[uola]

Even the "worst" neighborhoods are calm in Stockholm. It's nothing compared to, say, Paris or Brussels. Living in the suburb, you're far more likely to get hurt by boredom than anything else. A lot of people in Stockholm (like in other cities) are bitter of how things have developed in recent years with the financial crisis, youth unemployment and housing situation while at the same time many people have been profited of real estate and consulting. Then they extrapolate this to mean that everyone is doing badly and the country is "going down the drain". I put no judgement in that it's just not particularly relevant for you. Your personal situation is going to overshadow the other factors.

The $100k USD figure is low, it's more like 10x that for a family sized house or apartment in or close to the city. People don't really buy apartments so much as rent them from the bank.

[drakonka]

We ran into this issue when looking for a place to buy. Options were either super expensive tiny apartment in the center or something cheaper but bigger a 10-15 minute train ride away. We looked at a place in "Enskededalen". Googling revealed people talking about how horrible it was, the crime that goes on, how unsafe it is, how they would never move here, etc.

Go to visit the place...and it seems perfect. In a block of houses facing a nice yard and playground as opposed to the road, large space with a porch and balcony, plenty of room for our cats, etc. But I was suspicious. This place was meant to be so bad!

After getting some more opinions we went for it and can honestly say I have no idea what people were so afraid of. The neighborhood seems very safe - children play outside alone, it's quiet, each little house block area takes care of their yard, etc. It is a more multicultural area than say Södermalm, but that is a positive. The most "unsafe" thing I've seen here is groups of teens on walks or having a smoke in the evenings (I was wary of them at first, but have since learned they're harmless) or local toddlers leaving their toy cars underfoot in the shared yard.

[kpil]

Enskede (next to it) is one of the better areas in Stockholm so it's less expensive neighbour Enskededalen is perhaps bad only in comparison.

I think I've might have seen some druggies in the area a few times more than I would expect but that was 15 year ago... But maybe those things stick.

It's definitely not one of those no-go zones.

[kpil]

I think you will find that some suburbs in Stockholm, Malmö and Göteborg will come out rather competitive in regards to crime rate, but I give you that there are areas that are way worse.

Look at the statistics from BRÅ (The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention) - the actual research and statistics, and the trends are clear.

I am not sure were you are going with the "extrapolate" bit, but are you perhaps living in Södermalm, central Stockholm and extrapolate yourself? I've got a nice job (in consulting actually) and a reasonably small loan for my overvaluated house, so I am far from bitter, but it does not change the macro trends.

I'm especially concerned about the inflated house prices, and the long term economical trends in the industral sectors, and the lack of any politicial will to even touch the problems.

You are right about the $100K It was a typo, I corrected it.

[kpil]

But is it really common with grenade attacks in Paris, Brussels and London?

I found one reference to a attack in 2003 in London after a bit of searching. In Sweden, there has at least been 10 or so the last year, with one causalty - the 8 year old that was killed in his bed.

The rest have been explosions outsite apartments - I suppose it's a bit hard to throw a grenade through a window a few stories up. There was also an attack against some policemen in their car - I think they escaped by pure luck.

[manarth]

It seems there have been so many grenade attacks in Sweden that it has its own Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grenade_attacks_in_Swe...