Moving to Harrisburg area this summer (Hershey, Elizabethtown: apartments, rental, townhouse)

[hbgnewbie]

Hi all,
I am moving this August to Harrisburg area from Texas. I will be working at Penn State Harrisburg, and plan to rent a house. I am looking to rent for an apartment/house.
We need a quiet place to live as a family. We are looking for smth with 2 or 3 bedrooms. A house with a yard is the first preference, however it can be a townhome, or apartment. The most important thing for us is to be a calm place for a family with kids. We are bringing our cars, so we're looking for a place with lots of parking available. We are not worried about the school system at least for next 2-3 years, since our twins are toddlers.
Driving 10-15 miles is not a problem, if the place is good and nice.

Where would you suggest me to look? I have been looking at Craigslist for places to rent, and seen some places in Harrisburg uptown, but I do not know whether that is a safe area. Any suggestions is welcome, since we are not familiar to the area.

Thanks

[DowntownHarrisburg]

Hi, and welcome to the area! Are you talking about Penn State Harrisburg in Middletown, or the Penn State satellite office in uptown Harrisburg?

For the main Penn State Harrisburg campus in Middletown, I would definitely lean towards living in Middletown over uptown Harrisburg. While you may be within your 15-mile range, you're going to fight some serious rush-hour traffic driving to Middletown from uptown / midtown Harrisburg. I-83 can completely clog, and you don't want to think about 230.

Your best bet is probably to look around the Chambers Hill area (the area south / southeast of the I-83 / I-283 junction). It's a suburban area that gets more rural as you head to the east. There's a lot of rental housing in this area at all price points, including both homes and townhomes with yards. You may also want to look into Elizabethtown. E-town is a little further than Harrisburg, but I'm told it's a much quicker drive.

Avoid Steelton.

Be careful on Craigslist. Many of the listings are scams. Our local newspaper, the Patriot News, has some rental listings online.

Did you have a specific price point in mind? That would help us make some more specific suggestions.

[ki0eh]

Middletown Borough (borough in PA = small incorporated town) itself is pretty calm and quiet, a much better bet than Steelton and Highspire. Hummelstown Borough is also quiet, less racially mixed than Middletown. Also agree with Chambers Hill (it has a Harrisburg address but surely listings will distinguish), and Elizabethtown. Middletown and E-town have Amtrak stations, handy if you want to take your toddlers to museums in Philly for a change of pace day.

[DixieJo]

I used to live in Elizabethtown while I worked in uptown Harrisburg and took evening classes at Penn State Harrisburg in Middletown. I must echo Floor9's sentiments about the traffic.

Middletown is a lovely town, there are quite a few rental communities and properties available out and around. It's a quiet town, lots of green, lots of yards. Middletown also has many amenities within its borders (grocery stores, movie theater, restaurants, some shopping and entertainment, airport, nuclear power plant) and is not far from Harrisburg and Hershey. Chocolatetown U.S.A.!!

Elizabethtown is quite similar in a lot of ways to Middletown, though a bit further East. So if your significant other finds a job working in the Harrisburg area that will be a bit of a commute. Not a bad commute, just a smudge long.

The Chambers Hill area (Swatara Township) is in a great location to get you to near anywhere you need to go, while being away from the city just far enough to have your yards and quiet.

If you will be working at the Penn State Eastgate Center (on 7th Street, near uptown, in the City of Harrisburg), the Chambers Hill area would be very nearby and Middletown still also in a decent commuting location. That would also give you some additional options, like Susquehanna Township or the Linglestown area. But if you will be working at Penn State Harrisburg in Middletown, I'd suggest looking into that surrounding area first before branching out to Susquehanna Township or Linglestown, if only to avoid the annoying rush hour commutes from here to there.

I hope you enjoy working for Penn State Harrisburg! My father worked there so I grew up 'on campus', my first job was in their library, and I finished my undergrad degree there. It's a beautiful campus, the faculty are simply great and friendly, and the food they prepare in their cafeteria is yum delish!!

[hbgnewbie]

Thank you everybody. It's very nice of you answering my questions very quickly. I will be working in Middletown campus. I visited once Middletown, and did not get a very good first impression, but I will still keep that in mind when I come back and look for a place. Besides, I was told that Middletown produces its own electricity (or smth like that) and it is very expensive, they told me about electric bills ranging from $200 in summer to $400 in winter. That's why, I was asking for other places around.
Floor9 I am looking to pay smth around $1000, but not much more than that. If I find cheaper, I would be OK, also
Thank you again everybody.

[ki0eh]

Middletown Borough has its own electric distribution system, but not its own generating capacity. A couple of years back their electric bills went from very cheap to approximately the going rate for everyone else.

[DowntownHarrisburg]

Originally Posted by hbgnewbie

Floor9 I am looking to pay smth around $1000, but not much more than that. If I find cheaper, I would be OK, also

I don't think you'll have any problem with that. The reason I asked is that there's a brand new townhouse complex just off Eisenhower Blvd near the 283 / 76 interchange, but they're around $1200 and up. There are a number of townhouse-like rental communities around the intersection of Chambers Hill Road and PA-441. You'll have common / shared yards.

Take a look at Mod cut - no single place listings please in Middletown. All utilities are included, so the electric rate would be a non-issue. They run the gamut from one-bedroom apartments to house-like structures. Rent is around $950 - $1200 for two- and three-bedroom units.

[hbgnewbie]

Thank you very much. I will look at the places you suggested.
Thanks

[Bahagal]

Don't forget to look in the Hummelstown area. You could take back roads to Middletown (Fiddler's Elbow road to Fulling Mill to 441) and that would be a nice scenic commute. I lived in Middletown for the last 11 years, but have always preferred Hummelstown.