Old(e) Worthington vs the rest of Worthington (Columbus, Westerville: for sale, real estate)

[mjtate10]

I appreciate the information on this site. My family (me, wife, 2.5 kids) maybe moving back to Central OH later this year. We were in Westerville our first go around, but are now considering Worthington. How different is the vibe in Olde Worthington vs the other parts of Worthington. Is the area west of the Olentangy but south of 270 closer in character to the old section, or to the area north of 270? Would the neighborhoods north of 270 be any different from similar neighborhoods in Dublin or Hilliard? I like that Worthington has been mentioned to lean a little more left politically than other areas around Columbus. Is this something that would be experienced only in Olde Worthington?

[Supergrrl7]

Most of Worthington tends to be about split politically when you look at election results, if I remember correctly. Old Worthington is similarly split politically, but I think that is because there are so many older people still living in the homes they have owned for 30-40 years. Younger families/ people tend to be the types that want a walkable neighborhood, farmer's market and who cheered when we found out a natural grocery store is opening up the street. Old Worthington people make some serious trade-offs to get those kind of amenities, especially with respect to house size and newness. When I say Worthington skews crunchy, I mean Old Worthington, especially Colonial Hills (where many Clintonville school refugees end up) and the walkable areas around downtown and Wilson Hill.

The folks over in Olentangy Highlands/Linworth (below 270, West of 315 to Linworth) are similar to Dublin people in the desire to have larger homes at the expense of convenience, I think. Politically, I think they would likely be very similar to Dublin (though a lot less diverse). Those neighborhoods do cross over in school though, because Evening Street Elementary covers the whole west side of Old Worthington to Linworth. You may have some liberal neighbors over there, but it would likely be the same grab bag as any other cul de sac neighborhood around Columbus.

As you go farther north of 270, it depends where you are looking. Worthington Hills is pretty affluent, but other areas are not. I don't have much of a crunchy vibe about any of the outer parts of Worthington, except maybe Brookside Estates and that is only based on things I have heard about their elementary school (all good things).

We do have enough of a conservative influence to have a couple hard-core tea party/republicans on the School board, but there has been movement recently toward a more balanced Board.

In general, I feel like Worthington overall has moved left in the past 10 years (or maybe other parts of Columbus have moved much farther right?), but the pace of that leftward movement is much more accelerated in the Old Worthington area than the rest of Worthington (and to be clear, outside Old Worthington, a lot of the school district area is considered "worthington" when it is actually Columbus with Worthington schools).

Let me know if you have any more specific questions about Worthington. I am happy to help!

[sfunk226]

I have pretty much the exact same question about Worthington vs. Olde Worthington. My husband and I along with our 2 kids are planning to move to Worthington this coming Spring. We have visited a couple times and really loved the Olde Worthington area.

I know we are jumping the gun a little bit but we browse the real estate sites fairly frequently and recently a house came up on Schrock Street which appears to be in Worthington but well outside of the Olde Worthington area. I am curious about what the difference is in the areas and if perhaps we should include Worthington in our search as oppose to only focusing on Olde Worthington. There is also a property on a street called Evening St. but I believe that house is in Olde Worthington? In any case just a bit about us. Like I said we have two kids and are currently living in NYC. We homeschool and plan to continue to do but like the option of a good school system which Worthington seems to offer. Helpful information is appreciated!

I would say we skew kind of crunchy...after all we have lived in NYC for several years AND we homeschool. If I go by the response to the initial question, Olde Worthington seems like a good fit but I would love to hear about what are the outstanding difference between the two.

Thanks!

[Supergrrl7]

Old Worthington is technically the area between North, South, Morning and Evening streets. It is a pretty small area and it is defined by being a part of a very strict architectural review district. The areas that are walkable to Old Worthington are pretty desirable, but they price ranges and style/size of houses in the the neighborhoods vary quite a bit.

Schrock road borders a very industrial area and has some not so great apartments on it. It also doesn't really have sidewalks that conveniently connect you to the downtown area of Old Worthington. Schrock and Worthington Galena road are very busy roads without sidewalks, so I would not consider either of them walkable. Not every house on Evening is in Old Worthington, it really depends on where the house is located. Evening stretches from Worthington Estates down south of old worthington quite a ways and the desirability of the neighborhoods really varies.

If I were you, I would find a good realtor who really knows Worthington. There are a handful who really know what is going on here. I can recommend our realtor who was great or give you a few names I have heard are good if you send me a PM. There are a few sellers relators who have kind of a monopoly on sales but are not necessarily the best for buyers. Good, well-priced houses here sell quickly. Like within a couple days, quickly. There are also a lot more houses for sale in the spring than there are any other time of year, though the market is up so I have seen more "good" houses for sale this fall than usual. A good number of houses change hands without ever going on the MLS because they are sold to neighbors, to friends of friends or are mentioned on the Worthington Moms facebook page.

The very weekend after the grass turns green and leaves show up on the trees, a ton of houses will show up on the market and it will be a feeding frenzy for about two months. The crunchiness of Worthington varies by neighborhood (Colonial Hills being by far the crunchiest), but overall a homeschooling family would probably be fine pretty much anywhere that is walkable to Old Worthington (or outside that too, but it sounded like you were more interested in the OW area.)

Colloquially speaking, most people refer to Worthington as the area that is included in the Worthington school district which includes Old Worthington, the 43085 zip code, Riverlea and some parts of Columbus that pay Worthington School taxes but are technically Columbus. There are HUGE differences in neighborhoods.

I think rather than getting super caught up in the Old Worthington versus Worthington as a whole issue, it would be more helpful if you described your ideal neighborhood and home. Number of bedrooms, square footage, age of construction, style depend a lot on specific smaller neighborhoods. Vibe and walkability is neighborhood-dependent too.

What exactly are you looking for in a home and neighborhood?