mid 20's couple looking for great neighborhood with a few criteria. can you help us figure out where to live? (Columbus: houses, neighborhoods)

[jjbrown611]

My husband and I are planning to move to the Columbus area from Indiana. We're looking for a neighborhood that has the following:

Character
Walkable (parks, shops, etc. nearby)
Down to earth people
Diverse Community
Decent schools (we don't have kids yet but would like to start a family soon)
Family friendly

We're looking to buy in the 175,000 - 225,000 range.

I'd love input on where we should look! Thank you!

[Mike Dunn]

Consider Grandview and Upper Arlington.

Here's a couple of sites that may help you with school information.

Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community

Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools.

Mike

[wrightflyer]

I'd recommend these places:

Clintonville*
Grandview
Bexley
Short North*
Parts of Upper Arlington (some of it gets very modern day suburban in areas)

*Columbus Proper

[streetcreed]

The Grandview suburb and the Clintonville and Beechwold neighborhoods of Columbus fit your description best. There are plenty of areas that have decent housing for families but they will lack the character you are looking for. The Short North, and areas around downtown, have great retail strips and walkable neighborhoods but are not known for being as "family friendly."

Grandview has good schools and tons of character.

Clintonville/Beechwold are in the Columbus City School district. The district is improving on a whole and there are many schools you would not want to send your child to. However, the Clintonville/Beechwold schools are known for being good and are ranked on par with suburbs.

[maestro]

Originally Posted by jjbrown611

My husband and I are planning to move to the Columbus area from Indiana. We're looking for a neighborhood that has the following:

Character
Walkable (parks, shops, etc. nearby)
Down to earth people
Diverse Community
Decent schools (we don't have kids yet but would like to start a family soon)
Family friendly

We're looking to buy in the 175,000 - 225,000 range.

I'd love input on where we should look! Thank you!

I may be sounding like a broken record on this board, but I whole-heartedly suggest Grandview.

1. lots of character -- unique, older homes
2. great walkable "downtown" on Grandview Ave. -- my wife and I used to walk the strip and hit the restaurants and bars all the time. Then we had a baby, and we hit just the restaurants (and drank wine at home afterwards!)
3. very good schools
4. You can probably get a good house (though not a huge one) for $200k

[jjbrown611]

this is so helpful! thank you so much. i had read quite a bit about clintonville, but hadn't considered grandview at all.

[HuskerDu]

Originally Posted by jjbrown611

this is so helpful! thank you so much. i had read quite a bit about clintonville, but hadn't considered grandview at all.

Grandview is a more walkable version of Clintonville. Clintonville has much better (and older) houses for the money in your range.

[Athlete218]

I think Grandview would be the best bet..close to downtown, lots of shops, restaurants, bars etc w/in walking distance. close to OSU also.

[dustin183]

Grandview has a yuppie slant, whereas Clintonville has a hippie slant.

Both have a robust number of OSU grad students/faculty.

[jjbrown611]

We're actually Michigan grads - sigh - so maybe we should stay away from robust numbers of OSU grads. Wait, that's impossible in Columbus.

Are there any suburbs with character/diversity?