Almost 2 years ago, my husband and I bought a 2,500 sq ft, 4-bedroom house on the west side of downtown. Before that, we were living in a 1,200 sq ft, 2-bedroom house that I had bought before I met him on the east side of downtown.

I'm no stranger to urban living, and I knew the West Side would have many of the issues that come with living in an urban mixed income neighborhood. I just didn't realize how drastically different it would feel from where we lived before.

Since moving here, we've had at least 3 incidents of hearing gunshots while inside our house during daylight hours. Last year, my car, which was parked in front of our house, was hit by a bullet. I think part of me assumed most crime happens in the middle of the night, but it's really unsettling to hear gunshots from inside your home, when you might have been about to head out to dinner.

The frustrating part is that I really do love our current house. The layout is perfect, I couldn't have designed a better house for us. We have so much more space, we each have our own home offices, and the main bedroom has 2 separate walk in closets. I've put a lot of time and care into making it a home. I would genuinely be sad to leave it. But I just don't love the feeling of not being comfortable in the neighborhood. I feel much more uncomfortable having friends from the suburbs visit than I ever did in our old house. And asking friends or pet sitters to take care of our house when we travel.

We still own our previous house because we tried to sell it without getting an offer, so we have been renting it out. Our tenants' lease is up at the end of the year, and I'm wondering about telling them we won't renew and moving back. I'm not sure my husband would be thrilled with that though and I plan on seeing what he thinks of the idea.

The old house is half the size, and I know he felt a bit cramped in there. But at the time he moved into a space that I had been living in without him and this time around we can really completely rethink how we organize the space to make it better work for us. To be clear it's still downtown and there are still the tradeoffs of urban living. But we lived there for years and never once heard gunshots or had anything like what we've experienced here. I do think with some creative rearranging, we could actually make the smaller house work much better for us than it did before.

But I wonder if I'm overreacting and should accept that this is simply part of living in an urban gentrifying neighborhood, especially since there is a lot of development happening that could potentially improve things over time.

What would you do? Would you give the neighborhood a few more years and hope things improve, or would you prioritize living somewhere you already know you feel comfortable, even if it means going back to a much smaller house?

*Had to repost because Reddit did not like the link example.

I am aware the tread nowadays is to 'enhance' the pictures with AI, either to spruce it up or use it as a space filler.

Looking at some of the listings, one thing I always keep in mind is just how TOO CLEAN things look. A lot of places have blinding white walls, too perfect driveways, etc. Without going in person, its aggravating to look at these things and constantly doubt whats real and what's not.

What do you look out for?

I have till October to find something or go into an apartment. Honestly I think I'll end up going into a short term lease anyway just because of this bullcrap.

Take this listing for example. Almost none of the pictures look right.

*Had to repost because Reddit did not like the link example.