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GD you make a good point about regional vs Acela and that for regular commuting you'll almost always opt for the regional.
As for Lancaster or Frederick I was just throwing some areas that people find historic/attractive if somewhere like Princeton which was mentioned turns out to be too expensive. But some level of driving would be required to get to the Baltimore airport train stop for Frederick and I'm sure the same in PA. I was also thinking Annapolis would be an interesting area though tbh I have no idea of the COL there I'd imagine its high.
If you like being near the coast Fairfield CT area is nice and a bit closer in commute wise than SE Mass, just outside the limits of a comfortable everyday commute to NYC.
I know nothing is ever apples to apples and the above 4 are different in their own right, but share some similarities. I may be veering way off course here, but it appears King of Prussia is a peer of the above 4?
Yea, I can see that as a newer, major employment and shopping center in the suburbs. It does throw the walkable bit out the window though they're trying for a few mixed-use developments.
Yea, I can see that as a newer, major employment and shopping center in the suburbs. It does throw the walkable bit out the window though they're trying for a few mixed-use developments.
correct, King of Prussia would be the equivalent around Philadelphia. A new train line is being built through KOP to better service it and spur more transit oriented developments beyond the town center-ish developments.
GD you make a good point about regional vs Acela and that for regular commuting you'll almost always opt for the regional.
As for Lancaster or Frederick I was just throwing some areas that people find historic/attractive if somewhere like Princeton which was mentioned turns out to be too expensive. But some level of driving would be required to get to the Baltimore airport train stop for Frederick and I'm sure the same in PA. I was also thinking Annapolis would be an interesting area though tbh I have no idea of the COL there I'd imagine its high.
If you like being near the coast Fairfield CT area is nice and a bit closer in commute wise than SE Mass, just outside the limits of a comfortable everyday commute to NYC.
I was mostly thinking housing prices and train commute time to NY Penn. 2-ish hours on a regional train is manageable one day per week. Housing prices once you factor in property taxes pretty much rules out lower Fairfield County. Two years ago, I would have said Westport CT without hesitation but $750k won’t buy much house there now. A vintage 60’s starter home in a not great location, maybe. I suggested Guilford two towns east of New Haven. You can’t go east of New Haven or you’re beyond the 2-ish hour commute time. Guilford to New Haven Union Station is a 15 minute drive. The Connecticut rail infrastructure is awful. That’s as far east as you can go before the commute gets awful.
I think that on the corridor, Wilmington DE is as far as you can go and stay within a 2-ish hour commute. Baltimore with Acela would be an expensive ticket. I don’t know Delaware at all. That gets me to the Philly suburbs near the Keystone Line stations as the obvious pick.
There’s also Albany. Like Wilmington, I don’t know the blue chip suburbs there but it must have some.
The area of Central Jersey from around Princeton going West across the NJ state line into Bucks County PA is probably your best bet.
You'll get more bang for your buck than living further North closer to NYC. Many people have been moving there for decades for this reason.
Very good schools. Princeton HS is highly rated. And the commute time from Trenton train station to Penn Station NYC is an hour during weekdays.
Finally, you have 1-195 right there that goes East-West across the state and you can get from that area of NJ or right across the state line in PA (Yardley area) to the shore (Point Pleasant) in an hour.
Forgot to add, I'm Asian, any area where we are decently represented? It doesn't have to be Irvine or Chinatown, but just an area where we aren't the only Asian family. Housing stock in the Philly area looks pretty nice compared to out here.
Philly's toniest suburbs have housing that I would say is second to none, and many of them score high on the walkability scale too. It's on that last score that the Main Line suburbs excel, and you have the advantage of having a single-seat ride to NY Penn from Ardmore, Paoli or Downingtown. (Ardmore, home of the Lower Merion Township government and the biggest of the Main Line's downtowns, is probably also the most diverse of them: there's a Japanese marketplace there that serves as a hub of activity for the Japanese-American community here come cherry blossom time. And given that one of the big Japanese automakers has its US headquarters in Cherry Hill, NJ, there's a non-trivial Japanese-American population here.
Lower Bucks County, especially Bensalem Township, has a heavy Indian-American presence, so if your Asian background is South Asian, you might want to consider looking in Bucks — but even though it's served by Amtrak NEC trains (stopping at Cornwells Heights), Bensalem has none of the other attributes you're looking for.
I'm going to join AshbyQuin in suggesting you check out Cheltenham Township. It has some walkable areas (most notably Elkins Park and Glenside), it has an East Asian population close to its border with Philadelphia (hence the H Mart right where Old York Road crosses Cheltenham Avenue — it's an anchor for a Korean-American business strip that stretches along Cheltenham Avenue for about a half mile in either direction from it), and it's also one of the more diverse Philly 'burbs overall (it's also home to a historic Black community, La Mott), with a decent school district. Your train trip to New York, however, will require you to drive over to Bensalem.
But you would have to drive from anywhere in Central Bucks to catch those trains too, so that may not be a deal-breaker. Drive to Hamilton or Princeton Junction as many Central Bucks residents do and you can take the even cheaper and more frequent New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor Line into New York. (It's cheaper even after factoring in the toll you will pay crossing the Delaware back into Pennsylvania, and if you're willing to get off the freeway and use the back roads and local streets, you can avoid that too.) Of the communities others have mentioned here, I'd rate Newtown, New Hope and Doylestown above Yardley simply because their town centers have more going on in them. Doylestown is the county seat and has the biggest town center, but New Hope is a popular weekend getaway destination and thus punches above its weight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker
Some of the burbs I've lived in:
Arlington
Greenwood Village
Bellevue
Irvine
I know nothing is ever apples to apples and the above 4 are different in their own right, but share some similarities. I may be veering way off course here, but it appears King of Prussia is a peer of the above 4?
King of Prussia is indeed an edge city comparable to these four (and second in size and economic strength only to Tysons among East Coast edge cities, with the biggest shopping mall of all of these), but less walkable than any of those (or three of them at least; I can't speak on Glenwood Village). There is an island of walkable Instant Urbanism now in the Village at Valley Forge/King of Prussia Town Center, but the irony is that the planned Norristown High-Speed Line spur will end about a half-mile short of this logical end point. It's not that far of a drive from Paoli, however.
Repped the recent posts. Thank you. Decision is still a year away and certainly not a lock that a move has to happen. If I had to decide now, I would probably head to the Main Line burbs or KoP. I'm just used to diverse, economically powerful suburbs.
However, a few friends live in that Princeton area and they love it. A bit pricier but you still get a lot for your money, relatively speaking. And, you're connected to the city. My worry is tax burden in NJ.
Walkability was listed as a nice to have, but it certainly doesn't even have to be as vibrant as say Ballston in the DC area. I can do well in town center's or like right now, I live about 4 miles from the nearest business.
The commute will not be work related (for now), but two hours each way is a bit much. I'd like to be closer if possible.
Thanks again!
I understand faux, inorganic places like Valley Forge or the Domain in Austin are generally frowned upon here, but I don't hate them.
It also has suburban square integrated into the downtown which is like a bonus walkable area: https://suburbansquare.com/
There is also an Amtrak station downtown with service to NYC. It has excellent schools but is not as expensive as other mainline towns (like Wayne).
Yep. That's why I pointed to Ardmore up-thread. It's 2 hours to NY Penn on Keystone. The saver fare booking a month+ out is really reasonable. I looked for Tuesday July 27 and it's $50 1-way on the 6:31am Keystone train. At $700k housing budget where I need to be in Manhattan 3 or 4 times per month as a day trip, you can find a house within 10 minutes of that train station that checks all the check boxes. Doesn't need to be the Ardmore part of Lower Merion.
If you look at the census data for Lower Merion, it's estimated at 8.4% Asian. I imagine a heavy concentration of health care, university, and tech/IT people.
I lived briefly in Philly suburbs...Cherry Hill, NJ specifically and it was a decent place just avoid Camden at all costs. Maybe it's gotten better since I left but that place was a warzone when I lived in the area.
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