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Old 11-21-2016, 10:08 AM
 
19 posts, read 23,365 times
Reputation: 22

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Hi All. I’ve accepted a job offer in Cincinnati and will be starting in about a month. We’re relocating from Washington DC and will start looking for a house to buy ASAP.

I’d love some help on determining which neighborhoods / town to target.

Like I said we’re currently in Washington DC where we’ve lived for 2 years. Prior to that we lived in Cleveland for about 15 years, so any comparisons of areas in Cincinnati to similar areas in Cleveland would be helpful.

I’ll be working downtown. I probably need to keep the commute time under 35-40 minutes for my sanity. I would probably be doing an earlier work schedule, like 7-4, in part to avoid the worst of rush hour.


We are looking to buy. I think our budget on the Ohio side would be about $225,000 max. We’re looking to keep the monthly payment under $1300. We’re able to put 20% down up to $225k.


We want a single family home, 1500 square feet or more. Closer to 2000 would be great. At least 3 BR. 4 would be ideal. At least 2 full baths.


These three things are almost “must-haves”:
- Fireplace
- Screened-in porch / 3-season room
- Attached 2-car garage


Looking for a surburban neighborhood environment. Family-friendly with other families with young children would be great. (We have a 16 month old).

Schools are a consideration, as we hope to settle down and not have to move again for a long time. They don’t have to be the best in the state, but should be at least “good”. We aren’t really interested in private schools.


My wife likes older construction since they are often more sturdy than newer construction. She also likes the character of older houses and neighborhoods.


Diversity would be great, but is really a bonus. I know in Cleveland it’s hard to find diverse neighborhoods (especially on the west side). Don’t know if Cincy is the same.


Yard – medium to large. 0.25 to 0.5 acres would be great. Ideally wooded. I don’t like those neighborhoods where it’s 100% open. What’s the point of a big yard when you can still see your 6 neighbors’ houses? Can be smaller if private.


Safety is a concern. My wife is very sensitive to this. It has to not only be almost completely safe, but it also has to feel completely safe.


Proximity to parks is a big thing for us. Especially hiking trails. This is how we spend most of our time, walking around outside with the dog and baby.

We lived in Cincy for a year when I was in grad school in 2005. We didn’t get out to lots of parts of the city but we loved the Cincinnati Nature Center (Rowe Woods, I think it may also be called). If we can live within a 5-10 drive of a place like that it would be gold.


I’ve done some research on Zillow and forums like this and have a list of towns/neighborhoods I think we may target. I want to see if it matches up with any suggestions I get in this thread. I think what I’m looking for is realistic. We’ll see what you guys say!


I’m open to Ohio or Kentucky. My wife heavily favors Ohio, so that’s probably where we’ll focus. But happy to hear suggestions on either side of the river.


Thanks in advance!

Last edited by GratefulDawg; 11-21-2016 at 10:11 AM.. Reason: When I went to preview it added all kinds of crazy stuff.
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Old 11-21-2016, 02:54 PM
 
27 posts, read 27,992 times
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I would look in Oakley. It meets your criteria and is located in the Hyde Park Elementary School zone. It has all the amenties you're looking for plus is a bit more diverse than Hyde Park or Mt. Lookout. Depending on how long you stay in Cincinnati, it's also close to Walnut Hills High School and Clark Montessori High School (the former the number one ranked High School in the state of Ohio and the second a highly rated school). A lot of people will tell you that there are only six Elementary schools you can send your children to, but I know people who attended Covedale, Mt. Washington, and some of the Paidea Elementary Schools who excelled at Walnut Hills High School and got accepted into top ranked universities. I lived in D.C. as a kid in Capitol Hill and as an adult. I've also lived in the bay area, Philly, New Orleans, and stayed in Chicago for a brief while. There's NO comparison with Cincinnati and other urban school districts.

Last edited by skylineorgoldstar; 11-21-2016 at 03:33 PM..
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Old 11-21-2016, 03:29 PM
 
Location: Cincinnati, OH
410 posts, read 583,971 times
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I agree that Oakley or Pleasant Ridge should be on your list of neighborhoods within the city of Cincinnati to check out. Both have older housing stock with safer neighborhoods. Your price point is too low to get all the amenities that you're looking for in Hyde Park or Mt. Lookout.

Cincinnati Public Schools have many different learning opportunities through magnet schools in addition to the wonderful Hyde Park School which serves Oakley or Pleasant Ridge Montessori.

The Cincinnati park system is wonderful. Ault and Alms Park are both within 5-7 minutes of Oakley. French Park is next door to Pleasant Ridge. There are hiking trails in all three and many more parks to explore when you have time.
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Old 11-21-2016, 06:58 PM
 
1,581 posts, read 1,964,258 times
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Blue Ash-----very diverse with Indians. Make sure it's in Sycamore schools. Summit Park is lovely.
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Old 11-22-2016, 05:13 AM
 
2,886 posts, read 4,957,932 times
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I second the recommendation to look in the Sycamore school district. The other suggestions on this thread are fine, but if education for your kids is a consideration, you will have to jump through hoops to contend with the problems inherent in living in any neighborhood within the Cincinnati Public Schools district. The first area that come to mind for me when I read your posting is Wyoming, which would be well within your commute time and has one of the best rated school systems in the metro area. The only challenge might be finding a home in your price range. I would also take a look at Ft. Mitchell in Kentucky, served by the small and highly regarded Beechwood SD.
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Old 11-22-2016, 05:47 AM
 
1,581 posts, read 1,964,258 times
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And take express bus from Blue Ash to downtown in approx. 20 minutes. Only way to go.
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Old 11-22-2016, 07:18 AM
 
649 posts, read 810,867 times
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I would rent for a while and get the lay of the land. Cincinnati is an unusual place in that the "perceived as safe" neighborhoods and the "perceived as unsafe" neighborhoods are intermixed. Often one side of a big long street is "good" the other "bad." This is invisible on a map. Also it may actually be false, the bad side can be as safe as the good side but people can mean bad side as "poor side.". So I personally would not leap into such an illiquid investment without some time spent. You can see in Cincinnati such poverty and poor conditions you can't imagine it exists in America today, and you can see enormous amounts of crazy wealth. It is a very mixed bag, literally mixed.

Good schools and vintage archtecture nearby parks for $250k is Wyoming (high taxes) for excellent schools, Loveland (far) for OK schools, Oakley (high taxes and maybe too expensive by now for "safe" part) in Cincinnati schools. If you give up vintage archtecture and go traditionally suburban you can look at anywhere in the Sycamore school district(low taxes Blue Ash, sycamore twp., higher taxes Montgomery). You can afford the Kenwood/Sycamore township portion of Indian Hill (excellent, lowest taxes) schools but there are very few parks. If you want to live small you can afford a 3/1.5 cape in Mariemont (high taxes) which is cute, vintage, good schools, easy commute downtown- but your house will be TINY. Fairfax is much much much cheaper and shares Mariemont schools but your house will be TINY and it is very chainlink-no trees, but you can walk to Mariemont for trees.

There is also Ft.Thomas, KY that is supposed to have good schools for KY (no comparison to good schools in OH) and vintage archtecture.
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Old 11-23-2016, 06:47 AM
 
19 posts, read 23,365 times
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Awesome, thank you so much for the replies, all.
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Old 11-23-2016, 06:51 AM
 
19 posts, read 23,365 times
Reputation: 22
I was a little surprised there were no votes for West Chester. Is that because it is too far out and would typically be more than my 35 minute "limit" for the commute? Based on Zillow searches West Chester seems to have a lot more inventory meeting my house criteria than the other places mentioned here.
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Old 11-23-2016, 07:02 AM
 
Location: Cincinnati (Pleasant Ridge)
610 posts, read 791,267 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GratefulDawg View Post
I was a little surprised there were no votes for West Chester. Is that because it is too far out and would typically be more than my 35 minute "limit" for the commute? Based on Zillow searches West Chester seems to have a lot more inventory meeting my house criteria than the other places mentioned here.
You can double that 35 minute limit for a rush hour drive between Downtown and Union Center Blvd.
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