Found a beautiful house in Reynoldsburg, but... (Columbus, Lancaster: for sale, apartments)

[thacker922]

Hi everyone!
This is my first post here, and any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

My husband and I are house-hunting. We've currently been looking in Clintonville, Worthington, Dublin, Powell, and Upper Arlington. Our price range is 150k and most places for sale in those areas at that price are condos. Let me give you a little info about us: we currently rent a townhome in Worthington, we have no children, and we both work in Dublin.

On a whim, we searched for houses in Reynoldsburg (where my husband used to live back in the 80's) and found an amazing house on Lancaster Ave. off of E. Main St.

Can anyone give me some helpful info on whether or not this is a good or bad idea? We are sort of picky about our future home. We would love to have a covered porch/deck of some kind, and a two-car garage. (Gotta love Ohio winters and scraping windshields!) I've read some info on Reynoldsburg, but I would love to hear some insight on that particular location and if we would be fools for driving so far for work.

Thank you all so much for any help you can give me!

[HuskerDu]

You are searching all of the right areas...um, except for Reynoldsburg. The east side of C-bus is awful and will continue to get worse. Go take a drive through Whitehall and you will see what is in store for Reynoldsburg in a few years.

For 150k you should have no problem in Cintonville. It really is a great area of Columbus.

[chicagoerin]

The old "location, location, location" thing has held true for decades and won't be changing anytime soon. I always purchase a home and choose the one that I could sell the fastest/make the most money off of should a financial disaster strike. Especially in this economy people should be less concerned about buying their dream house and more concerned about return on investment. Reynoldsburg is not a wise choice.

[streetcreed]

Reynoldsburg is not a bad area. It is now a more mixed income suburb than most in outer Columbus metro though.

And not all of the east side is bad. This is a vast generalization. The neighborhoods of Berwick, Old Town East, Eastmoor, and the Far East side have some very nice homes with good values. Among these neighborhoods though area some lower income residents mostly in apartments.

Reynoldsburg's west side has more apartments but the further east you go in Reynoldsburg it is very middle class.

[bgfalcons86]

Ditto what streetcreed said. Reynoldsburg is a diverse area in terms of income and ethnicity. It is definitely an over-generalization to just characterize the whole area as bad. The east side tends to be more stable and the southwest portion is more transient in nature. Overall, the schools are decent, too.

[MontanaXVI]

You live in Worthington and work in Dublin, just drive and look at the house and neighborhood to see if it is what you want.

It isn't like you live in Oklahoma and were wondering about Reynoldsburg.

[Ron.]

Yup, I agree 100%. Northern burbs are the best pasts.

Originally Posted by HuskerDu

You are searching all of the right areas...um, except for Reynoldsburg. The east side of C-bus is awful and will continue to get worse. Go take a drive through Whitehall and you will see what is in store for Reynoldsburg in a few years.

For 150k you should have no problem in Cintonville. It really is a great area of Columbus.

[alexanderaf]

Originally Posted by thacker922

Hi everyone!
This is my first post here, and any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

My husband and I are house-hunting. We've currently been looking in Clintonville, Worthington, Dublin, Powell, and Upper Arlington. Our price range is 150k and most places for sale in those areas at that price are condos. Let me give you a little info about us: we currently rent a townhome in Worthington, we have no children, and we both work in Dublin.

On a whim, we searched for houses in Reynoldsburg (where my husband used to live back in the 80's) and found an amazing house on Lancaster Ave. off of E. Main St.

Can anyone give me some helpful info on whether or not this is a good or bad idea? We are sort of picky about our future home. We would love to have a covered porch/deck of some kind, and a two-car garage. (Gotta love Ohio winters and scraping windshields!) I've read some info on Reynoldsburg, but I would love to hear some insight on that particular location and if we would be fools for driving so far for work.

Thank you all so much for any help you can give me!

My parents live off off Lancaster Avenue. They like it there, and I've grown up there my whole life, but if you want my opinion it is going downhill very fast.

Unfortunately in the past few years Reynoldsburg opened up to a lot of cheap, affordable housing bringing in lower income families. Not that I have a problem with them, but they have a problem with me. I can't walk outside without getting heckled from someone driving by. It's like the people there have never seen someone walk before?

[ChrissyR]

Originally Posted by HuskerDu

You are searching all of the right areas...um, except for Reynoldsburg. The east side of C-bus is awful and will continue to get worse. Go take a drive through Whitehall and you will see what is in store for Reynoldsburg in a few years.

For 150k you should have no problem in Cintonville. It really is a great area of Columbus.

I do have to ask how can you tell by driving through as you say an area that it is bad. What do you mean see what is in store for you??

The reason I know Whitehall is not good is because before we moved here I checked the crime stats and they were not good. I am confused however how you can drive through an area and see what is in store.

When I drive through Whitehall it looks fine to me but I read the crime reports and know it is not the safest area.

[unicorn23]

For the amount you are looking to spend I would try looking in Westerville. You might also try looking at a Columbus address home on the boarder of the other places you've been looking at. Stay away from Reynoldsburg you will want to move out as soon as you move in.