Tell me about the Forest Hills school district area (Grand Rapids: middle-class, homes)

[steph410]

We have been considering moving for several years and finally may be able to within the next year.
I love the thought of moving to the forest hills school district area but would appreciate hearing more about it.
we will have 5 children once we move, so would love to have space. and schools are very important to us.
my husband likes to run on trails and long distances- would he like it? what pluses are there for kids- ours are ages 7 and under? is it very far from shopping, etc? what about property taxes? are they high? thank you

(we currently live near Chicago and are somewhat familiar with Grand Rapids- we have been there several times and my husband went to college there, but will plan a trip there soon, possibly meeting up with a realtor to talk/scope things out if possible)

[ARPARP]

The Forest Hills school district is one of really only about two decent ones in the area, along with East GR. It is a fairly upper middle class are and a bit more expensive (but probably not for somebody from Chicago). It's a nice area, if you are wealthy enough and have the job opportunities to move there. Otherwise I'd recommend staying away from public schools in West Michigan.

[steph410]

yes, we had heard that forest hills and EGR were very good schools, that's one of the main draws for us.
my husband works from home, so changing or looking for a job isn't really an issue.

[Jandur]

Forest Hills is nice. Very upper-middle class but nothing too over the top. Something maybe like Wheaton or Arlington Heights in terms of socioeconomic similarities. Not uber-wealthy, no poor people either though.

[michigan83]

Originally Posted by Jandur

Forest Hills is nice. Very upper-middle class but nothing too over the top. Something maybe like Wheaton or Arlington Heights in terms of socioeconomic similarities. Not uber-wealthy, no poor people either though.

I don't know... there still are a few of the "old guard" in the Forest Hills area who are borderline poor, who have been there since before all of the development. They are becoming more and more rare. But with the relatively high property taxes, I'm sure that the few have-nots in the area probably aren't having much fun trying to pay the bills. I know this is true, because I'm originally from that area and was not part of the upper-middle class. There is a lot of wealth in Ada/Forest Hills, but if you know where to look there is a lower middle class presence also.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by michigan83

I don't know... there still are a few of the "old guard" in the Forest Hills area who are borderline poor, who have been there since before all of the development. They are becoming more and more rare. But with the relatively high property taxes, I'm sure that the few have-nots in the area probably aren't having much fun trying to pay the bills. I know this is true, because I'm originally from that area and was not part of the upper-middle class. There is a lot of wealth in Ada/Forest Hills, but if you know where to look there is a lower middle class presence also.

Well yeah I'm sure there are exceptions as almost anywhere. I grew up in what by all accounts was a rich suburb of Chicago, but we struggled. But we also weren't poor by any real definition of the word. Middle-class poor maybe.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by michigan83

I don't know... there still are a few of the "old guard" in the Forest Hills area who are borderline poor, who have been there since before all of the development. They are becoming more and more rare. But with the relatively high property taxes, I'm sure that the few have-nots in the area probably aren't having much fun trying to pay the bills. I know this is true, because I'm originally from that area and was not part of the upper-middle class. There is a lot of wealth in Ada/Forest Hills, but if you know where to look there is a lower middle class presence also.

Property taxes aren't that bad actually. I think we're somewhere around 27 mills (Grand Rapids Twp). Townships are almost always lower than cities (but you get the services you pay for, like county sheriffs instead of city police, volunteer fire, etc.)

[michigan83]

Well yeah I'm sure there are exceptions as almost anywhere. I grew up in what by all accounts was a rich suburb of Chicago, but we struggled. But we also weren't poor by any real definition of the word. Middle-class poor maybe.

Yeah, you make a good point. When I talk about "poor" people in Forest Hills, it is probably more of a relative thing compared to the wealth that is there. Lower middle class maybe, but definitely not poor in the true sense of the word.

[dadr]

Sort of related to the original post-we're looking at moving to Forest Hills and one thing that surprises me is that it seems like there aren't really public parks with playgrounds. When looking at satellite maps I also don't see neighborhood/"association" playgrounds or pools. Do people just rely on having their own playsets? You could go to the school playgrounds with toddlers I suppose, but only when school's out.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by dadr

Sort of related to the original post-we're looking at moving to Forest Hills and one thing that surprises me is that it seems like there aren't really public parks with playgrounds. When looking at satellite maps I also don't see neighborhood/"association" playgrounds or pools. Do people just rely on having their own playsets? You could go to the school playgrounds with toddlers I suppose, but only when school's out.

Not really. It's all basically predominantly exurban townships, which have low tax bases for a reason (fewer parks, no city police or fire, very little services). Some of the big planned neighborhoods have small "pocket parks" or "tot lots," but they're generally for really small kids. Grand Rapids Township has a pretty good sized park behind it's offices on the Beltline, Ada Township has a nice park, and there's a scattering of big county parks out in the area (Provin Trails, Siedman Park, Roselle Park), but they're not like city playground parks. More like nature areas.

Flowers Crossing has a neighborhood pool. But generally if you want a neighborhood pool, people join Orchard Hills or MVP or Watermark (if you can afford it). A lot of neighborhoods don't have pools because they're tremendously expensive to build (we lived in a neighborhood that wanted to put one in and it was $250,000+ due to State regulations), and you can only really have it open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

If you like trees, hills, privacy, bigger lots, that's Forest Hills. If you like neighborhoods, sidewalks, playgrounds, smaller lots, older homes, that's pretty much East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids.