Moving to Dayton/Springfield from Southern California (Cleveland, Kettering: best neighborhoods, transplants)

[J Herman]

Hello All,

My wife and I are moving to the Dayton/Springfield area this summer. No kids, I work in education. I've accepted a position in Springfield. So far, for what we want at the price we want, Springfield does not offer much.

We've been looking online and attempting to get a sense of neighborhoods -- including searching through this forum and website. But we still don't have a real clear picture of the safety of neighborhoods.

We've seen that Kettering and Beavercreek are nice, however, that is a little more than we want to spend right now.

We've found a place we like in Butler Township, however, the information I'm seeing conflict. Some sources suggest that crime in Butler Township has shot up in the last few years. Other sources I'm looking at (the Community Crime Map from Kettering is one) show very little crime except at isolated spots near restaurants, shops, etc.

We don't need a squeaky clean suburb -- we've lived all over, and we do want to keep the rent pretty low if we can find a good neighborhood. We've been burned before -- we moved to Houston from Michigan and thought we found a nice spot only to have it surrounded by one of the worst neighborhoods.

So, what can you tell me about:
Butler Township, especially up near I70 on Brantford Road?
Patterson Park/Eastmont/Beaverton area? We found a house on the border of Beaverton.
East-Central Springfield. Near Maple Dell and Sun Valley Estates (are these neighborhoods?)

Thanks
J

[joe from dayton]

Butler Township is a safe place to live, but no area is crime free. It is a mix of commercial buildings and, I dunno, kinda semi-rural housing. Most of the reported crime in Butler occurs at Walmart and in the commercial strips, and the township has really had a boon in commercial development.

I've never heard of an area called Beaverton. There is Beavercreek, and Belmont, and a Beaverton Road in Kettering, Ohio, if that is what you are referring to. There is also a Beavertown neighborhood in Kettering.

Patterson Park is considered one of the best neighborhoods in Dayton. It is one of the neighborhoods where city employees lived when Dayton had a residency requirement, so a lot of policemen, firemen, and city workers lived there. Eastmont is a pretty stable neighborhood.

I don't know much about Springfield other than there are some nice neighborhoods, and some really crappy neighborhoods.

[J Herman]

Thanks, Joe

Yes, Beavercreek. I'm not sure why I have Beaverton in my head.

Thanks for the information. Really helps.

[Natural510]

Springfield north of McCreight/First Streets and east of Belmont is all nice & safe. All of the countrified areas outside of city limits are good too (trailer parks and similar complexes excepted). Northridge (the Spfld one, not the Dayton one) is a safe, family-oriented suburb also.

[joe from dayton]

Beavercreek is a good community with good schools. Wright Patt Air Force Base is near by, so you will find a number of current and retired military in the area.

[wrightflyer]

Not sure if you are looking for private owned condos, apartment complexes or just individual single-family. And not knowing your range and/or needs it is hard to say. The area you mentioned in Butler Township is a pretty long road. Most of the township is pretty safe with most of the crime concentrated around the shopping centers. Things like shoplifting, petty car break-ins in parking lots, stuff like that.

However the Walmart on Miller Lane has had some recent higher profile crimes for a suburb of Vandalia/Butler Townships reputation. Armed robberies and assaults in particular. I think part of that is the southern part of the township lies just north of Harrison Township (aka as Northridge - see above reference). This area used to be working class families and pensioners, but as factory jobs left and people migrated away or outwards, the Harrison Township area was hit pretty hard. That history combined with the devastation from last year's F4 tornado that hit Harrison Township, and the blight is a quickly growing problem at Butler Township's doorstep.

So essentially the areas on Brantford Road are probably OK, especially if renting, but I would buy only if you are closer to I-70. The closer to the I-70 corridor and away from Stop 8 Road, the likely better off you will be.

Beavercreek in parts has some similar problems but not to the same level. Parts of Riverside to Beavercreek's west and parts of East Dayton have taken hits with older businesses moving or closing and little redevelopment. Most of the homes are small and out-dated for modern family living so don't appreciate much and tend to be rentals. Even parts of Kettering and Beavercreek, which have better schools and reputations than Riverside, have these problems. I still don't think any of those (outside of parts of East Dayton proper) rise to the level of Harrison Township's troubles. But it may still be a consideration. For what it is worth, with the better schools, Kettering and Beavercreek neighborhoods tend to see more investment and reinvestment in homes that may not get the same attention in Riverside's school zone.

Paterson Park and Eastmont would still be a good part of Dayton and Belmont for the most part. The only downside here is parts can be more blighted or show less upkeep due to being in Dayton Schools and city services. Like most urban centers, the maintenance on streets may not be as great (plowing of side streets rarely happens). And the schools' performance tends to drag down property values and reinvestment in older or blighted properties.

Some portions of Springfield proper, as Natural510 mentioned would be good areas to consider if you need to be closer to Springfield for work. The Northridge and Kenton Ridge areas immediately north of Springfield proper may be good areas too, as mentioned. These areas will also be cheaper because of being further from the typical base workforce. But rentals may also be less abundant due to lack of demand, so you may not have what you want.

Coming from Southern California, traffic is pretty light (unless there is a construction project, weather event or accident). So you can live in Butler Township or Beavercreek/Kettering and make Springfield in 20-30 minutes on most days. But it looks like you have lived in a number of other places so that may already be taken into account. The only drawback for Springfield is you will have to drive into Beavercreek or Huber Heights/Butler Township for certain shopping.

[Natural510]

Yeah, I work with a lot of people who have relocated to Beavercreek and work in Springfield, they seem happy with it. Springfield can be a tough go if you're relocating without friends/family, as it's pretty provincial and redneckish in a good portion of the town. Beavercreek has a ton of transplants due to the base and related tech companies, though it's very suburban and mostly strip malls (in case that's not your cup of tea). Upside is you have a lot more restaurant and shopping options compared to Springfield and some other suburbs like Huber Heights, and you're an easy drive to central Dayton with all its hangouts. Yellow Springs is an easy drive from either Beavercreek or Springfield, and its a great day trip without going too far out.

[ohio_peasant]

I did a similar move decades ago, and have recently reversed it; some regrets, but minimal, and most related to living-circumstances. The latter specifically means having lots of space.

A big advantage of Midwestern living is low-cost access to space, especially from the viewpoint of persons relocated from high-cost, high-density areas. My wholehearted recommendation is to avoid any "dense" residential concentration, be it within the nominal confines of Dayton-proper, or a suburb such as Beavercreek, or Springfield. That is, give primary consideration to a more rural township, or lower-density parts of Beavercreek (further west, deeper into Greene County). Other options are Enon, the unincorporated regions north and east of Fairborn (definitely avoid Fairborn itself!), and the State Route 68-axis north of Yellow Springs.

Good schools obviously imply better housing price-growth and resale value, but only to a point. For persons without children, the residential choices broaden considerably.

[WRnative]

You may not have considered the intricacies of the Ohio municipal income tax system. I'm not familiar with the municipal income tax agencies, if any, or the tax rates in the Dayton/Springfield area, but post 74 here is a good starting point for understanding the considerations albeit using Cleveland and one of its suburbs as an example.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/clev...eveland-8.html

Reading the above posts, it seems as if townships may offer you some housing options. Townships in Ohio don't have income taxes, so that may be a consideration for you.

Other posters may be able to provide you with some granularity about the municipal income tax systems in the Dayton/Springfield area. Typically, if you check the websites for the employment city and residential city, there are income tax discussions and, if relevant, a link to the appropriate municipal income tax agency. I haven't ever checked, but I suspect that most township websites don't discuss municipal income taxes because they don't levy one.

Also, perhaps consider flight paths and noise for areas too close to Wright Patterson or other airports.

An important consideration in Ohio for those interested in outdoor recreation is checking out the proximity of "metro (county)" parks, state parks, private nature preserves, etc. Many Ohio counties have very good park systems that seek to preserve the county's better natural areas.

The Dayton/Springfield area has some excellent parks and natural areas.

https://www.metroparks.org/

https://www.clarkcountyparks.org/

Definitely check out the Glen Helen Nature Preserve at Yellow Springs. Nature preserves likely don't offer the same recreational activities apart from hiking/walking as metroparks.

https://www.glenhelen.org/

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nnlandm...e.htm?State=OH

Check out Buck Creek State Park and other state parks.

http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/buckcreek

http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/findapark

BTW, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright Patterson is one of the top attractions in Ohio. Don't miss it! Here's a dated travel article as the museum has expanded significantly in recent years.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g...The.World.html

Here's an interesting National Geographic article about Dayton's parks that I just stumbled across. I'm pretty certain that a similar article could have been written about any of Ohio's better metropark systems, especially during this COVID-19 epidemic. Inspired by the national park movement in the early 20th century, and continually expanded in subsequent decades, metroparks certainly were one of Ohio's "best ideas."

<<But in recent years, the city of around 800,000 has seen a surprising—and popular—revitalization of its urban green spaces, which welcomed some 3.3 million visitors in 2018. On a per-capita basis, this makes Dayton’s parks more popular than New York’s Central Park, the United States’ most-visited.>>

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/t...n-parks/#close

Good luck with your move!