HI, I’m Donna Taylor with Living in Central MS…. today’s video is all about Jackson Mississippi, the good, the bad and the ugly.  I’m making a quick video to day to hopefully answer one of the most frequently “What areas should we focus our search?”  After I get to know that wants and needs, I usually recommend either Madison or Brandon, which are both suburbs of Jackson, but in a different county.  While we are out looking at houses, they almost always ask me why we aren’t seeing any homes in Jackson, or if they have already done their research (Which is usually the case), the next question is how Madison and Brandon are affected by the issues in Jackson.  

So, today I want to talk about the elephant in the room and why I always recommend Madison and Rankin Counties to those looking to relocate to the Jackson, MS Area.

 

First, let’s talk a little about location.  Jackson, which is the capital city of Mississippi is located in Hinds County.  In today’s video, I’m going to compare the 3 cities, so that we are comparing apples to apples.  Brandon, which is in Rankin County is the neighboring county to the East and Madison is the neighboring county to the North.  Madison is both a city and county actually!   Both are great options, and you can usually get a little more bang for your housing buck in Brandon and typically larger lots too…but to get to the nitty gritty…they are simply statistically speaking better places to live.

 

Like I often do, I get most of my information from websites like Niche.com so I can try to keep opinion out and keep it factual.  The grade that niche gives the City of Jackson is a C+.  Madison (the City) gets an A+ and Brandon gets an A.  But, why does that matter…well from a real estate perspective, I’m going to give you my top 3 reasons why Madison and Brandon are the best cities to live in Central Mississippi.

 

  1. Home ownership vs Rental Rate.  In Jackson, only 48% of people own their homes compared to 83% in Brandon and 94% in Madison.  I don’t have to tell you the importance of homeownership vs rental…but it is something to consider when buying a home in a town where more than half of the homes are rentals.  When you buy in a town that has homeowners than renters, there’s a stronger sense of community typically and just generally more pride of ownership and home values tend to rise.  So, in my opinion not only is this first on my list, but it’s most important!
  2. Infrastructure – Now this is something that you can’t see on websites like niche.com, but something any local here can tell you.  The city of Jackson has a LOT of issues with infrastructures.  You can just google that and see varying opinions of why that is, and I will spare you my opinion, but the fact remains that Jackson has its own set of major problems like it’s public water system, issues with trash pickup, streets that are in total disrepair to name a few.  These issues have been going on for years.  Just do a quick google search for Jackson MS water problem and you can read a ton of articles for yourself.  And to be clear, I was born and raised in Jackson and would love to see the city come back to the strong place it was years ago. But, doesn’t seem like that’s happening.  So, the good news is, Madison and Brandon both have their own water systems separate from Jackson, we have our own school systems, police force.  I can’t think of one thing we do share.  So, like many large capital cities, people started seeking suburban living probably back in the 1980’s and since then, Brandon and Madison have both grown exponentially and are still growing today.
  3. So, that brings us to the 3rd reason on my list, which is Real Estate Taxes.  I’ll break down the taxes on a newer construction $400,000 home for each city.  Jackson comes in at the highest which would be around $3,700 and Brandon and Madison both come in around $2,500.  So, if I was paying more taxes, I would certainly expect more from the city’s infrastructure and all the things I’ve already mentioned, but that certainly isn’t the case.  

Now for the good news…for all these reasons, I wouldn’t recommend buying in Jackson, the city is a good neighbor….how can that be you ask?  Well, I’ve give you a few of me and my family’s favorite things to do in Jackson.  We do visit at least once a week. Jackson has Central Mississippi’s only Whole Foods, where we like to do our grocery shopping.  Jackson also has the best restaurants in our area, hands down.  Lots of the restaurants have been around for years, and even some new ones to.  9 out of 10 of our favorite restaurants are in Jackson and we visit them most every weekend.  

 

I hope this video has been helpful in showing you options to living in Jackson, MS.  If there’s anything I didn’t cover, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below and I will try to answer.  If you’re curious about home prices in our area, check out our website at taylorgroupms.com. It has of the listings in our MLS, you can search by city, school, neighborhood, or just about anything that’s important to you.

Taylor Realty Group

601-613-9100