Moving to NE Ohio - can you help me?

sucrets4

Hi there!

DH just got a job at Kent State and will be working mainly at the Ashtabula campus.  We're currently in Arkansas and used to live in NY.  We are looking to move the first week of August, but we need some help finding a place to live!   With our new daughter we don't have the time to go up there to look at places, plus we have a vacation scheduled in 2 weeks to visit my family in NY.

He's been in touch with some people on his campus to help out, but I was wondering if any knotties had some suggestions about what is a good area to live in.  We don't need to live in Ashtabula and were kinda looking at the Mentor/Painesville area but we have no idea about what towns are 'nice' and what areas aren't crappy.  He'd like to be at most 40-45 minutes from Ashtabula.

I know this is a long shot, but we'd really appreciate any help!  I'll buy ya a drink when we get there.    TIA!

vamstadt

Mentor is a great place to live, especially if you have a child - good public school district, strong community, great location etc.  If you look at Painesville I need to warn you - there are actually two Painesvilles:  Painesville Township and Painesville City.  You can find some nice places in Painesville Twp, but DO NOT move to Painesville City (its a crappy area infested with illegal immigrants).  I live in Mentor on the Lake, which is right next to Mentor and also a great place to live.  Fairport Harbor is nice if you're into the whole quaint really small town kinda thing, although there aren't a whole lot of rentals available there that aren't dumpy.  If you're into nature, check out Leroy - its a really small town and a lot more rural but really nice for those who appreciate the outdoors.  Hope I helped!

anglndsguse44

I agree with the previous person. DO NOT live in Painesville City. I do a lot of work within the community and Painesville City is not where you want to live. Mentor is nice, as is Perry, but you don't have a lot to do in Perry either. I am not familiar with Ashtabula County.

K Byte

I always thought Willoughby was really nice (they have a cute historical downtown area), but it might be kind of a haul from Ashtabula. Geneva and Madison are both somewhat close to Ashtabula, but they're a lot more isolated and boring with less stuff to do than Mentor. Perry is also nice with good schools. I'm not super familiar with the far east side cities though because I've lived in the south/southwest side for the past few years! Are you looking to buy a home right away or rent until you can find something you like? Just wondering because I'm not sure what the rentals situation is like in some of these towns -- some areas around here have just about no rentals, it's all single family homes or cluster homes/condos.

Kmgreen2

I work in Ashtabula and have lived several of these places, I'd love to help  :-)

I first moved to Geneva and it was a nice place but not much to do there except go to wineries.  Then moved to Mentor and love it, but the problem was it's a good 45 minute commute to Ashtabula and in the winter it was AWFUL!  There were some days it would take me 2 hrs. to get to work.  So then when we were looking for houses at first we were looking in Mentor but I just couldn't bear the thought of that horrible drive and plus the houses were a lot more expensive in Mentor vs. closer to Ashtabula.  We finally decided on Madison, it's still in Lake County (which is much nicer than Ashtabula county) but it's only about 25-30 minutes at most from Ashtabula city.  It has been wonderful!

Madison has a great school district, library, some awesome wineries, and it's only about 20 minutes from Mentor.  It is a little bit isolated but for me it was worth it to be closer to work.  So far out of all the places I've lived Madison is the nicest and most convenient.  It's not a big city but there's your basic stores like Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle, Marcs, and a few restaurants. 

The two places I would DEFINITELY NOT recommend are Painesville and Ashtabula.  

If you need any more info just message me or you can email me Kmgreen2@kent.edu

Good Luck!

sucrets4

Thank you all so much!  This is definitely helping. 

We're definitely looking to rent for now, and we'd prefer a house over an apt/condo, but have no problems living in either.  Right now we're in a gorgeous 2 bed/2 bath apt and we love it.  We're still not so sure if we'll be staying there long term, so we'll probably hold off buying until DH can get a feel for the campus and job.  I really want to buy a house, though, ugh!

A secretary at the campus is going to help us out and she's going to see a place tonight and take some pics.  She also has some info on other rental properties, which sound decent, but I'm pretty sure they're all in Ashtabula.

Are the winters really bad?  DH grew up in Michigan, so he's used to driving in snow, but I don't know how bad the lake effect snow is there.  That's a good point to consider about the commute.  Hmm.

I'll run this by him when he gets home and see what else we can find out from the person who is helping us out.

THANK YOU so much!  All of this information is great! 

jaylii9

I suggest living in Willoughby, Mentor, Madison or Perry. I would not live in the city of Ashtabula. My Dad grew up in Ashtabula so I have spent a lot of my life visiting family and grandparents there. The city is not great at all and I don't think you would like living there.

The winters can be bad here, but the snow gets worse the farther east you get of Cleveland because you are deeper into the snowbelt. Something to keep in mind

My suggestion is that Willoughby or Mentor would be great places for a young family to live.  Living in Willoughby or Mentor will allow you to do things in the Cleveland area (fun city) and also have access to your DH's work pretty easily. Just my 2cents.

K Byte

I think Chardon is the snowiest city in the snow belt and they easily get over 100 inches of snow in a season. I don't know that it's quite as snowy in Ohio as it is in Buffalo, upstate NY, etc. but it does snow A LOT, with snow sometimes starting in late October and lasting until mid-April. Basically, the more east you are, the more snow you'll get. There's a significant difference in the amount of snow between the areas east of Cleveland and the areas west of Cleveland.

Here's way more information about lake effect snow than you'd ever want to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake-effect_snow

Kmgreen2

I agree with the PP about not living in Ashtabula city.  Definitely steer clear if at all possible.

The winters are pretty bad but I guess it's all relative depending on what you're used to.  Our neighbors moved here from upstate NY and they don't seem to think it's too crazy.  I moved here from about an hour south of here and was shocked by how much more snow we get.  

Honestly though I would recommend not moving any further west than Mentor if he's going to be commuting to Ashtabula every day.

sucrets4

Thanks!

I went to college in upstate NY, so I'm used to the snow and I actually miss it.  (remind me of this in the middle of winter when I'm complaining, lol) 

km - we don't want to be west of Mentor because of the commute.  Especially in the winter...we hadn't considered that.

I really appreciate all the insight.  I'll keep you posted!    Thanks again!

Loopyseven

You've gotten good advice from the previous posters.   My roommate from college lived in Mentor and Painesville Twp.  They are both nice areas.  The closer to Ashtabula you get the more rural it will be.  Just want to say Good luck and welcome to NE Ohio (in a few weeks...).

sucrets4

Thanks, loopy!  I'm definitely not a rural person, lol.

What about this place?

http://www.apartments.com/media/Painesville-OH/Brentwood-Apartments/113310.1

I know it's in Painesville, but it's a good price and we'll be transitioning from 2 salaries to 1.  Hopefully we'll be able to save some more and buy a house soon!

Kmgreen2

that's not a bad area and those apts look nice, but I looked into living there a few years ago and if you make over a certain amount you're not eligible to rent them (at least 3 years ago when I was looking that's what the case was) so you might want to check this out.

sucrets4

I just mentioned that to DH and he said that he is going to call them tomorrow.  We're also looking at a complex in Madison...it's so hard to know how our finances are going to work out!  Grr.

anglndsguse44

NO!!! Do not live in Brentwood!!! The apartments look nice from the outside and they are big on the inside, but this is quickly becoming a very high crime area. I work in Painesville and travel to all cities/townships and Lake County for my job. I would highly recommend staying clear of apartment complexes in Painesville.

Try checking out Deepwood in Mentor or Pine Ridge in Willoughby. Both of those are nice. Also, what about renting a house in Mentor or Painesville Township??

Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. When I saw you were checking out Brentwood I almost had a panic attack

sucrets4

Thanks!  This is exactly what we need to hear!  We decided last that we'll probably go with the place in Madison.

We'd love to rent a house, but have found it difficult to do sight unseen.  We found a nice one in Ashtabula that came recommended from a secretary on campus, but we'd rather not live there.   So, it's probably the easiest to go with a complex.

sucrets4

What about this place?  I think it's the frontrunner so far. 

http://lakesidevillas.cc/

anglndsguse44

I forgot about those apartments. Those are actually really nice!

K Byte

I would recommend googling the name of any apartment you consider moving into and seeing if you can find reviews on apartmentratings.com or anything like that. And reading the reviews too! I've moved a bunch of times and even though I'm familiar with the area I still like to see what the reviews say because some apartment complexes that look nice have unexpected problems especially with cable and other utilities. Some apartment complexes and even a few municipalities make you buy their "mom and pop" cable, which is usually crazy expensive and not as good as you'd get from Time Warner or Cox.

mamboqueen

Willoughby Hills, Willowick, Mentor, Geneva