Ok, so anytime you live in an old apartment complex or one very close to a university...or even an apartment complex in general (unless you are willing to pay rent high enough to be a mortgage payment) there are going to be problems. With that said, Kensington Park is really not a bad place to live. I have lived here for one year, and my husband lived here for two years prior. The neighborhood is not fantastic, but it isn't bad either (and that is not something that will change anywhere on Avent Ferry). I don't believe Kensington allows convicted felons to rent...I know there are no registered sex offenders in the complex (I'm a bit paranoid and check the registry).
The complex is old, and it shows in the winter electric bills, but all windows were replaced in the last year, which helped with that cost. I bought thermal curtains to cover the huge sliding glass door, and that also helped with the heating cost. However, most affordable complexes in this area are old and that just going to be a problem to deal with in the area. They are also renovating the apartments to various degrees as people move out (I believe everyone will find new carpet and appliances in a renovated apartment, possibly more depending on the unit). The renovated apartments really are nice, and I don't think they have pictures of them on the website, so keep that in mind if you haven't actually seen one in person.
For a complex that is so close to NCSU (the location is great, right next to the Wolfline) I really haven't had problems with college students partying. Many of the students here are foreign, graduate students, or students that seem to be of a more serious type and things stay pretty quiet. I have neighbors that can be loud (and they aren't even college students), but it's not terrible, and dealing with that is part of living in an apartment. And when we are in our room we never hear anything (the bedroom doesn't share a wall...very nice design). The layouts of the apartments (from the ones that I've seen) are really open, which is a very nice feature.
Pet policy is the best one I have found, which is a really nice feature if you have them.
We've only had a problem requiring maintenance once in our stay. Our a/c wasn't working (we called it in on Sunday). On Monday they came and said the big unit needed to be replaced. Ours wasn't working after that so they came back and discovered that our individual unit was broken as well. The entire thing was replaced that day with a new one. The maintenance man was here until almost 7 pm fixing it so we would have a/c for the night. The workers were foreign, but anyone I spoke with spoke very good English, so it wasn't a problem. They were also respectful, quiet, and quick in repairing the unit.
I know some people have complained about bugs. We haven't had any problem with roaches, but perhaps it is more of a problem on lower floors' I put roach traps out for a couple of days before we moved in and didn't find anything. I have never seen any rodents or anything like that. We did have an ant problem last summer, but it was resolved with some ant traps, not a big deal.
The office staff at Kensington are great. They are always friendly, and in any experience I have had with them they have been very helpful. I have dealt with the more corporate type complexes, and the experience was not good, I prefer to be treated as more of a person than a number. I really have only good to say about any of my encounters with the women in the office.
Overall, I have enjoyed my stay here. I have recommended the complex to a friend and would do so again. Don't just dismiss this place, at least come take a look.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/14/2009
If you checked the registry and were paranoid you would notice that there are 5 child sex offenders, 1 sexual battery offender, and 1 rape offender just down the street from you
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/26/2009
Maybe you live on a different side of the complex...I have only seen police cars twice (for cars broken into during a rash of GPS robberies in Raleigh - the officers said these were happening all over the city). As a side note this also happened in my parents neighborhood of $300,000 houses in the suburbs. Last year a man died of natural causes (he was elderly), but that is the only death I heard of in the last year.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/26/2009
Did you know that there has been atleast 1 murder in the last 1 year? The victim turned out to be a drug dealer who was murdered because of the drug thing who always did look suspicious. I have seen the police visit the apartments so many times when the scary gangs have been making noise outside. It was definitely scary to move around the apartment after dark.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates