Jamaica Queens?

Yes, it is a BAD neighborhood. Don't buy there. Maybe you can look at Jamaica Estates. I have not been to the estates in more than 10 years so check it out.

Jamaica Estates and Jamaica Hills are nice. Anything on the south side of Hillside Avenue, not so much. Any neighborhood anywhere with bars on the windows of private houses, very very bad.

South Jamaica has one of the highest foreclosure rates in NY.

I recently sold an investment property there. It's not "deadly" like the South Bronx or Crown Heights by any means, but Jamaica is generally considered a "less than desirable address."

In nicer areas, the residents are primarily lower middle class families of color as well as *some* St. John's students. In other areas, there is a LOT of unfortunate, struggling Section 8 families. So, avoiding public housing per se doesn't warrant that you are in a nicer area.

Nothing with the Jamaica address is "nice." With this said, there are also some VERY hard working immigrant families living in the area, and, again, it isn't necessarily dangerous--if that's what you mean by "bad area."

Still, yes, bars-on-windows would be the norm in Jamaica.

Jamaica is large catchment term. It can be broken into several areas, such as Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Center, South Jamaica, Rochdale Village and so on. Fresh Meadows and Jamaica Estates are nice. Jamaica Center is the main "shopping strip" and has a large collection of city and family shelters within its confines. South Jamaica is questionable. There are a lot of boarded up houses... though there has been a recent surge in redevelopment which was sadly halted by the crisis. Anyway, Jamaica is a place I would advise folks to invest with care. Drive by the property at night, get out in the day, walk around. If you are scared b/c the gang members are staring you down, then there isn't much less to say.

Thantos, I have cliens throughout Queens, and I have never heard anyone refer to Fresh Meadows or Jamaica Estates just as "Jamaica." My experience with real estate listings, too, has been similar.

It's sort of like Great Neck (a nice area) being part of North Hempstead (???), but no one ever refers to it when saying "Hempstead" (a horrendous area).