From California to Ohio? (Columbus, Cleveland: ski resorts, best city, real estate)

[digdug]

We're a family of four living in Northern California, about 70 miles north of San Francisco.

Our goal is to leave California within the next few years. I won't go into all the reasons we want to leave, I think anyone who has lived in California or has friends/relatives in Califonia has heard all of ad nauseum.

My wife is a 1st grade teacher and the kids are in grade school. I work for a software company. I'm hoping that I'll be able to telecommute to work; I am currently doing this 2-3 days per week anyway...what would another 2 days be? lol.

We're interested in the mid-west, specifically Indiana or Ohio as we've got family in PA that we'd like to be somewhat close to.

Currently our little town has a out 24,000 people. We'd like something along this size, that is not too close to the big cities while still being a manageable drive if needed.

What's good about Ohio? Is it better in the north, south, east or west of the state? What gotchas might there be?

[paintballer1708]

I think a great area for you to move to would be the Akron metro. Not far from Cleveland so if your interested in Cleveland its about a 30 minute drive. Akron and Cleveland are both some great cities with a great technology sector. Akron is a very nice smaller city with about 212,000. Its downtown is very clean with nice older and modern skyscrappers dotting the skyline. A lot of high tech corps are located downtown. Akron has a lot of great suburbs around the city. Portage Lakes, Tallmadge, Norton, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow and Fairlawn. Commute times depends on what suburbs you are in. Akron really doesnt have a big problem with traffic. Just around the morning rush and then rush hour from about 4-6pm. I know going I-77 south there has been some delays due to construction, but thats nothing to worry about really.

Akron is not far from Lake Erie with some great beaches. Cedar Point and Geauga Lake are not far away, and the Cuyahoga Nat'l Park is very nice. I usually mention all of this when people are looking to move to the Cleveland/Akron metro. If your looking to fly in we have two Int'l airports. Cleveland Hopkins Int'l and Akron Fulton Int'l along with Akron-Canton Reg Airport. There is a lot of entertainment around here, if your big into boating we dont just have Lake Erie, but all across NE Ohio there are plenty of large lakes for boating, swimming and fishing. In the winter time we have some ski resorts and summer time there is lots of waterparks around. Geauga Lake has one of the best waterparks in the nation. I cant remember the name of it. I keep thinking of one at Cedar Point. Then you have Cedar Point, the "Roller Coaster Capital of the World." Many things to do for the kids. The schools in the suburbs are great. I know up here in Cleveland some of the sorrounding suburbs like Bay Village and Avon Lake were in the top 50 school districts in the nation.

I read that you have family in Pennsylvania. That is why i mentioned NE Ohio. I have family in Pittsburgh and its about a two hour drive to get down there. But, i wouldnt leave Columbus out of the question. It has been voted #7 best city to live and work in across the country. I know Columbus has some excellent suburbs. I was looking into moving down there before i made Cincinnati my final decision. Westerville, Dublin, Hilliard, Grove City, Worthington all very nice suburbs. Also dont forget, im sure this has come to mind, but selling a house in California can get you a very very nice house in Ohio. Sometimes i wish i could have lived in a place like California sold a house then moved here, because i know i could have gotten a very nice home. Anyway, good luck with your move to either Indiana or Ohio. Honestly Ohio offers more than just one city like Indiana with Indianapolis. We have Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, and Cincinnati. If you have anymore questions i would be glad to answer them.

[sevdie]

Originally Posted by digdug

We're a family of four living in Northern California, about 70 miles north of San Francisco.

Our goal is to leave California within the next few years. I won't go into all the reasons we want to leave, I think anyone who has lived in California or has friends/relatives in Califonia has heard all of ad nauseum.

My wife is a 1st grade teacher and the kids are in grade school. I work for a software company. I'm hoping that I'll be able to telecommute to work; I am currently doing this 2-3 days per week anyway...what would another 2 days be? lol.

We're interested in the mid-west, specifically Indiana or Ohio as we've got family in PA that we'd like to be somewhat close to.

Currently our little town has a out 24,000 people. We'd like something along this size, that is not too close to the big cities while still being a manageable drive if needed.

What's good about Ohio? Is it better in the north, south, east or west of the state? What gotchas might there be?

Don't know anything about Ohio or Indiana...have you thought about kansas? I've lived in Kansas for many years now (moved from New York City) and could give you loads of information about several of the towns here. Kansas has everything from Rural to city and in between. It is also visually beautiful I am looking to move out for thr reasons you are probably looking to move in. PM me or post back if you're interested.

[digdug]

Originally Posted by sevdie

Don't know anything about Ohio or Indiana...have you thought about kansas? I've lived in Kansas for many years now (moved from New York City) and could give you loads of information about several of the towns here. Kansas has everything from Rural to city and in between. It is also visually beautiful I am looking to move out for thr reasons you are probably looking to move in. PM me or post back if you're interested.

Kansas....hmmm. You know I have no clue as to what kansas might be like. What info can you provide? You can PM me the details so we don't hijack this thread.

[sevdie]

I will PM you tonight when I get home from work.

[fod501]

Ohio has some good things to offer it just depends on what you are looking for, do you want to live near water, hills, or just flat land. I could be wrong but I think you could live any were in Ohio, except for the south east, and be less than hour and half from a city of decent size (major hospitals, airport, and more than one shopping mall). I don't know much about the north, might want to get more info from paintballer1708. Central Ohio is very flat many farm land when you get out of the cities, southern Ohio has hills and forest there are a lot of B&B in this are since it is a place were people from Columbus and Cincinnati get away and relax. The are between Dayton and Cincinnati, city is appropriately called middle town, is nice since it is only 45 min from either cities but as urban sprawl continues and Cincinnati and Dayton continue to merge as one city that area of Ohio may became congested, but that is a few years off. If you are going to telecommute you may want to look at the suburbs, there are several that offer the character of a small town. Some of the ones I know of around Cincinnati are Loveland and Lebanon. Pitfalls. Since you have children I would look at the schools district or what private schools are near by. There are some very good public school districts but they are many in the suburbs of the major cities, when you get to the rural area the schools may not be all the great, this is because the school funding comes from the local community and many of the rural areas don't have has high as income as the suburbs.

[hairmetal4ever]

Originally Posted by digdug

We're a family of four living in Northern California, about 70 miles north of San Francisco.

Our goal is to leave California within the next few years. I won't go into all the reasons we want to leave, I think anyone who has lived in California or has friends/relatives in Califonia has heard all of ad nauseum.

My wife is a 1st grade teacher and the kids are in grade school. I work for a software company. I'm hoping that I'll be able to telecommute to work; I am currently doing this 2-3 days per week anyway...what would another 2 days be? lol.

We're interested in the mid-west, specifically Indiana or Ohio as we've got family in PA that we'd like to be somewhat close to.

Currently our little town has a out 24,000 people. We'd like something along this size, that is not too close to the big cities while still being a manageable drive if needed.

What's good about Ohio? Is it better in the north, south, east or west of the state? What gotchas might there be?

Southwestern Ohio is the most scenic, has the mildest winters and hottest summers, also least snowfall. Best job market is Columbus, followed by Cincinnati, Cleveland, and the rest. East of Cleveland has a HUGE amount of snowfall, as in more than the ski areas of Cali, so beware.

Teacher pay in Ohio will be slightly lower than California, BUT (and this is a HUGE but) housing costs about one-fifth what it does there all over Ohio.

I'd opt for either the north Columbus suburbs, northeast Cincy suburbs or even the Cleveland-Akron area, esp. northern Summit County. In these areas your wife will find a nice, growing, high-paying school district to work in, and good neighborhoods.

Toledo has nice areas, but isn't as "fun" or interesting in my opinion. Youngstown? Poor little Y-town. Just don't go there.

[Cosmic]

I just went thru the move from a big city / urban environment back to Ohio. Probably for a lot of the same reasons, you want to leave California. I used to live in Boston, Ma, was there for 34 years. Used to be a fun place to live, no more, a zillion reasons to leave. I've been back in Ohio for a little over a year. I also have lived in CA, been in all fifty states and many foreign countries, so I have a fair idea of what things are like in different locations.

I moved back to Ohio after a long research project. I picked Southeastern Ohio for the low cost of living, low crime, weather, far enough away to be left alone, close enough to be connected to the Big World, one of the few areas where you can have a lot of the convenience without being hassled much by the government of any type.

Ohio is not like many other states. It has huge variations between regions, cities, towns, locations. I have relatives all over the state, I have lived in Columbus and a number of smaller towns in my younger days. My sister lives up in Columbiana county, I live in Monroe. We compare things, some are like day and night. Things like weather, prices for houses, social life, hassles, crime, taxes, etc. I've been up to the town of Columbiana, nice place to live, might fit you well in size.

The weather will vary a lot depending on your location. In general being North of I-70 interstate will be a more severe winter. The central part of the state is too hot for me in summers, lot more haze and pollution. The better weather is usually found if you can be up in elevation a bit. I would avoid most of the bigger places / more dense population areas. You will get many of the same hassles your trying to run from, in particular traffic, other people trying to run your life.

The crime level will also vary a lot depending on locations. Some towns you don't even want to consider. Pays to do your homework.

There is also great variations in real estate prices, taxes and how much regulation you have to deal with.

The other thing to consider, how much convenience and ease of shopping, availability of services do you want?? Some areas are tough in the shopping category, tough to get much choice. Might even be hard put to find a gas station close by. I considered all that, plus what radio / TV / internet type services where available. I live in a relatively small town but I have more actual convenience than I had in Boston. Life in most bigger cities has just become far too much of a daily battle to survive.

One good thing about Ohio, they have paid attention to providing first class libraries in even quite small towns. The state pays a lot of the costs, most libraries are linked in networks. You can get just about everything very easy if not directly stocked at that particular library, books, CD's, DVD's, electronic media on-line. Most have Web type accounts. A very small town library in Ohio can put a big city library in many other states to shame. Some even have free coffee, tea, cookies, etc. Many are new, with lots of computers and other services. Not being tied so directly to the local taxes revenues, they tend to be larger and more posh with good hours / services.

Plus Ohio has a good roads network, not many toll roads. In general the roads are well maintained, keep in mind it is all relative. The more rural roads are far superior to many other states I've been in. Plus they have nice rest stations on the major highways that are actually open and well maintained. Pretty enjoyable to get around after living in the Northeast for so long, don't think there was one legal rest stop open anywhere. Your bladder doesn't feel like it will explode in Ohio.

Ohio is like many other states, you must consider what natural disasters might get you. In general, I say avoid any of the flooding zones. Lots of rivers and creeks to be aware of. Ohio also gets tornados, more in the western part of the state. If you select carefully, can be pretty free of most disasters that can occur.

Taxes can be all over the lot depending on where you live. Some of your tax burden will be local in terms of income, sales, etc. Property taxes can vary a huge amount between areas. State income tax forms are breeze compared to many states. You do not have a lot of the nuisance type taxes. My taxes in Ohio are a mere fraction of what they were in Boston. Insurance costs are also very reasonable. I pay about 1/5 for car insurance for 4 times the coverage than I did in Ma. The other good thing, they can not raise a lot of the taxes without a vote on the ballot. Sure not true in a lot of other states. Just about all local taxes require the vote.

In general Ohio is a good place to live. It doesn't have a lot of the petty government type hassles of CA or MA. You probably can find what you are looking for but need to do a lot of homework. Pays to visit if you haven't had much experience with the state, see a lot of the different regions.

[raisedhere]

I've lived in Cincinnati all my life. Yes Cincinnati is behind on the times, but we don't like to jumb into things to quickly. Cincinnati is different in every area. Eastside vs. Westside. The Eastside is more progressive for the WhiteCollar worker. The Westside has a motto"if it wasn't here 10 years ago,why do we need it now"? So you could say we have more BlueCollar workers here on the Westside. If you travel North of Cincinnati thats a whole other story~you can pay more there for less.
The skyline is beautiful if you are looking at it from Newport,KY. They are trying to bring more people to the downtown area: large screen(like in NYC)large loft apartments,plenty of shopping but the smaller business just can't survive,alot of the finer resturants are pulling out so who knows if they will try and bring them back, or replace them with something else.
Cincinnati is big on their Chili. There are lots of places for Chili:Skyline Chili,GoldStar,Camp Washington Chili,Cincinnati Chili,Empress Chili...did I forget any? Here in Cincinnati you don't eat chili in a bowl. It can be eatten on a hotdog w/mustard,chili,onions and cheese-on spaghetti~it is called a "3-Way"(it's not what you thinking) Spaghetti w/chili and cheese. The "4-Way" adds onions and the "5-Way" adds beans. And don't for get the crackers and hot sauce.

[paintballer1708]

^LOL i love Cincinnati chilli. They were comparing three cities for chilli. Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York City. Cincinnati won most of the votes for best chilli. And Cincinnati has a great skyline with great views from everywhere. I really like Mount Adam's views the best. Cincinnati has the best riverfront of any other major city in the U.S. in my opinion.