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Old 06-29-2010, 10:17 AM
 
Location: Ohio
18 posts, read 48,716 times
Reputation: 15

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Hello everyone! I've been lurking about here for about a month now. My husband has received orders to Wright Patterson. I know the base is pretty spread out and I'm having a hard time figuring out the best areas around Area A. A lot of the posts around here focus on Area B. We are hoping to drive up there later next month to explore the area but I'd love to hear recommendations for neighborhoods.

We are currently in Georgia and I'm originally from Florida so I'm a little nervous about moving up north. We have 4 kids - ages 10 months through 12years - so schools will be a major factor in where we live. I've read wonderful things about the schools there. My oldest is very involved in extracurricular activities and my 10 year old is very active in sports.

My husband would prefer something with an acre but I haven't had much luck finding anything on the MLS listings. Some of the areas I've read about that seem appealing are Tipp City, Troy, Vandalia, Beavercreek, Centerville... I know there are more but I can't find the list I've been keeping. Of course, I just figured out my husband will be working in Area A and I'm not sure what the commute would be like from any of these places.


-Where you are working?
My husband will be working in Area A of WPAFB.

-How much you are willing to spend on housing?
Trying to keep it under $150k. We are hoping to find a 5 bedroom since his family will all be a less than 5 hours from us in every direction.

-How long of a commute you're willing to tolerate?
Not too much of a commute - maybe 20 minutes? My husband might be willing to put up with more of a commute for a house he really likes.

-If you have kids: Private school or public school?
Public school - Gifted programs, cheerleading, drama club, chorus, band... You get the idea. I've read a lot about avoiding Fairborn schools but everything else seems pretty positive.

-What type of neighborhood environment you are looking for: small town feeling? small city excitement? suburbia delight?
Leaning more towards small town feeling or suburbia delight. Not too far from shopping, schools or the base. My husband is more outdoorsy though and is hoping to have a garden.

-Community amenities important to you?
Where we live in Georgia (Warner Robins) there is so much to do for families with kids. I'm hoping to find such a community in Ohio.

-Pie or cake?
I love me some pie! I'll take cake too as long as it doesn't have too much frosting.

I look forward to any assistance! Thank you all!
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Old 06-29-2010, 01:02 PM
 
Location: NKY's Campbell Co.
2,107 posts, read 5,053,915 times
Reputation: 1302
Hello and welcome to the Dayton area and WPAFB! The region is host to numerous suburbs and small towns, many of which you have already mentioned.

Going off of what you are looking for (150K 4-5 bedroom house in small town or suburbia with large lot and good schools), I'd suggest looking at this area first (but not exclusively):
Beavercreek - This is a typical bedroom community which is normally quite, though right now if you read the local paper, there was a domestic disbute where an officer, sadly, shot and killed a man. Besides that isolated incident, Beavercreek is a safe family friendly community which continues to grow at a steady pace. What keeps Beavercreek growing is the stream of jobs from the base and its defense contractors. Many base families live in Beavercreek because of its character and close proximity to the base. While much more suburban delight than small town, many of the lots in the older sections of Beavercreek are 0.5 acres plus, so there is room for gardening. Anything over an acre begins to see price hikes because of the land value in Beavercreek.

The problem here may also lie in that most homes with 4-5 bedrooms begin to see prices over 150K. Some may hover around there, but most begin in the 170's and go up as high as 500-750K. Due to this varience of prices and home values, Beavercreek is somewhat diverse along class structure. There is a blue collar presence, mainly from the old GM plant, as well as many retirees and base professionals. Also, because of the wide range in style and types of homes available, there is a wide range in prices. If you have questions on which particular subdivisions to look at, ask away. What truely drives these higher than average (at least for the region) home prices is the schools.

I myself am a graduate of Beavercreek's excellent school system. I participated in numerous AP and Honors classes. I was a member of its truely astounding band program, and would rarely trade my experience at that high school for any other high school's experience. If you have any questions about a particular school or program, feel free to ask. Many of my former teachers are still there and running. Well, that was a lot about Beavercreek, and I could go on, but let me sum it up.
Excellent schools with a wide range of activities. Bigbox shopping along N. Fairfield near the Fairfield Mall and higher end (at least for Dayton) stores and activities at The Greene Town Center in southern Beavercreek. For 150K, you'd get 3-4 bedroom, older ranch or two-story on .25-1 acre of land.

As you can see, I truely love living in Beavercreek and am a tad bias. Thus, I'll mention the other towns and suburbs to look at in the next post.
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Old 06-29-2010, 01:14 PM
 
Location: NKY's Campbell Co.
2,107 posts, read 5,053,915 times
Reputation: 1302
Some other areas to look at include:
Enon - This is a small town with excellent schools between Fairborn and Springfield. It is a wonderful little town, but because of its size, does not offer as much as Beavercreek. Money will more likely go further here, mostly because of less demand. 5 bedrooms would still run near the high end of your price point, though that will probably be anywhere you look here that has decent schools. The base is about 20 minutes to Area A from Enon.

Centerville/Washington Township - This area is probaby the best in terms of suburban delight (outside Oakwood, where schools are some of the best in the state, but that is an inner ring suburb with high prices), even topping Beavercreek in schools. But with that, comes higher taxes (more on that in a minute). Still, the rec center is one of the best in the area. I'd recommend focusing on Centerville proper and not the township for two reasons. First reason is price. The township tends to be more crowded, with smaller lots (at least at the prices you are looking at). Second, distance. The city of Centerville is closer to the base than Washington Township. However, homes tend to be older here and money probably won't go as far as in Beavercreek. Both the city and township attend the amazing Centerville City School District, home to some amazing (and competitive) sports programs and extracurriculars (debate and band do amazingly well, placing at national levels).

I don't know as much about the northern areas and schools (i.e. Bethel Twp., Tipp City, and Vandalia), so I'll leave that to some other posters. One last word of advice. Taxes here tend to seem (and are) high. Not as high as places like NY and NJ, but still high, especially coming from an area like Warner Robbins. Just keep in mind the property taxes which tend to be high in the Dayton area, and whether or not you will be paying an income tax (Beavercreek residents do not, unless they work in a city that levels an income tax).

Pie here tends to be very good, though so is the cake. Hope your move goes over well and you enjoy wherever you settle down!
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Old 06-29-2010, 01:51 PM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
183 posts, read 631,895 times
Reputation: 49
I dated someone from Beavercreek for a while and later I went to Wright State so I know a lot about Beavercreek as well and I'd have to agree that Beavercreek is a good choice with the band (I was a "band geek" as was my girlfriend at the time) and schools.

Kettering is maybe another place to look at. I know they have some decent school programs as well. Their band is pretty good, it's probably not as good as Beavercreek's or Centerville's but they are always pretty good.

As wrightflyer said as well, Centerville is another good place to look. It's a bit further so you'd be closer to the country, but it's further south so it may be a little far on the commute.

Like I said, I don't know a TON about Kettering schools, but it MAY be the best place to look if you want a decent sized house while cutting down on the commute time.

If you can find the right place in Centerville or Beavercreek though, those would be my first 2 choices.
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Old 06-30-2010, 07:51 PM
 
Location: Champaign County
4 posts, read 43,957 times
Reputation: 17
I work at WPAFB (area B), and I live in Champaign County. I don't mind the drive at all.

My point is... don't limit yourself to Montgomery or Greene County. Look at Miami, Clark, and Champaign County, too.
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Old 07-04-2010, 08:12 PM
 
8,228 posts, read 14,153,001 times
Reputation: 11225
Area A/C and B are two distinct properties but only a few miles apart. The difference btw the two should not affect your decision on where to locate.
You can get a half acre lot with room for a garden, maybe even something bigger - but it will most likely still be in a neighborhood. If you want large lots I would say older areas of Beavercreek, Vandalia which doesn't have that many base people living in as far as I can tell for reasons I don't understand, Washington Township which is where you don't pay city tax? I think? and would be a little farther out. If you want to go a little farther out Springboro but that's well beyond 20 minutes as is OhioRifleman's Champaign County.
If you want that country feel your going to have to go out farther than 20 minutes on your budget (I'm in a similar bracket) depending on your tolerance level and willing to work with a fixer upper.
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Old 07-05-2010, 05:07 PM
 
2 posts, read 4,998 times
Reputation: 15
I am retired from WPAFB and lived in three different houses in the Forest Ridge area. This neighborhood is half in the city of Dayton, half in the city of Riverside. It is an active family-friendly community with a homeowners association that sponsors many activities, including youth sports, scouting, and holiday events. The association also maintains a pool complex and green areas for recreation. Housing prices top off just over $150k. It falls within two school districts, Fairborn and Mad River. I worked in Area A (HQ AFMC) and it was 12 minutes from my driveway to the parking lot.

A few considerations: the houses were built in the 60s and 70s and some are starting to show their age. Although the homeowners association has standards on home appearance, you should keep both eyes open if you look at any houses. There is an annual assessment for association dues.

Hope this helps. Welcome to the area.
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Old 07-16-2010, 10:11 PM
 
Location: Dayton area
8 posts, read 20,291 times
Reputation: 10
Valley View Subdivision is in Mad River School District and there are homes for sale and new homes being built starting at $120k which has dropped a lot in the last 3 years due to the economy. It's a nice area and bus transportation to schools is close by.There are a few military families here now. It is easy access to just about anywhere.
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Old 11-01-2010, 09:52 AM
 
Location: Ohio
18 posts, read 48,716 times
Reputation: 15
Thank you everyone for the replies so far! My husband has moved up ahead of the rest of us and loves the area. We have decided to rent rather than buy since we've been unsuccessful trying to sell our house here in Georgia. I'll be sending him on my fact-finding missions while he's up there and I'd love some information on Germantown and Waynesville as we've added them to our list (which includes the very recommended Centerville, Beavercreek, Vandalia, Oakwood, Bellbrook and Tipp City). My husband will be working on the south part of the base so it looks like commute times from both are a little over 30 minutes based on Mapquest calculations. Like most parents, my biggest concerns are safety and schools.

Also, my oldest is now on her cheerleading squad here at her middle school and she loves it. When looking at various middle school websites for areas around WPAFB, it seems like cheerleading is non-existent! Please say it isn't so! You would think Drama Club, Beta Club, Chorus and Band would be enough for her but she is a bit of an overachiever.

Oh and I guess I should ask about soccer on behalf of my son. Is it very popular up there? Here they have two soccer seasons - fall and spring - but I wasn't sure how it is up north with all that snow and wintry weather.

We're from the Florida panhandle originally so this move is going to be a BIG CHANGE for all of us in so many ways.

Thank you all again for your help!
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Old 11-02-2010, 08:21 AM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
183 posts, read 631,895 times
Reputation: 49
I'm actually not sure about Soccer in the Dayton area. It is pretty popular in Central Ohio (around Columbus but that could be because of the Columbus Crew).

I actually just checked Centerville's site and their high school soccer record is 17-0-2 so it looks like they are pretty good in Centerville. From the look of their schedule it looks like they play a lot of Southwestern Ohio teams which is Dayton and Cincinnati so I don't think you'll have an issue with your son being able to play soccer.

I see that your daughter is in middle school, but once she hits high school she may not be able to do both band and cheerleading. It really depends on the school because at my high school (Marysville High School about an hour northeast of Beavercreek and 15 minutes northwest of Columbus) it wasn't really possible to do both band and cheerleading because if you played an instrument in marching band you had to be in concert band and vice versa and cheerleading and band went on fall, winter, and spring. Now if you were color-guard in marching band you didn't have to do concert band so you could essentially do marching band and basketball cheerleading.

Cheerleading probably isn't as big in Ohio as it is in Florida or Georgia. Ohio is very big on football and marching band. I've lived in 3 states outside of Ohio and have yet to see anyone make as big a deal about marching band as Ohio. I'm sure just about every state has state marching band competitions, but I can tell you from personal experience that in Ohio it's intense. Like I said earlier I was in an award winning marching band at Marysville and my ex-girlfriend was in an award winning marching band at Beavercreek.

Again this won't apply to your daughter until she hits high school, but if she likes competition, I would suggest band over cheerleading. In terms of the places that you are looking at, the schools with the best bands are Centerville and Beavercreek by far, but they are probably also the most intense in terms of practice and schedule.

You'll really have to check with each school about seasons for each co/extra-curricular because once you get to high school in Ohio it's almost impossible to do both band and chorus because Ohio is big on swing-choir and chorus as well and my school had an award winning swing-choir/chorus aside from the award winning band. I don't think anyone was in both (except the pit members).

I would say that the best places for your kids' activities would be either Beavercreek or Centerville as they are large well to do school districts that have a lot of activities and whatever activity they choose more than likely Beavercreek and Centerville will be one of the best in the state at it.
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