Boardman, Poland, Canfield, or Austintown??? (Youngstown, Middletown: sale, foreclosure, condos)

[000000]

basically, if you move to poland or canfield, you'll enjoy the opportunity to see older buildings in your neighborhood while driving to boardman to shop for things other than groceries (at a giant eagle or sparkle) or to buy things from "cute" local businesses within the green or center. another way of thinking about it is that boardman and austintown have sold their character in the name of strip malls. thus, boardman and austintown are more convenient while poland and canfield are more stuck in their colonial airs.

not that any of it matters since you will have to drive everywhere anyway, and if you move south of youngstown mostly on 224. they talk about expanding wrta, but the wrta does not go to very many places. there are no bike lanes and people will honk their horns at you if you decide to ride.

that wal-mart in poland is just as easily considered to be in boardman. south avenue has weird territorial issues about it.

there is little reason for your husband to go to any of the smaller towns surrounding the area because things get sleepy real quick once you get out of the suburbs. why, even within the nicer townships things can start to slow down. there are corn fields in canfield and there is a quarry in poland near the border with pennsylvania. the people from the smaller towns end up coming to youngstown when they must and to the townships when they need to shop. if he wants to get to any of them, though, they are easily drivable.

renting will also give you the opportunity to talk to your colleagues about the situation. ysu likes to have their profs be teachers rather than publishers so a good number of them are keen as to where to be in the area. do keep in mind that you will be teaching many native students who are going to college as a way out of youngstown.

[KenD]

Originally Posted by lovetheheartland

Based on some new information (i.e., I just got the statement from my student loans that tells me how much my monthly payment will be...YIKES!!!!), we've changed our search criteria a bit. We've now lowered the amount we're willing/able to spend on a house, and we're looking at smaller houses. The more I read about Poland (and I went there when I was in the area), the more I like it. My husband is concerned about how far it is to a Wal-Mart, the mall, big movie theater, etc. from the smaller towns surrounding Youngstown. I told him I thought Canfield had a Wal-Mart...is that correct? We're driving up that way in a few weeks to start looking for places. We're still unsure on the renting vs buying thing. It feels so wasteful to rent. But we've been doing it for years, what's another year?

What price range are you looking in and how brave are you?

For example, we fell in love with this house but it is out of our price range, even considering that HUD will probably let it go for ~$50K or so. The house needs roughly $15K to make it livable and easily another $10K in updating (the bathroom is pink enough to cause me to faint just looking at the pictures) but if you want everything you're looking for, this house seems to meet the needs you've outlined.



Then there's this one - less money but it still needs work. Overall, it's quite nice though.



I realize that both of the above homes are newer than what you are looking for and may not meet your tastes.

How about this house? Hud will let this one go for the low $50s (maybe less) and depending on how much work you believe the house needs, it might be perfect for what you are looking for.




If you can tell me what it is you like, what style home, etc, I will keep my eye out for you. It seems like I have a few people that are depending on me to help them find homes in the area so adding one more set of search criteria while I'm scanning every listing isn't a problem.

[JR_C]

Ken, I think it's great that you're being so helpful. I'd give you rep. points if I could. But, I think it is against this forum's rules to post pictures of houses for sale unless you took them. (though I don't think there is a problem with posting links)

[South Range Family]

I was shocked to see that the ranch at the top is on Blueberry Hill in Canfield. At one time that was the rich part of Canfield that everybody wanted to live in. You should have jumped on that one, no matter what the condition is.

See if you can find her a few listings in McDonald. I think she will be pleasantly surprised.

[KenD]

Originally Posted by JR_C

Ken, I think it's great that you're being so helpful. I'd give you rep. points if I could. But, I think it is against this forum's rules to post pictures of houses for sale unless you took them. (though I don't think there is a problem with posting links)

Nice, I haven't even hit two dozen posts and I'm already breaking forum rules?

I will certainly delete them if I should, I am not trying to cause trouble.

At the same time, I believe these pictures are in the public domain - after all they are on a government web site and, last I heard, we are the government's boss.

Of course, I'm old now and that might be pre-911 thinking.

Any idea what I should do? I would have edited the post and deleted the pictures but the edit button has disappeared.
Thanks JR_C, I owe you another one. Any idea how I can contact a moderator and plead for forgiveness?

[KenD]

Originally Posted by South Range Family

I was shocked to see that the ranch at the top is on Blueberry Hill in Canfield. At one time that was the rich part of Canfield that everybody wanted to live in. You should have jumped on that one, no matter what the condition is.

See if you can find her a few listings in McDonald. I think she will be pleasantly surprised.

Ask and you shall receive...

Here is the only listing currently offered by HUD in McDonald. The asking price is $52K but they will probably let it go for under $50K.

Oops, I just refreshed the search I did yesterday and it seems this house sold. I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up.

Please note the lack of pictures, please don't be upset Mr. Moderator, I really like it here. I was doing what I believed was inside the rules.

[JR_C]

Originally Posted by KenD

Nice, I haven't even hit two dozen posts and I'm already breaking forum rules?

I will certainly delete them if I should, I am not trying to cause trouble.

At the same time, I believe these pictures are in the public domain - after all they are on a government web site and, last I heard, we are the government's boss.

Of course, I'm old now and that might be pre-911 thinking.

Any idea what I should do? I would have edited the post and deleted the pictures but the edit button has disappeared.
Thanks JR_C, I owe you another one. Any idea how I can contact a moderator and plead for forgiveness?

I don't think you have anything to worry about. I just post links to the listings--that seems to be OK. Also, rules don't seem to be strictly enforced in the Ohio forum. But, I've seen warnings made about posting real estate pics in the General US forum.

[lovetheheartland]

Well our price range is $100K - 150K, and we've found some really nice houses in that range. We're making our first trip to the Youngstown area this weekend to look at houses. We're pretty sure that we're buying, not renting. It's such a good time to buy right now. Rates are low, there are tons of houses out there, we could get a really good deal, etc. We're really focusing a lot on Boardman, mostly because the houses we like in Poland (which is my favorite area) are out of our price range. The houses in Poland that are in our price range either aren't big enough or need a lot of updating. We don't want to spend $150K on a house and then have to put another $50K into fixing it up. Our upper limit-house and updates-is $150K, so we're really looking to either get a house around $125K and put $25K into fixing it or getting a house around $150K that doesn't need anything (well, hardly anything!). We are aware that Boardman is less charming, but we've found nice niches of residential neighborhoods in Boardman that are off the beaten path and don't seem like you're right next to a strip mall. Thank you all so much for your advice! I'll keep you posted, and I'll let you all know how our trip goes this weekend.

[000000]

the thing about boardman is that the beaten path is kind of all over the place. examples: people (in cars) cut through the glen to get to the park. people cut through applewood acres to get to the shops. people cut through roche way to get from market to glenwood to choose a street to get to tippy.

[KenD]

Originally Posted by lovetheheartland

Well our price range is $100K - 150K, and we've found some really nice houses in that range. We're making our first trip to the Youngstown area this weekend to look at houses. We're pretty sure that we're buying, not renting. It's such a good time to buy right now. Rates are low, there are tons of houses out there, we could get a really good deal, etc. We're really focusing a lot on Boardman, mostly because the houses we like in Poland (which is my favorite area) are out of our price range. The houses in Poland that are in our price range either aren't big enough or need a lot of updating. We don't want to spend $150K on a house and then have to put another $50K into fixing it up. Our upper limit-house and updates-is $150K, so we're really looking to either get a house around $125K and put $25K into fixing it or getting a house around $150K that doesn't need anything (well, hardly anything!). We are aware that Boardman is less charming, but we've found nice niches of residential neighborhoods in Boardman that are off the beaten path and don't seem like you're right next to a strip mall. Thank you all so much for your advice! I'll keep you posted, and I'll let you all know how our trip goes this weekend.

Have you looked into Canfield?