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My husband and I are looking to relocate to the Cincinnati area within the next year. We recently visited and really liked Hyde Park. Also, we liked Glendale and Mt. Adams. Our goal is to spend between $225,000 - $250,000, but are willing to go up to $300,000. I am looking for some more insider information on Hyde Park. From what I have found on-line it has low-crime, is this true? Also, I am concerned with the school district. We do not currently have children, but are looking for our next home with children in mind. What do people that live in Hyde Park do? Are most of the children attending private schools?
Are there other areas which we should consider? We also drove around West Chester, but it seemed a little too cookie cutter.
Location: Somewhere along the path to where I'd like to be.
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Originally Posted by wherenext?
My husband and I are looking to relocate to the Cincinnati area within the next year. We recently visited and really liked Hyde Park. Also, we liked Glendale and Mt. Adams. Our goal is to spend between $225,000 - $250,000, but are willing to go up to $300,000. I am looking for some more insider information on Hyde Park. From what I have found on-line it has low-crime, is this true? Also, I am concerned with the school district. We do not currently have children, but are looking for our next home with children in mind. What do people that live in Hyde Park do? Are most of the children attending private schools?
Are there other areas which we should consider? We also drove around West Chester, but it seemed a little too cookie cutter.
Thank you in advance for your advice!
You have to think about what's more important.....do you want to live in a great school system, or do you want a unique neighborhood with no cookie cutter homes?
Interesting note.....I grew up in Cincinnati, and we lived in a cookie cutter home. My grandmother lived in Cincinnati, and she owned a home on a street where all the houses looked exactly the same. The cookie cutter homes we lived in were simply built much earlier in the 1900s, that's all.
Yes, Hyde Park is relatively low-crime. But so is West Chester. And for the money you want to spend, you would probably have a MUCH easier time finding a decent home, with a decent yard, in West Chester as opposed to Hyde Park. And you definitely wouldn't find something in Mt. Adams. It's massively expensive up there, and no yards at all. Glendale is nice, but Princeton Schools aren't the best.
Hyde Park is lovely, but you've got the Cincinnati Public School system to deal with. I can't imagine, though, that everyone in Hyde Park sends their kids to private schools. CPS has a lot of magnet elementary and junior high schools that are popular.
All I can tell you about the crime in Hyde Park is that it's there, but so are the District 2 police headquarters. Friends of mine in Hyde Park have had their cars broken into regularly; I lived in a much less "desirable" neighborhood (Madisonville), often forgot to lock my doors, and never had a problem.
Other areas that are somewhat similar are Wyoming, Glendale, Madeira, or Mariemont. Mariemont, which I know most about, is a 1920s-era planned town with a small-town feel to it. It's a gorgeous town, very walkable, with a repertory movie theater, restaurants, town square, decent schools; however, it also has the reputation of being a little snobby. Madeira also has a small-town feel, a wide range of housing, and also has good schools.
I'm from Glendale, and so am biassed, but here are my two cents:
Glendale is much better value for dollar than Hyde Park. Homes in Glendale usually start at 100 x 200, with much more depth and privacy than Hyde Park. The local school is that: local. Yes, there are some concerns about the "diverse" nature of the school system, but having graduated from it, and returning back as a substitute, I can confirm that Glendale elementary offers lots of unique opportunities which other schools do not, including small class size. The high school has a wealth of options for performing students, including a variety of languages, AP and International Baccalaureate, and strong music and arts programs. If you don't like public, there are some good private schools around, too.
Glendale is convenient to a lot of things, right off 75 and 275. It has a small town, cozy feel. Check out Glendale's web site about what's going on and take in an evening concert after dinner at the Grand Finale, the Pub or the Iron Horse restaurants. Bluebird bakery has scones and coffee to die for, and opens at 6:00 am. It really is a lovely quality of life.
As for crime, where there are people and there are surroundings, there is crime. Friends and relatives in Hyde Park have had some experiences. In Glendale, however, it is so small that the local police know you and your car, and really do keep an eye on things. The Glendale police report in the Suburban Press is surprisingly lame in the "exciting crime" department.
There are a number of homes for sale in Glendale, and you should be able to negotiate prices down. Check the realtors, but also drive around and look at the FSBO signs: stagnant real estate market has resulted in some good deals, and a lot of nervousness. I can think of two cute houses on Woodbine and Laurel which are roughly your price range.
The problem with your situation is that for the price range you are looking for, you will probably not find much in any of those neighborhoods. Hyde Park's neighbor, Oakley, offers a lot of similar housing stock and was recently named by Cincinnati Magazine as one of Cincy's most desireable neighborhoods. You can still walk to Hyde Park if you want.
Another poster mentioned cars being broken into in Hyde Park, but that is because the people did something stupid like leave something of value in plain sight. Vermin from outside neighborhoods come to Hyde Park, Oakley, Mt. Lookout, and others preying on people that invite theft. I know Cincy cops and they see it time and time again.
Glendale is a great neighborhood and my family goes back several generations in that area, but it is pretty hemmed in by the expansionist Springdale, and some less desirable neighborhoods like Woodlawn. It's sort of an oasis.
Cincinnati Public Schools are scary for a lot of families that live in the city neighborhoods like Hyde Park and Oakley. Private catholic schools are very popular. CPS does have some interesting programs, like the German Academy down in Clifton, and Walnut Hills High School was recently named one of the best in the country. Honestly, I don't know how, but it's true. As a city resident, I cringed today when the news reported that CPS was going to try and shove another school levy down our throats. Seems they say they are facing an $80 million deficit...yet they just got an increase of around that much a few years ago for capital improvements that are no longer going to happen because of falling enrollment. They make me sick. Honestly, the city loses the most residents because of the schools...as soon as families have school age kids and they can't afford private school, it's off to Mason or Lebanon in Warren County.
If you do move to the City, then Hyde Park, Oakley, Mt. Lookout, Mt. Washington are good bets. The key thing to remember is stay on the east side. A family of lifetime westsiders just moved across the street from me because the neighborhood had gone downhill so fast. And, if you know anything about Cincinnati, westsiders moving to the eastside (and vice versa) is unheard of!
We just relocated from St. Paul, MN into Mt. Lookout. While house hunting in May, I looked at approximately 35 houses, many of which were in Hyde Park. The other places we looked were Wyoming, Montgomery, Mariemont, Symmes Township and Mt. Lookout. We'd been put in touch with an educational consultant, who helped us narrow down our search areas based on the school choices. On one hand, the prices in Hyde Park were higher than they were in most other areas (especially the suburbs, where you can get nearly 1.5 times the bang for your buck), but on the other hand, in this market (half the houses we looked at in May are still on the market!), you can usually get a house for a reasonable %age under the asking price.
I prefer Mt. Lookout to Hyde Park, but I think both are great places to live. All the statistics I have seen on both areas indicate a very low crime rate. Hyde Park has everything you need very close by, so the convenience factor is way up there. It's also a very trendy place, which has its good and bad sides. Alms and Ault Park are very nice places, and there are more restaurants thank you can shake a stick at.
As far as schools, the Cincinnati Public Schools seem to be like many urban school districts with a mix of poorly performing and OK performing schools, with a few gems mixed in. The Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout areas have what is generally recognized to be one of the best, if not the best, elementary schools in the Cincinnati Public School Districts - Kilgour. I don't know much about the middle school choices, but if your future kids wind up doing OK academically, then they'll have Walnut Hills as an option. WH ranked in the top 35 high schools in the nation according to Newsweek's 2007 rankings. Both Kilgour and WH have very active parent communities.
Most of the kids in our neighborhood, and others that I've met in Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout neighborhoods do attend private schools. My kids will be attending Cincinnati Public Schools.
Another poster mentioned cars being broken into in Hyde Park, but that is because the people did something stupid like leave something of value in plain sight.
Actually, it was because the people did something stupid like lock their cars in their locked garages. Please don't assume when you're unsure of the situation.
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The key thing to remember is stay on the east side.
That's a fairly uninformed view as well. There are plenty of desirable, beautiful and safe neighbhorhoods on the west side. The homes are usually a better value as well -- on the west side, you get a the same house on a bigger lot and for less money.
This coming from an east sider! What is the world coming to ... LOL.
Perhaps I should have qualified that as "often." However, I standby my comments. Having worked closely with District 2 police for over a decade, I am well informed and frankly if people didn't do STUPID things, our crime stats in many neighborhoods would be hardly noticable.
With respect to my comments about the westside, I also standby those. Since the projects have largely been torn down downtown, much of that poverty and crime has moved west. Neighborhoods like Price Hill, Mt Airy, Westwood, and many others are under virtual assault. I had a lot of family that lived in College Hill, North College Hill, and Mt. Healthy and they have all headed out of dodge. The westside of Cincinnati is going in the wrong direction. I would even submit that Delhi is not the same quality of community that it was 10 or 15 years ago.
I will acknowledge that there are some nice pockets still on the westside and there is great architecture and housing stock, but poor zoning and conjested thoroughfares like Glenway, Hamilton, Elberon, Westwood-Northern and others make life and driving over there a nightmare at times. You need to go further west than I care to go from downtown in order to find the decent areas, that is out in the County...not in the city.
I too am relocating to Cincinnati in September...will be coming with two kids so schools are an issue. Sounds like StPaulGirl did a lot of research into schools...(We are looking in all the same areas she mentioned but are really leaning towards Mt Lookout area...We will be sending our kids to public schools--What did you find out about Kilgour? We really would like to live in Mt Lookout/Hyde Park area...seems a little more diverse than Wyoming? But I'm not sure. My husband is Hispanic, and is very concerned about living in a mostly-white area.
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Hyde Park, Shmyde Park
What is the world coming to ... LOL.
