Nice places to live?

Emily2me · January 2010

My husband and I have a house in Norwood at the moment, but we are looking to buy a new home. We have been working with a realtor and basically just looking in the Oakley, Hyde Park, Mt Washington, Anderson areas. Our realtor told us today that we should consider building a home in an area a little further out from the city, since we can get a lot more for our money. I think she mentioned Goshen, Morrow, Lebanon, etc. Does anyone have any recommendations? We are looking for an area with young families- we are 24, 25. TIA!

kelklump · January 2010

I am not sure if you are willing to live out that far, but Goshen, Morrow and others are pretty far out. Yes, you get to build, but if you are looking to stay more central, that is more of a drive. It would all depend on where you work, and how long you are willing to drive. Mark and I are also looking in the Oakley, HP, Anderson area for a house and I agree its hard to find what you want without paying a ton. Good luck!

buckeyethor · January 2010

i think it depends on what you want. if you are always closer to the city and spending hours driving back and forth all the time it is not worth it. i like to have the convenieces of living in the suburbs as opposed to the small towns north of the city.

Moesten · January 2010

What is most important to you in a home? Space, move-in condition, no reno, large yard, charm, convenient to restaurants and bars? How long will you be in this house? If you intend to raise a family in this house that would definitely impact my decision about location. Building in Goshen (or Morrow or Lebanon or any other town out there) vs. a charming starter in Oakley are like two different worlds. It seems maybe you and H should prioritize what it is you want out of a house and that might help you decide if building in the outer burbs is for you.

WA1215 · January 2010

I know some friends who have built further out- goshen, and their neighborhood they cant get more people to build new homes on their street to fill it out. They have been there for about 5 years.

I would base your house buying decision more on schools (public or near private), neighbors (be careful with Mt. washington, it seems to be having more and more trash and lower class moving in, imo), and how close it is to your work and family.

I would honestly, drive around and see neighborhoods to get a feel for what you like. It took us 9 months to find what we wanted. If you find a house you like, see it many times and even go to check it out during the day, night and weekend to see how your house looks, and neighbors.

GL!

WA1215 · January 2010

Moesten:
What is most important to you in a home? Space, move-in condition, no reno, large yard, charm, convenient to restaurants and bars? How long will you be in this house? If you intend to raise a family in this house that would definitely impact my decision about location. Building in Goshen (or Morrow or Lebanon or any other town out there) vs. a charming starting in Oakley are like two different worlds. It seems maybe you and H should prioritize what it is you want out of a house and that might help you decide if building in the outer burbs is for you.

Ditto this, excellent advice!

buckeyethor · January 2010

my husband and i went back and forth about this for months. we loved what we could get in monroe/trenton in a home for the price but i just couldn't see myself living there re: libraries, travel times, interstate access. we finally went with a slightly higher price range and got everything we wanted and more in an area with the amenities we wanted.

daves_sweetpea · January 2010

Part of it depends on what you want. You can walk to shops in Oakley or Hyde Park but not in the way out areas. I'm surprised they suggested building if you're also looking in areas like that. Those situations & neighborhoods are so different! I'm a city girl and dh is a country boy so we'd never be able to agree. well, we'd probably pick Anderson as a compromise-but we're west side, not east, ha-ha!

tasha859 · January 2010

At 24, 25 I'd want to live in a more central location. Yeah, you get more for your money, and in exchange you live in Goshen, Morrow or Lebanon. What about resale value? My good friend lives in Lebanon, or as I like to call it "Southern Columbus", she has a nice home and a quiet street... a perfect place to live if you're in the witness protection program. What about Pleasant Ridge, Ft Thomas, Clifton?

Christine.Louie · January 2010

Hyde Park is going to be the most expensive option near the city. Oakley is slightly cheaper and practically the same place so a better value. I hear people also searching in Pleasant Ridge as an inexensive option near Hyde Park/Oakley, too. Keep in mind all these houses are older, generally not as much "bang for your buck", and Cincinnati school district. The area tends to have younger people and Cincinnati transplants. I love the walkability and central location in town but for me, the Cincy school district killed the deal for me and DH doesn't like old/wood houses.

If you like older houses and are OK with Cincy schools, also consider the Clifton Gaslight District. There are beautiful houses there with tons of character. DH and I loved living nearby when we went to college and for a couple years between graduation and buying our house last year.

If you want to build, the only one I'd even consider from the 3 that were mentioned by your realtor is Lebanon. My friend built in S. Lebanon and got a beautiful house for a great price. Goshen and Morrow are eh IMHO. I think that Goshen just had a school levy fail?

When we were considering building, we were looking at Carmelle (Mason), Rosemont (Deerfield/Mason), Keehner Meadows (West Chester) and Bethany Station (West Chester). School district was very important to us and these were in reputable districts. There are some younger couples (we are 25, 27, no kids and not expecting) but not nearly as many as in Hyde Park/Oakley. In the end we decided we didn't want to deal w/ the hassle of building.

If you are looking at suburbs but existing homes, our top pick was Blue Ash but there was nothing that we liked for our price point. Our second pick is where we ended up, which is an existing subdivision in Deerfield but Mason schools and close to 71 and not too far north. Our particular neighborhood only has a couple younger couples out of about 100 houses...most have toddlers as the neighborhood is 5-6 yrs old and at the time they were about our stage in life...getting ready to have a family.

I don't know anything about Mt. Washington and I think Anderson is also more families and decent school district. We didn't consider anything East of 71, though.

HTH and good luck with your house search! Sending house dust your way . It's lots of fun though at times it can be overwhelming. It took us 9 months to find our house (we had pretty strict criteria though as we plan to be here for quite awhile).

Emily2me · January 2010

Thanks everyone for your honesty. We have been working with our realtor for about 4 months now, so we have definitely explored a few options thus far. I think our realtor sees that every time we find a home that we like we say "we would make an offer if a, b and c were updated"... so obviously finding a new home close to downtown in our price range has been difficult. We are not willing to sacrifice quality for location. I lived in Mt Lookout for 6 years during and after college, so I feel like I got my fill there. I appreciate the advice about school district and which areas would be better- like Lebanon over Goshen. I guess we have a lot of research to do! We aren't in a rush so we definitely plan to take our time and learn a lot about the area before moving there. Thanks again and I welcome any further advice!!

Christine.Louie · January 2010

You know if you're up for the challenge and have the budget, updating can be fun AND you can get a house in a location that you enjoy. We gutted our entire kitchen on the day that we closed and just re-did the whole thing even though it was only 4-5 yrs old...people thought we were nuts! The kitchen was very basic and totally didn't match the rest of the house so it was almost a show stopper for us. We then realized that because the house was about $30k cheaper than our limit we could take that money and re-do the kitchen...and we did hardwood through a lot of the first floor while we were at it.

Remember what they say in real-estate...location location location! I'd rather have a dream location with a house that I can update through the years vs. a dream house in a crap location.

Feel free to page or PM me if you have Qs. I'm a Cincy native and this whole house buying craziness is still very fresh in our minds since we bought just over 6 mths ago .

Future.Mrs.Shawty · January 2010

Emily,

When are you planning on having kids? Morrow is experiencing a really big crisis with their school district right now (where we live). If I would have known this would happen when we built our house, I would have never moved into this school district.

School district is HUGE HUGE HUGE!!!! You may not pay much attention to that now, but you need to if you plan on having kids or selling your home in 5-8 years.

If I could do it all over again, I would have found something in Mason's school district. Yes, the property taxes are higher, but that's because the residents there know what it takes to maintain an EXCELLENT school district. If you're willing to look as far as Morrow, maybe you should try Mason first.

Second - you don't want to live in SOUTH Lebanon. Yes, you can build cheap there - but that's for a reason..... We looked at a home and the builder said to our realtor, "Now..your buyers know about this area, right?" And proceeded to talk about the blue collar type of people that don't take kindly to "outsiders." (Nothing wrong with blue collar people...it's just the mentality that was scary in this part of town) PLUS - we drove past the elementary school that our kids would be attending and the playground looked like a prison yard.

Let me know if you need more information as far as school districts go - ESPECIALLY Little Miami since I'm battling that levy issue right now.

PS. Don't go to Goshen either.

MsEmilyAnn · January 2010

DH and I live in Anderson and LOVE IT. It's close to most things, and it's right on a LOT of express buses downtown, which is great for DH. We looked at A LOT of houses to find the right one in Anderson, but we got lucky with finding this house in our budget and not having to do a lot of work to it. Anderson has a great school district, and I think that is a very important aspect to focus on, since it greatly affects the re-sale of your home.

If you are building, I'd suggest Lebanon over Goshen (better schools...I think). Although I know a lot of teachers from Goshen who are awesome. There are lots of new neighborhoods going up in both areas, but you won't get many trees if you are looking into building. I just wouldn't want to live out that far, unless our jobs were out there.

I suggest maybe looking in Milford and Miami Township for finding more for your money but still being on the east side of town.

MsEmilyAnn · January 2010

WA1215:
I would base your house buying decision more on schools (public or near private), neighbors (be careful with Mt. washington, it seems to be having more and more trash and lower class moving in, imo), and how close it is to your work and family.

There are in fact, some very nice areas of Mt. Washington, and you can spend a decent amount of money on a house. However, there are some streets to steer clear of, and you will know them once you see them. However, this is true for all areas of town. If you find a fixer upper on a nice street, you could make a great deal of money.

ETA: If you want to get the best bang for your buck, don't go for "only the best" school districts, but those are are good but don't have to be the highest. Your home value will stay or increase, but homes will be more affordable. Also take into account if you want diversity and/or culture in your neighborhood. Places like Blue Ash, Maderia, Mason, Landen, etc. you will have an even harder time finding a good home for your money, than places like Anderson, Milford, Deerfield, West Chester, Kings Island area, etc.

dmellis02 · January 2010

I don't know how you feel about Northern Kentucky, but my husband and I bought a house in Hebron back in August and we don't have any regrets. The neighborhood has a mixture of young people (like my husband and I) and older people. If you work downtown though you may have a problem with traffic, but I drive to UC every morning and I enjoy the drive.

LnA5909 · January 2010

Having worked in Goshen schools, I can say that I most certianly would not send my kids there. However, I would strongly consider living there and sending my kids to private schools. You can buy some beautiful houses on great pieces of land for not too much money. I'm also one of those people that would prefer a big, big yard over a neighborhood feel.

WA1215 · January 2010

MsEmilyAnn:
WA1215:
I would base your house buying decision more on schools (public or near private), neighbors (be careful with Mt. washington, it seems to be having more and more trash and lower class moving in, imo), and how close it is to your work and family.
There are in fact, some very nice areas of Mt. Washington, and you can spend a decent amount of money on a house. However, there are some streets to steer clear of, and you will know them once you see them. However, this is true for all areas of town. If you find a fixer upper on a nice street, you could make a great deal of money.

We have lived in Mt. Washington for the last 4 years. I have seen Mt. Washington go downhill as far as people who are moving in here. You are absolutely right in saying that there are some nice areas (left side of beechmont coming from Bigg's down to clough)...but they are becoming less and less. The biggest problem with Mt. Washington are the renters I think. Our neighbor just moved out of state and will be renting the house out...I fear for what kind of new neighbors/renters we will get. I would stay away from the area around behind and beyond the water tower...but thats me.

rachel06 · January 2010

I have a friend that in the past year or so bought a new home in Morrow. It's beautiful and she loves it! They previously lived in Mason but were in the same situation as you and couldn't find the house they wanted in the price range they were willing to spend. I love the area and her house is beautiful.

Also have a friend who is a nestie but posts on the baby board and is currently building a house in Lebanon now. Her home is almost complete and it's beautiful. I personally love the Lebanon area too. I don't know too much about Goshen so I can't personally offer any information.

I think you should definitely check out those areas if you think it's something you might be interested in. Each person will have their own opinion and you may love an area while others would never build/live there because of their personal preferences.

jenn1981 · January 2010

My neighborhood is fairly new, there are some homes for sale and they are still building on the back side of it. It's in the suburbs but still less than 20 minutes from downtown which I really love. It's called Bridgepoint- which is RIGHT off of the harrison/rybolt exit off of I-74 in Green Township.

I really love our house and the area. Ours is toward the front of the neighborhood so it's about 6 years old since it was one of the first built. There are lots of young families and it's Oak Hills schools which are great! If you have any other questions send me an email!!

lakota99@aol.com

stillwaiting12 · January 2010

I grew up in Batavia (CNE school district) and had a ton of friends in the Goshen area. I now live near Anderson and I have to say that I don't ever want to move back to the Batavia/Goshen area! Not because of anything bad, I just like living closer to the city and 275 now. My parents are only 15-20 minutes from me but I feel like it is so far out of the way now! You can definately get more house for your money out there, but you really have to think about if you will like having to drive 15 minutes to a grocery store or 20 minutes plus to a mall etc.. Of the areas you mentioned I would pick Anderson or I would do the Milford/Loveland area. You can get homes in Milford on the Goshen side that are reasonable in price but still in the Milford district and still close to everything.

sara401 · January 2010

I've lived in Maineville for the past 6 years and we're moving to Lebanon next week. Maineville is a cute area with a lot of young people. My issue with this area is that the majority of the subdivisions have really small lots. In our old house, I felt like we were literally living on top of our neighbors. Plus, the school systems are not good right now. You have all the necessities out there - 2 Krogers (within 5 minutes away), Target(within 5-10 minutes away) and Kohls(within 5-10 minutes away ) along with some restaurants and other small stores.

I love shopping and having dinner with friends in Columbus and it's always been so convenient for me to jump on 71 and be up there in no time.

Most of our friends are in the city or in northern Kentucky and I NEVER felt like I was too far out.

Prior to moving out north, we were in Hyde Park. I loved it there, but we could have afforded an old 2 bedroom/1 bath house for what we paid for our brand new 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house with a full basement in Maineville. On top of that, we'd have to pay for private schools for our future children.

Now, we're moving to Lebanon. We did a lot of research on the northern part of Cincinnati. The most important thing to us was to have a decent lot and some privacy at our new home. Lebanon is a super cute town with a lot of character. It doesn't have everything you need, but everything is within 10-15 minutes. We're going to live in the city limits and it's nice and quiet and we were able to get an amazing deal on a house. We're going to be on the west side of Lebanon and it will still only take us about 5-7 minutes to get to a very nice Kroger.

Lebanon & Morrow are more central than Goshen. However, I would choose Lebanon any day over the other two.

MsEmilyAnn · January 2010

Yea...I can only account for certain teachers in one particular grade in Goshen, but overall I know the district isn't great.

I suggest buying outside of the Cincinnati Public School area, and most likely you will be fine.

P.S.- don't buy the best house on the block

Future.Mrs.Shawty · January 2010

Emily - talk to me before you do any deciding out my way. There are reasons you can steal houses are here.

Bridget_11 · January 2010

We were in a similar situation as you. I had a house just north of Norwood and we looked in the same areas that you are. We ended up moving to Anderson and I LOVE it here. We are out of Cincinnati Public Schools, but we are still close to everything...downtown & Mt Lookout are 10 mins away. Plus Anderson has all the restaurants and shopping that we need. As far as house for the money...we got a steal on an estate sale, but there are some good deals and you do get alot of house for your money.

While I'm not familiar with some of the further areas I would NOT recommend Goshen. My friend live out there and worked for the city and hated it. She last about 12 months, sold her house and moved away when she found out she was pregnant. She wanted nothing to do with the city or schools out there.

KristenBtobe · January 2010

We live in Pleasant Ridge and love it. The character of older neighborhoods is something we enjoy. Plus we are convenient to Kenwood, Hyde Park, etc. Our commute is very easy too.

City living isn't for everyone, but CPS has some very schools and to us it's important that our kids are in a diverse community.

yodasmistress · January 2010

He have a house next door to Mt. Airy Forest and love it. We have a wooded back yard, tons of wildlife, over an acre of land... AND we're 10 minutes from downtown Cincy. I can't even imagine driving in from Goshen every day - what a waste of my life!

RFKD82909 · January 2010

We are moving to Lebanon in Feb. My DH grew up in Lebanon and thats where we have decided to raise our family. Its close enough to everything you need without being on top of it. We are within walking distance to one of the elementry schools, the library and the shops in downtown. We got an amazing price on our home and with a little tlc can get a lot more out of it than we are paying. Dh works in blue ash and i work about an hour north so its close enough for us to commute. We are 24 and 26.

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