Westerville Neighborhoods (Columbus, Cleveland, Gahanna: houses, buying, school district)

[libertybelle76]

Hello,


My daughter and son-in-law are buying their first home. My son-in-law is originally from Columbus. They are looking at Columbus suburbs, in particular, Westerville. My husband and I will be helping them out financially, but being from the Cleveland suburbs, we noticed a few things. First, some neighborhoods are actually Columbus with Westerville schools. Some Westerville neighborhoods go to Worthington schools. While Westerville is in Franklin County (for the most part) it looks like some of it goes to Delaware County. Finally, there seems to be different neighborhoods of Westerville too. Does anyone have any perspective on what might be a good fit for a young, professional couple? We noticed the Annehurst neighborhood seems to be a nice area. Is it? They want something quiet, with Westerville schools and friendly. (Also close to "Uptown") That is really a wonderful area. Thoughts?

[Rosebush1]

Municipal boundaries in Central Ohio often don’t match the school district, and vice versa. The school district and municipality might not match the mailing address, and vice versa. You will find confusing boundaries in most suburbs, including Westerville, Hilliard, Worthington, Dublin, Gahanna.
This crazy, unique situation confuses newcomers and long time residents. People routinely say they live in Westerville, Worthington, Dublin but they really live in Columbus. Realtor ads may refer to a “Westerville area” home that is within the Westerville school district but is not within the Westerville city limits. There are houses with Westerville mailing addresses but not in Westerville for municipal city services or schools. There are houses in Westerville schools with a Gahanna address but the homes are really in Columbus. There are homes in Westerville schools that are in Blendon township, avoid this area as it is downmarket. There are nice homes in Genoa township going to Westerville schools, this area is popular.

I always advise to choose a suburb, then find a house within the municipal boundaries of that suburb for better service and better esthetics. Fire, police, trash pickup, winter snow and ice removal, recreation are better within the suburbs. Westerville has a fabulous park and recreation program and the best community center in the area, city residents get preferential signups and pricing.

Speaking broadly, Columbus municipal services are not great, especially during winter months. Columbus does not plow or salt neighborhood streets. Some neighborhoods don’t have streetlights. Zoning within Columbus is often poor, strip centers pop up next to nice housing developments.

Within Westerville municipal limits Annehurst is a lovely family oriented neighborhood.
Lots of great family neighborhoods lie to the East of uptown, north of Schrock, along Sunbury and Hempstead roads. Autumn woods, Chatham ridge, wood glen, McVay woods, McDot Farms, Spring Grove, Windsor Bay, the Landings are very popular family neighborhoods. Kids can bike to schools, the library or highlands pool.
The market remains very hot, homes don’t last long on the market.
Uptown has lovely older homes that sell instantly but I’m not well versed on finding one.

Your best resource for municipal and school info will be the Franklin County auditor site under property search by address.
If a house is in Delaware County search their auditor site.

Good luck!

[Columbus Native]

Westerville has some great communities.
It can be very confusing searching for homes in Columbus because of the way the city (Columbus) has been developed. You can live in Westerville City and go to Worthington schools or have a Columbus address and go to Westerville schools.
If your using the internet to search for homes the best way to search is by school district. That way there is no confusion.
From a tax standpoint (lowest taxes) it is best to have a Columbus address and live within Westerville School District.