River Road area of Toledo (Sylvania, Perrysburg: real estate, apartments, crime)

[giaranomo33]

My family and I are considering moving to Ohio and are looking at a property on River Road. My wife is originally from Toledo but moved when she was in her teens and isn't familiar with the area anymore.
What's the area like? Good for families? We also are looking into the Maumee Country Day school for our kids. Any thoughts on the school? We are definitely more liberal leaning. We like the old houses and charm. We have looked at Old West End but can't find any houses we like on the market. We like a lot of the homes in Old Orchard but the yards are too small for our liking and a garage is a must.

[Tobias C]

Well welcome to the area!

I think you're right on base with what your looking for. If living around people with similar views is important and you're liberal.....the OWE is definitely the epicenter of the community. Old Orchard....probably would be the next best alternative too. I don't know anyone who's gone to MVCDS or whos kids have...but everything I've read makes it sound like it's probably the best option for people wanting a quality education outside the public school system....in a more progressive program and environment. I'd say that's a good choice. Also River Rd is a good choice as well because you'd only be about 10 mins or so away from the school. I'm not sure where you or your significant other work and if that's a major consideration....but you can get to the Anthony Wayne Trail quick from the River Rd area and just run it up north/east if you're working downtown or anywhere in the northern half of the metro....or south/west if your working somewhere like Maumee or Perrysburg.

If you're interested in other areas that are safe with nice older homes...the historic downtowns of Sylvania, Maumee, and Perrysburg have lots of houses like that. Culturally/socially while those suburbs aren't majority liberal people....you'll probably find the biggest concentrations of people like yourself in the downtown neighborhoods of those towns as opposed to out in the newer subdivision developments. Ottawa Hills has a decent amount of older homes and the people most like yourselves tend to live in the oldest ones which are more on the eastern side of the town off of Secor...basically like an extension of Old Orchard.

As far as the area and how good it is goes...you'll be good pretty much anywhere on or immediately off of River Rd, it's entire long stretch from south Toledo all the way through Maumee. If you're living at the farther north end of the road, up in the Beverly area of south Toledo, you might find yourself running daily/weekly errands and shopping and grabbing food in areas up off of Glendale Ave often. If you follow what im saying right now and look at the area on google maps or something similar for context......all the residential areas off of Glendale are perfectly fine solidly middle class neighborhoods, however, the business areas on Glendale, like the Walmart, as well as the Southland Shopping Center area are also shopping destinations for people that live to the north in areas that are dense with rougher apartments off of Airport....or people from lower income neighborhoods in the Old South End off of South Ave, Western Ave, Broadway...etc. Not to judge those people in general....but there's a lot of crime up in those areas and occasionally incidents can pop up down in those commercial areas on Glendale. Not a major issue and not concerning enough to avoid the area or anything. Just a reality to be cognizant and aware of. You can easily get to Maumee and all of the newer business out that way quick anyway so you will find yourself out there on Conant St or Dussel Dr frequently to be sure and all those areas are completely fine.

River Rd is fine for families. It's not really the kind of place where you probably let your younger kids play in the street or anything (cars travel fast down it) but it's safe and plenty of other families live around there. If you live south of the Turnpike on River Rd you're in Maumee and most of the kids around there will predominantly attend Maumee public schools with a few exceptions...but if you're north of the the turnpike in Toledo, you'll probably find a lot of families living there in the Beverly area have their kids in private schools. The elementary schools down there like Beverly Elementary are.decently rated....but by the time they get to high school....pretty much every TPS high school comes with a lot of issues as they all take in kids from large swaths of the city and Bowsher HS is no exception nowadays. If your considering MVCD though you'll be set.

If you have any other questions about anything...don't hesitate to ask. I'm not a real estate agent so I can't help you with that stuff. I just know the city well between me being a geography dork that knows every nook and cranny of the city and has done jobs where I traveled every part of the city from the most ghetto hoods to the richest gated communities.....and a spouse who worked in emergency communications and knows the city safety wise like the back of her hand. Good luck!

[katnip kid]

Hello Tobias C. We moved to the Toledo area not long ago. We would like to buy a house here. Choosing a location has been very difficult. We are either warned about crime, or it is too expensive. It is too late tonight to go in to all of this. I would like to post a more detailed response this week. I come to CD every once in awhile, it is good to see a new/active post in the Toledo section.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by katnip kid

Hello Tobias C. We moved to the Toledo area not long ago. We would like to buy a house here. Choosing a location has been very difficult. We are either warned about crime, or it is too expensive. It is too late tonight to go in to all of this. I would like to post a more detailed response this week. I come to CD every once in awhile, it is good to see a new/active post in the Toledo section.

Welcome to Toledo! What is your housing budget? Are schools and location for work considerations? Despite what you may have heard crime is fairly pocketed and easily avoidable in most instances.

[Tobias C]

Originally Posted by katnip kid

Hello Tobias C. We moved to the Toledo area not long ago. We would like to buy a house here. Choosing a location has been very difficult. We are either warned about crime, or it is too expensive. It is too late tonight to go in to all of this. I would like to post a more detailed response this week. I come to CD every once in awhile, it is good to see a new/active post in the Toledo section.

Hi. Drop some deets on what your looking for. It helps when people can elucidate what their ideally looking for as well as what is a no-go or deal breaker for them, and what they would consider acceptable and/or tolerable. I say that because so many people find themselves looking for a particular and specific thing (probably yourself included) and when that thing doesn't 100% exist here, it's hard for them to find the best balance that's feasibly possible if they don't know the area well. Myself and others can probably steer you in a good direction or at least present the options more clearly for you.