My mom is helping me buy a house by contributing $100,000 toward a down payment which came from my grandparents' estate after my grandpa died in July. My mom will essentially be half an owner of my house until I decide I no longer want to live there and can buy a house based on my own income. Since I'm in grad school working toward a career that would likely double my income when I get a job in the field, I don't expect that to be an issue with my next house.
The issue I have been having is that my mom is nixing all of the houses I am interested in because she claims there is too much crime in the area. I keep telling her that she isn't looking at the big picture. She only sees that certain areas have a high crime rate in comparison to other areas of the county without looking at the types of crime. Also, some of the cities in the county don't have their crime data publicly available, so the sites my mom gets her information from don't have the complete information, therefore, skewing the data. I was once looking at a house in a suburb that you'd probably call a sleepy town because nothing happens there. My mom saw there was "high crime in comparison to other parts of the county" until I showed her that the reported crimes were a series of tax fraud charges against the neighbor across the street.
I'm seeing 8 houses tomorrow (with my parents) and I am hoping that I like one of them enough to put in an offer but a lot of them are in the "high crime areas" that my mom thinks exist. I don't know how to convince my mom that there's going to be crime everywhere I look. There's one house I'm really interested in with a backyard that abuts to a wildlife preserve and walking trails. My mom said that I wouldn't be able to walk it alone because of the "crime" even though I go hiking alone all the time. My mom is definitely not the most logical or reasonable person and greatly exaggerates everything, so it might be difficult to convince her.
Do you think I'm being unreasonable? I'm a 33-year-old single woman, so I can understand why my mom is concerned, but I can't afford to live in the areas that my mom would consider "safe-enough." The crime in the areas I'm looking at are primarily burglaries, thefts, and domestic assault, so not a lot of violent crimes against people who don't know the assailant. One of the houses I'm interested in also already has a security system set up, so I'd like to think that would be an advantage. I can already see my mom saying that if it really was safe, there wouldn't be a need for a security system, but I'm fairly certain the security system is there because the owners have a lot of expensive guitars and recording equipment in the house.
The issue I have been having is that my mom is nixing all of the houses I am interested in because she claims there is too much crime in the area. I keep telling her that she isn't looking at the big picture. She only sees that certain areas have a high crime rate in comparison to other areas of the county without looking at the types of crime. Also, some of the cities in the county don't have their crime data publicly available, so the sites my mom gets her information from don't have the complete information, therefore, skewing the data. I was once looking at a house in a suburb that you'd probably call a sleepy town because nothing happens there. My mom saw there was "high crime in comparison to other parts of the county" until I showed her that the reported crimes were a series of tax fraud charges against the neighbor across the street.
I'm seeing 8 houses tomorrow (with my parents) and I am hoping that I like one of them enough to put in an offer but a lot of them are in the "high crime areas" that my mom thinks exist. I don't know how to convince my mom that there's going to be crime everywhere I look. There's one house I'm really interested in with a backyard that abuts to a wildlife preserve and walking trails. My mom said that I wouldn't be able to walk it alone because of the "crime" even though I go hiking alone all the time. My mom is definitely not the most logical or reasonable person and greatly exaggerates everything, so it might be difficult to convince her.
Do you think I'm being unreasonable? I'm a 33-year-old single woman, so I can understand why my mom is concerned, but I can't afford to live in the areas that my mom would consider "safe-enough." The crime in the areas I'm looking at are primarily burglaries, thefts, and domestic assault, so not a lot of violent crimes against people who don't know the assailant. One of the houses I'm interested in also already has a security system set up, so I'd like to think that would be an advantage. I can already see my mom saying that if it really was safe, there wouldn't be a need for a security system, but I'm fairly certain the security system is there because the owners have a lot of expensive guitars and recording equipment in the house.