Locating Potential Housing Areas in Geauga County, Ohio

Advanced GIS

Dr. Jay Lee

Julia Rausch

Fall 2002

Abstract:

Geauga County is a growing county in northeast Ohio. It still maintains its rural charm, but it is also become suburbanized as the sprawl from Cleveland spreads out. For those interested in moving to the county, a number of factors can be examined to best meet their needs. Their income, housing size, community preferences, and housing costs can be looked at to determine the best area in the county to search for housing.

Introduction:

When choosing an area to live, several different factors are considered. Geauga County, Ohio, is an attractive place to live. Looking around at the county itself, the overall feeling is that the county is still very rural. Since Geauga is within commuting distance to the Cleveland area, there are townships that are demographically more like suburbs.

There are many other things that make Geauga County an attractive place to live. Geauga County has 52.67% of its lands wooded, while Ohio only has 33.23% wooded. Recreational activities are abundant, ranging from hunting and fishing to skiing to Six Flags Amusement Park. There were 90,895 people that called the county home in 2000. Of these, the total labor force was 48,200. There was an unemployment rate of 3.0. This means that many more in the work force were employed as compared to the state, where the rate was 4.1. Geauga County’s largest industry was manufacturing (31.877%), services (22.273%), trade (20.311%), government (10.91%), construction (6.503%), agriculture, forestry, and fishing (3.338%), transportation and utilities (2.36%), finance, insurance, and real estate (1.92%), and mining (.51%). This does not take into account the numerous jobs located in the Cleveland metropolitan area. The average weekly earnings for all sectors were $561.05, $57.30 lower than Ohio’s average. This is due to Geauga County’s cost of living being lower than the state’s.

Although Ohio has an extensive higher educational system, there is only one branch of a public university in the county. The public schools are impressive, however, compared to the state. There are 28 public schools in the county, with 12,955 students, and 853 teachers. The teacher-student ratio is 18.6, which is 1.017 times more than the state. The expenditures per student are $7,505, which is 1.169 times more than Ohio’s average. There is also a higher graduation rate, with 91.6% of the students graduating high school. Geauga County also has 9 non-public schools serving 2,857 students.

Since Geauga County is the chosen area of residence, there has to be a method of deciding where in the county to live. Geauga has 16 townships and 6 villages. The potential locations were divided based on U.S. Census block groups. Considering that there is no real guideline for studies on housing characteristics, each study choosing those factors which it deems important, data was selected to best represent the factors that a person might consider when looking for appropriate housing. For 2000, the population, number of households, average household size, percentage of households owned, percentage of households rented, percentage of family households, .5 or less persons per room in an owned housing unit, .5 or less persons per room in a rented housing units, 1.5 or more persons per room in an owned housing unit, 1.5 or more persons per room in a rented housing unit, number of housing units, median number of rooms, median income, median gross rent, and median value for all owner-occupied housing units were examined.

Ohio County Map. Geauga is located in the upper northeast corner.

Geauga County Township Map.

Data Acquisition and Data Quality:

All of the data is from the U.S. Census, Summary Files 1 and 3. This data can be accessed through the American Fact Finder on the Census website. The data obtained from Summary File 1 is 100% coverage, while the data from Summary File 3 is approximately 1/6 coverage. These households received the long form, which asks more in-depth questions about various items, including housing. The Census presumes that these households are representative of others in the area. All of the data was examined at the block group level, the smallest areas available for most of the data, while still maintaining confidentiality of the respondents. Since the data was for the year 2000, it is out of date; however, considering that its source is very accurate, slightly older data is still valuable.

Data Input:

The initial boundaries for the block groups were obtained by converting U.S. Census Tiger Files for 2000 using the tiger to coverage wizard in ArcToolbox. During the conversion process, the projection was changed to UTM Zone 17, NAD 83. The map was then opened in ArcView and the rest of the mapping took place in that program. The polygons were then merged into block groups by merging the attribute table data. For all of the individual maps, the data was first obtained from the Census and then placed into an Excel spreadsheet by block group. Then value ranges were created for each characteristic. After each block group was placed in a range, the groups corresponding to a range were selected in the county’s attribute table. A shapefile was then created from those selected fields.

Methodology:

Three scenarios were created to cover various life stages of persons searching for housing.

Scenario 1:

A young college graduate is searching for relatively inexpensive rental housing that is located in a community near other single persons. Their income is modest, $50000 a year.

The best area for this person to search for housing would be in the southern part of Russell Township. This is also a good location because of its proximity to Cleveland.

Scenario 2:

A family of four is looking for a house to buy that will accommodate their family. They would like to be in an area that is not too populated and has other families around. They have a dual income of $73000 a year.

This family would be well suited to this area. It is located in the northwestern section of Munson Township. This location is good because it is also near Chardon Village.

Scenario 3:

An older couple is looking for a small home for their retirement years. They would like to be in an area with other families and a sparse population, but one where the houses are smaller. Their yearly income is $37000.

According to their criteria, this couple would be unable to find suitable housing within Geauga County. The type of housing that they are interested in is beyond their reach financially.

Results:

Housing characteristics are a good way of selecting potential locations to move to. By choosing different preferences, one can decide which factors are most important to them and narrow down any areas which they would not find appealing. The single graduate and the dual-income family have housing options within Geauga County; however, the retired couple on a limited income would either have to look in another location or choose different factors that would lead to cheaper housing choices.

Further Research:

Additional housing preferences could be put into place, such as the proximity to a library, hospital, or shopping center. Also, land for sale and potential future land for sale, such as farm fields, could be included to serve the interests of more people. The entire process could also be automated, entering preferences and having a computation of which areas meet those preferences.

Work Referenced

Geauga County Township Map. Geauga County Government. http://www.co.geauga.oh.us/communities.htm

Ohio County Map. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/maps/ohio_map.html

U.S. Census. Summary Files 1 and 3. http://www.census.gov