Church Avenue House / Rialto / Fatima/Herberton

Looking at buying one of these -
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=475929

Pros:
Decent size house - 110sqm - 3 bedroom, 3 bath, garden.
Well fitted out - nice kitchen, bathroom
Near town / good transport links
Rialto village seems nice - shops, pubs, cafes, etc..

Cons
??
The house is part of the re-development of the former fatima mansions.
The house itself backs onto new council houses.

There's lots of positive press coverage about this project but how much of it is true??

So concerns are:
Is it safe?? I have 2 young kids. there's houses with high fences and barbed wire..not a good sign?
Are there many other "middle class families / proffesionals" with young kids in the area? (sorry if I sound like a snob)
How do the mix of new arrivals (e.g. in the nice herberton apartments) and the older locals get on? What are my new neighbours like? Is there a community spirit?
What's the ratio between the two - i.e. former fatima mansions residents - and newbies.
- Also what % of those apartments haven't sold? If they don't sell what happens to them? Council?
- Is the area noisy? I need my sleep...

Have a slight paranoid fear that this project won't work if the irish economic situation continues to deteriorate. I.e. the government has poured money into this and that money will now dry up. And if people aren't working + disenfranchised etc the whole thing could just return to being a dangerous, run-down inner city estate...and obviously the house would be hard to sell

So:
Has anyone else looked at these houses? Thoughts??
Have you put an offer in?? How much??

What do current residents think of the area?
Have you moved in recently? Regret it??
Do you feel safe?? Any incidents??

Honest feedback / thoughts would really be appreciated. obviously everyone has their own opinion on the market and how much further it will fall etc... (i persoanlly think houses in central dublin are close to bottoming out soon) so more concerned about the area and it's prospects v. similiar areas (Inchicore, Crumlin, Ringsend etc) as this will determine it's future value / and general happiness there!

Cheers!!

p.s. None of the above is meant to offend any residents - from what i've seen of the area and the project I like.... Just throwing my worst fears out there - based on the reputation the area once had...

I rented in Rialto cottages for a year, and liked the area and never had any problems. It was nearly all older people living there. There were bigger houses across the lane from us (we lived down a little lane with no car access) and some nice middle class families. Everyone very friendly, and looked out for each other. Lots of the old people still kept keys in the door during the day!

Doubt the Herberton development will ever be finished to be honest. Can't see shops, etc moving in any time soon. The gym is fab, but I've heard they've had to reduce prices to €30 a month to get members.

Rialto village is lovely - Ennis butchers is the best...people come from all over Dublin. Bird Flanagans is a nice pub, but the other one, with the metal bars over the windows looks really dodgy, never went in there. Good selection of shops, post office, builder providers, great place to get Christmas trees and coal (Daveys) and people in the shops quickly get to know ya and have a chat.

Des and Aidan Bishop live in Rialto, so don't know what that says really about the class of people, but can't be too bad.

There are a lot of dodgy looking teenagers who hang about outside the chipper or by the Luas line. Sundays by the Luas line seems to be where Dads take their kids to run around while drinking cans of cider, so that can be a bit intimidating. But all in all, the area has a nice working class community feel.

I'm in Kilmainham now, not far down the road, and while I prefer the area I'm in now, still go up to Rialto for the butchers and the shops.

It's a nice area - I used to live very close to there and use the LUAS stop daily - absolutely fine.