Northern Kentucky (Louisville, Covington, Florence: new home, safe neighborhoods, casinos)

[ajohnson56]

so where in northern kentucky is a good place to live, safe neighborhoods, nice fairly new homes, plenty of shopping (malls, costco/sams club, entertainment) I'm looking for an area that is suburb, but not too far from the riverboat casinos (belterra,grandvictoria,argosy) any info would be great. thanks

[LittleMan]

HI!

How far away from the casinos are you looking? Mu husband and I are looking for the same thing. He will be working in one of the casinos and hopefully I will be working in Cincinnati. We are going up in two weeks to look at homes, we now live in South Florida. I have been told to look in Hebron, Burlington and Union. I don't know how big these places are, but I'll find out soon.

[jak88]

Taylor Mill. Five minute drive to Cincinnati and other places like Covington. And it is a smaller community that is very wooded, so if or when you have kids they will enjoy living there.

[cincyUK]

Ft. Thomas also.

[ajohnson56]

thanks for the info, I will be looking into those areas.

[northernkentuckyjoe]

Originally Posted by LittleMan

HI!

How far away from the casinos are you looking? Mu husband and I are looking for the same thing. He will be working in one of the casinos and hopefully I will be working in Cincinnati. We are going up in two weeks to look at homes, we now live in South Florida. I have been told to look in Hebron, Burlington and Union. I don't know how big these places are, but I'll find out soon.

Dear LittleMan,

You mentioned in your reply to AJohnson56 the cities of Hebron, Burlington, Union and also were wondering about the size of these cities. I hope you don't mind but I am a realtor and wanted to give you some input on that if you will be movin here. Yes, if you are looking for a good location convenient for both you and your husband's workplaces, you will want to look in Boone County as it lies between the casinos in Indiana and Cincinnati. In particular, the Hebron area lies right along the 1-276 circle freeway which is the expressway that you both would use to get to your respective work locations.

However, I will also mention to you as I did to AJohnson56 as it relates to your question of "how big" these places are that the entire built up area of Boone County (in other words, where all the subdivisions and shopping area are) is only about an area of 16 miles long (about 4 exits worth on the expressway to put it another way) by 8 miles wide . The areas or cities that were mentioned to you of Burlington, Hebron, and Union (plus Florence which I am suprised was not mentioned to you) are, for all practical purposes one area. Invariably when I am showing homes to newcomers, we end up seeing homes in all four of these areas as essentially they are contiguous to each other. So if you are doing some home looking on the internet, you need not worry if the home is marked as being in Union, Florence, Hebron, or Burlington. So, although I mention that homes in the Hebron area would be right on your commuting path, homes located in the other 3 areas would not add much to your commute, maybe 5, 10 minutes in case of Burlington and up to 20 minutes in case of Union as it is farthest south. Also, note that I am careful to refer to these 4 areas as "areas" as in reality, Hebron and Burlington are not even actual incorporated cities and the actual city boundaries of Union and Florence are quite compact. We just say a house is lcoated in Union even when not in the city boundaries as that is what we use in the mailing address and what one local person refers to as Union, another might call Florence. Well, it all goes back to the idea that these four areas more or less make up one entity.

Well, I hope this helps. By the way, if you are previewing homes on the web before coming up, the board of realtors website is Northern Kentucky Association of REALTORS&reg. My own office website is RE/MAX Affiliates Realtors - Serving All of Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati, USA. Former is more user friendly for home previewing but latter will have more community info. Good luck! If you are wondering about other stuff, don't hesitate.

[K. Dunn]

Well I have posted several times before regarding our loves and dislikes of N.KY mostly being the lack of any real towns, but lovely communities and home styles. If your going into Cincinnati anyways then it probably doesn't matter at that point. On my last visit to the area scouting [like several of you are doing] I made a detailed map about 4 x 4 ft wide so I could mark and circle those area's we were most impressed with [my wife laughed at me continually pulling my huge had made map [thanks google] and folding it in the car so I see it]. We were looking in the $200K-$300K range and these were the area's we were most impressed with for neighborhood look along with homes styles [now mind you we like the more wooded look and a little space around them].

Starting in the South Union Area....

Triple Crown Country Club Estates

You can't go wrong in this community. Homes from the $250K range all the way up to $600K. Very beautiful surroundings. Between the 338 and Frogtown Rd.

A little to the west of it there is a lot of country-side beauty and some very nice spacious homes by where the 127[42] meets Hicks Pike [loved that whole road for views]. Going north on the 127[42] some hidden nice spots off Rice Pike but the farther north into Union the more Track Home it looks.
Now up in Union central area off Mt. Zion Rd check out Golden Pond Dr. and then go over into the Hempsteade Area. Lots of nice beautiful homes especially off Hempsteade Dr. on the east side which back up to woods.

On the west side of the 237 going North out of Union quite a few spacious homes to check.

Now heading into Florence..

Our favorite was a surprise called "The Glens of Oakbrook", what a fabulous gorgeous neighborhood [I will post a picture for you to see], home after home that had our mouth dropping open. Family friendly from what we saw, homes averaged around $300K but probably worth it. Walking trails all through it with people out jogging and enjoying there area. Especially check out Glen Arbor Dr. between Par Four Ct. and Oak Brook Dr. As you get closer to the 18 we found the homes to be more track homes again, which we don't like. That Glen Arbor Dr. that I mentioned goes all around the Boone Links Golf Course, and there are several more nice areas surrounding it in quiet peaceful settings by ponds and golf courses. Check out Trophy Ct.

Continuing North in Burlington

Some nice older neighborhoods off Regal Ridge Rd.[via Carlton Dr. off the 18 and some nice areas off Kingsgate Dr. which is just off the 18 too past the 237 going north.

Now Hebron the farthest North

Most of this area surrounding Hebron seemed a bit too new and track home for us, but we did LOVE the area's closer to the Ohio River [some with beautiful views], these would be the homes off of Britt Dr. and Stahl Rd both of which are off the 237 North. Too many $$ for us, but beautiful!

From a sight seeing stand point we really liked the drive up the 127 as well as we drove west on the 536 which passes through lots of gorgeous farms and forrest alongside. Camp Ernest Rd. through Central Park and up to the west side of Florence is also nice. Especially like the River Rd past Hebron parallel the Ohio River on the Kentucky side. Drove this from Hebron all the way to Newport and it was quite diverse and interesting. Newport itself was much bigger and nicer than we expected and highly recommend eating at the Irish Pub located behind the Newport Aquarium Center along the river side, nice view while you relax and soak it in. The Cincinnati city skyline is beautiful.

Well hope that helps some of you who are also looking to move to KY like us. I personally am going back again in 2 weeks but this time to scout eastern Louisville area which is our new target. Good luck. See you in KY someday soon! It seems like all the nice people are moving to KY! Ciao.

[ajohnson56]

Kdunn, those pictures are great. what city and community where those taken in? do you have any more pictures of northern Kentucky from your trip? If so I'm interested in viewing them, wow what a pretty state. thank you for the information.

[ajohnson56]

northernkentuckyjoe, thanks also for your help.

[KY-BOY]

Hebron, Burlington, Taylor Mill, Independence are all decent chioces.