relocating to North Cincinnati (Dayton, Middletown: rent, condo, low crime)

[jenhars]

My family of 6 (four small children) is relocating to North Cincinnati from Lexington, KY. My husband will be working in Middletown, OH. We have looked at West Chester, Mason and South Lebanon as possible areas to live in and send our 4 children to public school. West Chester and Mason feel way too large of school systems from what we are accustom to. I'd like to look at Loveland, but would like any advice/feedback. Will the commute from Loveland to Middletown be too long? We've also thought about looking at Springboro as well, however, my fear is that my husbands commute may not be too long, the rest of us will be commuting for gymnastics, or soccer or guitar lessons, or shopping or whatever the kids may be involved in, because with four young kids they do everything. Any advice on family friendly neighborhoods with good schools and less than 45 minute commute to Middletown will be helpful. Our house price range is about 350's and 4 bdrm.

Here are the answers to the questions mentioned in another post:


Have you searched this forum for answers to your questions before posting a new inquiry? yes
. What specific topic have you not found answers to? where to live if you are working in Middletown

. Where is you current location and environment? Lexington, KY living in a suburb within city limits
. Are you looking for similar in Cincinnati or a change? similar

. Where will your work location be? Middletown
. Maximum commute time desired? 35/40 minutes

. What is you budget for housing? 350-400
. Rent or buy? buy
. Type (Apt., Condo, Single Family) single family
. Size (Approx. Sq. Ft., # Bedrooms & Baths) 4 bdrm
. Other specifics? good sized yard, creek, or woods

. Neighborhood environment? family neighborhood with lots of kids close to good schools
. Urban, young professional, nightlife -urbanish
. Mid-urban, close in neighborhood or suburb, stable investment-yes
. Suburban, low maintenance, quiet streets, soccer mom atmosphere-yes-ish
. Family oriented yes-
. Lots of same age kids, activities- kids ages are 7, 5, 5, and 3
. Great schools-an absolute yes
. Older, distinctive architecture, individual character-preferably yes, realistically probably a no
. Modern, 15 yrs old or less, move-in ready-likely
. Diversity of income, race, housing? would be fine
. Yard - none, small, large (1/2 acre or more)-large, but medium would be acceptable
. Very safe, low crime area? yes
. Can tolerate some degree of crime potential? How Much? no, however, our current nice suburbia neighborhood is full of petty crime.
. Private neighborhood association, swimming & fitness facilities-this would be a plus, but not a dealbreaker

. Schools?
. Not applicable
. High Ranked Public schools-high ranked is a plus, but sometimes those come with a lot of pressure for young kids so a school rated 7/8 would be fine
. Small or large district? on the smaller side preferably. Mason is too big
. Diverse student body? yes
. Strong athletics? yes but neighborhood sports is fine too
. Consider Private schools? no due to cost and having 4 kids (our kids currently go to a private school that only meets 3 days and they homeschool the other 2 days, which keeps the cost down, but can't find anything like it in Cincinnati so public school it will be)
. Special considerations? no

. Community amenities?
. Daily needs within walking distance, shopping, restaurants, parks, etc.-yes
. Town/city community center for adults & kids-yes
. Swimming, fitness center, running track, adult activities-yes, all of these
. Nearby fitness centers & clubs-yes, we bike, swim, canoe, and run. kids love rock climbing, swimming, soccer and music
. Close promity to public transportation? no
. Lots of parks & youth athletic leagues
. Jogging & biking trails-a must for us
. Other?

. Specific wants/desires? neighborhood with kids and close to elementary school with descent rating
. Please identify any specific wants/desires not mentioned above.


*Thanks in advance for your help

[SonnyDaze]

Look into Wyoming. It's about 30-35 minutes from Middletown and should check off just about every other box that you have.

[flashes1]

You need to be north of 275. I would look at Springboro and Lebanon assuming those commutes work.

[mimi in cinci]

While I like the idea of Wyoming, great schools and lovely community, it's going to be a lot longer than 35 minutes with I-75 traffic on most days. The commute from Loveland, Milford will also be more than 30 minutes.

Check into Centerville, it's South of Dayton.

[jenhars]

Originally Posted by CincyExpert

Look into Wyoming. It's about 30-35 minutes from Middletown and should check off just about every other box that you have.

That may be a better option than Loveland. I think I really like the terrain of Loveland having only been there once but feeling it was in the mountains with the river there too. What school district is Wyoming? Sycamore? Or something else? Older homes? What about the typography?

Thanks for the suggestion.

[jenhars]

Originally Posted by mimi in cinci

While I like the idea of Wyoming, great schools and lovely community, it's going to be a lot longer than 35 minutes with I-75 traffic on most days. The commute from Loveland, Milford will also be more than 30 minutes.

Check into Centerville, it's South of Dayton.

Can you tell me a bit about Centerville? This is the first I've heard about it. I've heard Springboro described as a bedroom town with mostly commuters living there. Is Centerville the same kind of town?

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll look into this as a possible option.

[mimi in cinci]

It's a bit more than a bedroom community with a great school district ,albeit large size high school. I would describe it more as an upscale small town/ village. The people who I know live there for the kids. There are many activities for the kids within the community.

Centerville is located off 675, east of I-75.

It might help to cross post in the Dayton forum.

[SWOH]

Welcome to the area jenhars!

Look into Oakwood, around Dayton.
It meets basically all your criteria:
- Lots of houses with character in 350-400k range
- Family friendly, including the best schools in 10-county radius
- Smaller school size and class sizes
- 35-40 min commute to Middletown
- Multiple options for the extracurricular stuff you mentioned is within a 10-15 min drive

Oakwood is a historically "old money" suburb that in part was planned by the Olmstead Brothers in the 1930s. A lot of Dayton industrial barons and notables lived or currently live in the town, including the Wright Brothers. Today it is a popular community for relocation, and would fit the bill well for you because traffic is lighter going north on I-75 than south.

Other good options for you would be Germantown, Waynesville, abd Monroe. I'd personally scratch Lakota Schools off the list, along with Lebanon, and keep Mason in the running if youre looking to hold property value at 400k. Keep in mind houses under 400k sell very fast in Mason, and inventory is low, so buy fast if you see something that catches your eye there.

Good luck!

[Briolat21]

Like others mention, Centerville is pretty decent. Lots going on.

I live just outside of Lebanon, it's definitely in your commute range (takes us about 20 minutes to get to middletown, but I suppose it depends what part of middletown you're going to) .... and it's well within your price/demographics, but if there are other reasons you're not considering it, that's fine.

If West Chester and Mason schools are too large, I don't know what would be better. SWOH reccommends Waynesville above, but while I visit Waynesville often, it's very small/isolated. (where will they perform all the extracurricular activities she listed, she'll be driving 20 miles to EVERYTHING). Monroe would be very close to middletown, but has no feeling of any kind of identity. There's a kroger shopping plaza that is probably the economic retail center of Monroe. Not exactly a lot going on there. (I lived in Monroe for a year). But there would be a lot of options for extracurriculars in WCH or Liberty Twp, and Monroe would be a quick commute to those.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

[meeksapril88]

Loveland is truly lovely. I grew up there. The school systems aren't humongous but class sizes have grown since I was in school. Graduated in 2009. Downtown Loveland is awesome. If you are an outdoorsy family then Loveland offers kayak/canoeing, hiking, fishing, biking on the bike trail with plenty of shops/restaurants/bars and a lot of live local music along the path. A TON of parks with a great farmers market in the summer and there is an old historical castle down buy the little Miami river for touring. Also within 10-15 minutes of Loveland's center there is every kind of store you can think of.

A lot of history presents itself there in the buildings and it just has a great morale. It is a great family town that is very warm and welcoming and a bit hipster. I loved it growing up and would love to find a home there myself one of these days.

Overall Loveland rocks!

Mason is a nice area but in my opinion very uppidy. There isn't much to do there.