possible move to Toledo area from Philadelphia Pa area (Sandusky: crime, houses)

[phillybee]

Hi

I have job lead in the Toledo area. I would be moving from Philadelphia. From searching online for housing and schools it looks like Perrysburg, Sylvania, Holland and Maumee areas seem to be nice with good schools. From a local view, which is a better area to live? The schools seem to all rank about the same so I'm not really worried about that aspect. Which area has more things to do for kids? Parks,attractions, etc. From looking around online i like the Perrysburg downtown, do the other towns have similar set ups? I've read some posts about high property tax but after looking at houses similar to what we have now taxes are around half of what I am paying in NJ and the houses are less also, so that would be a bonus. And one last thing, we are about an hour from the beach. My family loves the beach and ocean, how are Lake Erie beaches? Are they set up to be family or tourist friendly like New Jersey beaches or are the more along the lines of "here's some sand to sit on"? lol Any info about the area would be great!

Thanks

[acealive1]

Originally Posted by phillybee

Hi

I have job lead in the Toledo area. I would be moving from Philadelphia. From searching online for housing and schools it looks like Perrysburg, Sylvania, Holland and Maumee areas seem to be nice with good schools. From a local view, which is a better area to live? The schools seem to all rank about the same so I'm not really worried about that aspect. Which area has more things to do for kids? Parks,attractions, etc. From looking around online i like the Perrysburg downtown, do the other towns have similar set ups? I've read some posts about high property tax but after looking at houses similar to what we have now taxes are around half of what I am paying in NJ and the houses are less also, so that would be a bonus. And one last thing, we are about an hour from the beach. My family loves the beach and ocean, how are Lake Erie beaches? Are they set up to be family or tourist friendly like New Jersey beaches or are the more along the lines of "here's some sand to sit on"? lol Any info about the area would be great!

Thanks

perrysburg or maumee have better schools than any of them. living situation is the same. its a lot more quiet, and safer

anything on lake erie beach wise is not good......unless you're by cleveland and the water is actually safe to swim in.

in the whole area, toledo has the most to do by far.

[ferraris]

Toledoans will tell you that you can get anywhere in the area within 20 minutes. And that's basically true, so I would base your choice mostly on the house/neighborhood itself.

The beaches along lake Erie are mostly of the "Here's some sand to sit on" variety. I like it, but if you are looking for a boardwalk with shops and restaurants, you're not going to find anything like that aside from Put-in-Bay or Cedar Point, both about an hour away. Put-in-Bay is probably right up your alley.

[Tobias C]

Originally Posted by ferraris

Toledoans will tell you that you can get anywhere in the area within 20 minutes. And that's basically true, so I would base your choice mostly on the house/neighborhood itself.

The beaches along lake Erie are mostly of the "Here's some sand to sit on" variety. I like it, but if you are looking for a boardwalk with shops and restaurants, you're not going to find anything like that aside from Put-in-Bay or Cedar Point, both about an hour away. Put-in-Bay is probably right up your alley.

Except Put-In-Bay doesnt have a public sand beach. Kelleys Island has a good beach.

Most of the beaches along Lake Erie are at state parks. They arent built up with restaurants and bars and shops or anything. Just trees and some bathrooms and picnic tables.

[Tobias C]

Originally Posted by phillybee

Hi

I have job lead in the Toledo area. I would be moving from Philadelphia. From searching online for housing and schools it looks like Perrysburg, Sylvania, Holland and Maumee areas seem to be nice with good schools. From a local view, which is a better area to live? The schools seem to all rank about the same so I'm not really worried about that aspect. Which area has more things to do for kids? Parks,attractions, etc. From looking around online i like the Perrysburg downtown, do the other towns have similar set ups? I've read some posts about high property tax but after looking at houses similar to what we have now taxes are around half of what I am paying in NJ and the houses are less also, so that would be a bonus. And one last thing, we are about an hour from the beach. My family loves the beach and ocean, how are Lake Erie beaches? Are they set up to be family or tourist friendly like New Jersey beaches or are the more along the lines of "here's some sand to sit on"? lol Any info about the area would be great!

Thanks

Perrysburg, Sylvania, and Maumee are all similar in that theyre all old enough to have a traditional historic downtown with restaurants, shops, etc......Holland doesnt have a distinct downtown, its more just typical sprawl but there is an original, older part of the town. I would say Perrysburg and Sylvania are just a bit nicer than Maumee and Holland unless you go out of the city limits to areas like Monclova Twp. Holland is hit or miss in my opinion depending on the neighborhood. Theres some nice subdivisions more to the western edge but theres an increasing amount of crime in some of the areas off McCord. Nothing alarming though.

Ottawa Hill is the nicest and also the most expensive suburb. Depending on the style of home you want its worth considering as well. OH doesnt have a downtown but its in close proximity to all the newer good stuff in west Toledo.

Theres also a lot of good neighorhoods in Toledo too. There are even some areas where the address (and taxes) are Toledo but the school district is Sylvania.

[phillybee]

Thanks for info. If this opportunity does come around it's nice to have some input other than web searches. If an offer did come my way I would definitely need to fly out for a weekend with my wife to look around. I've driven through Toledo but never stopped to look around, unless you want to count Waffle House in the middle of the night.

So, from the sound of it, Lake Erie beaches are more day trip beaches than they would be somewhere to spend a weekend. Which is fine, my kids are young and more concerned with playing in the sand than they are with the amenities. I noticed that Michigan has more of the beach town feel along Lake Michigan and there are a few towns along the lakes in Ontario that are supposed to be nice.

[canudigit]

Lake Erie beaches are definitely more of a day trip experience than a vacation experience. There are some very nice state parks a short distance from Toledo such as Maumee Bay State Park and the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area (which offers a boardwalk and some great bird watching that actually draws people from all over the world during certain weeks in the spring). To get a beach vacation experience Lake Michigan is definitely your best bet and there are many beautiful beach towns along Michigan's west coast that offer more amenities and better beaches than Lake Erie.

If I was moving to the Toledo area with young kids, I would look at Perrysburg first, and Maumee and Sylvania would be a dead tie for second place. Holland, as a PP pointed out, is not all that great, just an older town on the outskirts of Toledo that has sprawled into Toledo and has a few hit or miss areas along the corridor that is closest to Toledo. It isn't bad or dangerous by any means, just not special in any way.

Perrysburg is a beautiful river town with a very rich history and a lot of community activities to get involved in. There is an awesome historic district along the river and as you saw when you researched it, a very cute, historic downtown area that also sits next to the river. It has sprawled out into a bunch of subdivisions on the outskirts over the years because it is considered such a desirable place to live, but because it has grown, it also has a lot of shopping/dining to offer for a city its size. There is a "lifestyle center" called Levis Commons with some upscale shopping and dining, and along route 20 (the Fremont Pike to locals), there is every big box store you could need. To me, Perrysburg is the perfect mix of old fashioned quaintness combined with modern day amenities and is also very safe.

Sylvania also has a cute downtown but it is smaller than Perrysburg's and feels more manufactured, probably because until roughly the 1960s-70s Sylvania was basically a small, nondescript country town that gradually sprawled into Toledo. Developers decided to build some high end neighborhoods in Sylvania a few decades ago and it became "Perrysburg North" to a lot of people with comparable new housing and well rated schools but for me it lacks some of the charm of Perrysburg and feels much less defined, possibly because it abuts Toledo whereas Perrysburg is across the river and has more defined boundaries. Sylvania is still very nice and safe and family friendly, though, I would not mind living there at all if we still lived in the immediate area.

Maumee doesn't have quite the reputation for great schools and as much of an upscale feeling as Perrysburg and Sylvania, but it is a historic river town where some of the first European settlers in the area put down roots (about the same time that they were settling in Perrysburg just across the river) and has some really nice neighborhoods near the river. It also has Sidecut Metropark which has a fun walking trail (it is a converted towpath that mules used to walk on to tow canal boats along the Miami and Erie Canal back in the early 1800s). The area is rife with white tail deer and other wildlife and a great place to relax.

There are a few other areas that are safe and family friendly, such as Monclova Township (just west of Maumee) and Ottawa Hills, which is a very wealthy enclave nestled into west Toledo but still a separate village. Ottawa Hills has the best rated schools in the area overall year after year but has no real defined downtown or gathering place and shopping and dining is mostly non-existent in the village itself as it is vastly residential. Monclova Township is nice, safe, and basically a bunch of new subdivisions on what were recently corn and soybean fields. There is a shopping/dining complex, The Shoppes at Fallen Timbers, but no real defined downtown unless you go to Waterville, which is another quaint, historic river town but much smaller than Maumee or Perrysburg.

[Rebek56]

Maumee has a cute downtown, but it's tiny. Sidecut Metropark is quite lovely, though.

[Tobias C]

Also in our general area, towns like Port Clinton, Marblehead, Sandusky, and Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island) and Kelleys Island are popular lakefront tourists destinations, especially Sandusky with Cedar Point, and all the water parks.

[dayton_ohio]

Originally Posted by phillybee

Thanks for info. If this opportunity does come around it's nice to have some input other than web searches. If an offer did come my way I would definitely need to fly out for a weekend with my wife to look around. I've driven through Toledo but never stopped to look around, unless you want to count Waffle House in the middle of the night.

So, from the sound of it, Lake Erie beaches are more day trip beaches than they would be somewhere to spend a weekend. Which is fine, my kids are young and more concerned with playing in the sand than they are with the amenities. I noticed that Michigan has more of the beach town feel along Lake Michigan and there are a few towns along the lakes in Ontario that are supposed to be nice.

Lake Michigan has many nice beach towns, all the way up the coast from near Indiana to the far north. It feels more like oceanside than lakeside, but without salt water. St Joseph for example is about 2.5 hours away (an easy drive on the toll road) and is very nice.

While all the schools might look the same, they differ a lot. Generally, Ottawa Hills is considered the best, then Perrysburg, maybe Anthony Wayne, and some Sylvania schools, and then Maumee and the rest. Try to visit the schools if you can first.

Watch income taxes in addition to property taxes. There can be a big difference.