Moving To Harrisburg Area : HELP! (Lebanon, Hershey: apartment, to rent, house)

[mellanieblue]

Myself, hubby, and new baby girl are moving to PA to be closer to my mother. I have only been to PA 2 or 3 times in my adult life and know little to nothing about it, and my mother has only lived there for about three years, and all she does is work, gym, home.
I would like some input about Harrisburg and the surrounding areas. I sort of have my mind set on a smaller, less densely populated area on the outskirts of H-burg or maybe even another city, as long as it isn't more than about 45 minutes away. I would rather stay on the same side of the river as H-burg if possible, to avoid the bridge, unless there is some absolute jewel of a town on the other side.
We are moving this summer, from Albuquerque. My husband will hopefully be transferring with Lowes and we are looking to rent either an apartment or house that is between $500 and $700 a month, but not completely rundown or in a bad neighborhood. I'm willing to make a drive if I can pay a little less. Also wouldn't mind a somewhat quieter area, although don't want to be miles away from the nearest anything, what with a small baby. I don't mind city settings, either, but I don't want to live on a major highway or anything like that.
I'm hoping some very knowledgeable locals have lots of input for me!

[ki0eh]

Middletown is a mixed income and mixed race community where you may be close to meeting your rent target. Hummelstown Borough (a small part of the area with a Hummelstown postal address) might work too, and is in fairly highly rated Lower Dauphin school district. Both would be not too far from the Harrisburg Lowe's location.

The standard recommended suburbs are Hershey on the "East Shore", and Camp Hill Borough, and areas within Cumberland Valley school district (usually Mechanicsburg address) on the "West Shore", but these are usually pricier too. The "West Shore" Lowe's is in the Cumberland Valley schools. (Usually the big boxes have 2 locations in Hbg area, one west and one east.)

West Shore school district areas (Wormleysburg, Lemoyne, New Cumberland) are generally fine and have some more modest but stable areas. As does Mechanicsburg school district which is about 1/3 of the area with a Mechanicsburg postal address.

Most of East Pennsboro SD on the West Shore, and Susquehanna Township SD on the East Shore is fine but both have some ratty neighborhoods. Most relocatees avoid the City of Harrisburg (a small part of the area with a Harrisburg postal address) and Steelton-Highspire, they have ranked 501st and 499th out of PA's 501 school districts. Central Dauphin school district is a real mixed bag from ghetto to truly rural to much in between, and they're all mixed in together by the time they get to either of the high schools. The east shore Lowe's is about on the border between Central Dauphin and Susquehanna Twp.

In Harrisburg area driving further out for cheaper rent can be problematic because of traffic tie-ups, we have a zone of congestion extending nearly as far as Atlanta's, for maybe 1/10th the population base.

Around here, if you turn the corner the characteristics of the area change dramatically, on a sub-zip code level. Partly this is due to rolling topography even in the valleys, but mostly this is due to the hyper-local nature of local government and land use regulation in PA.

There is also a Lowe's in Palmyra which borders Hershey to the east. Many of the chocolate workers and allied-health professionals from the Penn State Hershey medical center live in Palmyra. There are quieter and more modest housing as well as McMansions in the Palmyra school district. Some folks relocate to Northern Lebanon and Cornwall Lebanon schools but City of Lebanon is not favored by most relocatees, at least ones who do honest work. The roads in Lebanon County are especially slow and medieval so if you transfer to the Palmyra Lowe's (probably the best of the three to shoot for if you are looking for a quiet and modest lifestyle) don't get too far away without trying to drive your commute in the daytime rush. US 422 between Hershey and Lebanon averages 10 mph, no joke.