Rating the Suburbs: Orange Village

Right now Orange Village has all the potential of a young professional.

For years, the suburb has primarily been a quiet community with great schools (No. 6 this year) and a $330,900 median home sale price consisting of older ranches and Cape Cods and four- to five-bedroom modern colonials built in the 1990s. 

But new developments such as Pinecrest — an outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex — and 37 new eco-friendly smart homes have the village ready to pop onto the scene.

Before their two children were born, the housing options and schools convinced Evan Hirsch and his wife, Michelle, to skip a starter home in Lyndhurst or hip pad in Ohio City for a long-term investment.

“Our view was if we can make a play at this, let’s go to the house where we can really see ourselves living for 20-plus years,” says Evan, now 36 and a village council member.

A partner at Singerman, Mills, Desberg and Kauntz law firm in Beachwood, he’s already seeing other young professionals moving in as empty nesters who brought their families to the village in the ’90s move out.

“It’s a great location if you work on the East Side,” Evan says. “Especially in the Chagrin corridor where a lot of the larger companies are located.”

Aside from Pinecrest, which will open in 2018 with a movie theater, stores such as REI and restaurants such as Red, the Steakhouse, new all-purpose paths and community sports such as pickleball are young professional-approved, Evan says. And if all else fails, the Orange Village Diner serves up a weekend brunch, which every YP knows is the week’s most important meal.

“On a Sunday morning you can get up and walk over to brunch,” Evan says.