Move to Cleveland - where to live (Shaker Heights, Forest Park: for sale, 2015)

[nivi0101]

What a day to drive to Cleveland. We checked weather.com before driving in and it did not say how bad this will be. The 2.5 hrs drive took us 6.5. But it kind of made my husband see that driving from Westlake will not be much fun. I drive 1 hour to work every day in the Detroit area but have not faced anything like this so far. The Ohio Turnpike and I-90 were terrible.

I hope things will be better tomrrow and we can check out the area and the places we plan to see. Any idea how's the following area:

1) area between Shaker Blvd and Larchmere Rd
2)Westpark

Thanks 5Lake - those are real helpful pointers!

[5Lakes]

Larchmere Rd. area - is just north of Shaker Square. East of Moreland Rd it is stately homes. West of Moreland it becomes a small commercial district, but things go down hill quick heading west. This is an area that borders both very nice neighborhoods and the ghetto (think Grosse Point since you're from the Detroit area). Personally I would not venture too far west over there. The apartments on Moreland, Kemper, and Shaker Blvd are OK, but it's best to stay north and east of the square.

West Park - located on the west side of Cleveland, to the south of Lakewood. Lots of city workers live out this way and it's kind of like Old Brooklyn, although I would say it's a bit nicer than Old Brookyln is. It is a safe area with a good amount of shops, bars, amenities, and near a metro park; but is very blue collar and far from trendy or hip. I think you're better off looking in Lakewood around this part of Cleveland.

[Peregrine]

Pretty partial to Westpark actually. That is where I live. If you are very wealthy one of the coolest houses I have ever seen is a few streets away from me. Half a million. Worth every penny. Hehehe
Anyway, Westpark is a very well mixed neighborhood. I live next to a firefighter on one side, a nurse on the other, a dr at Fairview Hospital 2 doors down. We have excellent restaraunts and bars all very close. Walking distance from me. A library down the street on Lorain... a YMCA a little farther down. There is a very nice recreation center down on Puritas.the cleveland metroparks are literally our backyard. We have everything we need in the neighborhood. It is one of, if not THE safest neighborhoods in Cleveland proper. Probably shouldn't say this on a public forum but our door is often unlocked. Of course... if you can get past my dog you can have my plasma tv. Lol
We take pride in our neighborhood.
15 minutes from downtown, 30 at most to CCF and 15 minutes from the westside suburbs best shoppings malls.

[nivi0101]

Again thanks for the invaluable advice, 5Lakes and Peregrine.
I have real mixed feelings about my Cleveland visit. I saw quite a bit of Cleveland and liked so much of it (thanks to the map and the suggestions - we got lost a couple of times, which turned out to be great boon). However, I am not sure that I will find the exact place I am looking for for the rent I can pay (and it does not help if the spouse has different preferences and one tries to accommodate everything). What I realize is that if I was buying, I would get a really good place at a price that was good but the problem is that I may have to sell it at a loss after 3 years or may have trouble selling.
The area I liked the most was Cleveland Heights and would love something there. However, it is imperative that we have AC where we live and a lot of these houses there do not. And the ones that do fit our specifications seem to be more expensive than we expected. Shaker hts was about the same and in case we end up living on in Cleveland, I think that's where I would like to buy a house.
Did not like the fancy apartments behind the Legacy Mall at Beachwood - not really our thing. It was very spacious and nice inside the apartment but everything else about it was not good at all. It is expensive and it feels that the management makes up reasons to charge more money. Not impressed at all.
We did not think Westlake was anything special and it not for us.
We are thinking about the one at West Park - young professional neighbors.....newer townhouse but smaller than what we are looking for. Very close to Metroparks. Let's see what happens.

Any idea how bad the drive from West Park to CCF will be traffic-wise? Google map says 22 mins. Will be driving at around 6-6:30 am and back at about 6 pm.

[costello_musicman]

at 6:00-6:30, I'd say 30 min most days. That's just before most rush hour, so not bad at all.

[Telclev]

Try downtown. There are many great buildings. We live by CSU and love it. The amaizing thing is. You don't have to worry about traffic ever.

[CALarrick]

That area around CSU certainly does seem like an area to watch for future development, but is there much "there there" yet? (sincere question) On the subject of downtown(-ish), when we moved to Cleveland we liked Tremont and Ohio City a lot, and they would have been very much on our list if we didn't have kids, etc, but the "Heights" towns seemed more family-compatible without succumbing to sprawl-suburb boredom.

I too like Cleveland Heights a lot - we rented there for a year (half of a house in the neighborhood northeast of Coventry and Euclid Heights) but will be moving out soon (it will be available! because we ended up buying in Shaker Heights. It is a great area. The big old houses *are* relatively expensive to heat, but with high ceilings, good ventilation, front porches, etc., consider whether you will actually ever need air conditioning (or anything more than a window unit for a week or two, at worst). We've only been here one full summer, which was a mild one, but even a normal year here doesn't seem to be bad at all. (Though if you have health reasons or etc. that cause you to need AC, your situation would obviously be different)

[CALarrick]

Oh, also... how have you been looking for apartments? For what it is worth, our experience looking for a rental with a real-estate agent was mostly pretty dispiriting.... better luck the next day when we just looked at as many CH places as we could from Craigslist postings, etc. The one good thing the real estate agent did show us, that ended up as our second choice, was a nice colonial house (with central AC, as it happened) that was up for rent though the owners also were interested in selling it... its those that are seeking renters on a "parallel track" to a sale that an agent could maybe help with. May not be as many of them now, though, because the local market does seem to have improved at least slightly over last year.

[costello_musicman]

To blow your mind even more, there are many rentals that don't even get posted online...especially Little Italy, Ohio City, Cleveland Hts, Lakewood. I know it's tough to just drive around and look for "for rent" signs this time of year, but if you end up liking a specific area, just keep that in mind there may be a possibility of more rentals options (my last two apartments I've live in were not posted online)

[AEB25]

I am looking to move back to Cleveland area. I use to live in 45 minutes from Cleveland and wish to move close to Cleveland because of my job being in Cleveland. Does anyone live in Shaker Heights? Is it a safe area to live? Also what about Tremont area or Ohio City?