The sound issues are real. Lowell should tighten up the local building code wrt sound isolation. I'm lucky wrt considerate neightbors. I've grown to like hearing some 'sounds of living' from the neighbor upstairs. 'Attitude adjustment' and 'having realistic expectations to start' are coping mechanisms.

Some noise happens like clockwork and that makes it easier to take because you know when it is going to stop. I put on my noise cancelling headphones for 20 minutes at the same time every week.

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> why are they cheaper lol?

A lot of new units have come on line in the last few years. Developers have wanted to increase occupancy rates quickly, so rents are attractive by design. I would expect rents to go up. Prices on condos in Lowell have climbed rather slowly over the last 20 years, partly because of so many new units coming on line every year. That's good if you're buying now. Not so great for those of us who bought 20 years ago.

Maybe prices and rents in Lowell are a bit lower than say Worcester because of reputation. Look at some of the 'best places to live' posts in r/massachusetts and see how perceptions of Lowell are varied. Some of that is reasonable because for example, the Jackson street area was a bunch of abandoned buildings until a few years ago. Some of that is negativity towards immigrant communities, and low-middle income people.

WRT grilling, I guess that is fun... but I would rather get Southeast Asia BBQ! The variety of restaurants in Lowell is insane and some places are incredibly good values.

Love Worthen House. Inexpensive food and drinks, relaxed atmosphere.

Not totally vegan, the bachelor wrap has egg and cheddar.

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Dutton ST condos are nice, I did work in a few of them. These are in the building that used to be the Lowell Textile Museum. The problem with units built into brick buildings are heating/cooling and sound. The units are leaky. If your upstairs neighbor has pets or children you will hear all of it all of the time.

Do you mind if I PM you if I have any questions on specific places? Thanks.

I lived in the Boott Mills apartments for about 3 years. It is a nice, quiet part of downtown with the Summer Music Series closely accessible with Boardinghouse Park being on the premises. Super walkable to downtown. Plus, there is the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk is really nice if you have a dog or if you want some greenspace to have a picnic at for a little bit of a backyard-ish space to spread out. It was mostly families and young/older professionals, not many students.

I am a huge fan of the Old Court. Cozy, safe, welcoming atmosphere and solid menu options for dinner. The owners are really good folks who take care of their staff and customers. Tuesday night trivia is a fun time as are the monthly trad sessions of Irish music. I've been hanging out there for 20 years and it's always my favorite pub in Lowell.

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Another fun spot is El Potro. Great margaritas and Mexican fare and festive decor.

Yeah unfortunately there’s no grilling area.

Warp and Weft also has a great mocktail menu! I recently had to give up alcohol and being able to enjoy custom mocktails is just fantastic.

This is a great answer, thanks for taking the time to be so detailed.

Happy Cakeday, you are an approved submitter on /r/LowellMA with a 4 hour old account!

That property looks like it would fit a lot of our needs - they have some significantly larger units that are well priced (which scares me a bit - why are they cheaper lol?).

Only thing is it doesn't look like they have any kind of outdoor grilling area, do they?

I lived in the Jackson street lofts (loft 27) for 3 years (2018-2021). The maintenance/leasing staff were super friendly and quick to respond to any issues. I never met my neighbors in 3 years and the close proximity to downtown was awesome for walking to get dinner/coffee /drinks etc.

Would definitely live there again if I moved back to the area. Rents have gone up a ton since I moved out in 2021 though.

They did back in 2006 at least... Only places I can confidently say that have it these days are the Acton Bowladrome and FunWorld in Nashua. Fingers crossed for Lowell though!

Omg they have DDR? This changes everything.

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Lived in 305 Dutton for a bit. Way to expensive for students but it was pretty much all young professionals and families. They allowed two pets of any variety with no fee. It was great to be able to walk downtown and they gave up to two parking spots in their lot as well. Their tow guys were also amazing, I've legit seen them tow a car into the visitor spot instead of taking it.

All I'd say is I 100% saw mice on the first floor / basement when taking the elevator. I lived on the 3rd and never saw bugs or mice in my apartment (I also have cats though). They do treat for them though yearly.

People also hand out the key to the front door way to easily for delivery drivers / friends to expect any kind of security. Thankfully packages always go to another locked door (but at Christmas it gets over flooded and a bunch won't make it).

I always assumed the loud people out front didn't live here. A quick call to the non-emergency police line gets a car over pretty quick to quiet em down.

I have a lot of experience with Lowell's old mill buildings, being an artist studio renter and a loft tenant for over 15 years. Here's my take on them, the good the bad and the ugly (without naming names)

There are some places that are advertised as lofts but they're not lofts. At all. They are very cramped dimly lit 2-story dens that are very expensive (well, now... not when they opened) for what you get. But their location is great, you can walk to everything.

There are some lofts that are moderately to very new and are actual lofts with nice amenities (or at least were nice about 8-15 years ago when they were new), and some even advertise themselves as "luxury lofts", but the complexes are so enormous and have so many units that nobody has any sense of responsibility or community to one another and people are noisy, violent at times, litter everywhere, make messes in stairwells and so on. Some of these places are headed towards being horrible places to live within the next 10 years. Be on the lookout for how the grounds are kept. Are the sidewalks clear of ice? Is there dog poop anywhere? Do people loiter outside and disregard "no smoking signs" because there is no consequence? I would consider these red flags... while not indicative of an actual ongoing problem, they signal a slew of potential problems if not rectified or solved.

There are some lofts that have no Section 8 housing agreements (lower income) and so you could consider these places somewhat more discriminatory in that in order to move in you pretty much need to have a job that makes the kind of money where you can afford it. In some way, this does help with some of the problems you see in the types of places I mentioned in the paragraph before. However you still have other problems. These units tend to be very large "giant boxes" so-to-speak, and so, sure, they are more "pricy". They also have cracked concrete floors and ceilings in some cases. These are very low-frills places to live. However, you will not find a better deal per square foot in Lowell or even the greater Merrimack River Valley area as far as I can tell. Think about it like this: if 700-1200 sq ft. apartments in Lowell are renting for $1200-1600 a month, you can get 1600 sq ft. for a couple hundred bucks more at this place. That's a hell of a lot of space which you can do whatever you want with. You will not find that much square footage in a relatively safe place near amazing amenities as far as I can tell. The only requirement is that because one of these places I'm talking about is owned by a major Boston-based arts non-profit, you have to be in the arts/creative (including music, architecture, dance, performance, theater, etc.) industry of some kind. But there are some which have extra rooms, better amenities, nice wooden beams, awesome parking, but they cost a lot more per square foot.

That said, almost all of these kinds of places I've talked about have significant to serious noise issues. Developers will go on record and tell you that "they were all built at least to Massachusetts at minimum sound-reduction requirements". However, those minimum requirements, i suspect, were determined based on structures that were intended to be housing. And not former mills where the 1st floor's ceiling is, literally, the 2nd floor's floor. That means if you live below someone, you will hear their high heels, chopping vegetables, and I kid you not... sweeping. Because sound travels better through solid objects. The mills weren't built with sound isolation between floors so you no matter how much dampening you put in the drywall between units, you will still get a ton of contact noise traveling from 2nd to 1st floor.... and sometimes even across units because of metal beams that go through dozens of units.

I have lived in 240 Jackson St (Mill No 5) and 161 Jackson St. Both are mill style buildings.

• There's not a lot of students, because it's both a bit pricier than other options in the area and it's fairly far from UML.
• There's a variety of people living in these buildings. I'm 30 years old and my neighbors are an old couple in their 50's and early 20-something white collar workers.
• Anything in Jackson St is great, being in/so close to Mill No 5 is great! Lots of stuff to do and farmer's market on Sundays means groceries are super easy. The other ones downtown are fine too but are less nice than the ones in the Jackson St area. 240 Jackson St is all 2-BR condos! 3rd floor units are bigger but 6th floor has central air so pick your poison

see a movie at the Luna, browse the shops, and treat yourself to ice cream

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We initially would be looking to rent until we get familiar with the area, but would definitely be open to renting a condo as well.