I moved into the North Side (Granada Ave) last summer, and I just came across this forum. It's great to know there's a sense of community out there. Those fools in Boardman/Canfield/Poland don't know what they're missing! When I went looking for a house, I kept running into these crazy prices-- even an architectural abomination like an ugly 3-bedroom "ranch" couldn't be found for under 100k. Then I find this lovely, large house -- 2100 square feet if you include the finished attic -- on a quiet street with friendly neighboors for 62k (and I probably overpaid but wanted to get it over with). Not a broken-down "decaying beauty" with 50k worth of fix-up need, but a fine brick Tudor-style with a bit of cosmetic cleanup to do. I've hired precisely one contractor-- to patch a roof leak. Other than that, it's been cheap and worth the little sweat I've put into it.
I know the score here-- the "school system" is a problem, so we can't bring in young families with disposable income, supposedly, and the entrenched racism (intentional or not) keeps white people from wanting to transplant themselves to a largely "black" neighborhood. But I think it's all bull. For the money you'd save on, say, a 200k house, by buying a suitable home on the Northside, you could send your kids to private school and the best colleges in the country if you wanted. And the racism, well, my feeling is: the only way to bring people together is to bring them together. Move in!
Best,
Jay