Taft Mosswood

The Taft-Mosswood neighborhood is one of these neighborhoods on the far south of Stockton. It’s the kind of neighborhood where there are no sidewalks, the asphalt just giving way to the dirt or grass of homes. That, combined with the fences and the fairly unimpressive set of Ranchers that make up much of this neighborhood give this area its rural feel.

This is definitely not Kansas, however. Not with the level of crime you have here. I was looking at a crime reporting website to see if what I had heard about the crime rate in stockton is true and it looks like it definitely is. There has been at least one murder in this neighborhood in the second half of the 2012, and there has been another 8 more within a mile to the north most in the afternoon during the heat of summer. Those are the kind of crime rates you expect in somewhere like Oakland.

This is not the heart of the crime problem but it is definitely close enough where I would feel a little unsafe. You also get about 2 dozen assaults in this neighborhood and more than 200 in the neighborhoods just to the north. And there have also been more than 300 burglaries and robberies in the area.

Schools are also pretty lousy around here. Edison High is a bit below average and the local elementary school, Taft Elementary is pretty much bottom of the basement.

One thing this neighborhood does have going for it is home prices, with no home selling for more than $100K. Some even falling as low as $25K. These are actually homes. (Granted they are kind of old and ugly.)

I guess, however, you get what you are paying for. The added costs would be the price of living in a crime ridden neighborhood with terrible schools.