Another where should I live thread, Please help. (Dayton, Kettering: best city, for sale)

[rebot]

I know this has been done over and over, but I'm hoping for some help narrowing down an area to live. My husband has been relocated so we will be moving to the area within the next few months. He will be working in Moraine (and is willing to commute up to 30 minutes) and I am a SAHM. We have two kids (7 and 4), but we homeschool so the school district isn't quite as important.

Budget for a new house is up to $315,000, but we wouldn't be sad if it was less. We are looking for something around 2,000 square feet, maybe a little bit bigger. We would love either walkability or enough land so my kids could explore (a couple of acres). Right now I can pretty much see into my neighbors kitchen, but we still have to drive to get to anything. If I have look into my neighbors house I want to be able to walk to stuff.

Hmm, what type of environment are we looking for. Great question. My husband would say suburbia, I would vote small city excitement if it is safe (especially for kids who are eventually not going to want to spend every minute with me). Unless we fall in love with the area, this will be a 3 year gig so I'm thinking this our chance to live in the city. We are coming down from the suburbs of Detroit. There aren't a lot of great places in the city to live here.

From perusing these threads I feel like I am drawn to: Oakwood, Yellow Springs, and Oregon District. Right now I am just looking for some direction to see if I'm on the right track.

We will be coming down next month to look around.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Finally, the correct answer is pie. Always pie.

[joe from dayton]

If you move to the Oregon District you will be looking into your neighbor's kitchen, and there is not much to walk to except adult entertainment.

If you want little more land than you will typically find in Oakwood (which is a very walkable community), take a look at Bellbrook or Sugarcreek Township.

Unless your husband is driving when no one else is on the road, you can forget about Yellow Springs to Moraine in 30 minutes.

[rebot]

Thanks Joe. It looks like we can already cross off Yellow Springs and probably Oregon District.

I will take a look at both Bellbrook and Sugarcreek Twp. Oakwood will stay in the running. Thinking about it I would say that I guess land isn't terribly important. It would be nice, but not a make it or break it.

Right now we live in the land of matching McMansions. Row after row of the same houses. I would like to get away from that and find a home and community with some character. I would say that is probably what drew me into Oregon District to start with. All those awesome old houses.

So, I suppose what I'm looking for is an area that is family friendly, easy to meet people, and has some character.

[RDriesenUD]

For what you want, I would look at Bellbrook, Sugarcreek Township, Oawkwood/West Kettering. Centerville, Kettering, Springboro next.

[SWOH]

Germantown is my first recommendation. Everything you said fits it perfectly (except for maybe wanting to experiment with a larger city... I'll get to that a little bit later).

It's a small town about 10 miles west of Miamisburg. Lots of housing stock that fits your criteria, whether you choose to go in the city / walkable or outside of it on land. Schools are good if you choose to go that route, or if not the district is small enough that it should be easy for your children to get to know other kids through sports. And the town in general is much like any other Ohio small town, with a historic core and some suburbia surrounding. The difference with Germantown is the historic core is a lot bigger (and more historic) haha. Added benefit is arguably some of the nicest nature preserves in the area are within walking/biking distance of most Germantown Houses, with those areas being Twin Creek Metropark and Germantown Metropark.

Here's some houses you might like (I'm kinda shooting across the board here, just to give you an idea of what's out there):
141 Megan Ln, Germantown, OH 45327 is For Sale - Zillow
113 S Plum St, Germantown, OH 45327 is For Sale - Zillow
6860 Little Twin Rd, Germantown, OH 45327 is For Sale - Zillow


I will correct Joe above and say there are a lot of things that are not Adult entertainment within walking distance of the Oregon District. Heck, literally all of downtown is within walking distance of the Oregon District!! That includes Riverscape, Dragons games, some awesome, kid-friendly restaurants, cool museums, bike trails, one of the most kid-friendly art museums in the nation, ballfields.... I could keep going. Lots of reason why the OD would work.

However, I do have to agree that the OD is more adult-focused, and might not be the best fit for a family. Three neighborhoods that come to mind that would be better are Grafton Hill, McPherson Town and Wright-Dunbar. All are excellent, family-oriented neighborhoods within easy walking distance of downtown, the OD, and all the amenities. And all have great community groups, easy access to cool initiatives like the K-12 gallery for young people (might be a good place to get your kids involved if they are artistically-minded), etc. Here's some houses there:

Wright-Dunbar:
101 Horace St, Dayton, OH 45402 is For Sale - Zillow
20 Horace St, Dayton, OH 45402 is For Sale - Zillow
110 S Williams St, Dayton, OH 45402 is For Sale - Zillow

McPherson Town:
201 W Mcpherson St, Dayton, OH 45405 is For Sale - Zillow
19 Mcdaniel St, Dayton, OH 45405 is For Sale - Zillow

Grafton Hill:
450 W Grand Ave, Dayton, OH 45405 is For Sale - Zillow
60 Stoddard Ave, Dayton, OH 45405 is For Sale - Zillow
233 Belmonte Park E, Dayton, OH 45405 is For Sale - Zillow


Otherwise, Oakwood is also an excellent suggestion. I'll let others elaborate more there. And Yellow Springs will push you out of that 30-minute range, but it's not a bad choice.

Good luck!

[rebot]

Thanks so much. It looks like I have a few hours of research to do on all these areas.

One question: Around here there is a dramatic difference between a $150,000 neighborhood and a $300,000 neighborhood. From what I can tell on Zillow, it seems this isn't as big as a deal in that area. Is it really worth spending more money to be in a $300,000 house in Oakwood, Kettering, etc... vs a $200,000ish house in the same areas?

[RDriesenUD]

To me, there isn't. Price just buys you a bigger house or more yard. Neighborhoods are still nice. You can get a two story with a basement for around $180,000 in good neighborhoods.

Spring Valley is another option.

Spring Valley OH Homes For Sale & Spring Valley Real Estate - Zillow

[SWOH]

Have to agree. For the most part there is no difference.

I guess that's one sad benefit to the way this town is divided, most all of the crime / blight / poverty, etc stays in very restricted areas. In Dayton, that basically boils down to city limits (with the exception of a the central/south block which includes the neighborhoods I mentioned above among others) and the western suburbs. Everywhere else is good to great, and yeah, aside from community character there's no noticeable difference between Kettering and Englewood and Yellow Springs, for instance.

I will say all suburbs do have some poverty and some crime. No matter where you live it's unavoidable. But buying a $150k house vs a $300k house really isn't going to make you safer or give you any other advantages. Oakwood has the best city services, the best schools, the best parks, and the nicest houses, so that's why it's the most expensive. But also keep in mid there are plenty of houses there for sale under $150k. And right now there are houses in Trotwood for sale for $150k+. So just kinda depends on what you want out of your house.

[wrightflyer]

For what you want, and it sounds like you would rather have walkability than space if it is actually walkable, I would go with Oakwood. Great resale, old homes with character (think parts of Royal Oak, maybe) but really nice, safe, kids all walk to school (literally, no buses). Top 10 district in the state. And there are two little, walkable business districts. One is on the south side of town between Peach Orchard and East on Far Hills and the other is on Park to the west of Far Hills closer to the northern end. No McMansions here and no tear downs (for the most part).

Keep in mind the 150K homes in Oakwood probably are only a block or two off Irving, which borders the student neighborhoods of UD (which are some of the nicest "student neighborhoods" in the country, mainly because it is 95% university owned and maintained). So there may be some undergrads mixed in, but probably mostly grad and phD students, and some probably with families. My biggest downside is that there is a HUGE (for Ohio) hill leading up from those first couple blocks south of Irving, so walking to your schools is a little out of the option. Most try to stay up the hill for that reason. The areas only Ben & Jerry's is at the corner of Brown and Irving though, so there's a plus side to the bottom of the hill.

West of Far Hills are some really nice estates, and you may be able to find a place in the $315-$350 range, but it will probably need some work as most homes on that side of Oakwood run $400K+. More land over there too, but really just about an acre in most cases, with the estates being the exception, those running $750K+.

[joe from dayton]

Originally Posted by rebot

Thanks so much. It looks like I have a few hours of research to do on all these areas.

One question: Around here there is a dramatic difference between a $150,000 neighborhood and a $300,000 neighborhood. From what I can tell on Zillow, it seems this isn't as big as a deal in that area. Is it really worth spending more money to be in a $300,000 house in Oakwood, Kettering, etc... vs a $200,000ish house in the same areas?

Generally speaking, the higher price gets you a bigger house and/or yard in pretty much the same neighborhood.