For those of you who live in Central Ohio I am looking for your knowledge. Is there any cities to avoid living in Central Ohio? Best towns/cities to live in? Any safe, gun friendly, affordable places to live would be much appreciated.

thanks for taking the time to read

New Albany's full.

Eastside and downtown has plenty of space


but seriously, what's your budget and work/commute?

I generally tend to avoid anything east of Cleveland Ave/Karl Rd. inside the outer belt and 670.  Of course Vances is right in the middle of that area, so that's the only exception to my rule.

Why yes it is code for Columbus

Need more info. Where are you working? What kind of homes are you looking for? Do you have kids in school?

needs to be within 30 mins of Central Columbus, no kids, and apartment around $550 a month. I'm more concerned about about safety/ gun friendliness/ nice area than anything.

$550 is going to be a little hard to find a place in a "nice area"

Avoid Whitehall.  Your best bet is going to be an apartment around the Polaris (southern Delaware county) area or maybe one in the Hilliard area.  HIlliard area will have a little easier commute as US23 and the North end is a nightmare with traffic.  There is a huge project going on now to fix it but it will alwyas be bad and getting worse in that area.  There'e a ton of new places popping up out West of Tuttle Mall, in the Dublin/Hilliard/Columbus area.  Not a bad area out there at all.  If you're going to be staying inside the outerbelt, I would try to stay West of 71 and North of I-670.  There are nice places in the other areas inside the outerbelt but experiences vary.

 
Your budget is low unless you find a roommate to get in a nice area of town, or you're just renting a tiny studio apt. Add a couple hundred to that, and you're looking at much nicer areas of town...New Albany, Westerville, Northern Cols. near Polaris, Canal Winchester, etc.


You pay to avoid the riff-raff.


(currently renting in New Albany, great place but it's pricier)

London and West Jefferson are nice small towns, to the west of Columbus. Probably 20-40 minute commute depending on where you work in Columbus.

I live a little further west of there,  and commute to east side of Columbus which is 60 minutes.  I listen to a lot of Audible books.

 
Short of being in the hood, that's about the only way to get a cheap single apt. and not be in a Crimeville..find a small town 40-60 minutes out of Cols. to rent. Marion, NE towards Utica, West towards London, South towards Washington CH or Circleville, etc.


But, then sometimes you land in Methylvania and your floor is crooked and there's a raccoon living in your bathroom ceiling, which isn't ideal.


Oh, and you're putting $200 a month in gas so there's that extra rent you could have used to stay closer to town.


Never a free lunch, always a trade-off. I pay a lot in rent, but we have great amenities, nice neighbors and there are yoga-panted millennials jogging by at all hours. It's kinda worth it.

Franklin County and the counties that touch it. Centerville, the geographical center of Ohio, is within that area for what it's worth.

How about you try this....  "I will be working near _______________, and I am considering living here: __________________ .






Unless you are some super secret CIA type, coming here to help infiltrate or eradicate the snackbars around Easton. In which case, swingset will help you.  He is very subversive.




 

I think I've got what I need thanks everyone for their input. I understand what our saying about spending the same amount to live further away in the long run as I could have closer, I'll call around and see what I can't find.

For the record I wasn't trying to be "Subversive" but If I said "I will be working near _______________, and I am considering living here: __________________ . " I'm afraid no one would have replied with places that would be nice but instead with, yes thats good/bad. I wanted to keep my options open and would have gone anywhere within 30 mins of Columbus. Sorry if that's not enough info for you, but I figured anyone could say a place within 30mins pretty easy.

Thanks again everyone

If I came across as dick-ish, I'm sorry. Didn't mean it that way.  But Columbus is fairly large place, and it is 30 minutes across town.  So, if you are working on West side, we might suggest a few of good places that might not apply if you are working in Pickerington.  In fact I suggested two that I am personally familiar with.
 

I'm just happy for every ones input. It may seem like I'm being super vague like my tin foil is too tight but I promise you it's not the case. I am going through he hiring process atm and they have multiple locations that I could go to; that being said is why I can't say im looking "HERE". I'm fairly certain that the position will have me at the east side of Columbus if that helps at all.  I am just trying to look at all the possibilities of everywhere around Columbus so no matter where I end up I know I have multiple possibilities. I'm not sure if I make much since but I'm trying to cover all my bases so when I get the go ahead I'm not scrambling with my head in between my legs. So any input on places to avoid and live are all valuable to me and any feedback is better than me guessing and being miserable.

 
It really comes down to an inevitability about pay. If you have "X" to spend on rent & expenses you can only do one of two things if it falls well below the average rent in a desirable area.






Either you move closer to the dicier areas of town, finding low-cost or less modern rental housing and put up with that to stay closer to work, or you bug out and look well outside of the suburbs to the 40 minute drive areas where rent tends to be a little cheaper, but again this will chew up a considerable amount of your income in gas/wear/tear and whatever your time is worth....have to factor traffic in, too.






Or, you have to be creative and try to sneak into a better area of town by either finding roomies, renting something non-standard (like the upstairs of a 2-dwelling house), etc.






If you're looking at the east part of Columbus, you can be in Newark in 20-30 minutes and there are cheap rentals there. Not a bad place to live, might be a good compromise. Parts of Newark aren't too bad.






Think of 270 like a big toilet bowl. The turds are mostly on the inside, and some clinging to the lid. Most of the satellite communities around the bowl are GTG, but tend to be desirable for renters and for a single guy I'd budget $750 for a decent single rental at least to be in Gahanna, Blacklick, Etna, Pataskala, etc. Either go out farther to lower that figure, or jump in the toilet bowl and pay attention to the crime map to see where turd concentration is at maximum levels.






If you're visiting a neighborhood, here are my surefire ways to know you don't want to live there:






Instant check cashing store in most strip malls



International market



Signs on light posts advertising cheap mattresses



Bus stops with more than 1 guy waiting for a ride



Billboard for a DUI/slip & fall lawyer



Anyone walking a pitbull



You see more than 1 Chrysler minivan in any 20 minute period being piloted by a woman wearing a hijab



The cop cars look beat up



You see a toddler wandering around, parentless, like a dingo on the savannah



The trunk rattle of the car next to you is louder than the bass



The gas station has 3" bulletproof lexan with a turnstile to hand your cash through



You see anyone pushing a shopping cart down the sidewalk



More than 2 people on any given street talking to themselves, dancing, or interacting with traffic



You see more than 1 adult on a child's bicycle



Dumpster fire



A hair weave blowing across the road like a desert tumbleweed



A store that sells nothing but rims



A store that sells nothing but burner cell phones



Any store with bars over the windows



A restaurant that clearly used to be an Arthur Treacher's Fish 'n Chips but now is called "Big Teddy's Chickn"






Feel free to add your own...




 

Billboard or telephone pole sign advertising paternity/DNA tests
Every few houses has a For Sale sign in the front yard
A pawn shop nearby
A corner store "Tito's Market: Liquor Tobacco Lottery Fish Chicken"

$550 a month......good luck with a nice area

stay west of 71 and north of 70 is all I can say    

wife says look around King ave and 5th ave, West of Olentangy.

For $550/month you can move around Tamarak Circle or the old French Market area off Busch Blvd. Plenty of shooting opportunities around there. No need for a formal range.

About 15 years ago $550 could get a decent place. Any place that cheap will be awful. Just a sad reality. $750 would be the absolute bare minimum for anything I'd consider liveable. Look into getting a roommate. Other than that I don't have any advice.

You can buy a house between $500-750 if you are willing to get one that needs a little work, and you have enough down payment to avoid PMI. I'd stay outside 270.

The cost of rent going thru the roof made me buy a house. The mortgage costs $350 a month less.

 
Don't forget taxes/association fees when you do that math (not you specifically, just anyone doing this comparison).




For what I pay in rent, it's very close to a mortgage + tax in my area, and then I have upkeep and HOA fees on top of that. True I'm not owning anything, but the comparison in monthly outlay was pretty close between nice apt. and nice house.




Not ready to buy yet for job/location reasons so that's factoring in for me, but just throwing it out there for discussion.


 

So, I live right by Vance's and my dad lives in Whitehall. So we go against all advice in this thread. That being said, there are still pretty decent "pockets" in the shitty areas, and if you have no kids, the schools aren't an issue. We only pay $800 a month mortgage, and have a pretty nice Cape Cod that we are going to sell, only because we need better schools.

I would try to get 30 minutes or so outside the city as some have mentioned, anything in the general Columbus area is going to exceed $550 a month, I am in the Hilliard area and even though I haven't looked from what I hear it would be a stretch to find anything for under $600 and then you might not have the best of neighbors.

I'm looking for a new job, and while I will try as hard as I can not to move (I really love it here in Geauga county), I *may* have to. If I have to move...I'll be working in/near Columbus.

This thread would then come in handy. My budget is closer to $1,200/mo though.

Look into the Harrison West area, which is almost downtown.

Very friendly neighborhood, little crime, almost all young professionals. It's right on 315 and 670 so easy to get anywhere.

I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll be able to find something in that price range.

The only bad time to live there is Comfest weekend, which still isn't too bad.

 
That's nice condo, decent older house territory...at least within close driving distance to Columbus proper. Move out 40-60 minutes, you can probably rent a nice house with a decent sized parcel for that.

I agree with you......Harrison West area is not a bad area to live in.

 
It's greatly improved from what it was 15 years ago. Like many pockets of nice Columbus proper, you're always walking distance to shit-town, but if you don't mind that there are good little havens here and there. Areas of Grandview are nice, too, or University Village, Clintonville, etc.

Check the area before you move. I used to live in Reynoldsburg, and their city income tax and school tax both sucked. Pataskala and Granville are nice, but a bit of a hike to Columbus.
 

This site will tell you the income tax & school tax, if there is either, for any address in Ohio.

https://thefinder.tax.ohio.gov/StreamlineSalesTaxWeb/AddressLookup/LookupByAddress.aspx?taxType=taxsummary

I was going to post same thing.  There are some really annoying traffic areas.  East side 270, and outerbelt 70 east inbound,  are insanely crappy.  Dublin area is a clusterfuck.

 

I take 70 to 670 from the west side to the east side every morning at 8a.  no problem, slow downs, and occasional stop and go (infreq).  But 9a is another story, pretty bad.

I'm not a city person, so take my advice for what it's worth. I really like rural Union and Logan/Champaign counties. Still an easy commute to Columbus but you get a low cost of living and plenty of land available. You can get a great place on 5 acres for $200k. I bought in Logan county, big beautiful custom home on 20 acres for $310k.

I realize my comments above don't exactly matter to you right now, considering your budget, but just something to keep in mind. You could likely find something in Marysville which is an easy drive up 33 from Dublin. My wife works in Marysville and I think it's a great little town.