Relocating from the northeast (Dayton, Springfield: apartment complexes, rentals, homes)

[bonzo99]

I'll be relocating to Ohio in July (my wife will be joining me by year's end) and will be working in Cedarville. I've been following the forum for a little while now and have a couple of questions:

1) I've been looking at Kettering, Beavercreek and Springboro as possible areas to live when I first get there, if I can't find something in Cedarville itself. Are those three areas all a reasonable commute to Cedarville? What apartment complexes would you recommend in those areas? I can probably spend up to $650 a month, possibly a little more...

2) Once my wife arrives (and our new baby) we'd like to find an area with a good school system and things for her and the newborn to do without having a 20 minute ride to do them. It looks like Beavercreek has a good amount of shopping. We've seen some nice homes online in more rural areas, but we don't want to have the drive to get to shopping, etc. What areas would you recommend? Are there areas in Dayton that you would recommend that are commutable to Cedarville? By commutable I mean 45 minutes or less...

I have more questions but will start with just these for now. Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide!

[joe from dayton]

A commute from Kettering is probably going to be around the 40 minute mark. Springboro is further away than that. That also doesn't consider rush hour traffic. For around here, I think most people would consider that to be a pretty crappy commute. If you are fine with being on the road upwards of two hours a day, I guess it would work for you. I'd look at Beavercreek or Xenia.

With traffic construction and road congestion, it takes 15-20 minutes to get anywhere, so if that is your limit, you will need to pitch a tent in the Fairfield Mall parking lot.

Dayton has one of the worst public school systems in the state, so, unless you go the private school route, I'd cross it off your list of places to live.

[wrightflyer]

I would scratch Springboro off the list. The commute is long and even longer in the winter. Kettering has many complexes, especially close to that range, but the commute would still be long (but shorter than Springboro). Rents here seem to be high because of the presence of Wright-Patterson AFB which draws people for tours of duty of 2-4 years. Thus, especially with the bumps in the housing market, rents tend to be higher because of the increase in demand.

Fairborn, which is north of Beavercreek would be in that price range, but the schools aren't the best. There are certainly areas of Fairborn I would avoid, so check the area out first before signing a lease. I'd look at Xenia over Fairborn first. It has better schools, but again, it has a couple of shadier areas, so check the area out first before signing. The Deer Creek apartments in Xenia (behind the old Wal-Mart) are new and in a decent area.

Two other areas I'd check out would be Yellow Springs and Enon. Yellow Springs is the liberal opposite to Ceaderville's more Baptist conservatism. It is also a small town, so rentals may be hard to find. Enon is another more moderate (but probably still conservative) small town south of I-70 and is reasonably close to Springfield shopping (or Beavercreek/Fairfield Mall) and is within 45 minutes of Cedarville. Both Yellow Springs and Enon have decent schools, but finding a rentals may be hard. You may need a realtor's help or hunt through the local papers (Dayton Daily News or Springfield News-Sun) to find a place. Yellow Springs schools are Yellow Springs Village Exempt and Enon is Greenon Local Schools.

[joe from dayton]

I didn't mention Yellow Springs because I think it is pretty expensive to live there, but it may be worth checking out.