another house buying thread!` (Columbus, Green: buying a home, neighborhoods, school district)

[uvachic1215]

I know that this topic has been beat to death and believe me I have been reading the threads but now I am completely cross-eyed and have no better idea of where to plant roots then I did before I started researching. I guess the biggest thing is how to know which neighborhood schools are good. I am a product of public school (albeit in small town Virginia where schools were great) and I do not want to send my kids to private school, namely because I'm black, we are same sex lesbian, wife is Latina... so we would like some diversity and unfortunately private schools tend to be less diverse. We don't have children yet but we want to buy in a place where when we do have kids we can send them to a good local school. I work at OSU and need to be 20-30 minute commute or closer in case I am on call.

I know Clintonville is going to be the first suggestion but I'm wondering about places outside of Clintonville.

Any direction would help!

[Supergrrl7]

Clintonville would put you in Columbus City Schools. I would say you should consider Worthington as a good suburban option with good schools.

With any suburban school you are going to find less ethnic diversity than you would in Columbus City Schools. Within Worthington elementary schools there is quite a range, from I think about 30% kids of color to one or two schools with about 5% kids of color so diversity can really depend on the school. The elementary school my kids go to has about 20-25% kids of color, with many (including mine) who are from ethnically mixed families. There are more than a handful of gay and lesbian couples living here with kids in the schools and among the families I know personally. Both my kids have had friends from school with Lesbian moms. I don't know of any problems with other kids, parents or the schools. I can really only speak to the Thomas Worthington High School catchment area (Worthington Estates Elem, Wilson Hill Elem, Colonial Hills Elem, Evening Street Elem, Kilbourne Middle School, Phoenix Middle School), though. I don't have any personal knowledge of the other parts of the district and that might make a difference. The Old Worthington area is a little more liberal and crunchy than the larger school district. If you end up considering Worthington, there are a variety of kinds of neighborhoods/houses/price ranges to select from.

When I was researching private schools, it looked like they pretty much all had 15% kids of color. If you do decide to go that route, I remember seeing Wellington School marching in the Pride parade a few years ago. Stonewall Columbus has a gay families group where you might get some good suggestions.

[uvachic1215]

thanks for the info.. what zip codes fall into the catchment area you mentioned?

[Supergrrl7]

43085, generally speaking but I am not totally sure how that falls for each elementary school area. There are some areas that may go to those schools that may not be that zip code though, I am not sure. (I think your realtor could do a search based on school district.)

Here is the elementary school map. You can find the middle school and high school one on the worthington schools website.

http://www.worthington.k12.oh.us/cms...lem_8-2010.pdf

There are also several schools that go to Thomas Worthington High School that I don't know much about (Slate Hill and Worthington Park) so I can't vouch for those specific schools one way or another.

[candle16]

How old are your kids? In Columbus schools you can lottery your kids to schools that are diverse, some of them have high chances of enrolling because they want to increase their enrollment. Columbus North International High School located in Clintonville it's 7-12, and its feeder schools are Spanish Immersion and French Immersion K-6 both are good schools with great diversity. I coach there and I have see kids from all backgrounds.

[uvachic1215]

I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket with regards to the lottery, which is why berwick is a questionable venture for me and honestly it is the only reason why we aren't 100% on board with berwick. I think I am going to try and tour the school

[jillteam]

However, buying a home in Ohio is still possible, even for first-time home buyers. Many markets are seeing frequent price drops and fewer offers, giving motivated buyers the upper hand in negotiating for the best price.

[216facts]

$1.5M for a 3 bedroom ranch?
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...4353289_zpid/?

Would be a shame if someone bought this and then Intel decides not to move forward. There is some risk there

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by 216facts

$1.5M for a 3 bedroom ranch?
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...4353289_zpid/?

Would be a shame if someone bought this and then Intel decides not to move forward. There is some risk there

Pretty delusional. But Columbus is full of 2-3 bedroom, 800-1100 square ft ranches that sell for $300k or over.

[Losfrisco]

Originally Posted by 216facts

$1.5M for a 3 bedroom ranch?
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...4353289_zpid/?

Would be a shame if someone bought this and then Intel decides not to move forward. There is some risk there

That ugly font with "INTEL" stamped over a vacant lot is maybe the most cringe RE photography I've even seen. I can't believe they posted that. I'm sure it's a done deal though, because we all know that when Columbus talks about having something in the future, it will happen!