to show the rental to new buyers (something I do not recommend with a house full of kids who homeschool!)

So here we are. The place is small. Small is not bad, if you can utilize the outdoors. Round these parts, I don't recommend it. This is the ghetto. Plain and simple. It looks fairly nice (kindof strange, that) but rest assured that going for a walk could be lethal if done at the wrong time. We have had some bad neighbors. You know it bad when you watch "Lockup" and you see your neighbor's mug shown on TV at Pelican Bay!

The value of the townhouse has dropped so far that even if I could sell it, it would be a an enormous loss. But nothing here is selling anyway. Not a huge surprise.

Today I am tired of the gang bangers roaming the streets with their pants half way down their butts. I am tired of the blatant drug deals. I am tired of having the police department on speed dial. I just want to be able to go to the park or go for a walk, but neither feel safe.

I wish we could leave, but it does not look likely any time soon.

So I guess we bloom where we are planted.

And maybe tomorrow will be a better day.