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The best combination of elementary/middle/high school is going to have you on the SW part of Lexington. The large lot may be hard to find though. How large are you wanting?
If a 1/4 to 1/2 acre will do, I always recommend Beaumont to my clients in your price range. It is great area, has great schools (Rosa Parks Elementary is right in the neighborhood and is one of the best schools in the state), and is a safe place to sink that kind of money. It is about 20 minutes from the ice rink. You would take New Circle Road to Aumni Drive, then two left turns to the rink. There is also a lot of office space for lease in the area too. Getting something newer won't be a problem at all. Other perks are a city park behind the elementary school, easy access to the airport if needed, a walking trail around the neighborhood, a YMCA and public library within the neighborhood, plus lots of businesses like a grocery store, gas station, restaurants, etc right there too! I've had 4 clients pick this neighborhood in the past year and they all love it.
To get a little closer to the rink, I think you can find about a 10 year old house in Andover Forest or the Estate Section of Andover Hills. That is about 15 minutes from the rink and both have a pretty good, well rounded school district. Both are near a mega retail area called Hamburg. Many people on this forum don't like Hamburg due to traffic and the layout of the place. I was one that hated it until I moved so close to it. In my opinion, if you live across town you hate Hamburg because you spend so much time just getting to the area. If you live close to it you don't want to go anywhere else.
And others, like myself, will tell you the best school district is within 40502. Cassidy, Morton (best middle school in town) and Henry Clay. Henry Clay has a hockey team. I know the coach and he's a great guy; played in college and a little beyond.
The age of house you're looking for makes it hard to find. There are some tear downs/rebuilds in this zip code. LexPert could possibly know if there are any currently on the market. There are however lots in the 1/3-2/3 acre size.
Good point Lexingtongal. If he could get a tear down, that may be a good fit for all his needs. I just checked and there aren't any right now that are that new, but there are some older houses that have been practically rebuilt.
There's a four square on Manor with 1/2 acre that's been redone. A friend of mine looked at it and said it's very nice. I think she said it was around $450,000. There's a tear down/rebuild on Cooper that's on the market. I haven't seen any pictures of it but I believe it's about 5 years old. Lot won't be as big though. Indian Mound area typically has a little larger lots and has some new homes. Not sure if any are on market right now.
That one on Cooper is $699k for about 3700 sq ft. It looks really nice inside, but I'm wondering if they just refinished the inside and added to the back of the house? The Seller's Disclosure just says "Completely Remodeled After Purchasing." These are always funny to me since, in some cases, you're looking at a house that is all new except the foundation and it says on LBAR and the PVA that the house is 50-70 years old!
When a lot of this was happening in years past I would drive by one, then hit the PVA to see what the original house looked like before the photo was updated. A friend on Indian Mound had one of the first ones to be done like this. It was about a 1500 sq ft ranch with a carport that is now a HUGE house. Don't remember the address, but if your're going down Romany towards Turkey Foot, it is was on the right side of Indian Mound about 3-4 houses down.
A friend of mine sold the old house on the corner of Indian Mound and Andover. I showed the house next door to it a few months ago and couldn't believe that what I was looking at was the same house. That one was a total tear down to the foundation.
I think I've been in the one on Manor you mentioned. That is a nice house. My people didn't like it because it still had a lot of the original elements (I think the cabinets were original but had been painted and the old fabric wall paper had been painted over......if we're talking about the same one.)
Yep. That is the one! I think if the OP wouldn't mind some of the original features, it would be a good choice. Sometimes when people mention wanting a house that is 5-10 years old, they are mainly interested in things like open, modern floorplans, sometimes they are wanting newer windows/roof/HVAC, sometimes they just mean updated.....Sometimes it is all of the above!
I think the buyer for this house is first and foremost going to be drawn to the location and neighborhood, then they'll appreciate that it is fairly updated. The people I took through it ended up buying a 4 year old house (In Beaumont!), so it just wasn't a good match for them.
The one on Cooper you mentioned looked brand new inside. I've recently been in that one across the road on Cooper (Think it was Jim Amatos old place?), 3 cape cods on the other side of Cooper closer to UK, 2 in Mt. Vernon, 1 on Andover, that big ranch on the corner of Lakewood and Romany, a couple on Henry Clay Blvd and 1 in Melrose. Don't know if it is still available, but my personal favorite was the one on Lakewood. It was all original, but had a great floor plan and a big flat backyard with a brick wall around it.
Someone recently showed me the ice rink - I didn't know it was tucked in over there!
If I was oriented correctly, I would say that the rink is close to the "Tates Creek" area (40515) and sort of off Richmond Road nearing Hamburg/Andover (40509).
The problem is that those aren't the strongest parts of the town for schools (although it would be easy to find you lovely homes). So off the bat, since you are going to be new in town, I'd eliminate those two areas 40509 and 40515.
If you head over to SW Lexington, you have a lot of strong elementary schools: Rosa Parks, Stonewall, Garden Springs, plus a strong middle school (Beaumont) and a strong high school (Dunbar). Zip codes are 40513 and 40514, also 40503 ... actually you'd be focused in 40513.
As the other posters have pointed out, the very strongest schools in Lexington in terms of the full triangle would be "downtown/inside the circle" 40502 which would get you into Cassidy-Morton-Clay. [That being said, you'd be happy with the SW schools which are also excellent].
I just did a search for 1/2 acres and up and ... there are a few in 40502 ("inside the circle"); there are a few in 40513 "SW" (one in Firebrook, one in Beaumont, and an interesting one in the new part of The Colony on Mayflower zip 40504 ... this particular listing has a few pros and cons, but would be worth looking into).
When I look at everything, I'd probably tell you to check out the house in Beaumont first (on Savannah, built in 1998, 21,780 sq ft lot). Just my 2 cents : )
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