Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I’ve followed this post as I too am interested in moving to the Cleveland area (suburbs) to prepare for retirement. I’m a native Floridian (56 years) and simply could not endure the perpetual summer, heat and oppressive humidity any longer. Moved to
Minneapolis x 2 years and loved it — my friends thought I was insane. Then my younger son relocated from Arkansas to SLC, UT and I followed them here. I love my family, but that was a rash decision! I do not care much for Utah, but I’m not LDS. It’s a nice place to visit.
I’m excited about considering life in Ohio. I like seasons, water, outdoors, arts/culture, dining out, wine, volunteering/community service, etc.
I am interested in purchasing a SFH or duplex/triplex, can you please suggest areas to avoid purchasing and areas you would suggest purchasing (safe, middle-class housing prices, walking to shops/restaurants, nicely maintained homes)? Thank you all!
I think you could very well find what you are looking for here. We sound very much alike! You can't go wrong following WRNative's advice! I highly recommend Lake County, by Lake Erie. It is close enough for an easy drive into the city or out into nature. Downtown Wlloughby has a nice selection of coffee places/restaurants/bars, etc....I was just wishing I had purchased something within walking distance to that downtown area. Of course, there are other nice areas as well. Hope you find what you are looking for! ps....I would hate both Florida and Utah as well.....I hate hot/dry or hot/humid climates. Summer here can be hot and muggy, but at least it's not all that long and there are nice breaks from the heat/humidity during the summer....
I think you could very well find what you are looking for here. We sound very much alike! You can't go wrong following WRNative's advice! I highly recommend Lake County, by Lake Erie. It is close enough for an easy drive into the city or out into nature. Downtown Wlloughby has a nice selection of coffee places/restaurants/bars, etc....I was just wishing I had purchased something within walking distance to that downtown area. Of course, there are other nice areas as well. Hope you find what you are looking for! ps....I would hate both Florida and Utah as well.....I hate hot/dry or hot/humid climates. Summer here can be hot and muggy, but at least it's not all that long and there are nice breaks from the heat/humidity during the summer....
UH — Thank you got such a nice reply. I’m already seriously impressed with the kindness of Ohioans. I think there’s a good selection of properties to choose from. I really don’t want to move twice, so I’m thinking once I list and sell my place here in Utah that I’ll rent an AirBnb while I buy a place there. I can just leave my items in storage. The market here is crazy and homes sell the first day listed and often with multiple offers. The inventory is very low.
Florida is my home and there are beautiful parts of the state, but the HH is too much. I have always coveted having real seasons and my first year in Minneapolis cinched that for good.
UH — Thank you got such a nice reply. I’m already seriously impressed with the kindness of Ohioans. I think there’s a good selection of properties to choose from. I really don’t want to move twice, so I’m thinking once I list and sell my place here in Utah that I’ll rent an AirBnb while I buy a place there. I can just leave my items in storage. The market here is crazy and homes sell the first day listed and often with multiple offers. The inventory is very low.
Florida is my home and there are beautiful parts of the state, but the HH is too much. I have always coveted having real seasons and my first year in Minneapolis cinched that for good.
Thank you again for the encouragement!
Well, I've only been an Ohioan for a little more than 2 years and am a retiree transplant myself! Moved here from the Seattle area. You are wise to rent first for awhile until you get to know the area better. I made a somewhat hasty move after renting for 6 months and ended up moving to my current location after 2 years in that location...which turned out to be a mistake. Even now, although I like my house and area, I wish I had scoped things out a little more....oh well...take your time and find what you really want! Moving is such a pain! Wishing you the best!
Unicorn Hunter, you said you moved from Seattle to Ohio. Was that a big shock with the difference in weather (humidity, cold long winters, and thunder storms? I purchased a townhouse in Cleveland as a possible place to retire but haven't moved yet. Currently live in the Portland/Vancouver area. Might not move and just keep renting out the townhouse.
Well, I've only been an Ohioan for a little more than 2 years and am a retiree transplant myself! Moved here from the Seattle area. You are wise to rent first for awhile until you get to know the area better. I made a somewhat hasty move after renting for 6 months and ended up moving to my current location after 2 years in that location...which turned out to be a mistake. Even now, although I like my house and area, I wish I had scoped things out a little more....oh well...take your time and find what you really want! Moving is such a pain! Wishing you the best!
If I may ask, what area are you in and where would you prefer to be — and why?
I grew up in the Boston area, so the humidity was not that much of a shock, but I still don't like it! The winters are not nearly as bad as I anticipated, but again, having grown up in Massachusetts, snow was not that big a deal to me, as it would be to someone who lived their entire life in the Seattle/Portland area. The thunderstorms are what really shocked me the first year here. While there are some thunderstorms on the west coast, I never experienced the house shaking thunder and torrential downpours that they have here...takes some getting used to! I love the Portland area, although I know it has changed quite a bit since the 1980s, which is when I spent some time there. I really do like the Cleveland area, though. Offers quite a lot for the lowish cost of living, which is a whole lot less than the Seattle/Portland area and the main reason I ended up here for retirement. Since you only asked about the weather, I won't go into any further detail on the area in general.
If I may ask, what area are you in and where would you prefer to be — and why?
I originally bought a house in central Ohio, which turned out to be too isolated and too politically conservative for me. Being from Washington state, I was aware of the political east/west divide there and figured moving an hour or so outside of Cleveland would not make a big difference, but wow, did it! I don't know what your political leanings are, but be aware that outside of urban areas, things get red very quickly in Ohio.
After moving back up here near Cleveland, I am much happier....but after exploring the area further, I just wish I had known of opportunities that were more walkable/closer to amenities, on direct bus route, etc. I am still driving more than I wanted to, even if shorter distances. For instance, after discovering downtown Willoughby, which is about 15 minutes from where I live, if I had known it existed when I was looking, I would have preferred to be within walking distance to it, and on a direct bus line to various places that I am now having to drive to. So, basically, it helps if you can really explore the area in pretty fine detail before deciding where to move....15 minutes could have made a difference....not a huge difference, but still......That is why I would suggest renting and thoroughly exploring the area "on the ground" before purchasing. Unfortunately, both times I moved were more rushed than I would have liked...
I originally bought a house in central Ohio, which turned out to be too isolated and too politically conservative for me. Being from Washington state, I was aware of the political east/west divide there and figured moving an hour or so outside of Cleveland would not make a big difference, but wow, did it! I don't know what your political leanings are, but be aware that outside of urban areas, things get red very quickly in Ohio.
After moving back up here near Cleveland, I am much happier....but after exploring the area further, I just wish I had known of opportunities that were more walkable/closer to amenities, on direct bus route, etc. I am still driving more than I wanted to, even if shorter distances. For instance, after discovering downtown Willoughby, which is about 15 minutes from where I live, if I had known it existed when I was looking, I would have preferred to be within walking distance to it, and on a direct bus line to various places that I am now having to drive to. So, basically, it helps if you can really explore the area in pretty fine detail before deciding where to move....15 minutes could have made a difference....not a huge difference, but still......That is why I would suggest renting and thoroughly exploring the area "on the ground" before purchasing. Unfortunately, both times I moved were more rushed than I would have liked...
Thank you UH! I tend to be quite moderate, but the right would call me left. I can assure you I wouldn’t do well in MAGA territory. Since, I’ve not been able to meet anyone in Utah, since I’m not LDS, I would hope for that in Ohio. However, someone who could respect my politics — and MAGA have issues respecting any but their own, I’m glad to know this.
I think it would be lovely to be in an area where you can walk to restaurants, shops, pubs, etc. Willoughby sounds like a nice area. I quite used to driving everywhere, because I grew up in areas (Florida) where it was part of life.
You made mention in the other post about the thunderstorms. I’m eager to experience those.
Unicorn Hunter, you said you moved from Seattle to Ohio. Was that a big shock with the difference in weather (humidity, cold long winters, and thunder storms?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unicorn hunter
The thunderstorms are what really shocked me the first year here. While there are some thunderstorms on the west coast, I never experienced the house shaking thunder and torrential downpours that they have here...takes some getting used to!
The concern over thunderstorms both surprises and amuses me. They've been both a source of amazement and joy from the time I was a little kid. I vividly remember as even a pre-schooler watching them from a large open front porch. We would scamper around trying to avoid getting soaked. Watching the small torrents of water run down the driveway, and the way the storm slowed passing cars and rattled the trees, all was a great and welcome change from the normal pre-school routine.
Long before I had heard of negative ions, I appreciated the way a thunderstorm would reinvigorate the air, not only by cleansing it of pollution back in the days when cars and especially trucks, buses, and coal-fired power plants were heavy polluters.
Thunderstorms instantly end dry spells, even if they sometimes topple staked tomato plants.
And while in elementary school, I remember learning about the speed of light and the speed of sound by calculating the time before a storm would arrive in my location. Perhaps the first practical and fun use of basic arithmetic, and something that impressed adults who didn't know or pretended to not know how I made such accurate predictions of storm arrival. In the days before we had a clothes dryer, my mom especially appreciated my warnings to pull down laundry drying outside before the arrival of a storm (even once we had a dryer, mom would still dry sheets outside as she liked the way they smelled and felt in contrast to using a dryer).
Of course, storm arrival calculations only were possible because we played outside all of time in good weather (no internet, no video games, no cable, no air conditioning, and very boring daytime television) and could see the lightning and hear the distant thunder.
When we were in elementary school, we often played outside through thunderstorms. There was for several years a 15- to 20-foot pile of dirt in the neighborhood from a house excavation where even building the foundation was stalled for some reason (once of us almost drowned when we built a very lousy boat to use in the flooded, open excavation hole). Playing King of the Mountain on that pile of dirt during a thunderstorm was a favorite activity (it's amazing how tolerant our moms were of our muddy adventures).
As we often had water fights in hot weather, which always progressed to hose wars, being drenched was not unusual to us or our parents (who always preferred that we were outside whenever possible). In those days, persons were not hyper-cautious about being hit by lightning as they are today; we were told to stand under a tree if in the presence of severe lightning, which was questionable guidance, but better than being in the open.
Even today, I find it interesting how dogs are terrified of thunder and lightning, especially younger dogs (in my experience, contrary to linked article below). When working outdoors on my garden, I remember a neighbor's German Shepherd, which I did not know and which was well trained to never leave its yard, ran over to me in terror as a thunderstorm approached, as if I were a weather god who could protect it. I walked it back to its house and knocked on the door, and the dog rushed into the house before its owner had opened the door more than a foot. We were both highly amused, probably feeling some sense of species superiority, never considering that perhaps the thunder (like fireworks) actually were painful to a dog's superior sense of hearing.
The weather in northeast Ohio is extremely localized. Even a mile distance can result in a very different weather experience. With real-time Doppler radar on sites such as Accuweather.com, we now can time the approach of storms when they are tens of miles away. We also can see the snow and rain bands, especially those resulting from lake effect conditions, as they stall over a single area, or move (almost always) eastward.
Greater Cleveland has significant river valley gorges as the rivers descend towards Lake Erie. The impressive "Flats" of the Cuyahoga River through downtown Cleveland is one of the largest and most highly developed.
On the Grand River about a decade ago, about 10 inches or rain caused a massive, 500-year flood in the steep, sometimes narrow river valley.
Over recent decades, the Grand River gorge has been converted in Lake County to parks, generally of the Lake Metroparks system. Condominium developments in Painesville destroyed by the great Grand River flood were converted into a nature area.
The biggest risk of thunderstorms are the winds. Especially if the ground already is saturated, thunderstorms can rip the mightiest of trees out of the ground, most especially when leaves still are on the trees. Hail also is a concern, especially for roofs and cars caught in the open.
I never knew that our thunderstorms were so much more ferocious than those in the Pacific Northwest.
BTW, after many days of hot, dry weather, we all would welcome a thunderstorm to avoid having to get out a sprinkler and/or water our shrubbery.
The concern over thunderstorms both surprises and amuses me. They've been both a source of amazement and joy from the time I was a little kid. I vividly remember as even a pre-schooler watching them from a large open front porch. We would scamper around trying to avoid getting soaked. Watching the small torrents of water run down the driveway, and the way the storm slowed passing cars and rattled the trees, all was a great and welcome change from the normal pre-school routine.
Long before I had heard of negative ions, I appreciated the way a thunderstorm would reinvigorate the air, not only by cleansing it of pollution back in the days when cars and especially trucks, buses, and coal-fired power plants were heavy polluters.
Thunderstorms instantly end dry spells, even if they sometimes topple staked tomato plants.
And while in elementary school, I remember learning about the speed of light and the speed of sound by calculating the time before a storm would arrive in my location. Perhaps the first practical and fun use of basic arithmetic, and something that impressed adults who didn't know or pretended to not know how I made such accurate predictions of storm arrival. In the days before we had a clothes dryer, my mom especially appreciated my warnings to pull down laundry drying outside before the arrival of a storm (even once we had a dryer, mom would still dry sheets outside as she liked the way they smelled and felt in contrast to using a dryer).
When we were in elementary school, we often played outside through thunderstorms. As we often had water fights in hot weather, which always progressed to hose wars, being drenched was not unusual to us or our parents (who always preferred that we were outside whenever possible). In those days, persons were not hyper-cautious about being hit by lightning as they are today; we were told to stand under a tree if in the presence of severe lightning, which was questionable guidance, but better than being in the open.
Of course, storm arrival calculations only were possible because we played outside all of time in good weather (no internet, no video games, no cable, no air conditioning, and very boring daytime television) and could see the lightning and hear the distant thunder.
Even today, I find it interesting how dogs are terrified of lightning, especially younger dogs. When working outdoors on my garden, I remember a neighbor's German Shepherd, which I did not know and which was well trained to never leave its yard, ran over to me in terror as a thunderstorm approached, as if I were a weather god who could protect it. I walked it back to its house and knocked on the door, and the dog rushed into the house before its owner had opened the door more than a foot.
The weather in northeast Ohio is extremely localized. Even a mile distance can result in a very different weather experience. With real-time Doppler radar on sites such as Accuweather.com, we now can time the approach of storms when they are tens of miles away. We also can see the snow and rain bands, especially those resulting from lake effect conditions, as they stall over a single area, or move (almost always) eastward.
Greater Cleveland has significant river valley gorges as the rivers descend towards Lake Erie. The "Flats" of the Cuyahoga River through Cleveland is one of the largest and most highly developed.
On the Grand River about a decade ago, when about 10 inches or rain caused a massive, 500-year flood.
The biggest risk of thunderstorms are the winds. Especially if the ground already is saturated, thunderstorms can rip the mightiest of trees out of the ground, most especially when leaves still are on the trees. Hail also is a concern, especially for roofs and cars caught in the open.
Aren't there thunderstorms in the Pacific Northwest?
WRnative — You write beautifully!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Transpant
