Moving to Dayton Area (Kettering, Huber Heights: short sale, apartment, foreclosures)

[wrw1230]

Hello All
I'm moving from the metro Detroit area to the Dayton area within the next few months. Currently staying in the Huber Heights and driving to Trotwood. I've spent little time in exploring but what I've seen so far looks like Dayton metro area could easily be a sister city to Detroit metro area. Here is what I'm looking for:
Great place to live that is less than 30 mins drive time to Trotwood
Plenty of nice restaurants and entertainment areas (movies, bars and shopping)
Good school district
I'm looking to buy a foreclosure/short sale house in a nice upcoming area (not afraid of a fixer upper)

Thanks for your time

[willabee]

To answer this I am gonna break it down a little. I hope it's not hard to read...

Originally Posted by wrw1230

Hello All
I'm moving from the metro Detroit area to the Dayton area within the next few months.

Welcome to the Dayton area! Glad you are gonna relocate here.

Originally Posted by wrw1230

Currently staying in the Huber Heights and driving to Trotwood. I've spent little time in exploring but what I've seen so far looks like Dayton metro area could easily be a sister city to Detroit metro area.

I have a close friend that is from Detroit and he and his wife have both remarked the exact same thing. Seems like many similarities.

Originally Posted by wrw1230

Here is what I'm looking for:
Great place to live that is less than 30 mins drive time to Trotwood

That range will really put in the ballpark for the best Dayton Metro area has to offer.

Originally Posted by wrw1230

Plenty of nice restaurants and entertainment areas (movies, bars and shopping)
Good school district

This criterion would suggest on e of Dayton's suburbs. I guess this is really dependent on your preferred area - suburban/urban. Dayton proper is very urban while many of the suburbs have a small town / strip mall appeal to them.

As for the good school district, many on this site, and many other's who live in the Dayton area would suggest suburbs because the schools are "good". I think that means they get a good state report card. Please see my post at the following link and note that it has gone unanswered as of this posting. I will probably enroll my son in Dayton public schools. So you may wanna take all the Dayton Public school bashing on here with a grain of salt and do what I am doing - your own due diligence.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/dayto...on-public.html

Originally Posted by wrw1230

I'm looking to buy a foreclosure/short sale house in a nice upcoming area (not afraid of a fixer upper)
Thanks for your time

This desire really points you to Dayton proper. See this post for my story:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/dayto...ayton-its.html

Dayton is loaded with foreclosures and many of them are dirt cheap and in livable areas.

Before I make any suggestions would you humor me by posting whether or not you wanna live in Dayton? or one of it's many suburbs?

Thanks,

Will

[Daytonnatian]

If you want traditional suburban, Englewood/Clayton/Union is great, although shopping is lackluster.

Trotwood actually is pretty nice, too, and has an awesome new school, but please don't move to Drexel (partially within city limits, quite possibly the Dayton area's scariest hood. Walking around at midnight like I have done before in the area is NOT a good idea- but the area west of town by KTH crane is fine). I work in Trotwood myself so I can say taht accessing town is pretty easy and the amenties are great (but we need more restraunts!!!)

Germantown and Brookville are great small towns that are nearby if you want that, and Kettering is also convenient off of 35 if you want access to more shopping, entertainment, etc. plus the proximity to downtown is always a plus. Oakwood is great if you got a little more cash.

The historic districts in Dayton are also a really great place to be, especially for buying a foreclosed home and fixing it up, as this is a popular thing to do nowadays around here. I personally love Grafton Hill/Dayton View, but parts can be sketchy, so South Park, CBD/Webster Station, the Oregon District, McPherson Town, St. Anne's Hill, and Fairgrounds might make better options for now. TGasper, a forumer here, has more info on this.

I'd also check out these sites: UrbanOhio.com - Index and DMM Forum - Index | Dayton MostMetro for more info.

[stdatwmu]

I grew up in the Western Metro Detroit suburbs so I can relate to your move. Went to college up in Michigan (WMU) and moved down here about 2 1/2 years ago now. First lived in an apartment in Beavercreek and then I bought a house in Miami Twp. about 6 months ago.

Anyway, I'd recommend Miamisburg / Miami Twp. (Dayton Mall area) where we bought our house. Convenient to a lot of places, only about 45 minutes from Cincy if you want to go that way, and darn near every store/restaurant that exists. Provided you can deal with the construction on I-75 right now, it's right around 20-30 minutes to Trotwood from this general area. Schools are very good (just shy of the highest rating on the Ohio report cards, though I don't personally think those are the world's most reliable statistic by any measure) and I think the overall communuity is real nice. Everything from the big stores down to the small downtown along the river, and everything in between. We looked in just about every main suburban community during the house search - Beavercreek, Bellbrook, Centerville, Ketteting, Miamisburg, Oakwood, Springboro, West Carrolton - and ended up here because we felt it was the best value overall in terms of house available and quality of schools, convenience, etc.

I'm afraid I've never lived North of downtown or spent much time there so I can't recommend any places up that way - though I do know there are some really nice areas based on comments from other folks on here.

[jojo61397]

We are moving the Wright Patterson AFB. My 5 year old son has moderate to high functioning autism. Does anyone have any information on base housing/rentals? Areas to live? School District?

[wrightflyer]

I'll be posting some information on your thread.

[wrw1230]

Before I make any suggestions would you humor me by posting whether or not you wanna live in Dayton? or one of it's many suburbs?

Thanks,

Will[/quote]



Thanks Will for your input. Right now I'm not sure where I want to live as I haven't had the time to look at any communities. I do plan on looking and researching suggestions that are on this post and others.

[jojo61397]

See my thread-- sorry we are celebrating-- good news for promotion ... Any location-- burbs or on base housing-- preferably close to services/schools for my son-- right now we are commuting 90mins+ each day for therapy.

[willabee]

Originally Posted by wrw1230

Thanks Will for your input. Right now I'm not sure where I want to live as I haven't had the time to look at any communities. I do plan on looking and researching suggestions that are on this post and others.

Cool. Daytonnation and others really have you going in the right direction. Lots of good info to digest. I'll give a very brief summation of the Dayton area followed by a picture link that really shows the Dayton area very objectively.

The broad strokes (according to willabee ) basically can bu summed along these lines. Dayton grew out of the Downtown area and from that core. From Downtown out in concentric circles (estimated obviously) you have some of the oldest neighborhoods in Dayton. This is where you will find most of the historic districts and such. Lot's of old neighborhoods - some of them in excellent condition and some of them in terrible condition.

I live in a neighborhood that was built around 1900. My home was built in 1910. It's very urban and close together - and very affordable. This is my preference.

As you get into the neighborhoods farther away from downtown you'll see a lot of 1940 and onward style houses. As you make your way into the suburbs many times it can be difficult to know that you have actually left Dayton. Many of the suburbs are very nice and offer a lot of amenities. Of course this is where you sort of get into the tract homes and strip malls. Lot's of folks prefer newer parts of town for lots of reasons.

On the other hand a lot of the suburbs are actually old towns that have been around a long time. Troy, Miamisburg and German Village come to mind but these aren't the only ones.

I'll refrain from making any suggestions until you get a chance to look around a little more. Here is a really good site to get a picture tour of the area.

Urbanohio.com Gallery > Dayton