Too young for Norwood??? (Cincinnati: home, neighborhoods, buying)

[DDerringer0807]

Thanks for the input on Norwood...it seems a lot of people think this is a good area. I guess my concern now is if there are young couples living in Norwood. I am 24 and my fiance is 26, we are looking to have some other young couples to make friends with in the area that we move to. Can anyone help me out in this area? Let me know, thanks so much...this is all soooo helpful!

[goyguy]

Norwood's not exactly a "magnet" for 20-somethings the way neighboring Hyde Park (and increasingly Oakley) are. That's because its local watering holes are nothing fancy, just friendly spots for dropping into for beers and bar food and the ball game. (The cheeseburgers at Quatman Cafe, on the street bearing that name, are legendary BTW.) For the "ethnic" or "fusion" cuisine du jour, and "creative cocktails," you'd definitely have to venture outside the city limits but not too far.

Because of its affordability and convenience, I think Norwood's appeal will only increase as home prices in Oakley catch up with those of Hyde Park and Mt Lookout. There's also been an influx of academics and grad students from nearby Xavier University which is "tweaking" the city's blue-collar image. Notwithstanding that, the age distribution of residents is pretty even - no range particularly predominates. In other words, you're unlikely to land on a block full of retirees OR 18-34's. Aside from being essentially all White, Norwood has a fairly realistic cross-section of people living within its city limits.

What you might like to do is visit some local playgrounds or parks on a sunny day and see how many people are there with their small children. Stroll into any given tavern and check out how many young(er) adults are there. Walk or drive down the streets of "target" neighborhoods during a weekend to see what kinds of folks are working in the yard, exercising their dog, washing or tinkering with their cars, etc. Something important to realize also is that, while equal-housing laws prevent realtors from letting on too much about who dwells around places you're thinking about buying they CAN let you know in a general sense whether a street is "family oriented" or "popular with young professionals."

I've touched on this some already but will focus on it now: for the past fifty years or so, Norwood has been a predominantly working-class city. "Neighborly" and "down-to-earth" would be a fair assessment of many of its denizens. But if the two of you are well-traveled and/or college-educated, as nice as your abutters may be you might sometimes feel like a cultural chasm is there. There could be awkward moments if you don't intensively follow professional sports or watch much reality TV, just as the people next door may have never been inside Music Hall or departed the Eastern time zone. Social adaptability's a virtue, but I can't blame anybody for wanting to reside among those with similar life experiences and "book knowledge." This isn't to say that only NASCAR-crazed country music lovers who don't know who their mayor is comprise the entire city or even a given block, just that the proportion is higher than would be the case in the Cincinnati neighborhoods to the east.