Eastern and Southeastern Ohio

Lyra · #1 05/06/10, 10:49 PM

Anyone from or know the area? In general, I am wondering about taxes (mainly property taxes), cost of living, and amount of snowfall (not interested in Northeastern Ohio). Is it a conservative or liberal area?

JuliaAnn · #2 05/06/10, 11:06 PM

The only county I know about is Columbiana county. Fairly liberal, as of a couple of years ago jobs were not very abundant. Can't say about taxes.

pheasantplucker · #3 05/07/10, 05:23 AM

Noble County. Beautiful area. Mix of liberal / conservative but probably leaning toward more conservative. Taxes are fair, not in excess. Main problem is lack of jobs...economic pinch hitting folks pretty hard, lately. Cost of living is not bad. Vet bills for instance. In Columbus, my former vet wanted between 300-360 to neuter a male dog I acquired. Guernsey Co. (just north of us) they did it for 90.

timfromohio · #4 05/07/10, 06:49 AM

Hey, NEOhio is not all that bad!

To answer your question - check out the area around Athens. I'll state up front I've never been there, but but look at real estate in the area quite a bit and prices seem cheap. The unversity is the major employer in the area and since it's a university town it will probably be a bit on the liberal side. There is supposedly a lot of small farms, farm markets, etc.

Lyra · #5 05/07/10, 08:24 AM

Thanks for all the input but I would like to stay east of I-77. I love the countryside, outdoors, and accessibility of Northeast Ohio but I am concerned about the politics, snow, and growing season. I prefer living in the North but after this winter I have discovered that the snowbelt areas of Ohio would be a little too much for me.

timfromohio · #6 05/07/10, 09:04 AM

We live in what is considered NEOhio, but are below the snow belt - in summit county. Snow is not that bad - what gets me is the months of cloudy days ...

The area does have a lot to offer though.

willbuck1 · #7 05/07/10, 09:05 AM

I live in Parkersburg WV. If you stay east of I77 in Ohio you really don't have much territory before you start getting too close to Cleveland, and the lake effect snows, and the crime. If you want conservative you are mostly looking in the right area. Close to Marrietta is probably as liberal as you'll find. Honestly for someone wanting liberal I'd say look at the Morgantown WV area. You will have snow but the rest wouldn't be too bad.

vicki in NW OH · #8 05/07/10, 09:45 AM

NE OH is a wonderful area for growing in spite of the snow. The lake moderates the temperature. All kinds of nurseries up along the lake and vineyards, orchards, etc.

Lyra · #9 05/07/10, 10:14 AM

A conservative or conservative leaning area what I would prefer.

timfromohio · #10 05/07/10, 10:22 AM

vicki makes an excellent point - we're in zone 5b in western summit county - go an 45 minutes to an hour north east of where our location up to the lake, east of Cleveland and it's a full zone warmer due to the lake mitigating cold - of course, you do get the snow in winter - geauga and lake county get tons more than we do

more rural = more conservative

cuyohoga county (cleveland) is liberally leaning, go west to parts of lorain county or east to parts of geauga county and it will be much more conservative - you'll have amish neighbors

Ohio has a relatively high tax burden, so I think that the property taxes are high. That said they are much higher in some places than others and in a sense, you get what you pay for. I may gripe about mine, but in order to lower them would have to live further out - I'd be paying less in tax but more in gas and lost time commuting. Pros and cons to every location.

secretcreek · #11 05/07/10, 10:59 AM

I live in SE Ohio, Meigs Co. "The boot". Since I-77 swings over thru WV...we are actually west of it

) WE are two hours from Columbus, OH or Huntington WV. My husband and I raised our three children here to adulthood ( well...the boys are nearly 20!) We found it to be a good community that allowed us to live a slower pace, with social problems being on a lesser scale than urban areas. A sorta 20 yrs behind kind of place where schools still try to schedule their activities so to avoid local church services.

We are a rural, very hilly, very conservative county. Rednecks...yup, got em. Nice neighbors that help each other? Yup, got em !

Um....we DO have alot of wiggily gravel backroads and ~waaaay out of the waaaay~ acreage. That can be a plus or a minus....depends on who likes to be left alone to grow a garden... or marijuana! We just had 911 put into service. Emergency response depends on if you are calling the local VFD squad...that might take 20 minutes to get to you...If you call the sheriff, it seems to take anywhere from 20-1 hour depending on who's close by, and the nature of the call. You need to know how to defend yourself. That said: Crime is not bad where I live. Unemployment is around 20% though...so poverty is steep also. We did have a couple boys breaking and entering/stealing...but they were caught by the neighbor who set out "bait". Neighbors are helpful, people are friendly even if a little standoffish until they know what you are about. It's a place that people wave at each other when driving past kind of place, where people still leave doors unlocked, and cars parked and left running, while running into a neighborhood store. A place where I can call and the pizza place or the Vet clinic know my voice even if I haven't called in months. A place where the local Dollar General is the place to catch up on local news. 5 miles up the road there's a small general store that boasts: a two pump gas station island, lots of obscure and common hardware supplies, groceries, camping-hunting gear, pet and livestock feeds, lawnmower repair, new tires for your vehicles, ice, deli, disc golf discs- to fishing worms and fishing/hunting licenses...guns, ammo, bows, and knives...to furnace and fireplace and vacuum parts! LOL... a little bit of everything!!! They have awesome ground beef too ;oD

Check out the Facebook group: "You know you are from Meigs County if..." There's over 200 photos and a large group of people who frequently post of how wonderful their childhood was despite the hard times and how they wish they could move back.

We don't get heavy- long staying snow. We get a little snow, a lot of rain and icy conditions and muddy ground as the freezes don't last usually more than a few days in a row. We do have a fairly long growing season. Meigs Co is known for it's tomato and sweet corn and greenhouse flowers all grown on the river bottom lands of the mighty Ohio. I think there's only two dedicated dairy farms left in the county. Most farmers raise black angus, herefords, limousine beef cattle. We do not have the wild boar hog problem...yet like some places in SE Ohio. We do have a very healthy, large size coyote population. Male coyotes grow to an easy 45-50 lbs....look more like a grizzled german shepherd at first glance. There's WAY too many whitetails too too too too many white tails!!! Yeah they grow bigger here, but they also dent up everyone's vehicles!! We also have a healthy turkey population. Beaver, river otter, and mink are returning, as are quail, and mountain lions/bob cats/ and an occasional black bear.

Real estate is ~very~ modestly priced. Most small family farms are now turning to scrub land and woods.

Meigs Co. has a rich local history: from ancient peoples who dwealt here and left mounds and petroglyphs to the early 1800's frontier: when folks from New England bought lands in the virgin timbered American frontier thru the Ohio Company , moving onto Shawnee Indian lands, to the only battle of the civil war (Buffington Island- John Hunt Morgan) fought in Ohio.

There are only 23,000 people in our county, I think Vinton and Noble Co have around 14,000 people. We do not currently have a hospital in our county. We just lost the possibility of a power plant being built here, the mines closed, so as someone else stated, jobs are not readily found past burger flipping or newspaper delivering, unless you are quite the entrepeneur. Shopping is done in Athens or Parkersburg, except for a couple grocery stores in Pomeroy and the Wal-Mart in Mason, WV across from Pomeroy, Ohio. Serious health issues are dealt with in Columbus, Ohio 2 hours away, or at the Cleveland Clinic four hours away. Closest big airport is two hours away at Columbus, and a couple smaller ones in Charleston WV, Parkersburg, Huntington, WV.

We are a very green...as in foliage... Appalachian community. We are not overun by kudzo yet, but Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose, honeysuckle, are a problem. Guess it all depends on what you have in mind- how you want to live. Want to homestead? There's tons of land for that. Athens, the next county over is very much more in touch with sustainability, solar, etc... but their taxes are higher. Athens is a great art community and the Farmer's Market is GREAT!! I know my car licenses cost half in Meigs what they were in Athens Co. There are local universities for higher education with driving distance Ohio University offers many cultural programs that we like to attend, and there are community college branch campuses right in Meigs Co to take advantage of also.

Reasonable Vet care... I just took my 11 yr old LSG ( Airedale) to the vet yesterday. It's a folksy place, where they remember you. The dog got her exam/ DHLP-PP/Rv3/ Cort. inj/Amoxi inj and Amoxi tabs/Flea product/ all for around $70.00 That's less than I used to collect for the same service at the Clinic I worked at 20 yrs earlier in Toledo, OH....and that clinic was inexpensive as clinics went up there! I raise packgoats and find that I am pretty much on my own for giving medical care...I rely on the internet goat community for specifics and my vet usually listens to my concerns and lets me come get what I might need as long as it's not blackmarket kind of resale stuff.

Oh, and highspeed internet? Um, Well...maybe, if you can get Windstream/Hughes DSL, satellite, or live on a hill top within range of our family owned broadband company it's good, otherwise dial up! We're trying to fix that as the money to invest and place antenna's allows!

-Scrt Crk

Lyra · #12 05/07/10, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timfromohio

Ohio has a relatively high tax burden, so I think that the property taxes are high. That said they are much higher in some places than others and in a sense, you get what you pay for. I may gripe about mine, but in order to lower them would have to live further out - I'd be paying less in tax but more in gas and lost time commuting. Pros and cons to every location.

Property taxes and home price are a great selling point for a move to Ohio when you come from a more heavily taxed state. The other perk is that voters in Ohio get more of a say in how or if tax dollars are spent than in PA.

That is why I am looking for a extremely small school district located within a conservative rural area.

secretcreek · #13 05/07/10, 11:17 AM

Three Local school district here. All have good- to newer facility's (New elementary buildings 10 yrs old or newer). High schools have 300-600 students total, depending on what district you choose.

An older 3 bdrm, 1 bath with basement and garage, some outbuildings home on 10 acres went for $60,000, 20 yrs ago. Now it'd go for about $110,000 or so now. The new stickbuilt McMansion style homes ( not many) might be prices at $250,000 in this county...but go over to Athens co or add some acreage and it goes up from there...still way less than east coast or west coast crazy pricing. Look up Liz Maule reality for a local idea ( she's in Athens Co.) If I lives in Athens Co I'd gladly live around Amesville or Albany for a place with land! I love Athens Co....but I save more money, and folks are way more conservative living in Meigs, so

)

-scrt crk

timfromohio · #14 05/07/10, 12:43 PM

I look at this site once in a while for fun:

http://www.athensohiorealestate.com/

timfromohio · #15 05/07/10, 12:47 PM

I didn't think Pa was that high - as of 2008 Ohio was ranked 8th for overall state tax burden (Pa was 11 - pretty close) by the taxfoundation.org

Danaus29 · #16 05/07/10, 01:52 PM

The only area I know out that way is the Cambridge/Byesville area, but it's been 25 years since we lived there. A lot has changed since we moved away.

dosthouhavemilk · #17 05/07/10, 02:17 PM

We are in Belmont County (Barnesville, OH 43713). Just south (10 minutes) of Interstate 70. A couple of hours from Columbus and Cleveland and less than an hour from Wheeling, WV.

It is a beautiful area, but not a lot of jobs available and eonomically depressed.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Barnesville-Ohio.html

Wow. Just find the name of a town and plug it in and look at all that information.

One thing about Barnesville is that it is not that easy to "get accpeted." I had a friend move here site unseen from CA/MA and she has had some trouble getting accepted into the community. Though she knows a lot of people I don't and I was raised here.

fishhead · #18 05/07/10, 03:09 PM

What does raw land go for in eastern OH? Is there any clay soil? Some flat land but not in a fence to fence farm area?

I'm considering a move and would be building at least a few commercial fish ponds.

Teri · #19 05/07/10, 03:24 PM

I live in Harrison county and really like it here. Moved here from southern California by choice. I am a native Ohioan, though. Most of the people living here are native to the place and very loyal, but are also very friendly. We've always felt welcomed here. There are lots of steel/mine workers and union guys who live very conservatively. Family and community is very important to these people. I live just outside of Jewett on a 20 acre homestead. Nearby Scio is very nice as well. Lots of Amish moving into these parts in the last 10 years. Much of eastern Ohio is economically depressed.
Mike on here is from Carroll county which also mostly rural and a very nice place and not far from me.

Mike in Ohio · #20 05/07/10, 04:03 PM

I like Carroll County (Hi Teri!) and it is worth looking at if you want rural but still want to be close to some larger cities. A lot of residents commute up 43 to Canton, Akron and even Cleveland. If you are looking I'd look at the southern half of the county (anywhere below Carrollton).

The only issue to watch out for at the moment is Rosebud Mining and their deep coal mine plans (project is currently planned for 30,000 acres). There is a lot of concern about wells and water given their plans and attitude.

Mike