The new buildings downtown are not that expensive and they’re pretty safe from a property crime standpoint. My buddy lives right across from George Bell Carpet in one of those newly redone buildings. If you live in Belhaven or Fondren, there is a 90% chance your car or apartment will get broken in to. If you live in Belhaven Heights (other side of fortification to high st), that jumps to 95%. If he’s dead set on that area his best bet is south of fortification to murrah in Belhaven. I’d avoid Fondren like the plague. If I had to live in that area I’d go downtown in one of those newly redone buildings.
Full disclosure: in my early 20s I passed on Belhaven and Fondren and got a house off cedarhurst kinda behind the old Cherokee. Many would tell you that neighborhood is “worse” than Belhaven/Fondren but I had zero issues for years while all my buddies in Fondren/Belhaven got robbed. And I was the only white guy on my street. My grandmother moved from Council Circle (Fondren) after getting broken in to for the umpteenth time. The problem with that area is proximity. In Fondren you’re literally a cpl blocks from one of the most notorious neighborhoods in Jackson, Virden Addition. We’re talking gang banging, open air drug market, shoot outs in broad daylight.
