Are you looking for a city that you can afford that is economically stable and it’s possibly a place where your family can grow roots? Well, then you need to take a closer look at Cincinnati. My name is Eric Sztanyo from Keller Williams Realty and team Sztanyo.com where we are helping you find your home and strengthen your family. I’m a Cincinnati Northern Kentucky realtor. I’ve lived in the Cincinnati area for 30 plus years Now. I moved to the area when I was seven years old. We moved here from Michigan because my dad got a job here. That’s a story for probably a lot of people in Cincinnati. In fact, I was reading a Reddit post recently about moving to Cincinnati and there was kind of a knock on the city of the only reason people move to Cincinnati is for family or a job. And at first, I was kind of offended, but then I was like, you
Know what? That’s mostly true. And I’m okay with that. Here are the reasons why I love the city and why this is a place where your family can grow roots.
Why I Love Cincinnati City
I’ve been here for 30 plus years. And I wanted to do something a little bit different and tell my story just to give you a little bit of an idea as to why I love living here.
I’ve been married 15 years. I have five kids. We live in Northern Kentucky, which is just south of the Cincinnati border in Fort Thomas. And I love the city. My kids are ten, eight, five, three, and one when I had my first son, this was back around 2010. I was up at my grandpa’s house in Michigan. I’m really blessed to have had amazing grandparents on both sides. My parents were actually high school sweethearts, which is amazing. And both of their parents were married and basically love each other and live their life until they died. But they live great lives. They love each other well. They love their kids. Well, they were awesome. And I was really blessed to have them as my grandparents.
I was with my grandpa on my dad’s side. He had three kids. My dad was the youngest and they lived in upstate Michigan. It was a small farm town. There was a little bit of manufacturing there, but then it was kind of dying out and all three of his kids moved away from him. We moved to Cincinnati, my aunt moved to Chicago, my uncle moved to Dallas and eventually moved to Alabama.
And so I was asking my grandfather’s advice. “Grandpa, give me parental advice. I’m a new dad. I really want to know.” And he gave me some great advice about being a father. But I also asked him about when his kids moved away from his house, what was that like and what did that mean for him? And he kind of shrugged and said “there weren’t any jobs here. What were they supposed to do? They had to move away.” That may be right and It’s really sad. And a big part of my life is thinking about my family, thinking about my kids, thinking about the way I would explain a good life.
You may be religious or you may not be religious, but there’s a Psalm in the Bible Psalm 128, and I have this up on my desktop. I’m looking at it basically every day. And it says “how happy is everyone who fears Adonai, who lives by his ways. You will eat what your hands have produced; You will be happy and prosperous. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner parts of your house. Your children around the table will be like shoots from an olive tree.
And this is the way I define a good life. I’ve got this picture of a dining room table with a meal around it because that is what I’m aiming for. And people have different objectives in life. I get that. That’s one of the things that makes life amazing. But my objective is to be around my dining room table with my kids and my grandkids. And hopefully, even my great-grandkids that were here in the city and we are loving each other well, and we’re loving the city. Well, that’s, that’s my goal in life.
I’ve thought carefully about this city in particular Cincinnati. And should we be living here? I have a lot of friends who thought about this here in the city who have big families and have been thinking about it. And the answer has been absolutely yes.
Going back to that story with my grandfather. One of the biggest reasons is there’s a lot of economic diversity here in the city. When I think of that vision- if you want a place where your family can grow roots, the economy is a big deal. I was born in Michigan. I had a lot of family in Michigan and Detroit is kind of a story that is still impacting my thoughts. The automotive industry. And when that industry took a hit in Detroit, the entire city took a hit. And it went from being one of the wealthiest cities in the world to one of the largest cities in poverty in the world. I was like “Man, what a story!”
And so a lot of people had to move away from Michigan and the city itself. And when I look at Cincinnati, what’s really interesting to me from a father standpoint is there’s a lot of economic diversity in the city. We’ve got a lot of fortune 500, companies like Kroger and P and G that are some of the biggest employers. We have a big health care industry. We have a big biotech industry. There’s manufacturing. It’s really diverse. And then Amazon is coming in and building a $2 billion hub at the Cincinnati airport. And so there will be jobs more than likely. I mean, anything can happen, right? You can’t predict anything in the future but compared to other cities that might be more dependent on any particular industry – Cincinnati is pretty diverse. If you want certain things, you go to different cities, right?
If you’re all about career and making it, you might go to New York city and you might like to fight really hard to climb the ladder and make a lot of money and make a name for yourself. If you’re all about entertainment, you might head to LA, right? You might want to try to make it in the entertainment scene. If you’re all about keeping it weird, you might have to Portland right there. Like different cities that have different personalities, really different characteristics as to what might attract them.
My thesis, I guess is that Cincinnati is a very stable city. It’s a place where your family can put down roots. One of the knocks again, I mean, if you ever come to Cincinnati, you’ll notice this. As people ask a lot of the times “Hey, where’d you go to school?” And they don’t mean, where did you go to college? They actually mean, where did you go to high school for out-of-towners that feel really weird. And it’s like, what are you talking about? Like, who asks about where you went to high school but it’s something that’s really quaint.
I love the bangles and I love the reds and there’s a guy who does the bangles. His name is Paul Dainer Jr. He was actually talking about this on the bangles podcast. He was talking about one of the things that makes Cincinnati great which is – there’s a level of accountability. It’s like that Kevin bacon game, you’re never too far removed from anyone in the city. Like everyone kind of knows each other. That’s kind of the joke around the city.
And there are big city amenities here. You’ve got great art and architecture. Great dining and you’ve got three professional sports teams. You’ve got an amazing park system. You’ve got a lot of great big city amenities here, but it’s also compact in that you kind of know everyone here. So from a relational standpoint, from trying
to choose a city where you can put down roots. Where your family can grow roots. If you’re looking out for the future of your kids and grandkids, which is what I’m doing as a father. Then this is a city I think you really need to explore. There’s a lot of people within my network and extended networks that I know who are thinking like that. And they’re thinking not only how do I grow strong family here but how do we make this city better and stronger?
Cincinnati is just an interesting spot. It’s where the north meets the south. And historically it has those components where people know how to work together. Where Kentucky meets Ohio, and there’s enough diversity in thoughts to not make us to mano in one train of thought. But there’s a history of learning how to work together.
A City Where Your Family Can Grow Roots – Cincinnati
For me personally, as I took my grandfather’s advice, that was really important to me. As a city, this is a place where my goal is to be around my kids and they can choose to go out and choose a different career path or travel or try to whatever, and that’s totally fine. I just know that if I’m aiming for something, which I think this, this verse in this Psalm 128 is actually explaining what a good life looks like.
If I’m aiming for that, then I have decided that Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area is a place where this goal can be met. That’s exciting for me and It might be exciting for you. I hope this was helpful!
If you’re thinking about: Where I can work? Where your family can grow roots? Where’s the cool city to do that? Definitely recommend – Cincinnati!
We’d love to talk to you more about that. So shoot a comment below, let’s connect and I can tell you more great things about the city and why it’s wonderful. Make sure you check out these other videos. Cause we’re building all sorts of content here about Cincinnati real estate and what it’s like living in the city. So thanks for much. We’ll see you next time!