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Buying a house advice


Lauren

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Hey guys the wife and I are buying a house and stArted looking at some. I have a question regarding areas.

We are primarily looking in Westerville/worthington/New Albany. I'm very familiar with Westerville and New Albany but not worthington. How is worthington as a whole? Areas to avoid in Worthington?

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Hey guys the wife and I are buying a house and stArted looking at some. I have a question regarding areas.

We are primarily looking in Westerville/worthington/New Albany. I'm very familiar with Westerville and New Albany but not worthington. How is worthington as a whole? Areas to avoid in Worthington?

 

Worthington is a great town. I looked at the Colonial Hills area for awhile but at the time I could not afford the taxes. With the areas you are looking at that would be my only concern.

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I'm a native to this city and have never once heard a bad thing about Worthington. Like ever.

 

Taxes in all three will be relatively high. I've heard people complain about the commute to New Albany - not because it's far, but because of the relatively dense traffic in rush hour. Schools in all three have a great reputation. Of course, your high taxes pay for them.

 

If you're looking in those areas, but not completely wedded to one of those three, then you might expand your search to include Powell, Lewis Center, and further north into Delaware County. Lots of new, nice developments in those areas, and probably a bit cheaper on your taxes.

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On a serious note.

 

We are looking (from west to east) Dublin, Powell, Lewis Center, Westerville, and New Albany. (and Grandview, but that's in a separate category/area).

 

I have noticed you get great bang/buck in Powell and Westerville but that You deff. get Olentangy schools and Powell... but only "might" get Olentangy schools in Westerville depending on where you look.

 

New Albany's taxes were so "all over the place" too whereas one house (similar size, similar price, and basically plot of land) would be 6-8K higher in taxes than another even in the same neighborhood. I am not educated enough to know why that is but it struck me as crazy. Not to mention that New Albany taxes feel like 1.3-1.4X the taxes for the same home in Powell or Westerville.

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I've heard people complain about the commute to New Albany - not because it's far, but because of the relatively dense traffic in rush hour. Schools in all three have a great reputation. Of course, your high taxes pay for them.

23/270/315 is definitely the suck, or at least I thought it was, then I moved to the East side. I can't wait to move back, away from the 70/270 insanity over here.

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23/270/315 is definitely the suck, or at least I thought it was, then I moved to the East side. I can't wait to move back, away from the 70/270 insanity over here.

 

wait until the 270/23/315 construction bullshit is finished. I live by Easton and work off Sawmill rd, and the commute drives me insane almost daily. In the morning, traffic in the left lane will just stop right at or just after 315. Accident? NOPE. Just the inability for people to merge with traffic coming off 315s affecting every fucking lane of traffic.

 

And don't get me started on the bullshit near stopped traffic every single day at 5pm going eastbound until you get past 23. Makes me want to kill myself.

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Couple things

 

My work hours and the wife's keep us off the roads during rush hour morning and night. That's never an issue for us.

 

Taxes are a big deal and new Albany has stupid high taxes. We have a 18 month old and a 6 year old in kindergarten. Our kindergarten goes to private school and we already pay tuition, so I don't want to be paying tuition and high taxes when we wont be utilizing the school system. Going to public school isn't an option as we want our girls in a strong Christian based education.

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Some areas in Worthington are great, others not so great. Old Worthington is nice but pricey. Outlying areas of Worthington have lots of issues. Mainly the Columbus zips that are in Worthington schools.

 

Westerville in olentangy schools is a good buy if you have kids. We went that route but taxes are still high. Schools are great.

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Unless you feel you 'need' the suburb type of area, you should really look at nicer parts of Columbus. It's really pointless for you to pay the higher taxes and not use the schools, imho. Or maybe border areas that are 'in' the suburb, but have 'bad' schools, if that exist. You get everything from the suburb (and pay the taxes on that part), but the schools and taxes of Columbus. I honestly don't know if this exist. Just 2 ideas to look into or consider, or not. :)
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Unless you feel you 'need' the suburb type of area, you should really look at nicer parts of Columbus. It's really pointless for you to pay the higher taxes and not use the schools, imho. Or maybe border areas that are 'in' the suburb, but have 'bad' schools, if that exist. You get everything from the suburb (and pay the taxes on that part), but the schools and taxes of Columbus. I honestly don't know if this exist. Just 2 ideas to look into or consider, or not. :)

 

I want to be within 15 mins of Schrock road and Cleveland as that's work for us. The problem with living within 270 on this part of town is it's quite "ethnic". Not a place we want to live.

 

 

Have some showing set up for Africa road and up in Sunbury at some new builds later in the week.

 

 

We found a kick ass house this morning in worthington. It's been on and off the market for 187 days. We view it and one hour later they get an offer.

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That fucking traffic. I lived on the very edge of worthington for about 2 years. There is a reason i now live 30 miles north of the city. If you think you can handle it, then the area was pretty nice. Relatively low crime rates. Never had any issues with thefts or people just being dicks (and i lived in a "bad" area of worthington."
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New Albany's taxes were so "all over the place" too whereas one house (similar size, similar price, and basically plot of land) would be 6-8K higher in taxes than another even in the same neighborhood. I am not educated enough to know why that is but it struck me as crazy. Not to mention that New Albany taxes feel like 1.3-1.4X the taxes for the same home in Powell or Westerville.

 

It's the way they did a tax abatement to kickstart the development. I believe all neighborhoods are phased moreso than most (rather than 3 phases they have 8) and the tax abatement changes per phase.

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We found a kick ass house this morning in worthington. It's been on and off the market for 187 days. We view it and one hour later they get an offer.

 

I would wonder why it has been on the market so long. If I remember right houses are averaging 45 days for a sale.

 

Also if not in public school I would look right outside of those suburbs. Why take the tax hot for the schools?

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Unless you feel you 'need' the suburb type of area, you should really look at nicer parts of Columbus. It's really pointless for you to pay the higher taxes and not use the schools, imho. Or maybe border areas that are 'in' the suburb, but have 'bad' schools, if that exist. You get everything from the suburb (and pay the taxes on that part), but the schools and taxes of Columbus. I honestly don't know if this exist. Just 2 ideas to look into or consider, or not. :)

 

+1

 

Never understood why people are willing to pay 4x in taxes for a suburb just to pay even more for tuition when most cases the extra taxes they pay are for the schools they don't use for their kids.

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I want to be within 15 mins of Schrock road and Cleveland as that's work for us. The problem with living within 270 on this part of town is it's quite "ethnic". Not a place we want to live.

 

Cultrual Diversity! :no:

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdUUiUxXODJu69iJDmqXC7semCZHdSSgDcPLSlqSa7bXo09pF84Q

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I sell Girl Scout cookies full time and part time ballerina

 

Ok, that just made me snort some mountain dew up my nose as I was taking a drink when I read it and laughed. That BURNS!!!!!

 

But good form, good form. Ha.

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