Chicago to Cincinnati relocation, with kids (Mason, Blue Ash: fit in, transplants, house)

[Allen40]

We have 2 kids in elementary school and are looking for a house in an area with great public schools, ideally walkable with nearby restaurants / coffee shop(s). Price range is $400K - $550K. Older homes preferred. I will work in N Ky, near the airport, and am ok with a 30 minute-ish commute. I am considering looking in N Ky as well, but would like to check out a couple nice areas on the Ohio side. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!

[cincylifer]

Originally Posted by Allen40

We have 2 kids in elementary school and are looking for a house in an area with great public schools, ideally walkable with nearby restaurants / coffee shop(s). Price range is $400K - $550K. Older homes preferred. I will work in N Ky, near the airport, and am ok with a 30 minute-ish commute. I am considering looking in N Ky as well, but would like to check out a couple nice areas on the Ohio side. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!

You will find that the housing here is SO much more affordable than Chicago, so you probably wont need to spend that much to get what you need. Having said that, I am not sure that you can get what you want with great schools within 30 minutes of the airport, at least not on the Ohio side. My spouse and I both worked in KY, him at the airport, and we are in one of the best districts in the city, but it is over 30 minutes. There may be some areas in KY that fit your bill. Coming from Chicago, if you are looking for some diversity though, you wont get it in KY. The Clifton area in Cincinnati would probably be a good fit for housing and shops etc, but you would be in Cincinnati Public Schools(cps). CPS has a top 25 nationally ranked highschool in the country(Walnut Hills)(grades 7-12), however, the path to getting there is not so great with the elementary schools. A lot of folks do private for the elementary years, then send their kids to Walnut. You will probably find you will save on housing, so it may free up money for private schools. There are some great districts in Cinti, highly rated, but it is longer than 30 minutes to the airport. Some of the top ranked districts will get you there in 45 min.

[jlrosen]

^The Bi-lingual magnet school in Clifton is a good public school in that area.

[cincylifer]

Originally Posted by jlrosen

^The Bi-lingual magnet school in Clifton is a good public school in that area.

You are right, Fairview elem is supposed to be pretty good. It is a bilingual(GErman) school.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Allen40

We have 2 kids in elementary school and are looking for a house in an area with great public schools, ideally walkable with nearby restaurants / coffee shop(s). Price range is $400K - $550K. Older homes preferred. I will work in N Ky, near the airport, and am ok with a 30 minute-ish commute. I am considering looking in N Ky as well, but would like to check out a couple nice areas on the Ohio side. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!

Anderson Township is approximately 30 minutes from the airport and has good schools.

With that budget, you'll pretty much be able to buy two homes in most areas of Cincinnati.

[Allen40]

Originally Posted by cincylifer

You will find that the housing here is SO much more affordable than Chicago, so you probably wont need to spend that much to get what you need. Having said that, I am not sure that you can get what you want with great schools within 30 minutes of the airport, at least not on the Ohio side. My spouse and I both worked in KY, him at the airport, and we are in one of the best districts in the city, but it is over 30 minutes. There may be some areas in KY that fit your bill. Coming from Chicago, if you are looking for some diversity though, you wont get it in KY. The Clifton area in Cincinnati would probably be a good fit for housing and shops etc, but you would be in Cincinnati Public Schools(cps). CPS has a top 25 nationally ranked highschool in the country(Walnut Hills)(grades 7-12), however, the path to getting there is not so great with the elementary schools. A lot of folks do private for the elementary years, then send their kids to Walnut. You will probably find you will save on housing, so it may free up money for private schools. There are some great districts in Cinti, highly rated, but it is longer than 30 minutes to the airport. Some of the top ranked districts will get you there in 45 min.

Thanks for your reply. That is very helpful. I would be willing to commute 45 minutes for a better fit in terms of schools and neighborhood. Can you recommend a few areas to check out? Thanks again.

[cincyohguy]

Based on the description of what you are looking for, I would recommend checking out Madeira, Mariemont, Terrace Park, Montgomery and Wyoming. These communities are roughly 30-40 minutes to the airport. Each one is in an excellent school district ( many ranked very high in the state and even nationally). I know in all of these communities, a good number of kids walk to school. Also, each community has a nice town square or little downtown area with shops,restaurants,etc. The communities are also very close to Kenwood Towne Centre, a very nice and upscale shopping mall with many restaurants. All are fairly affluent communities with a lot of nice looking, large, and historic homes. I would recommend checking out homes on sibcycline.com and also driving around these communties to get a feel for them before making a decision.

[Allen40]

cincyohguy -- thank you very much for the recommendations. I'll check out those areas as well.

[jlrosen]

Mariemont would be my pick out of that group

[cincylifer]

Originally Posted by Allen40

Thanks for your reply. That is very helpful. I would be willing to commute 45 minutes for a better fit in terms of schools and neighborhood. Can you recommend a few areas to check out? Thanks again.

Here are top districts in the area, Sycamore, Mason, Wyoming, Mariemont and Forest Hills.

I live in Montgomery, it is a wonderful community, and has all the things you listed. Mariemont, and Wyoming would be a good fit as well. Of the three of course I am partial to Montgomery, and you can definitely get more house for your money over Wyoming and Mariemont. You should check out sibcycline.com, it allows you to search for homes by school district. YOu should realize though that we a lot of the districts pull from several neighborhoods, so Blue Ash area would be good too, it also is in Sycamore School District. I have attached a link which you will find useful. Of the above districts, Sycamore has the most diversity, if that is important to you. There are a lot of P&G, and Toyota transplants. My kids have made some great friends.
I will also add that the Cincinnati Enquirer just did an analysis of median home prices from 2004 to 2008, Montgomery was one of a VERY few neighborhoods that did not lose value during that time period.

If you have more questions, please feel free to send me a direct message.

http://www.cincybusinessmag.com/medi.../RTB-top47.pdf