Lower middle class in columbus (Hamilton, Forest Park: apartments, houses, schools)

[bluechris]

OK, so in Columbus, where are they. I recently visited, as it loks like i will betaking a job in the area and the realtor who we met with (after a late change due to availiability) didn't know much about areas other than high street from downtown to worthington, and the edge of city suburbs. Basically though, we don't want to be in the suburbs, that's not our style and we can't afford anywhere between 315 and 71 and definitely can't afford the north west of the city. That should leave about 2/3 of the city to choose from and aside from german Villiage, minerva park and Bexley, it is everywhere south or east within 270 is pretty affordable for us but it seems that all the rest of the city is regarded as dangerous.

Surely it can't be that all the nice people live in the burbs or the trendy bid down the middle and the remaining 2/3 is full of dodgy shopping strips, borded up properties and nightly visits from ghetto birds. I exagerate of course, but that's the perception that i get.

We're happy to be in an diverse area of the city, and would love it to be near some shops or something, a bus route, a library (i hear columbus library service is in the US top 10 for many years) and would love to be vaguely safe, where people from some of the other areas of the city wouldn't have a problem with parking their car nearby if they visited us.

The areas we may be able to do are north linden (though that seems to get a bad rep too) and central merion villiage, (though probably north of frebis is too expensive) but we are told Parsons is very sketchy and anything the other side of the street is bad, even across from german villiages and it's 200K+ for a tiny place pricing - is it really that dramatic of a change? Is the whole of 43206 and 43207 bad except for german villiage and merion villiage. Is bexley the only good bit of the east side.

Aside from north linden and merion villiage, are there any otherplaces we should be thingking of. Old town east? Kings lincoln? Eastmoor/berwick?

[Bodycount]

you could try the forest park area in columbus. It's basically on Karl Rd between 161 and morse road. both sides of the road. Older homes built around 1960-1970.

I just bought a house here for $117,000. Seems to be a nice place to live so far. If you get near the apartments which line up against I-71, things can get dangerous at night... so stay away from them.

[coach123]

I would check out the 43209 zip code. Most of it is going to be Bexley, but it also includes areas like Berwick and Eastmoor which are a lot more affordable.

[other1]

Look in 43212, includes areas close to Grandview Heights, ect. Are you considering schools?

[Eurydice]

In 43207, you could look into Hamilton Meadows I guess? Houses from the 1960s/70s, Hamilton schools consistently get good ratings, seems safe

[bluechris]

Thanks all, i'll look those areas up.

Other1: Are you considering schools?

right now we have no kids so schools are not a priority, but it would be nice to be less than a mile from an elementary so if we do have a family and like the area we don't have to move for that.

[Bodycount]

Originally Posted by bluechris

We're happy to be in an diverse area of the city, and would love it to be near some shops or something, a bus route, a library (i hear columbus library service is in the US top 10 for many years) and would love to be vaguely safe, where people from some of the other areas of the city wouldn't have a problem with parking their car nearby if they visited us.

And the Columbus Metropolitan Library is rated top 3 in the nation for the past 10 years straight. Not to mention it hit #1 three times during those 10 years.

Trust me on this. I work there

The Forest Park area (43229) is right next to the Karl Rd library branch. It's one of the largest branches in the system and almost the busiest in terms of computer usage... I'm sure the main library is the only building that beats it.