Looking for a safe yet inexpensive neighborhood (Cincinnati, Hamilton: middle-class, best neighborhoods)

[Timj17]

My wife and I will be moving to the Cincinnati area this summer. We would like to buy a small house (under $100,000) in a safe neighborhood fairly close to the city. A good bus connection to the city (especially the university) would be nice.
It needs to be inside of Ohio so I can get in-state tuition rates.
Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Ohiogirl81]

There are still homes to be had for less than $100,000 in Madison Place (a section of Columbia Township) and the most eastern section of Madisonville, east of Plainville Road, in the city. Most of the houses are 2 and 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 story Cape Cods. It's a very safe neighborhood, the kind where people hang out on their front porches and where folks are walking everywhere at all hours of the day. It's also a short walk to Mariemont, where there's a movie theater, restaurants, ice cream parlor, etc.

You'd have to transfer buses, alas, to get to UC.

If you say you want to move to Madisonville, though, be prepared that people are going to freak out seven ways to Sunday because when they think "Madisonville" they think the intersection of Madison and Whetsel -- which isn't awful, but it's a known trouble spot. That's only a very small part of Madisonville, however; as long as you stick to the portion nearest to Plainville Road you'll be fine. Most of the houses are owner-occupied, and well-tended.

[goyguy]

Northside, Winton Place, St Bernard, Norwood, and Oakley should be looked at in that order. Cincinnati's transit system is mediocre, still based largely on when there was a huge manufacturing economy and when a half-million persons resided within the city limits and much of the surrounding county was still farms and woods. That's a factor in favor of the first two neighborhoods I mentioned. The pre-expressway "hub" intersection called Knowlton's Corner (Spring Grove, Hamilton, and Ludlow Ave's) is still a converging point for numerous bus routes. Hamilton bisects Northside, Ludlow leads to Clifton - UC's area, and Spring Grove borders Winton Place and Northside on the east. St Bernard is traditionally and still predominantly German-American and affordable, split by Vine St. Norwood and Oakley are farther away from UC, to the northeast, but are served by the crosstown 51 bus which runs along Clifton Ave and McMillan St.

Clifton itself would probably be too expensive for you in terms of single-family houses, but its fringe areas called Fairview Hts and University Hts (south of McMillan St) are more affordable and contain some nice row houses and free-standing homes. Friends have places on Warner and Emming St's and love the convenience and "city" yet safe feel to the area. But the main drawbacks are noise (an inevitable byproduct of a large student population) and the proximity to not-so-pleasant areas (Camp Washington, Over-the-Rhine.)

Other "snapshots": Northside - Always diverse and working-class, more recently the trendy "affordable alternative to Clifton." Lots of small houses, utilitarian and funky alike, on quiet and reasonably safe streets. Beer-and-shot taverns alongside restaurants "to be seen in" with names like Honey or "focuses" like Indonesian cuisine. Home of "Shake-It Records," the region's Mecca for lovers of the vinyl disc.

Winton Place - Historically German-American and blue-collar, now racially "mixed." Similar housing stock to Northside but lacking in cutting-edge cuteness. Supposed to now be called "Spring Grove Village," but no true Cincinnatian is buying this. (The name change is a transparent move to disassociate the neighborhood from the sprawling Winton Terrace public-housing development on its northern flank.) "Right around the corner" from the Queen City Centre strip mall which houses a big Kroger's.

St Bernard - Still a community where kids can comfortably ride their new 2-wheelers to the soft-serve ice cream stand on summer evenings. Not quite as overwhelmingly Catholic now that there's only one, now co-ed, high school for parochial education. Lots of inexpensive and unremarkable Capes and 2.5-story older houses. Borders North Avondale - raggedy and sketchy around Mitchell and Vine, upper-middle-class and "estate" farther east - and Elmwood Place (never well-off and now on the skids.)

Norwood - Sneered at by many locals because of how much of its German-American middle- to upper-middle-class population was displaced by the mid-20th-century influx of Appalachians who were drawn by high-wage jobs in factories which are no longer there. Still a close-knit, safe community with housing styles ranging from small apartment buildings to Victorians, bungalows, and spacious 1920's Colonials. Cut off in one corner by I-71 and also served by Montgomery Rd and Dana Ave. Well situated for shopping (Kroger's in Roselawn and Hyde Park, lots more retail and restaurants in the Surrey Square and Rookwood Pavilion malls.)

Oakley - The "poor folks' Hyde Park," with boutique-style stores and some trendy restaurants and most famously Aglamesis Brothers candy and ice cream, now also home to the "Center of Cincinnati" when you've got to go Big Box (Target, Best Buy, etc.) One of Cincinnati's best neighborhoods for finding an Arts-and-Crafts bungalow to call your own.

[Hartwell Girl]

Hartwell--it is the City of Cincinnati. Houses still move pretty quickly out here. One of my favs was up for sale earlier this month and it already sold. People know this area is up and coming and are moving in while they can. Great old historic homes with tree lined streets and some of the lowest crime in the City. Plus we are right by Interstate 75, the norwood lateral and cross county so you can get pretty much anywhere in the CIty in less than 15 minutes. But I agree with Goyguy on most of the above neighborhoods except St. Bernard.

[Mike Dunn]

Cincinnati has a nice blend of communites that would have homes in your price range. For more news type information, try Cincy.com - Cincinnati's Original Home Page

The University of Cincinnati is in a pretty central location so many of the communites would be within a 20 minute drive.