best neighborhood in shaker or richmond (Cleveland, Dayton: section 8, for sale, real estate)

[gosteelers]

Greetings,

I am new replying to this forum, but often read it. I am a native Ohioan(somewhat). I am from Pittsburgh. I moved to Dayton in the early 90's and relocated to NJ in 2001. My husband has been offered an IT position for C'land BOE. We visit C'land often (as we have many friends there) but they are unsure of the neighborhoods to suggest in either suburb so, that's were you guys come in at. We are in our mature 30's and have a 4 & 12 yr old sons. We are laid back African Am. who loves having family and friends over. I am not sure if this is any importance but our price range is $150-K. Taxes is somewhat not of an importance, remember we live in Jersey but the school system has to make up for it. It will not make alot of sense paying high taxes to have to send our kids to a private school.

If you need more info. from me to help narrow down your suggestions please let me know. Also keep in mind we defiantly DO NOT want to live among snooty people we have enough around us now.

I look forward to your suggestion as I know you will keep it REAL & HONEST.

GO INDIANS!

[complexsimplicity]

http://http://cleveland.craigslist.org/ (broken link) (you may have to copy and paste the link) This is a good website to refer to. You would have to go under the housing section and click on the "real estate for sale" link. I would also suggest researching Cleveland Heights in addition to the two communities you have in mind.

Since you have two kids I would recommend Shaker Heights since it has a better school system than Richmond in my opinion. I believe the average house here might be around $200k, but definitely more espensive than Richmond since it is more upper class, I may be wrong. But if your willing to spend a little more money, I'd say it is worth it since I live in Shaker Heights. The taxes are high here and it is causing a lot of people to put there houses up for sale. There are some snooty people here, but most will speak to you and some will even start conversations with you. I walk my dogs a lot and people usually strike up a conversation about them. If there are houses here for around $150k, it is probably been on the market for a while with a few prices drops or south of Chagrin BLVD where the Section 8 folks live. Richmond Heights is pretty nice, not to familiar with it except for the shopping mall. I also recommend Cleveland Heights, since it is more diverse than the other two communities and has more affordable housing although the taxes are high here from what I here. But you are coming from Jersey and you said it wouldn't be a problem. Good luck to you in your search.

[gosteelers]

Thanks for your response. I don't believe I made myself clear, but I am looking for which neighborhood to consider living in Shaker, ex. Lomond, etc. Our price range is $150- K. Maybe since you stay in Shaker you can suggest what neighborhood to avoid, I see you mention south of Chargin. We appreciate your honesty.

[complexsimplicity]

Lomond is south of Chagrin and there actually is an elementary school on that street. Now the area around Lomond elementary is pretty nice and diverse. I'm not sure how much the houses are over there, but I will guess it is somewhere around $200k could be less. Also another neighborhood I like is near Ashby and Van Aken. I love to walk my dogs over there, it seems so peaceful and its also a mixed area. I don't think the people are snobby over there. Winslow has some nice houses, but alot of them are two family though. I know there are a couple of single family homes on that street and the look pretty nice. The main reason why I don't like the streets below Chagrin minus Lomond is that there are alot of wanna be thugs hanging around and I've seen a few arguing on the main street. Also lots of loud teenagers hanging all over the place. It might not bother you too much, I would say check it out though to see for yourself. Everybody's tolerance level is different, my tolerance level is pretty low. I think you might have a better chance of finding a nice house in your price range by Chagrin though.