Thinking about moving to Ohio...... (Columbus, Cincinnati: home, school district, universities)

[Mekeys]

Hello let me start out by saying my husband and I were born and raised in Indiana so we are use to living in the Midwest. I like having snow on Christmas and would love to be in driving distance of our home town in Indiana. We would be looking for a small town type setting with bigger towns close by! A town that the economy is doing okay in also! We are a Military family that would love to move back to Indiana but, it is on a down fall there and I don't want to raise my children there! It just seems to be getting worse every time we visit! I'm looking for jobs as a CNA and my husband will be going to college but looking for a job in computers! We would love a small farm town where 4-h is big! Maybe places we could have horses too! Just wanting the country life I had in Indiana with a better economy! If anyone has any recommendations for us i would love to hear them!

THANKS VERY MERRY MUCH!!!
Happy Holidays!

[Zen_master]

Originally Posted by Mekeys

Hello let me start out by saying my husband and I were born and raised in Indiana so we are use to living in the Midwest. I like having snow on Christmas and would love to be in driving distance of our home town in Indiana. We would be looking for a small town type setting with bigger towns close by! A town that the economy is doing okay in also! We are a Military family that would love to move back to Indiana but, it is on a down fall there and I don't want to raise my children there! It just seems to be getting worse every time we visit! I'm looking for jobs as a CNA and my husband will be going to college but looking for a job in computers! We would love a small farm town where 4-h is big! Maybe places we could have horses too! Just wanting the country life I had in Indiana with a better economy! If anyone has any recommendations for us i would love to hear them!

THANKS VERY MERRY MUCH!!!
Happy Holidays!

Country life but close to a university? My best guess would be Athens County where your husband could attend Ohio Univ. There are certainly rural areas outside of Columbus, Dayton, or Cincinnati where you could live but commuting to a major university would be quite a drive. Perhaps living in Preble County and would be close enough to Miami University. Preble County has a small town feel with Cincy, Dayton, Hamilton, and Middletown all within 30-45 minute commute. Eaton or Camden Ohio would be a couple small town options.

Another option would be to live outside of somewhere like Lima and consider a small regional college versus a large university. I believe OSU has a Lima campus. You could also probably find rural property in Wood County and your husband could attend Bowling Green State Univ. You may also want to look at Denison University in Granville, OH in Licking County depending on traffic you may be about an hour outside of Columbus and I'm sure you could find some land for horses not too far outside of town (I've hear home affordability is not the best in town). Lastly another option would be Wittenburg Univ. in Springfield, Ohio (Clark County). That area might provide the rural small town feel you're seeking.

[MissingIndiana]

Athens County is beautiful and Athens itself is nice if you can avoid the drunk college kids. I'm actually headed there this weekend, but is a very small decent area surrounded by a lot of depressed Appalachian type of poverty and mentality. Ever been to a moonshine festival? Ever hear of a school district that supports it's football team but refuses to pass a levy specifically to patch the schools roof so it's not actively leaking into classrooms? That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. It's also a fairly good drive to any major city with Columbus being an hour to 1.5 hours away.

You might want to consider Oxford, OH. It's a small town about 5-10 minutes from the Indiana border and about 25-30 minutes from the outer parts of metro Cincinnati (maybe 45-60 minutes from downtown depending on traffic). It's very close to Brookville, IN if you know where that is. Oxford is the location of Miami (of Ohio), a university with a pretty good reputation in the state. While the town itself isn't very big, the university presence has led to a nice little downtown with a handful of unique stores and restaurants.

Springboro is a really nice little community just south of Dayton as well. While there are fields and some country around there it feels more suburban, although the old part of downtown is really cute. It's about the same distance from Cincy as Oxford, but would put you closer (about 15-20 minutes) to some nice places to eat and shop around the south and east side of Dayton. Though you never hear many positive things about Dayton itself, there are some nice areas in that metro. Springboro to Oxford would be about 50 minutes if the husband was going to school there, or there are multiple universities/colleges around Dayton (ie University of Dayton, Wright State, Kettering College, Cedarville university).

This area would best meet all your criteria for small town close to bigger cities near Indiana with college offerings. Honestly though, the economy here in Indiana is not any worse off than Ohio. Is there some specific reason keeping you from moving back when you seem to love it so much?

[Muffy1]

I am not sure if you moved already but if your husband is going back to school then he should look for a school with a good program where he can get support and with companies near it otherwise you will have to move again.