Floridaian wanting to relocate pros and cons of your state (Columbus: mobile home, to buy)

[Scout82]

Hi, im currently living in florida and my wife did a short stint in lima when she was younger living with her parents.
We are in our mid 30s with 2 young children. Ive lived in florida all my life and im ready to go somewhere else.
The weather being one of my reasons. We went thru hurricane irma, i live close to the north center of the state and we got hammered here. I think i was awake for 28 hours straight living in a mobile home in a flood zone. The state was a huge disaster in terms of evacuating. All roads were parking lots and supplys were non existant. In 35 years of living in florida ive never seen such a demand for gasoline. It was non existent 5 days before the storm and week after in some areas. The summers are a drag. Actually the heat is aweful.
High 90s with high humidity 9 months out of the year is just too much. Jobs are plentful but dont pay. Not a whole lot,of unions here. Needless to say im over the florida thing and ready to move. Im a cold weather guy. Was in the military and got to travel and stay at different places and i like the northern and western states. My wife said i would like ohio. Im looking,around the outskirts of lima and would like to buy a house possibly on some acreage nothing more than 5.
Tell me some pros and cons about ohio.

[bjimmy24]

Ohio is VERY different from region to region. Hard to answer this without knowing in general which spot you are looking at.

[canudigit]

He said he is looking at the outskirts of Lima.

I don't know anything about that area or I would try to help. I did grow up in extreme NW Ohio and I still live in that general region (over the state line in Michigan, though) and love it, it's home. However, it isn't Lima so I won't be of much help, unfortunately. Hopefully someone who knows that region well can advise.

[SMF575]

Some Pros:
Decent and improving economy
Low cost of living
Cheaper Houses
Nice people
Family friendly
Good schools (depending on your location)
Great weather from mid/late-march to mid/late November (Southern Ohio)
Great weather from early/mid April to early November (Northern Ohio)
A lot of amenities (depending upon your location)
Lots of fun cool cities to visit
Good location (within a days drive to more than 50% of the US population.
Diverse landscape, especially compared to Florida!

Some Cons:
Cold, dreary, weather from mid November to mid March
Economic growth slightly lags behind the national average. (Ohio is a rust belt state)
Higher property taxes
The heroin epidemic is bad here too
Lima is in the middle of vast flat farmland. It might get pretty boring.
Lima also may not have many good jobs either.

But if you have a good job the pros should out way the cons. Overall Ohio is much more affordable and you may really like the weather too. Ohio is also a pretty good state to raise a family in.

[SWOH]

The big question is... why the Lima area?

There's some really nice small towns, if you have a family it'd be hard to beat the culture of schools in places like Minster, Coldwater, Russia, Versailes, and a number of other places 30-50 minutes south of Lima. I've also heard Findlay is quite nice.

I'd recommend against Lima itself. It could stage a turnaround for sure, but at the moment a turnaround is not in sight.

[Scout82]

Lima is just centralized area i picked and is subject to change. What other areas are good statewide? Any town or city close to schools and the v.a hospital are good for me.

[ZnGuy]

if I had to pick some towns which IMO would be worst place to live in OH, Lima would be near the top. There is a reason it probably near the lowest COL in the country.. I guess it depends what you are looking for..

[canudigit]

Originally Posted by Scout82

Lima is just centralized area i picked and is subject to change. What other areas are good statewide? Any town or city close to schools and the v.a hospital are good for me.

I googled VA hospitals in Ohio and unless I missed something, I didn't see any near Lima, just smaller clinics.

I have never lived in SW Ohio, but I always think that the area down around Cincinnati seems lovely and like it would be a nice place to live. Very green and rolling and pretty, as opposed to flat as a board NW Ohio where I grew up. They still get cold winter weather but it isn't as harsh as the winter weather in NW Ohio because again, because it is so flat, blowing and drifting snow is a fact of life and can be quite annoying and difficult to drive in.

If I had never lived in Ohio I think I would choose the Cincinnati area over any others, including Columbus. A lot of people like Columbus, but to me it is just flat and boring and sprawling. Cincinnati seems to have a lot more history and character.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by Scout82

Lima is just centralized area i picked and is subject to change. What other areas are good statewide? Any town or city close to schools and the v.a hospital are good for me.

I'd follow what the other posters said and look around Southwestern Ohio, in particular I'd say Dayton just because the VA is ~decent~ (all VA's are kinda questionable, but the Dayton one seems to do OK), WPAFB is there too which would be a nice resource if you are still allowed om base to shop at the commissary and stuff. And the cost of living is comparable to Lima (given your description I'm guessing you want land, and places like New Lebanon would be a good place to start looking for something less expensive)

In fact, I have no clue your budget, interests, etc. but check out this house. Only downside is the school district (but open enrollment to neighboring Brookville schools is probably a possibility):

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...7_rect/12_zm/?

Full disclosure, I drive by this house a lot and it is nice. Again, there's thousands of decent OH houses out there, but it is a good idea of what you can get if you look hard.

Good luck!

[bjimmy24]

Live in southern Ohio. The winters aren't nearly as harsh.