Not nearly the hellhole I expected

[Beavercreek33]

Originally Posted by Kelfly1

Thanks. I guess I thought there might have been some mountains closer since the poster stated, "A couple hours drive from the Mountains, nice vacation stuff and hikes. Great state parks with lots of amenities." I checked Gatlinburg and that is 5-1/2 hours drive each way. It is still something to think about for an extra long weekend though... Never been there. What are the main attractions/sightseeing there?

I'm confused too about the poster that stated "I would go for the mountains in TN over the ones in PA. If you go to PA, then you could save yourself a huge trip and go to SE Ohio. The terrain is very similar." Are they really not mountains, are they nothing more than the hills of SE Ohio?

As you can tell, I've obviously never been to the Eastern US... and my highschool geography class is not remembered.....

Check out the Hocking Hills region of SE Ohio near Logan, Ohio.

hocking hills - Google Image Search

[5flags]

Originally Posted by Beavercreek33

I wish you the best of luck with wherever you end up.

Many thanks. I was pleased to see there are lots of good choices.

[abalogh]

Great assessment by 5flags. Here are some more tidbits I thought up:

Schools – Just like San Antonio, depends on where you live. Felt like I was transported back to the 1980’s in Bellbrook as far as family values and school feel goes (in a good way). San Antonio northwest ISD schools felt more about personal entitlement and “what can my kid get away with”.

Restaurants – I miss Rudys, Alamo Café, El Chaparral, Black Eyed Pea, Luby’s Macaroni Grill, Mina and Dimi’s. Dayton Area (DA) does have a Rudy’s substitute, City Barbeque, but it just does not have the Rudy’s taste. Brio/Bravo are pretty close sub for Macaroni Grill. El Toro is Pretty good, but it is no Alamo café or El Chaparral. DA has Good family / Breakfast restaurants that seem to be missing or few and far between in SA (sorry, Jim’s and Denny’s just don’t cut it). O Charleys in DA is pretty good also. Neither area comes close to Chicagoland pizza (Gino’s / Lou’s) or Italian Beef (Portillo’s).

Museuems/Zoos – Some art museums and a good children’s museum, but Zoos are in Cinci or Columbus.

Amusement Parks – Have not been to Kings Island yet, but it is supposed to be great for kids. The "Big One" Cedar point is about 3.5 hours away. I miss SA Sea World.

Airports – Good deal here, Dayton Airport about 30 min depending on where you live. Cinci and Columbus just over 1 hour. Have used all three over the past three years due to better deals at different times, can save a few hundred on a family of four by shopping around.

Surrounding cities – Lots to do in Cinci and Columbus, but have not hit them much yet.

City festivals – I give the nod to DA here. Lots of suburb cities that each have their own festivals, mostly in the summer. Not much in the dead of winter. Very family oriented.

Shopping – Not too much difference here. The Greene in Beavercreek is on par with the mall they built on I-10/1604 a few years ago.

Groceries – Milk is actually quite a bit cheaper in DA. But, I miss the HEB for fajita meat, fresh tortillas, tamales, and cheap HEB soda (yes, it is Pop up here, not soda).

Rustic vs Antique furniture – SA and surrounding areas has some of the best rustic furniture. DA is more about antiques, but some rustic can be found. Best places to start are Springfield, Lebanon, and Waynesville.

House Prices – At first, I thought DA was more expensive, but it is about the same as SA. You can get a new house in SA for under $100k, but won’t be able to get a mower to the 15 foot backyard because the sides of the house to the privacy fence is only 2 ft wide (OK, exaggerated a bit here, but not by much). Most DA properties have way more yard than SA properties, so they cost a little more. Not many privacy fences, makes the yards seem even larger.

Taxes – SA is better in this category, no state tax and sales tax is about 2% higher than DA. DA has 3% to 7% state income tax, most cities have 1% to 2% income tax, many school districts have 1% to 2% income tax (in addition to property tax). Add it up and your income drops by about 5% to 11%. Property tax seems to be about the same between SA and DA for similar type properties.

Utility Cost – My yearly gas/electric bill went up about 35% here (DA) (winter bills are fun!). Kept the house about 65 night / 72 day in DA winter. 76 night / 79 day in summer, same as I set in SA. Water/Sewer cost went up about 35% also. Trash is about $200 per year (not included in electric bill like in SA). It all adds up to a little over $1000 more per year in DA for an average family of four household.

[lived here forever]

If you choose to live in one of our historical districts in Dayton city, you do not have to pay for trash pickup. There is receptacle charge of $15 every 3 months. But you can have up to 4 bulk pickups at no charge a year. Dayton water bills also run a lot less than the burbs also.

No one here has even mentioned three areas close to the base, where many base employees live. Forest Ridge, located in Riverside, Quail Hollow, and Pheasant Ridge. Quail Hollow and Pheasant Ridge are Dayton, but are in a very nice area just past Forest Ridge. FR students attend Mad River/Riverside schools, who has a very good reputation. Their high school choir just received a top rating at competition, and the band placed at a national band competition in Tennessee. They also have an excellent honors program. QH and PR children atend Huber Heights schools. They all have very good neighborhood associations, and are close knit.

[oktoflgrl]

Originally Posted by rlacross

Wow, what a small world! My husband is stationed at the school at Brooks, do you work there as well? He is in Public Health section,.

I haven't been on here in awhile...my husband works at Brooks as well, in a laboratory. We live on base...where are you?

[frozenak]

I will be coming there from Anchorage. I got a duplex in HH. From Google maps and speaking to AD AF owner/resident, place is very nice neighborhood. I was "warned" about HH but took about 50 days to find right place at right price.

Originally Posted by Wilmingtonguy

I'm going to have to take the opposite side of some of the posters here. As someone who grew up in San Antonio and moved to Ohio (near Dayton) 15 years ago, I have a lot of insight to the area, and here are some things to chew on:

1)Wright Patt is awesome. You'll love it.
2)There is something very rare that you find in San Antonio. It's a huge city with hardly any suburbs (i.e. areas like Converse, Live Oak, and Alamo Heights). Ohio's cities are the complete opposite. They're relatively small cities surrounded by gigantic areas of suburbs. When I drive down to Cincinnati, I spend more time going through the suburbs than I do driving through Cinci proper. So keep that in mind while doing research.
3)Dayton (proper) *IS* pretty horrible honestly. Dayton has some great places (like Oregon District, and much of the downtown proper is nice) but most of it is *not* somewhere I'd like to live. The murder rate is 4 times that of San Antonio... which is saying a lot considering some of the problems SA has (Dayton murder rate: 28/162,789 - SA murder rate: 85/1,212,789).
4)There are some suburbs that are incredible. Kettering, Fairborn, and Beavercreek come to mind. Since you'll be on W-P, you'll most likely go to Beavercreek plenty. Just don't go to Riverside, Huber Heights, or... heck... anywhere north or west of Downtown. It doesn't take long to figure out where not to go in this town.
5)Unemployment is rampant here. Currently it's around 13%. While that obviously has little effect on a job at Wright-Patt, it shows the status of Dayton... which isn't that good in terms of the big picture. And it's only going to get worse. I live in Wilmington, a town which used to be home to Airborne/DHL until DHL broke all their promises and left, creating 10,000 unemployed people. Many of those people were bussed in from Dayton. The point being that Dayton unemployment isn't going to improve anytime soon. For comparison... San Antonio just recently hit 6%. The math isn't very flattering.
6)Pollution. Most research anyone does on pollution levels shows that Dayton is the most polluted city of it's size in the entire nation.

That being said... there's plenty to

[Daytonnatian]

^Apartment communities vary widely, so it might be great or horrible. If you checked it out and it looked good, though, it is probably alright. Again, some of the area's worst apartment communities are actually in nice cities, like some bad ones in Centerville, Miamisburg, Englewood, etc., and some of our nicest are actually in the city proper and Huber Heights, so it is worthwile to put in the elbow grease and do thorough research. Good Luck!

[stdatwmu]

New to the forum, but I've lived in the Dayton area now for 2 years after spending most of my life up in Michigan (mainly the Detroit metro area, but also 4 years on the West side of the State in Kalamazoo along with one summer in Dallas, TX) and have a couple thoughts...

Overall, the cost of living in the Dayton region is about the lowest I've ever experienced. Housing can be a bargain and pretty much everything (utilities, groceries, etc.) is very reasonable. Coming from any larger city or metro, I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised by the cost of living. Also, the "traffic" at rush hour is amusingly light if you're coming from any major area like San Antonio, Detroit, etc. and used to the gridlock those places experience. If you travel, the convenience of numerous big airports (Dayton, Columbus, Cincy) is great since you're just about always bound to find a bargain flight at one of the three.

I first lived in Beavercreek (right on the edge of Bcreek/Kettering) when I moved here and found it to be a generally nice area. Similar to the suburbs of Detroit where I grew up, but less traffic and some newer retail. Definitely a nice area and The Greene is a great complex, although I wouldn't want to live in one of the apartments there. Too much shopping traffic to deal with and, to me at least, it would get old after a while.

More recently, I just bought my first house and after seeing much of the discussion above there's one other city/school district I want to mention - Miamisburg. Specifically, our house is in Miami Township, which is right next to Centerville. The differences are debateable vs. the "top tier schools" (I first was only considering houses in Bellbrook/Sugarcreek Schools, Centerville, Beavercreek myself) and honestly I don't see much of a gap. Now I don't have kids, but I'd be perfectly happy with them in Miamisburg Schools when I do.

After looking at at least 35-40 houses in person, it seems some of the best values for your money in the Dayton area are in our area - Miami Twp. specifically. Not that there's anything bad to say about most of Centerville/Bellbrook/Beavercreek as they are great areas, but I'd highly suggest looking in Miamisburg schools as well. Plus, the convenience to shopping, the highway (especially once the new interchange at Austin Pike to I-75 opens next year), and Cincy if you want to venture that way is hard to beat.

[wckdstepmother]

We just got orders for WPAFB - thank you so much for all the info. This is a great thread.

[Beavercreek33]

Originally Posted by wckdstepmother

We just got orders for WPAFB - thank you so much for all the info. This is a great thread.

Best of luck to you!