Anxious Brit moving to Dayton - advice, please. (Columbus, Springfield: rental, buying a house)

[JefferyT]

I also call it local xenophobia,

There is also Xeniaphobia

The unreasonable fear of tornados! (just kidding)

Actually Xenia is under some sort of Native American curse or wisdom as "the place of the big winds". But this is just Xenia, as the rest of the area hasn't had tornados that I can recall (and I can recall only one touchdown in Xenia during the 20 some years I've lived here).

As elsewhere in the South and Midwest (a large part of eastern/central North America) weather conditions can be favorable to tornados, thus one will see tornado watches and occasional warnings (they are different...watches means conditions are likely. warnings means a tornado has been spotted either in real-time or on radar)

Actual touchdowns and sever damage is actually rather rare, though, in Ohio. The big damaging tornados are rare, and because they are they go down in local legend and folklore.

The parts of the US with the high frequency of Tornados are the southern Great Plains, which is an 100's of miles away.

[JefferyT]

We just moved here and bought a place in West Kettering (on Blossom Heath Road) by Far Hills and Dorothy Lane.

This is a cool area! Did you know it used to be part of Hills and Dales Park? That area has some of the most interesting landscape as its so hilly.

[JefferyT]

Pets!

There is this Pet Travel website and they list these hotels as being "pet friendly" (It's a list of links). You might want to click into the hotel website to see what the arrangements are. These mostly look like extended stay hotels or budget hotels (Red Roof Inn is a budget hotel)

Pet Friendly Hotels In Dayton

[wrightflyer]

Ohioan58:

Now that I am out of Dayton and in more openly minded Columbus (OSU to be more specific), I can sort of see where you are coming from in your clique experiences. Thankfully, I grew up close enough to Wright Pat that many of my friends came from else where in the country, I had family elsewhere in the country (not Kentuckey ), and have traveled outside the country (not Canada ). You especially find cliques of locals around local youth sports. Ugh, soccer moms!

Anyways, to the OP:

As for natural hazards, earthquakes are not a problem. That's out on the West coast. I'd recommend the Residence Inn and Marriott chains of hotels only because I've heard good things of them from friends who have relocated here themselves.

[VideoEngineerAJS]

Fairborn isn't that bad. Now I agree that if you are wanting to stay really close to base then Beavercreek is your best bet. I've lived in Riverside (Yorktown Colony) which isn't bad.

If price isn't a big deal, then Beavercreek or Centerville are good places. If you are a little more price conscious but still want a nice area, Kettering is pretty nice. I actually looked at places in Kettering.

I'd say that Kettering is probably the best overall in regards of price, safety, location, etc. Beavercreek and Centerville are probably the 2 nicest areas of Dayton, but the rent and home prices reflect it as well. So it really depends on your budget.

[Ohioan58]

Originally Posted by JefferyT

There is also Xeniaphobia

The unreasonable fear of tornados! (just kidding)

Actually Xenia is under some sort of Native American curse or wisdom as "the place of the big winds". But this is just Xenia, as the rest of the area hasn't had tornados that I can recall (and I can recall only one touchdown in Xenia during the 20 some years I've lived here).

Xeniaphobia - cute!

The seminal event in Xenia based tornado fear was the 1974 "super outbreak": Super Outbreak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There has never been a event of comparable magnitude since then.

Most of Ohio is somewhat vulnerable to tornadoes. However, in terms of crazy weather, my wife and I once visited Arkansas, and half of the trip there was in "typhoon" conditions, where I had to drive through raging hailstorms and near-flood conditions. The mid-south area of Arkansas and Missouri have the sh*ttiest, most volatile and crazy weather I have ever experienced in a short period.

[CrowsMatter]

i posted to the yellow springs ohio inquiries in the other thread. i like the above post very much!

wishing you and your family all the very best-

blue bird of happiness to you!

cm

[malachai23]

oh ellyagnes - I didn't mean to worry you further with my "plenty of tornado warnings" comment! I was trying to do the opposite and alleviate your fears! But the other poster is correct - I should have said "tornado watches", not "warnings". I still get those two mixed up since I just moved here fairly recently myself and have never experienced weather watches and warnings before. See, I'm from the land of earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsumanis... not much advance warning for those!! Please don't stress about the weather here in Dayton. I hope that you will like this area once you move here and find some nice new friends and welcoming neighbors, as I did.

[destintilelady]

Originally Posted by dashreww

Destintilelady,

How crazy it is to see someone else from Destin while reading a post about Dayton, OH. I grew up in Destin. My parents still live there and from what I understand the housing market there is in the tubes, so it's a good thing that you're no longer working as a realtor. As for north Dayton, I hope it's not that bad, at least the portion north of I70 doesn't seem that bad to me. That's where my family are going to be living for the next four years or so more. We really wanted to live in Beavercreek, but so many of the houses are overpriced hand me downs, at least in our price range. To us, it seemed as though you could find a nicer, newer home in Huber for so much less than you would in Beaver.

Did you look into Bellbrook, Centerville and Fairborn? N-I70 I'm sure you will be just fine there. The real estate market in Destin is holding its own. Believe it or not they are still selling and still buying. People are having to prise the units to what they should have been priced at two years ago. There not making 200,000 dollars on one condo these days and if thats what they want then they must sit and wait until their condo is worth that.

[gentlearts]

I just visited my daughter in Centerville this weekend and I was, again, very impressed with the healthy pulse of the place. In these shaky economic times, Centerville still seems to be prospering. The cute little downtown is charming, and there are plenty of nice shops and stores in Centerville. There is also a wide range of housing prices there.