Potential Relocation to Cincinnati - Neighborhood between Cincy/Dayton (Hamilton: real estate, renting)

[flashes1]

Downtown Loveland is fun....especially in the summer when the bars and restaurants have their windows and decks open. Music's blasting. And it's home to my favorite beer store (Cappy's). If the OP can handle the commute, then it's a great option.

[alohamonkey]

Originally Posted by OHKID

haha very cool! I saw in your original post that you said you were from the area, very cool you were from Hamilton haha. I'm a bit of a booster, just because I go through there frequently and I've seen a ton of positive movement there, but I can completely understand how you would not want to move back to your hometown.

Anyways, the commute to WPAFB-ish from Loveland would be about an hour and ten minutes without heavy traffic. You can almost ascertain you won't be dealing with much traffic if you take US 42 to get to that part of town. 42 to 48 right into Loveland is a nice, easy, reliable route. I wouldn't mess with I-675 much unless you had to because it normally has the worst traffic tie-ups in the Dayton area (aside from 75 through downtown).


But now that I have some more context on what you want, I don't think Loveland is your best bet.
I actually think Milford is a far better fit.

It's a bit further south, unfortunately, but it arguably has one of the nicest downtowns in SW Ohio. Right on the Little Miami River, plenty of good amenities right in town, and highly walkable. Milford would meet your criteria very well. I was only able to find one house there that met your criteria, but it checks off every box well. Here it is:
128 Cleveland Ave, Milford, OH 45150 is For Sale - Zillow
Also, it's about a quarter mile down the hill to get to town from this house, but here's what you'll find once you are there:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1728...7IXZ1eltmg!2e0

Parks, restaurants, a small market, shops, the library.... all right there. Loveland doesn't have any of that within walking distance. Downside is Milford would add 7 minutes each way to your commute. The completely traffic adverse route would take 1 hour and 23 minutes, it's below:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/39.1...d39.818588!3e0


And the "I'm willing to deal with I-71 traffic around Mason and I-675 traffic around Dayton" route - shaves off 8 minutes:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/39.1...d39.818588!3e0

Good luck!

Not only am I from there but I have fond memories of walking to the park and relaxing on top of the ! in the Hamilton! sign when I was a kid. It's a great town that has come a long way but not sure if it fits our exact criteria right now.

Milford looks really interesting. I'm not familiar with it at all but the downtown looks really nice and exactly what we're looking for. We don't need much ... just a few restaurants, bars, and/or shops in walking distance and Milford seems to have it all. An hour plus drive to Dayton each way scares me a bit though.

Loveland looks like it has a few things going for it downtown - ice cream shop, snow cone stand, a couple bars/pubs, a few restaurants, bike trail, parks, etc.

Will have to visit both soon and see.

[alohamonkey]

OHKID - for comparison's sake, what is the completely traffic adverse route from Loveland to WPAFB?

[alohamonkey]

Originally Posted by flashes1

Downtown Loveland is fun....especially in the summer when the bars and restaurants have their windows and decks open. Music's blasting. And it's home to my favorite beer store (Cappy's). If the OP can handle the commute, then it's a great option.

I was just reading about Cappy's growler lines. Sounds like my kind of place.

[Wilson513]

I think that Alo deserves an award of some type for posing one of the most difficult relo puzzles we have ever seen here. Even I, who knows just about every stretch of road within 50 miles, first scoffed at Loveland, only to find that as unlikely as it seems, it is just about as good a choice as has been offered so far.

I suppose 48 is the traffic adverse route to WPAFB from there.

[alohamonkey]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

I think that Alo deserves an award of some type for posing one of the most difficult relo puzzles we have ever seen here. Even I, who knows just about every stretch of road within 50 miles, first scoffed at Loveland, only to find that as unlikely as it seems, it is just about as good a choice as has been offered so far.

I suppose 48 is the traffic adverse route to WPAFB from there.

Haha. Thanks .... I guess. Both my wife and I have unique lines of work and, believe it or not, this scenario is way better than others that we've considered around the country.

I'm curious, why did you scoff at Loveland? I know virtually nothing about it except I remember seeing that heart logo growing up. What are the people like there? Yuppy, diverse, blue collar? I can't really figure it out from 1,000 miles away.

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by alohamonkey

Haha. Thanks .... I guess. Both my wife and I have unique lines of work and, believe it or not, this scenario is way better than others that we've considered around the country.

I'm curious, why did you scoff at Loveland? I know virtually nothing about it except I remember seeing that heart logo growing up. What are the people like there? Yuppy, diverse, blue collar? I can't really figure it out from 1,000 miles away.

Oh, it was just geographical. Loveland just seems out of the way and is rarely recommended here. But, I concur with others who have said it is a delightful place. Has some small town feel, but, you can find a 7500 sq.ft. McMansion if that is your thing. And, it turns out to be not a ridiculous suggestion for your commuting puzzle. I've driven 48 many times and never had a problem. I-75 is always a bummer though.

Here is the City-data link for Loveland's demographics:

//www.city-data.com/city/Loveland-Ohio.html

I'd study it carefully. There is a lot of information in there.

Then visit the city's web page:

Welcome to City of Loveland Ohio - Official Site

EDIT:

Intersting factoid. As small as it is, parts of Loveland lie in three different counties.

[goyguy]

Loveland is one of those places which has changed radically over the past quarter century. If anything, it was once known for being the location of the "Totes" factory, and was a sleepy backwater village with the Little Miami River in the middle.
The river is of course still there, but with the completion of I-275 the town has grown exponentially. After some hasty footwork a few open or wooded areas were spared from the subdivision developments which have otherwise taken over the landscape. And the religious "retreat" farm known as Grailville is still going strong. Much like in the mushrooming 'burbs of Warren and Butler Counties, you can find older (1950's to '70s) enclaves of ranch and split-level homes as well as late-20th-century middle-class "Dreesvilles" (so nicknamed for their developer) and McMansion neighborhoods. (I have a sister and BIL who bought new in a Dreesville there and who are now in a McMansion area. More on their take on the place in a bit.)

"Downtown" in Loveland, such as it is, is a fairly typical cutesy yuppified zone. Some merchants weren't lost on the fact that not only a "national scenic river" but also a lengthy bicycle trail pass through. The supply shops and microbrewers reflect this. For everyday practical shopping there are Meijer, Kroger, and other mega-supermarkets close at hand. Plentiful strip malls along Montgomery Rd and other arteries assure that every real or perceived need in life can be easily met - and the retail Oz known as Kenwood is not far to the south.

Schools in Loveland have historically been good and, more recently, have broken into the highest echelon of the unseemingly important state academic rankings. At least one of my nephews hit the lottery for an elementary-school program for which there were more applicants than seats: it's a fairly radical departure from "special ed" whereby the kids with various "challenges" are fully mainstreamed into regular classrooms. A few Jewish families of my sister's family's acquaintance let it be known (albeit offhandedly) that they selected Loveland over similar communities because the school system didn't shy away from multicultural education - like building world-religion history and holidays into the curriculum. Overall, however, "diversity" is a concept much more talked about than embodied. The town is easily 95+% White BUT there's a somewhat healthy cross-section of economic classes despite its skewing upper-middle more all the time.

As for my relatives, the parents were drawn there because it "wasn't Wyoming" (LOL.) But that was most reflective of the fact that the "Goyguy Sr's" still live in Wyoming, the better to hover if the grandchildren were very close by. Not only that, though - even in the McMansion tracts, "Lovelanders" as a rule forgo snobbery. They take the time to get to know their neighbors, meaning for one thing that kids can be kids instead of being regimented into play dates and such. In the "Dreesville" where my sister and her family lived for 15 years, Boomer childhoods were being replicated by children darting between each other's houses and playing in the street (with a designated car lookout.)

"Some people I know" took their predictable uninformed swat at Wyoming, and every action brings on an opposite reaction (at least according to Newton.) Other than a school system which is routinely at the top of the ratings heap as opposed to "merely" high-ranking, and better class/ethnic heterogeneity than is usually thought, there isn't a lot there to distinguish it from other outlying cities and towns. Everything from a wedding-cake Victorian to a generic McMansion or '70s Colonial can also be turned up within the boundaries of other individual areas. Most suburbs have their counterpart to the Half Day Café and Gabby's. Plenty of places are islands of restrictive zoning, with fast-food joints and grocery chain stores in sight across the city line. And as someone aptly and succinctly put it in another C-D thread recently, "EVERY 'nice' part of Cincinnati is next to one that isn't." To me that would make it seem that Wyoming should still be in the running - though the commute downtown would be decidedly simpler than the northbound one.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by alohamonkey

OHKID - for comparison's sake, what is the completely traffic adverse route from Loveland to WPAFB?

I think Wilson covered it above with the OH 48 to US 42 route.... only downside there is you'd be dealing with slow-moving suburban traffic from Lebanon all the way out to I-71 in South Lebanon.


Either way OP, this would be a LONG commute!

I'd still keep Hamilton and Lebanon in the running, especially Lebanon.

Lebanon adds about 5 minutes to your wife's commute when compared to Loveland, but in return you'd be shaving your commute down to around 45 minutes. Also Lebanon has significantly more amenities than Loveland.

And I'd still at least take another look at Hamilton because your wife's commute would be at about 40 minutes using 128 to 27 into the city, while your commute would be at about an hour at the most using 4 to 35 to 4 again.


Otherwise, if proximity to Cincinnati is your #1 concern, Glendale and Wyoming are your best bets but try Sharonville too. Here's one that meets your criteria with a relatively easy walk to downtown Sharonville:
4176 Whisper Way, Sharonville, OH 45241 is For Sale - Zillow

Good luck!

[Briolat21]

I haven't really weighed in. I guess I will say that I can be from Lebanon to the base in about 45 minutes in "normal" (not rush hour) traffic. Sometimes a bit faster.

Basically 48 north to I-675 around Dayton.

From Lebanon to downtown (again non-rush) its about 30+ minutes, but depends on where I'm going to. Anything along I-71 is pretty easy, but on the far west side its going to take a bit longer.

Otherwise - Lebanon's got a reasonable amount of things going on for a town as small as it is (population <20,000). They certainly have a number of festivals/events, and with the rebounding economy the few vacancies on main street seem to have found occupants.

Good mix of housing (we're in a new tract development just outside the town's limits) and there's a nice thing to being located smack in the middle of Cinci/Dayton (basically we look at both cities for our entertainment options).

But the other suggestions on here have been equally great. OP you've got some good options, even with your challenging commute.