Moving Back to Dayton Area, Need Some Advice (Kettering, Huber Heights: houses, buying)

[dxdtdemon]

I guess I graduate Beavercreek High School just before wrightflyer got there. Basically, one of the reasons that Parkwood may get better ratings on greatschools is that the people doing the rating are the people who would otherwise be sending their kids to Mad River Schools, and since Beavercreek has a much better school district, they're just being grateful. I realize that these days, bullying is much less than it used to be, but it seemed that when I got to Ankeney Junior High (now Ankeney Middle School), the bullies were primarily the kids from Parkwood regardless of whether they lived in Beavercreek or Riverside. There were many gifted students from Parkwood as well, but it seemed to lag behind the other elementary schools. I don't really think there's much difference between the other elementary schools in Beavercreek, and HOA's aren't as prevalent here as some of the posters make it seem.

[hensleya1]

I'll chime in and say that Beavercreek and to a lesser extent Bellbrook are popular with the base employees because there's no local income tax in those municipalities. When I moved out of the city of Dayton, that was 2.5% of my check the city was no longer taking - which amounted to about $60 every two weeks... as a GS-9 step 1.

Scale that out to whatever salary you're making further along in your career and you'll see that taxes can take a significant chunk out of your paycheck if you wind up in the wrong jurisdiction.

One neighbor is retired from F-16s and the neighbor on the other side of me is an engineer in the labs.

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The only knock on Bellbrook I would have working on the base is the lack of roads to get out of Bellbrook in the morning - all you have is Feedwire and Wilmington Pike and both of those get jammed pretty quickly.

[wrightflyer]

Originally Posted by merewenc

Thanks for the insight! That comparison does help. What area would you compare Beavercreek, Centerville, and Kettering to? Are you familiar with Columbia/Ellicott City/Elkridge? Are they kind of like that?

I would say the schools between all three are not on the same national level as Howard County's best schools. But the way the districts are setup in MD versus here makes a difference in my opinion as far as pull and resources. That being said, if looking purely at school quality, Oakwood would probably be at a level such as Loudoun County or Howard County, with the difference being one is a small inner-ring suburban district and the others are county-wide districts with multiple large high schools.

Oakwood would be similar to Bethesda in types, size and age of homes. Same with the wealth factor (to an extent and relative to respective surroundings).

Springboro/Clearcreek Township is like the western side of Montgomery county (Woodbine, Dayton, West Friendship, etc.) in that it is a exurban area with wealthy families in large homes on acreage sized lots. Springboro would be equivalent to Clarksville in it is large homes in plat style subdivisions. Most are large two-stories or custom homes around 2500-4000 sqft.

Centerville would be similar to Ellicott City in they both have a small, charming center of town. But there is probably more in Ellicott City history and topography wise. May be denser too because of the valleys.

I don't know if there is an immediate equivalent to Beavercreek in that portion of Howard County. Beavercreek has a lot of new subdivisions mixed in around older 60's and 70's plats with ranches or colonials on .5-1.5 acre lots. Kettering would perhaps be similar to Columbia in some sense, but it would not have as much commercial base. Kettering also developed much earlier than most of Columbia. The portion of Beavercreek/Fairborn from the Kemp/Fairfield Road intersection north and then along Pentagon Blvd. (New Germany-Trebein Road) and Col. Glenn Hwy would be the closet thing Dayton has to a similar styled edge city.

Again, I think density plays a role somewhat in the difficulty comparing the two regions, but also the way schools create a community feel in Ohio versus county-wide districts in the DMV region.

I hope that helps!

[ohio_peasant]

Though I can't offer much assistance to the OP, this thread touches on one of my favorite subjects: comparison of the Washington DC suburbs, with the Dayton suburbs. I spent most of my formative years in Fairfax County, VA... a long time ago. Fairfax County is quite diverse, from more or less "middle class" areas, to decidedly upper class. While in the aggregate it's substantially more cosmopolitan and more affluent than anything in the Dayton region (yes, including Oakwood), there are pockets of Fairfax County - from back in my era, before the DC boom - that resemble pockets in the Dayton region. Bellbrook and the southern half of Beavercreek (south of Rt 35) roughly resemble Burke and West Springfield in Fairfax County; the OP might be familiar with those locales.

Earlier in this thread, there was mention of Wright-Patt employee residential preferences in the Dayton area. I can't speak for the "operational" side of the base, but on the research-side, Centerville is probably the most popular, followed by Bellbrook and Springboro. Beavercreek, despite its lack of local income-tax and close proximity to the base, has somewhat of a low-rent reputation.

While the Dayton region in some regards maintains its composure and vitality, at least by Midwestern standards, the DC region has incomparably powered ahead. This is typical of the coastal vs. "heartland" dichotomy. But some things can't be helped. Work-related relocation necessitates making the best of things. The OP should be fine.

[wrightflyer]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

Earlier in this thread, there was mention of Wright-Patt employee residential preferences in the Dayton area. I can't speak for the "operational" side of the base, but on the research-side, Centerville is probably the most popular, followed by Bellbrook and Springboro. Beavercreek, despite its lack of local income-tax and close proximity to the base, has somewhat of a low-rent reputation.

I find this opinion highly suspect. What exactly are you basing this on? The amount of development? I see plenty of housing developments going up in Beavercreek and Beavercreek Township. Same for Centerville and Bellbrook. Home prices are still well north of 250K for both. Maybe a greater smattering of some "custom" home developments in Washington and Clearcreek Townships, but Beavercreek has many 750K+ to million-plus homes being built too. I would say the difference is negligible.

Also, I'd love to see how you know Centerville is "probably the most popular" with the "research-side of the base?" Where does one get such insight???

[ohio_peasant]

Originally Posted by wrightflyer

...What exactly are you basing this on? ...

Also, I'd love to see how you know Centerville is "probably the most popular" with the "research-side of the base?" Where does one get such insight???

I don't wish to reveal too many personal details, even on an anonymous forum. But suffice it to say that schools and real-estate are frequent topics of workplace conversations. Lots of cars in the parking lot have Centerville school-themed window stickers. And then there are the phone numbers in office recall-rosters; one can discern the residential area by the 3-digit prefix of the land-line number.

Admittedly, Country Club of the North (Beavercreek Township) is popular - but mostly among older employees (empty nesters) and recent retirees.

[CarpathianPeasant]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

I don't wish to reveal too many personal details, even on an anonymous forum. But suffice it to say that schools and real-estate are frequent topics of workplace conversations. Lots of cars in the parking lot have Centerville school-themed window stickers. And then there are the phone numbers in office recall-rosters; one can discern the residential area by the 3-digit prefix of the land-line number.

Admittedly, Country Club of the North (Beavercreek Township) is popular - but mostly among older employees (empty nesters) and recent retirees.

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That's the three numbers after the area code.

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[wrightflyer]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

I don't wish to reveal too many personal details, even on an anonymous forum. But suffice it to say that schools and real-estate are frequent topics of workplace conversations. Lots of cars in the parking lot have Centerville school-themed window stickers. And then there are the phone numbers in office recall-rosters; one can discern the residential area by the 3-digit prefix of the land-line number.

Admittedly, Country Club of the North (Beavercreek Township) is popular - but mostly among older employees (empty nesters) and recent retirees.

Really? Most base employees live in CCN if they live in Beavercreek? I know plenty of AFRL, AFMCHQ and NASIC workers that live in Beavercreek. I even have neighbors with diplomatic plates and see others on top of them in my parents neighborhood. As far as CCN and base employees, I doubt many live in CCN. Why would you even want to live in CCN if you are a base employee moving every 2-4 years and need to sell a 750K+ home? The market doesn't support easy resale of homes over 600-700K in pretty much the entire market, Centerville included.

I still say your basing your opinion on anecdotal evidence. I would say living choice is roughly the same. Though the benefit of Beavercreek is it is much closer to the base. Are there areas that are more blue-collar? Yes, but I don't want to live (or probably work with) people that look down at their fellow coworkers as living in a "low-rent" area. I'd hate to know what your Centerville-based coworkers at WPAFB think of their northern neighbor, Kettering.

Besides, Beavercreek has consistently been rated at the same level or even a little higher on the overall performance index over the last 3-5 years. If you really want to stoop to "low-rent," go to parts of Fairborn or Riverside where housing can easily be found for under 150K or even 100K.

[ohio_peasant]

Again, I'm loath to range too far off-topic, but I'm talking mostly about GS-15s (or equivalent under more recent compensation-schemes) who were hired during the Carter administration, and who are still working, or who have recently retired. These folks don't move every 2-4 years.

School-quality doesn't strongly vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, assuming that we disregard outliers such as City of Dayton. What does vary is, shall we say, certain intangibles. I don't assert that these are important, or necessarily agree with the prevailing opinion. But it is what it is. Regardless, it shouldn't impact the OP's options.

[merewenc]

Thanks, everyone, for all of the advice. We've narrowed it down to Beavercreek, Kettering, and Tipp City for now, with Bellbrook as an option if we can find anything nice enough in our price range. Beavercreek sounds like it has the community feel we're used to in the military (really, we find that in many places that are popular with the military, so that was a no-brainer), plus the schools sound really good. Kettering's recreation options sound great and I like what I remember of the area, and I also appreciate the advice that they might be better with ADHD kids (we're just waiting to hear that the five-year-old has it, too). I LOVE the sound of Bellbrook's smaller schools because with the ADHD the classroom size can be a big deal, but I worry that most of what I've seen in the last few months in our price range isn't actually something I would want to buy. And Tipp City schools sound amazing and the town one I admired way back when, and it would give us access to our friends North of 70. I know it doesn't sound like we've narrowed down much at all, but at least Centerville and Springboro are out of the equation now! We gave Troy a hard second look, too, but determined it wasn't as attractive to us as Tipp, and so we stuck with just one area to the north.

The great news is that we just hired a realtor today! The move is starting to feel much closer. And hopefully our realtor will help out with narrowing the field even more!