Another moving thread - quaint NE OH town? (Cleveland, Lakewood: ski resort, foreclosure)

[SongbirdNW]

Hi there,

My husband and I currently live in Portland, OR but are planning to move back to NE Ohio to be closer to family. My husband is an attorney, so our location is somewhat flexible, but being within a 30 min. commute (with traffic - is that possible?) from Cleveland wouldn't hurt. We'd like to find a suburb with an active, independent town center that's easily navigable by foot or bicycle. We're looking for an older home with some space around it, and we'd really love to find someplace with a park, perhaps some hiking trails, not too far away. Community events - everything from local arts to farmer's markets - are a huge plus. We'll eventually want a good school system, and are hoping to spend somewhere around $200k.

What we really want to avoid is sprawl - suburban plazaland, if you will, where you feel as though you need a car to get anywhere.

I've been browsing some threads and have turned up Chagrin Falls and Hudson, along with a couple others. If anyone has additional recommendations, comments, or advice, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for your help.

[boardmanite]

As I was reading your post, I was thinking "Chagrin Falls" but you beat me to it. It is a very quaint NE Ohio town that would fit your criteria. I'm not too familiar with other small towns around Cleveland, so you'll have to wait for other responses. You also might want to post this in the "Cleveland" sub-folder, where you might get more information.

[121804]

Chagrin Falls has what you are looking for but may be out of your budget. Very,very hard to find something with a $200k price tag in that area.

Hudson has more available in terms of housing, but again, that is a city that has actually seen an increase in price of homes this past year.

People will pay to live in these two cities.

Chardon is quaint little city but also the snow capital of Ohio due to its elevation in relation to its proximity to Lake Erie.

Twinsburg is next to Chagrin Falls & has a nice little town center. Homes met that price rang.

Sagamore Hills & Valley View have great trails due to being next to Cuyahoga Natl Park.

[SongbirdNW]

I took your suggestion, boardmanite, thanks! (By the way, I grew up in Poland, OH!)

And thanks for the additional ideas, 121804 - I will look into those. Are any of them a reasonable commute to downtown? We may be getting more locked in to that, as my husband just got a bite from a downtown firm.

[RedSoxFanGoingWest]

On the west side of Cleveland, there's Rocky River. My wife and I lived there for 2 years until we moved to CO. We actually still own our home there!

My wife worked downtown and she had about a 10-15 minute commute. One could avoid the freeway and make it there in about the same time. Rocky River is very close to the metro parks & the Rocky River (thus the name!), has a nice downtown area (not very large but nice and walkable, the school system is highly rated (from what we heard we do not have kids yet) and the home prices are in/around the $200k range.

[121804]

Originally Posted by SongbirdNW

I took your suggestion, boardmanite, thanks! (By the way, I grew up in Poland, OH!)

And thanks for the additional ideas, 121804 - I will look into those. Are any of them a reasonable commute to downtown? We may be getting more locked in to that, as my husband just got a bite from a downtown firm.

Depends on what you think is reasonable

Chagrin Falls is quite nice but pricey. Commute will be there every day but people do it.
Cleveland Heights would be a shorter commute.

[YoMikey617]

I would rate Shaker high on the list for HELLO BARGAINS right now, as in 5 bedroom homes being sold for $100K. There's an abundance of really nice, big homes being sold at deep discounts special thanks to the foreclosure crises. Some of the homes are actually in foreclosure (ie. if the tax records say the owner is "Deutche Bank"), and then many are just unlucky souls trying to sell in this bad market.

This obviously spells trouble for Shaker in the short term, but I think Shaker will always bounce back. You simply cannot replace the old world ambiance of Shaker with today's dollars, and the town is still very popular with young professionals.
You can walk to everything, and you're minutes from everything worthwhile in metro Cleveland.

Isn't there a subway that goes from Shaker right into downtown???

The only place I can think of that might be more appealing (in a crunchier sense) to a Portland transplant would be Lakewood.

[Traveler87]

Check into Brecksville, Ohio just south of Cleveland. It is about a 30 minute drive from Downtown Cleveland depending on the morning and afternoon rushes. It is located right next to the Cuyahoga Nat'l Park, and has some great scenery, biking/hiking trails, and close to great shopping and entertainment. It is worth checking into.

Brecksville home page

[ILOVEOHIO]

Everyone who replied has great ideas. I agree with all of them. Although, when I read the original post, I thought instantly of Peninsula. I love it there. It's not too far off of rte 8 so the commute shouldn't be too long. The little downtown area is amazingly quaint with a ice cream shop, bar & grill, an amazing little bookstore, and many little shops. There is the scenic railroad and in the winter there's Brandywine ski resort and in the summer there's the Quarry.

We did the MS walk up there last April and it was so Beautiful.

Hope this helps!!

[SongbirdNW]

Thank you so much everyone! I've been feeling conflicted about this move - very happy to be near family again but concerned about finding a town that we're actually excited to move to. Hearing things like "amazing little bookstore" and "great scenery" is making me very hopeful!