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My company has a promising site there. If offered the job I would be moving my family of 5 to the NEO area. We currently live in So Cal, my wife and I have been here all of our 34yrs. The cost of living and deterioration in schools is fueling the desire to move Midwest. We are all active community members, both in school and church (if I had to label I would say evangelical Christian), I coach my daughters soccer team. I have been reading the forums for months and decided to make my own thread to see if opinions have changed.
I would be making around 70-80,000/yr, my wife would be staying home doing daycare. I would appreciate it if you could give me your suggestions on where a young family like mine should be looking to move. My daughters are 7 and 5, my son just turned 3.
I know the next question, 'tell us what you are looking for!''. I'm glad you asked.
Strong Public Schools: Good scores, low discipline problems. Parent involvement. Strong sports programs would be nice.
Housing: I imagine we would be around middle class with just the one income. I like big homes with a yard to play in and garden. But I would want my children to have a neighborhood with children to play with and a community that celebrated together. Block parties, Halloween, Christmas events.
The City: As above, we'd love a strong community, small enough to know each other, large enough to be able to come together during events and have fun. I like fishing and would love to get into hunting. We would be hiking and fishing and enjoying the nature we are seeing on the net.
Commute: New to the NEO winters, but is 30min drive from Mentor doable?
So tell me what you think, brag about your town, or the town you wish you could be in. Did a move to an area not work out for you? If you take the time to respond, I will absolutely reply.
I know people that have kids the same age as your kids who work in mentor and live in mentor. Mentor is a nice suburb. Also know families with young kids that work in mentor and live in Solon and make the 30 minute drive because they feel that the school system is better. (solon high school is ranked #12 in the state of Ohio) Not sure how the elementary schools compare.
School districts to consider would include Mentor, Chardon, Willoughby-Eastlake (Willoughby South High School rather than perhaps Eastlake North, the other high school in the school district), Mayfield (Mayfield Village, Mayfield Hts., Highland Hts., and Gates Mills), Kirtland, and possibly West Geauga. Kirtland is a small school district, but with excellent sports teams.
Kirtland is a park city. It's the home of Holden Arboretum, one of the largest in the U.S., and several Lake Metroparks, including Penitentiary Glen and the Lake Metroparks Farmpark, both of which likely will be popular with your family, and additionally Chapin Forest.
Riverside schools (Painesville Township, Concord, Leroy Township) may be a possibility, but it has older school buildings and perhaps subsequently budget issues.
Other better school districts would be longer commutes, but may not have housing in your price range. These districts might include Orange, Chagrin Falls and Beachwood.
If you look up the high schools for any school district, they'll tell you what communities are in the school districts. The high school names are all the same as the above school districts. Communities often are split between two school districts. E.g., part of Concord Township is in the Riverside School District and part is in the Mentor School District.
You can check schools and school districts at greatschools.org.
Mentor has a very large high school, one of the largest in Ohio. It consequently is superb in sports, but unless your children are excellent athletes, they may have difficulty making a varsity team.
Check out Ohio's unique municipal income tax system, which is very different than California. E.g., in Mentor, you likely will have a 2 percent municipal income tax on your wage income. If you live out outside of Mentor, you may have to pay a resident tax if your community doesn't allow a full credit for taxes paid in the city of employment. The majority of cities, but not all, allow a full credit.
Mentor likely has lower real estate taxes than many other communities given its large tax commercial and industrial tax base.
A AAA Northeast Ohio map probably would be very helpful. AAA also has county maps for Lake and Geauga and possibly Cuyahoga County (it's possible the Cleveland map may substitute for Cuyahoga County).
I think Willoughby-Eastlake is the only school district listed above with two high schools, so there you also may have to consider the actual high school borders, just as you would with elementary and middle schools.
Wikipedia articles for cities are very helpful, in addition to Wikipedia articles for high schools.
I know people that have kids the same age as your kids who work in mentor and live in mentor. Mentor is a nice suburb. Also know families with young kids that work in mentor and live in Solon and make the 30 minute drive because they feel that the school system is better. (solon high school is ranked #12 in the state of Ohio) Not sure how the elementary schools compare.
During rush hours, and especially during winter driving conditions (I-271 can have bad winter conditions and occasionally is closed) Solon can be longer than a half hour commute, especially from certain parts of Solon. Solon (over 400 students per grade), like Mentor (almost 700 per grade), also is a bigger school sports powerhouse likely limiting participation opportunities. Kirtland, by comparison, has about 100 students per grade. BTW, Kirtland is adjacent to Mentor.
Some persons use National Merit Semi-Finalist tallies to measure the quality of top students in a high school. Solon had 22 in 2016, perhaps the highest total of any high school in Ohio.
All. Thanks for taking the time to offer your suggestions.
Max: Mentor is definitely in the running. Lake County, with the Park System looks very nice. The large High School seems to be well rated and with the shopping areas making it a bit of a hub, seemed liked a good transition from where we are in SoCal (just about every store in the world within 5minutes). I saw they do some Halloween, Independence Day and a Christmas Tree lighting as well.
WRNative: I tend to look around the 200k-400k range. That's a big spread in Ohio, I know, but it gives me a feel for what is around. The wife and I have been diligent savers and will have to weigh the location and schools to see if a higher cost is worth it. Kirtland and Chardon just popped up in some older threads and I am looking at them now. I tend to look at Zillow which shows the homes, and schools they are districted in, as well as the rating for the school, though I have no idea how they are factored. Amazing that Kirtland is so strong athletically with less than 400 kids enrolled. Thank you for mentioning the municipal tax.
Commute: Us Californians are not known for our patient driving, but I will take a look at Salon and other cities that were mentioned.
Crime: Hate to address it, and I understand taking opinions with a grain of salt, but there has been some heated discussions about crime spreading out of the city and affecting the suburbs. We got it and SoCal too. Any thoughts?
During rush hours, and especially during winter driving conditions (I-271 can have bad winter conditions and occasionally is closed) Solon can be longer than a half hour commute, especially from certain parts of Solon. Solon (over 400 students per grade), like Mentor (almost 700 per grade), also is a bigger school sports powerhouse likely limiting participation opportunities. Kirtland, by comparison, has about 100 students per grade. BTW, Kirtland is adjacent to Mentor.
Some persons use National Merit Semi-Finalist tallies to measure the quality of top students in a high school. Solon had 22 in 2016, perhaps the highest total of any high school in Ohio.
Under certain weather conditions, Solon is surely greater than a 30 minute commute. Being that the TC's kids are of much younger age and that there are several elementary schools in the mentor school district like 8 or so (and 3 middle schools?) being active in sports probably won't be an issue in Mentor until high school.
Kirtland is nice, especially this time of year. I actually took a college course at Lakeland because the professor for that particular subject was more highly recommended than what was offered at CSU or BW for that subject.
All. Thanks for taking the time to offer your suggestions.
Max: Mentor is definitely in the running. Lake County, with the Park System looks very nice. The large High School seems to be well rated and with the shopping areas making it a bit of a hub, seemed liked a good transition from where we are in SoCal (just about every store in the world within 5minutes). I saw they do some Halloween, Independence Day and a Christmas Tree lighting as well.
WRNative: I tend to look around the 200k-400k range. That's a big spread in Ohio, I know, but it gives me a feel for what is around. The wife and I have been diligent savers and will have to weigh the location and schools to see if a higher cost is worth it. Kirtland and Chardon just popped up in some older threads and I am looking at them now. I tend to look at Zillow which shows the homes, and schools they are districted in, as well as the rating for the school, though I have no idea how they are factored. Amazing that Kirtland is so strong athletically with less than 400 kids enrolled. Thank you for mentioning the municipal tax.
Commute: Us Californians are not known for our patient driving, but I will take a look at Salon and other cities that were mentioned.
Crime: Hate to address it, and I understand taking opinions with a grain of salt, but there has been some heated discussions about crime spreading out of the city and affecting the suburbs. We got it and SoCal too. Any thoughts?
Regards,
Michael
You aren't going to have a problem with crime in Mentor or Kirtland because they are far enough away from the bad areas of Cleveland. I have several friends and family that live in Mentor and Lake County with kids your age and they are NOT in any hurry to leave. I grew up in Lake County and I no longer live there so my opinion of the area is pretty unbiased. Chardon get's hit by lake effect snow hard, so that would not be my first choice. It's some of the west suburbs of Cleveland that are iffy as of late.
A place like Parma on the other hand.... just look at what happened today over $89 at papa Johns.
All. Thanks for taking the time to offer your suggestions.
Max: Mentor is definitely in the running. Lake County, with the Park System looks very nice. The large High School seems to be well rated and with the shopping areas making it a bit of a hub, seemed liked a good transition from where we are in SoCal (just about every store in the world within 5minutes). I saw they do some Halloween, Independence Day and a Christmas Tree lighting as well.
WRNative: I tend to look around the 200k-400k range. That's a big spread in Ohio, I know, but it gives me a feel for what is around. The wife and I have been diligent savers and will have to weigh the location and schools to see if a higher cost is worth it. Kirtland and Chardon just popped up in some older threads and I am looking at them now. I tend to look at Zillow which shows the homes, and schools they are districted in, as well as the rating for the school, though I have no idea how they are factored. Amazing that Kirtland is so strong athletically with less than 400 kids enrolled. Thank you for mentioning the municipal tax.
Commute: Us Californians are not known for our patient driving, but I will take a look at Salon and other cities that were mentioned.
Crime: Hate to address it, and I understand taking opinions with a grain of salt, but there has been some heated discussions about crime spreading out of the city and affecting the suburbs. We got it and SoCal too. Any thoughts?
Regards,
Michael
Michael, Mentor is the sixth largest retail center in the state. If being close to stores is an important consideration, Mentor is excellent.
I was recently in a similar position of trying to find the right community while keeping in mind the commute to Mentor. We ended up in Aurora. It typically takes my wife about 40 minutes to get to her office on any given day. We are right down the street from Solon so I would anticipate the drive would be about the same. I love the area so far. It is your typical suburbia with friendly neighbors, great schools, and very low crime. It lacks walkability but I feel that the positives can make up for that. It may not be the ideal situation for you being that you are new to the NEO winters but I would highly recommend at least checking out what the Solon/Aurora/Twinsburg area has to offer.
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