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Hello everyone. I am brand new here and looking for some advice. I live in the Boston, MA area and have for life. I have a wife and three daughters ranging from age 7 to 13.
I have been offered a very lucrative job in the Columbus area, in New Albany, and have decided that I am ready to take the plunge. We are especially attracted to what seems to be a somewhat slower pace of life and much lower cost of living in the Midwest.
We're trying to determine where to live. We are concerned mostly about schools. We just put our house in MA on the market and should clear enough to afford a home in OH anywhere in the 300k - 400k range, and that gets us a lot of house in Columbus, as we've seen.
We'd like to have a bit of land as well, half acre or a bit more.
There are three communities on our radar:
New Albany itself, since my office will be here. I hear the schools are good, and it seems to be a very upscale community, although the lot sizes seem smallish.
Powell and the surrounding area. This area looks also upscale with mostly newer homes, and I hear the schools there are good as well.
Granville. This is farther out, but we drove through there and my wife fell in love with the town, it is very New England like. The commute doesn't appear too bad into New Albany, has anyone done a similar drive? I am clueless as to the schools there though.
So my questions are:
1. Are there other communities we should look into?
2. What do I need to know about Ohio or Columbus as a New Englander?
3. How does the weather compare? Looking online it seems that temperatures are very similar to Boston, but snowfall a lot less.
4. Of the three places I listed above, what would you recommend, and why?
Hi Superdave72, I too am from Boston (Quincy) and moved here in the late 90s so hopefully i can help. I have to say before visiting I was expecting Columbus to be an oversized cow town. It really isn't. In fact, the more I explored, the more similarities I found. Columbus gets treated like its Lincoln, Nebraska, but the truth is that its the largest city in Ohio and comparable in metro population to Cincinnati and Cleveland.
New Albany is an upscale suburb, it's really nice. The schools are great. It really is a newer suburb; most of the city has been built in the past few decades.
Powell is also an upscale suburb. The schools are also great. Commuting to New Albany on a usual day should be around 30 minutes.
Granville is also a great community, mainly a rural town. It really is a true New England town in Ohio.
1. Are there other communities we should look into?
I would maybe also add Gahanna, Worthington, and Westerville. These areas aren't really upscale, but they are great places to live and raise a family. All of the areas you listed are also great places to live.
2. What do I need to know about Ohio or Columbus as a New Englander?
Well first of all, the tornado sirens test every Wednesday at noon (I almost had a heart attack the first time i visited
There is a lot less snow here in the Winter but the temperatures stay the same. From spring to Fall, there is the possibility of pop up thunderstorms (literally one second sunny, next second it's hail) with the SMALL possibility of tornadoes<< really nothing to worry about, just have a plan and know what to do. Actual tornado touchdowns are rare.
Columbus is not as centralized as Boston. Columbus has large employment centers on all sides of town , not just downtown. Traffic can sometimes be comparable during rush hour, but for the most part its not bad. Columbus is better planned out than Boston.
Ehh.. I kind of accidentally answered the other questions. lol Good luck!!
Hello everyone. I am brand new here and looking for some advice. I live in the Boston, MA area and have for life. I have a wife and three daughters ranging from age 7 to 13.
I have been offered a very lucrative job in the Columbus area, in New Albany, and have decided that I am ready to take the plunge. We are especially attracted to what seems to be a somewhat slower pace of life and much lower cost of living in the Midwest.
We're trying to determine where to live. We are concerned mostly about schools. We just put our house in MA on the market and should clear enough to afford a home in OH anywhere in the 300k - 400k range, and that gets us a lot of house in Columbus, as we've seen.
We'd like to have a bit of land as well, half acre or a bit more.
There are three communities on our radar:
New Albany itself, since my office will be here. I hear the schools are good, and it seems to be a very upscale community, although the lot sizes seem smallish.
Powell and the surrounding area. This area looks also upscale with mostly newer homes, and I hear the schools there are good as well.
Granville. This is farther out, but we drove through there and my wife fell in love with the town, it is very New England like. The commute doesn't appear too bad into New Albany, has anyone done a similar drive? I am clueless as to the schools there though.
So my questions are:
1. Are there other communities we should look into?
2. What do I need to know about Ohio or Columbus as a New Englander?
3. How does the weather compare? Looking online it seems that temperatures are very similar to Boston, but snowfall a lot less.
4. Of the three places I listed above, what would you recommend, and why?
5. Anything else I should know?
Thanks!!
The schools are good in New Albany, but honestly I think it's probably the most overpriced suburban area of the metro. You'd do slightly better in Powell and much better in Granville as far as house for your money.
All three areas are fast-growing (growing between 78%-108% the past decade), so what they are right now might not be what they are tomorrow. Granville probably has the most cohesiveness as far as its development, followed by Powell and then New Albany.
You might look into Worthington or Westerville. Both would be a bit more reasonably priced, but you'll find fewer large lots, especially in Worthington which is inside 270. Schools are decent as well. If you're not afraid of a bit longer commute, you could try Dublin, Upper Arlington, Grandview or Bexley. All good schools, but with varying lot sizes.
As far as what you need to know about Ohio/Columbus... The cost of living is obviously going to be much less overall, but coming from Boston you may find less overall amenities than what you're used to. I guess it just depends on what you enjoy doing.
Temps are colder in winter, but warmer spring through fall. Snowfall, yes, is much less just because Ohio doesn't get Noreasters. Columbus is not in the Lake Effect snow belts either.
I am going to look at a couple homes in Granville next week. The realtor I spoke to said some things that are a bit confusing to me.
See, in MA, you're either in a city or a town. If you understand New England history, every state in New England was divided into towns back in the colonial days. A town became a city basically when it got big enough (it's a bit more than that, but that's the basic idea).
Ohio seems more complicated. Just in the Granville area, you have the village of Granville, then "Granville South" as well as Granville Township, then there is also Union Township, which has an address of Granville and is in the Granville schools. Villages and cities are one thing, and I guess townships are another? I'm not sure.
Is it hard to keep track of all this, or are Ohioans just used to it? I want to know that the house I buy is really where I think it is!
Two homes I'm looking at are less than a mile apart. Both are "Granville, Ohio" but one is in Granville Township, and one actually Union township, but in Granville schools.
Am I worried more about all this than I should be?
Townships are divisions of the county. I live in Truro Township which is in Reynoldsburg. Basically the only reason townships exist is to provide fire and ems to residents. For the most part, townships and cities coexist with eachother. Nobody really pays much attention to townships unless you live in a really rural area and there is no town or city around to be compared to.
I'd look at Powell, Dublin, Upper Arlington, maybe Bexley. Is your job at the Limited? You might like New Albany because its convenient however what would put me off is that everyone there works at Limited and I guess its not great if you get fired because everybody knows. Also its hard to get away, shopping, gym is full of people from work.
I know its not easy relocating but I've moved to a few states and they say you shouldn't buy a house until you've lived there for at least a year. I didn't listen to that advice and was sorry later on.
I think it doesn't really matter so much if it is the township or the town. The school district matters as much as anything if you are worried about resale value.
I would also recommend looking into Westerville as well especially the area up by Hoover reservoir. It is a nice area and you can get some land at a good price. You will be in the better Westerville schools or even the Big Walnut school district. Both are nice.
Hi Superdave. First off, welcome to Ohio! The pace is a bit slower here but I'm confident you'll enjoy raising your family here.
I hope you don't mind me asking but since you're born and raised in Boston I wonder if you're catholic. If so, do you plan to send your girls to parochial schools? The reason I ask is that there are plenty of parishes to choose from that offer 1st through 8th grade education and more than a handful of quality catholic high schools in the Columbus area. If you intend to send your girls to parochial school then you may be able to relax your requirements regarding the public school district you choose to live in. If you have any questions about the parochial options in the city just ask and I'll be happy to answer but I don't want to write a book about this topic if it does not apply.
As for the area you mentioned I'll tackle them one-by-one:
New Albany - very new and nouveau riche. This community was primarily farm land until just prior to 2000 when Limited Brands founder Les Wexner essentially 'founded' the community with a masterplan that it would serve as a convenient community for his employees close to the company headquarters on the northeast side of Columbus. You can often discern the city's boundaries by the white split rail fencing along the roadways. Where the fencing stops, New Albany often stops. The schools are excellent with a descent though not dominant athletic program. The public pools are some of the best in the city with a lot of people from other communities traveling to New Albany to use them. Property taxes are quite high. After all, someone has to pay to have those fences painted annually. Also, consider much of the development transpired during the housing boom of the mid-2000s. I have heard from contractors and friends and colleagues that live or have lived in New Albany that the housing stock is of subpar quality on average - almost of a guilded nature. This makes sense if you consider the rapid rate at which homes were going up and the low standards of the time as they applied to everything in the housing process from craftsmanship and labor to even underwriting loans. This isn't to say you can't find a top-quality home, but just know that on average the rumor is there's more than meets the eye with respect to New Albany housing stock and this may prove an issue if you ever renovate. My advice would be to get the best home inspector you can find and discuss any future remodeling visions you might have.
The area is also not done growing, so as a poster above me wrote, consider the implications this might have for town 'feel' and 'character.' Also, consider what this means for infrastructure. I've found New Albany to be challenged in the infrastructure department with single lane roads predominating the area. If you work in New Albany this might not be an issue but if your wife works outside the city she may grow to loathe her drivetime commute as traffic can become quite backed up on the west side closer to Columbus with all the residents returning home.
If you're willing to do the work consider a short sale / sherriff sale. There are plenty in New Albany as a result of liar loans and interest only loans resetting at higher rates combined with the high property taxes a lot of poeple realized they couldn't afford a $600,000 house in a gated community. I have a colleague who is exploring this option right now and what were previously 500 and 600,000 homes are now bank-owned properties being offered for 300-400,000 though they require some updating.
The area is within 10 minutes of the airport if you travel and less than 10 minutes from Easton Towncenter which is arguably the top mall in Columbus:
Powell - another newer, wealthy area though I don't think it is quite as wealthy as New Albany. Excellent schools which I believe are served by the Olentangy School District and is located in Delaware County the fastest growing county in Ohio and one of the top-10 fastest growing counties in the nation. Powell has many of the same infrastructure issues as New Albany in the sense that much of the roads are single lane and likely to require improvement to handle the population influx in coming years. The historic district is very nice with many antique shops and boutiques. I have several colleagues who live in the area and they all like it very much but the one complaint I hear regularly is traffic. There are only a handful of arteries to get in and out of Powell and they become quite congested during morning and evening rush hour. This may not be an issue if you're accustomed to Boston but commute to downtown that would normally take 20-25 minutes without traffic I'm told can turn into an hour during peak drive times. Your closest shopping and entertainment destination will likely be the Polaris area and the Polaris Mall. This is a very nice mall and probably competes with Easton as the top mall in the city.
Powell is going to have many of the same future challenges as New Albany in the sense that it is still growing so what you see today may not be what you get tomorrow. I have not heard the same complaints over the housing stock in Powell as I have heard regarding New Albany.
Granville - I don't have much personal contact with Granville other than a few trips to Denison College but I do know a few residents personally and will echo what they've said to me. You are correct, Granville has a New England town feel. It is also a tad more liberal than the other two commnunities we've discussed (not sure if you care about political leanings but New Albany and Powell will lean right of center) and perhaps this is because the college is the center of the town. Never heard a bad thing about the schools and they appear to be well supported by strong voter support of levies. The biggest complaint I hear from residents who work in Columbus is the commute. If you work in New Albany this certainly cuts down on the commute but you're still looking at 20 minutes minimum, without traffic. Also factor in you're 30 miles outside of Columbus therefore unless you want to make that commute to shop for everything from groceries to clothing and entertainment you will face a half-hour drive for routine errands. This might get annoying depending on your personality. With Granville's proximity to Rt 161 I'm guessing you could choose to shop or dine in Easton or Polaris. Both seem about the same distance apart.
I hope this helps at least a little bit. I'm happy to answer any further questions this may have spawned. Good luck in your hunt.
Columbus or Ohio is very confusing in terms of the assigned public school district and property taxes. It's all very much depending on your individual property. Let's say Dublin school district (very good) and Columbus city school district (bad). In most cases if you pay Dublin city property tax (high), you would attend the Dublin school district. But in some cases the properties get a bargain, that you may pay Columbus city tax (low) but you get to attend Dublin schools! In some cases, within the same neighbourhood it is divided into 2 separate school districts so your neighbour may attend a different school district than your children!
Welcome to Columbus!
Make sure you check out the property information correctly before making the plunge. For a start, ask which county is it, and you can visit the county auditor web to find the attending district. Then, you can call the district to find out which particular elementary, middle and high school your property is assigned. You can then visit ohio dept education site to find out the school rating and performance index score (this is a better measure), or at ilrc.ode.state.oh.us. Though some district is great, but it may be too big that a couple of its schools may not perform well.
Don't be fooled by Excellent Rating of district, because about half of ohio public districts gets Excellent rating. Pay more attention to Performance Index.
Powell traffic congestion is typically a problem for those communities on West Powell Rd, bordered between Sawmill Parkway and state route 315. These communities have no other exits but to go through Powell Downtown, and that's the problem.
Good luck
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