Need Info on Germantown (Kettering, Beavercreek: house, construction, middle school)

[merewenc]

In case you guys don't remember my circumstances from my previous post, my husband and I are both military soon to be stationed at WPAFB. Our house hunting is next week, and we've been doing a lot of research into the areas we're most interested in (Beavercreek, Tipp City, Bellbrook, Kettering, not in any particular order).

However, some local friends just recommended Germantown, where they live. We'd never really considered it before, but a cursory glance tells me it has a lot of what we want as far as feel of the place goes. And obviously we would already have friends there. A couple things popped up on my radar, though. One is the distance to WPAFB. It's right at the edge of our comfort zone as far as drive time goes. Forty-five minutes was the longest we were thinking, and we were hoping closer to thirty. Does anyone know of any regular traffic issues that would make the commute longer?

The other thing kind of worrying me is the schools, Valley View Local. They seem okay, but at least on Great Schools there's a large disparity between the elementary and high schools, which have top ratings, and the middle school, which has a very low rating. Does anyone here have inside info on these schools? Am I worrying for nothing, or are my concerns justified? Unfortunately our friends' kid is too young for them to have much info on this.

Also, does anyone have any other pros/cons they can share for Germantown?

[joe from dayton]

Expect heavy traffic on 4, 35 and 75. If you are commuting during normal commuter times, I expect you travel time to be at least an hour.

[SWOH]

Valley View Schools are small(er) but are good. I wouldn't hesitate to send my kids there if I had kids.

Some smaller districts have hit or miss grades due to having a small pool of teachers. The school where I graduated from had very similar issues with its middle school, the teachers were nice but they were all new so it was a bit of a struggle. A great high school experience and great set of high schools teachers made up for it.

In the case of Valley View, I'm not sure. It might be worth visiting the school and meeting 1-2 of the middle school teachers if you have some time.

[SWOH]

As for the commute.... it might be long from Germantown, but there are good alternate routes if you needed to use them that wouldn't add to much to your 40-min average commute from there.

Again, I don't know how long it takes to get on base though... that's be something that needs to be added into your daily commute on top of the 40min. I know with my job it's a 40-45min drive and I figure an additional 15 min to walk across the parking lot, get through security, etc (I do not work on base). And a 1-hour commute each way is a drag.

[Dayton Sux]

Be interesting to hear your opinions of the area after you actually see it during yr house hunting.

[merewenc]

Hey, guys! Thanks for the opinions. It's been a crazy few days of house hunting. We did like the feel of Germantown, but we decided the drive was really more than we were willing to make, mostly because the more rural route made the distance feel almost double. Also, that area where you hit 35 going north is STILL under construction. I'm almost positive the same area was under construction in 2012.

The house we looked at there was nice and a new build spec house, but ultimately we decided it was too small to make the drive worth it. It'll be a nice weekend drive to Germantown to see friends, but we wouldn't want to do it every day.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by merewenc

Also, that area where you hit 35 going north is STILL under construction. I'm almost positive the same area was under construction in 2012..

Ha! Yeah, I was born in the early '90's and some of my earliest memories are in the back of my parent's minivan riding through construction on 75 through downtown. It has never ended...

So yeah, if you really want to be like a local you'll have to master the art of driving 70mph through a 45mph construction on a lane slanted into a concrete median wall while texting and drinking some kind of large Speedway drink


As for the rest... probably a wise idea to skip Germantown for working at WPAFB. Good luck with the decision though! Any questions about other communities around the area?

[joe from dayton]

Thanks for the follow up.