Mason or Loveland (Cincinnati, Hamilton, Warren: buying a house, safe area, buying)

[ctmomof2]

We are from Connecticut and are relocating to the Cincy area this Spring. We have 2 children ages 2 & 5 and after visiting last week we have narrowed our search down to Mason & Loveland based on the school districts. We like that Mason is a newer city and have highly ranked schools, but the schools seem very large to us. Does anyone know the # of students in the elementary classes and the # of class rooms? We currently live in a town with 19,000 people w/ excellent schools. What is the population of Mason vs. Loveland? I have gotten different #'s from different search engines on the internet. Any help, advise, on these 2 towns would be great!

[goyguy]

My sister and BIL settled in Loveland some sixteen years ago, and decided to stay there last year when they needed to upsize (is that a word, well it is now.) You can't rely on Web databases for either Loveland's or Mason's population numbers because both communities are in a growth trend.
I have no great fondness for either town; they're both small farming/industrial villages which have morphed into suburbs filling up with subdivisions and big-box stores. Bleccchhhhh. Loveland, however, is bisected by the Little Miami, which is a "national scenic river" - great to canoe in or fish alongside. The bicycle trail leading north all the way to Waynesville also passes through. You'd also be a tad bit closer to I-275 there, with easy access to 71.
The typical class size in Loveland schools is less than 30 in the elementary grades. The city has responded capably to the need for more academic space as the number of kids increases - new high school, addition to the middle school, etc. I have no reason to doubt that Mason is doing the same.
Based admittedly on anecdotes and detached observation, I'd say Mason leans more conservative than Loveland, but Cincinnati as a whole is a lot more "red" than CT anyway. One example: A bar in Mason caused a stir by showing open hostility to Spanish-speaking would-be customers by putting up "English Only" signs. Contrast that with a newly-moved-in neighbor telling my sister that they'd relocated from another town because Loveland incorporated lessons about Jewish traditions in their classrooms and their former community did not.
By and large, there's little to distinguish Mason from Loveland, and you'd probably do fine no matter which place you end up selecting.

[HuskerDu]

In other words, the suburbs up in that area are pretty much all the same.

[Lindaleep]

I will be moving to this area as well. We are considering Mason, Loveland, and Kings. Both the Kings and Loveland middle schools got a shockingly lower score on Greatschools.org, which makes me nervous, but the other schools in those districts got high scores.
OP what are your conclusions after being in the area for a few years now?

[maxmodder]

I bought a home in Mason in August and don't even have kids. I wanted a nice, safe area that would have good resale value. It was a PITA to find a home here, even at asking price. Demand is so high. LMK if you need a realtor that works non stop. I got lucky, otherwise I'm sure Id still be looking for a simple 4 bed home with a fin basement, attached 2 car garage and a flat back yard. Any offer under asking price won't even be considered, as the demand is so high. At least when I was looking it was like that. Needless to say, we love it here.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by maxmodder

I bought a home in Mason in August and don't even have kids. I wanted a nice, safe area that would have good resale value. It was a PITA to find a home here, even at asking price. Demand is so high. LMK if you need a realtor that works non stop. I got lucky, otherwise I'm sure Id still be looking for a simple 4 bed home with a fin basement, attached 2 car garage and a flat back yard. Any offer under asking price won't even be considered, as the demand is so high. At least when I was looking it was like that. Needless to say, we love it here.

Glad you like it here. Remember corresponding when you were considering the area. A prior poster said all of the suburbs around here are the same. While there are similarities, they certainly are not the same. Kings Mills and the Kings School District are in unincoporated Deerfield Township. Planning and zoning control are not nearly to the level of a city like Mason.

Loveland is a city, portions of which along the Little Miami are very old. Portions of Mason are also quite old, but the land coverage is much smaller than Loveland. As a boy in Madeira I remember discussing going to play the Loveland Tigers in football as we were in the same league. We would joke about having to travel along Loveland-Madeira Rd to the boonies to play in a cornfield. Loveland is unique in that portions of it exist in 3 counties, Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren. With the population explosion outward, Loveland has handled it well. They do not have ideal connections to the interstates and commutes, the primary connection being I-275. I will not knock Loveland, there is many pleasant things there.

But to get back to my favorite, Mason has an almost ideal location between I-71 and I-75. This location was very much a part of the growth of Mason. In my opinion the significant part was the industrial growth due to the access to two major Interstates. Companies like access to the distribution of their product. The encouragement of commercial enterprises is a significant factor in the health of any area. Our mayor of many years ago, Lou Eves recognized this. He may have only been a restaurant proprietor, but basically he was a businessman who recognized what commercial meant to a city. He insisted Mason set aside property as designated industrial park utilization. His forsight is why Mason is what it is today.

maxmodder ...
You hit the nail on the head as to why Mason is likely the most desirable northern suburb at this time. Statements like prepare to pay asking price or even over, in todays housing market, due to demand, just reinforces the number of people wanting to move here. Name me one other neighborhood of the Cincinnati area where perspective buyers do not intend to offer less than the asking price? So if maxmodder is right, you can forget Mason. Even though he says buying a house in Mason is a PITA, he says they love it. My conclusion is he has realized value received.

[Misfit Toy]

@ctmomof2 - I live in between Mason & Loveland, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The vast majority of Mason parents I've known are happy with the schools, despite their size. Mason has alot of nice amenities like the community center. Lovelanders seem to be largely happy with their schools, too. Downtown Loveland has more character than downtown Mason does, partly because of the bike trail in Loveland.

I have to disagree with what someone else said re. how conservative the towns are - I'd say Loveland is hands down more conservative.

Biggest downside to both places is snobbery. Way too many people who think they are just it because they have a Loveland or Mason zip code or because they send the kiddos to Catholic schools. But the snobbery probably isn't as bad as some other parts of town.

@Lindaleep - I'm in Kings. They're rated high by the state, but they're only somewhat deserving of the ranking. I can't stand the way they teach math in the lower elementary grades. It's some newfangled method of teaching math that makes addition, etc. more complicated than it has to be. If your kids are average or a little above average academically, they may do fine. But if they're pretty intelligent, they'll be bored at least at the K-4 levels. It may or may not get more challenging at the 5th & 6th grade levels, it will depend on the teacher & whether they're in any gifted classes.

I was told by a teacher that Loveland and Kings are comparable in the elementary grades, but that Loveland is a little better at the junior high & high school levels.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by Lindaleep

I will be moving to this area as well. We are considering Mason, Loveland, and Kings. Both the Kings and Loveland middle schools got a shockingly lower score on Greatschools.org, which makes me nervous, but the other schools in those districts got high scores.
OP what are your conclusions after being in the area for a few years now?

The best thing you can do now is stop using greatschools.com. It is useless.

The Ohio school report cards are the way to go instead. The metrics changed over the past year, so compare this past year's report card of each school to the year before to get a good idea of actual school quality

[flashes1]

Elementary school classes in Mason have 25-30 kids each. It sounds like a lot and it is, however, they make it work. The teachers are very very good. Young, attractive, and peppy 25-40 year old women....real wholesome women....many are sorority girls from Miami (yum-yum). School administrators are good......Fed Ex would approve how efficiently they move the kids to lunch room, phys. ed, etc. Truly impressive sight to behold.

Mason is snobby only in a couple neighborhoods in Heritage and Long Cove (in my experience).....have to go to Indian Hill and that area for true snobbery (East Coast---old money---private school type snobbery). No one is from Mason...everyone moved there from somewhere else (this has it's advantages and disadvantages). There's nothing distinguishing Mason from any other upper middle class suburb in the Midwest (again, this has it's advantages and disadvantages). Very conservative which is a big reason why it's so successful.

[kjbrill]

The vast majority of residents did move to Mason from somewhere else. In my circle of acquaintances however there are several older people who were born and raised in Mason. They resent all of the growth which has occurred and keep talking about old Mason as though there was some unique charm to it. I remark the only unique charm was there were few opportunities for someone to earn a decent living there unless they owned a farm. In my opinion they also represent the largest contingent of bigots, a different form of snobbery.