Towns around Columbus (Dayton, Lancaster, Pickerington: apartments, homes, school)

[cal2oh]

Signed a lease for a place in Pataskala. It seems to be everything the statistics said it would be. Charming little town, not too hoity-toity, but safe and good for families.

[Gee]

When you are looking at small towns often rural areas are lumped in with the town. For example London. There are a lot of homes that have a London mailing address but may be 12-15 miles from the town. Some London addresses are actually as close to Columbus as they are London. The London area is a well kept secret for low housing prices,taxes, little crime (remember many homes are London for mailing purposes only), and good schools. Not to mention no city taxes for some townships outside London or other city limits.

[TexasBuckeye]

Originally Posted by cal2oh

Our small family will be moving back to the Columbus area soon, but we haven't decided where to live yet. We've lived in Columbus before, but it would be nice to have the latest neighborhood crime data on a map--is that available anywhere? We might live in Columbus itself, but we're actually leaning toward a town near Columbus.

We would like something not too expensive (we can't afford it), within an hour at most of Columbus, low-crime, college town a plus. We know a bit about the area already and have done our research on this forum. So we're thinking like Marysville, Delaware, Marion (maybe a bit far), Mt. Vernon, Newark, Granville (but that's too expensive, no?), Lancaster, maybe Yellow Springs (also a bit far).

Of these we wonder if maybe Lancaster and Delaware are maybe a little rough around the edges.

Another thing would be nice is if somebody could describe modern small-town life. We just want some help deciding whether to move to town our up to an hour outside of town. Nice thing is that we work at home, so no commute.

I was born and reared in Columbus and lived there until I married 3 years ago and moved to TX so hope I can help answer some of your questions with a bit of intelligence

Delaware and Lancaster are both growing rather fast as are several other smaller towns but guess that is to be expected in this day and age. You might want to contact the various police departments and see if you can get their current annual report and check out the stats on crime and types of crime for their area.

The thing I noticed the last 20 I lived in Columbus is counties north of Columbus seem to get alot more snow so if you do move north of Columbus, you may end up fighting alot of snow and bad roads if you work in or near Columbus. Marion OH is a bit of a drive and in bad weather would be nasty and the traffic up that way is picking up quite a bit.

Freeways in north Columbus are a BEAR all times of the year and a place I did my best to avoid even though they are trying to widen them, they can't seem to keep up with all the cars in that area. I now live in TX and love the service roads that run along almost every freeway here ~ really makes for easier travel, especially if there is an accident on the freeway. The older freeways here are set up like Cols, narrow and no service roads beside them and it is nasty during rush hour.

Circleville may be a place you want to consider and is about 30 minutes south of Columbus but a nice little community. West Jefferson is another place to look at and is, I believe, on the edge of Madison County right next to Franklin Co. Housing might not be as expensive in those two places as it would in some others. London, OH is another nice small town and not that far from Columbus. I have a cousin in real estate who just moved there not long ago and she loves it.

Good luck in your search and hope you can find a place that will make you happy and content.

[jager]

I would recommend Canal Winchester. It is very safe and affordable, it gives you a small town feel (while still being very close to Columbus) and it is a fantastic place to raise children.

[CirclevilleGuy]

Pataskala is a great area , I happen to live in Circleville and enjoy it quite a bit. The thing that people seem to mis-understand is the drive times from areas outside of Columbus. For someone like me , driving from Circleville or Ashville to downtown Columbus can sometimes be faster than someone driving from a area like Hilliard or such. When I was going to college in Columbus , I had students tell me that they spent about 40 minutes getting from Grove City to New Albany (Where the college is) and it took me less than 40 minutes most of the time becuase I had almost no traffic till I got on 270.

Since you signed a lease in Pataskala , it sounds like you've made a decision , there's alot of history in Pataskala and the people there seem to be very nice.

[kikiart_4U]

Cal2col: Girl, have I got the best kept secret for you. No one has mentioned
Morrow County ! Just up 71 North about 42 miles. Rural with very small city
life, no crime, 3 of the 4 school districts have brand new state of the art
scools K-12. ( I teach art in the H.S. of Cardington)
My story similar to yours. I grew up in Columbus, moved to Maryland.Many yrs. later wanted to move back, but the neighborhood where I grew up and
went to school ,Grandview, was now way out of my financial range. My
husband hated t he big city, noise, traffic, expensive housing, crowds for a
daily basis. He is from very small town in N. Wisconsin. I had to really look
around. Here Morrow Co. was up the big road only a little over a half hour drive. We took a blind ride in the Spring of '97, to the country. FELL IN LOVE.
Found a sweet little wooded 5 ac. farmette just 7 mi. from the freeway. At the time I was teaching in Gahanna, and I had a zoom in drive that was about
40-45 min. no traffic coming this way. Geeze, you can spend that amount of
time on the outter belts in a.m. traffic just getrting to work. The county is
quiet and low key, and when you want the grandure or excitement of Col., it
is a quick trip. Our school distric is growing, as other parents have figured this out also. Go to Realtor.com, and just look around. Still can get a lot for the
buck up here. Look for Marengo, Cardington and Mt. Gilead. Also if your in the
area, take a Sunday drive up I 71 to exit Rt. 61 ( Cardington - Marengo ) or
a little further I 71 to Rt. 95 ( Chesterville ) where I live on the outskirts. My
friends who come visiting from Col. all remark that it looks like I live in
vacation land. Yes I guess I do, 5 wooded ac. fishing pond, huge veggie garden, 25' x 40' pole barn, beautiful home w/ huge basement and loads of
flowers , fruit and pine trees. I can't tell you enough. We believe we have the best of both worlds.

[LancasterNative]

I'm told by a friend that the west side of Lancaster is known as the rougher side.

Your friend told you correctly. The west side is definitely the rougher side of town.

North and east parts are really nice...

[scottie]

Originally Posted by Gee

When you are looking at small towns often rural areas are lumped in with the town. For example London. There are a lot of homes that have a London mailing address but may be 12-15 miles from the town. Some London addresses are actually as close to Columbus as they are London. The London area is a well kept secret for low housing prices,taxes, little crime (remember many homes are London for mailing purposes only), and good schools. Not to mention no city taxes for some townships outside London or other city limits.

London is kind of a piece town. I just graduated from high school about 10 miles from London and never really thought too highly of it

[LancasterNative]

A "piece" town? I've never heard of that before...

Does it mean "don't go there unless you're packing a 'piece'"?

[Monya]

I live in Dayton and relocating to Columbus for my job as a Flight Attendant so I need to be as close to the airport as possible but as far away from the worst crime area at the same time....If I could live in Yellow Springs I would..I love that little town because it seems like it is an oasis of evolvement in the middle of ignorant, lost souls. I hate Dayton which I have renamed Hayton because that is what everyone seems to do here is hate on each other. I came from AZ and it is so much more evolved than here. I am hoping that Columbus is better...even though I fly alot I want to come home to a place that has the peaceful energy that yellow springs has.