Relocating to Breinigseville, PA (Allentown, Emmaus: new home, school districts, college)

[jerseygirl63]

My husband is relocating to Breinigsville, PA which he was told is not to far from Allentown. We were told to look for homes in Emmaus and Macungie. My main concern is the school system. Also, we would to get a house between the $350-400,000 range. How far are these areas from where he is being relocated and are there places to shop since we are coming from an area where we have to travel at leat 1/2 hour to get to a mall. Thank you

[Lehigh Valley Native]

You are going to be looking at areas in the East Penn school district (Emmaus and parts of macungie) or Parkland School district (parts of macungie). Both schools are very good choices and you will not be dissapointed, although they are both very large districts. Parkland does a little better in testing scores than East Penn, but East Penn is not as large. Parkland has a very good athletic program and on Saturday the football team will be playing for the state title.
From either school district you are as close as 5 minutes from Breinigsville to at most 20 or 30 minutes depending on traffic.
You won't have to drive far for any type of shopping, everything is within a few minutes drive. You will have three malls within 10-20 minutes, depending on where you live.
Your housing price range is inline for newer suburban housing development. Many small towns are within these two districts, but they are very suburban areas.
If you want a more city feel, you can live in the west end of Allentown (Parkland S.D.) housing starts around 300k and goes up from there. The houses are older colonials, on well maintained tree lined streets.
Parkland School District, Allentown, PA - Grades K-12
East Penn School District

[toobusytoday]

To compare the school districts, go to SchoolMatters - Home. Another comparison factor are the amount of AP classes offered by the High Schools. This link https://apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/ shows you the number of teachers certified to teach AP classes. Southern Lehigh, a smaller school district (mine!) is also within commuting distance and well regarded. Homes are a little pricer but you would be well able to afford them. The second link will ask you for the HS name. In East Penn, it's Emmaus HS and Parkland in Parkland School District and Southern Lehigh in Center Valley.

[KristyLiz]

Congratulations on the relocation!

We just moved to Lower Macungie in october and love te area! We looked at several new housing developments in Breinigsville (one by Pulte, Heritage and THP) - the houses were nice, but the lots were small and I did not like the location of Fogelsville elementary which is where my boys would be going to school, and because the parkland district is so big, we were far from the very impressive new high school.

We ended up in Lower Macungie (just a few miles away), because we were able to get a little over a half acre lot and were in the East Penn district where the schools were closer to our home.

Everyone in our development has been so welcoming - the bulk of the people I have met are from NJ or NY, so being from Long Island, I felt right at home (no one laughs at how I talk ).

We got a 3250 sq ft new home for high $400's, but you can certainly find a new or resale home in your price range.

Please feel free to direct message me if you have more questions - I know how hard it is to relocate when you don't know the area - I just went through it. Best of luck!

[Lehigh Valley Native]

Originally Posted by KristyLiz

because the parkland district is so big, we were far from the very impressive new high school.

Did you ever go inside the High School? The auditorium is bigger than most college ones. The library is huge, and the pool is amazing. They even have an art gallery.
It is a well designed school. But the downside is, in such a huge district it can be a 20-30 minute drive from the outlying areas of the district.

[jerseygirl63]

Originally Posted by KristyLiz

Congratulations on the relocation!

We just moved to Lower Macungie in october and love te area! We looked at several new housing developments in Breinigsville (one by Pulte, Heritage and THP) - the houses were nice, but the lots were small and I did not like the location of Fogelsville elementary which is where my boys would be going to school, and because the parkland district is so big, we were far from the very impressive new high school.

We ended up in Lower Macungie (just a few miles away), because we were able to get a little over a half acre lot and were in the East Penn district where the schools were closer to our home.

Everyone in our development has been so welcoming - the bulk of the people I have met are from NJ or NY, so being from Long Island, I felt right at home (no one laughs at how I talk ).

We got a 3250 sq ft new home for high $400's, but you can certainly find a new or resale home in your price range.

Please feel free to direct message me if you have more questions - I know how hard it is to relocate when you don't know the area - I just went through it. Best of luck!

I can't thank you enough for all of your info, especially since you just went through this. This has been very helpful to me. It is just so nice to know that there are other folks out there that have been through this and have so much to offer on the area and the schools. Thank you again.

[jerseygirl63]

Originally Posted by Lehigh Valley Native

You are going to be looking at areas in the East Penn school district (Emmaus and parts of macungie) or Parkland School district (parts of macungie). Both schools are very good choices and you will not be dissapointed, although they are both very large districts. Parkland does a little better in testing scores than East Penn, but East Penn is not as large. Parkland has a very good athletic program and on Saturday the football team will be playing for the state title.
From either school district you are as close as 5 minutes from Breinigsville to at most 20 or 30 minutes depending on traffic.
You won't have to drive far for any type of shopping, everything is within a few minutes drive. You will have three malls within 10-20 minutes, depending on where you live.
Your housing price range is inline for newer suburban housing development. Many small towns are within these two districts, but they are very suburban areas.
If you want a more city feel, you can live in the west end of Allentown (Parkland S.D.) housing starts around 300k and goes up from there. The houses are older colonials, on well maintained tree lined streets.
Parkland School District, Allentown, PA - Grades K-12
East Penn School District

Thank you so much for all of this information. It has been very helpful.

[toobusytoday]

The Parkland high school is very impressive. I went there to see my daughter at a county chorus event and the auditorium was very nice. A friend of mine just student taught in one of the middle schools and really enjoyed the experience. She said that the school was well run. They have a unique system in place to help each child self-diagnose their weak spots on the state run PSSA's and then drills to help them master that. To me that sounded like teaching to the test but then again, if they were weak in an area, it's good to figure it out and fix it. All in all, if you want a large HS, both Emmaus and Parkland are very good.

[suppleec]

Originally Posted by jerseygirl63

My husband is relocating to Breinigsville, PA which he was told is not to far from Allentown. We were told to look for homes in Emmaus and Macungie. My main concern is the school system. Also, we would to get a house between the $350-400,000 range. How far are these areas from where he is being relocated and are there places to shop since we are coming from an area where we have to travel at leat 1/2 hour to get to a mall. Thank you

Hello, I hear certain parts of Allentown are really nice.

[jerseygirl63]

Originally Posted by KristyLiz

Congratulations on the relocation!

We just moved to Lower Macungie in october and love te area! We looked at several new housing developments in Breinigsville (one by Pulte, Heritage and THP) - the houses were nice, but the lots were small and I did not like the location of Fogelsville elementary which is where my boys would be going to school, and because the parkland district is so big, we were far from the very impressive new high school.

We ended up in Lower Macungie (just a few miles away), because we were able to get a little over a half acre lot and were in the East Penn district where the schools were closer to our home.

Everyone in our development has been so welcoming - the bulk of the people I have met are from NJ or NY, so being from Long Island, I felt right at home (no one laughs at how I talk ).

We got a 3250 sq ft new home for high $400's, but you can certainly find a new or resale home in your price range.

Please feel free to direct message me if you have more questions - I know how hard it is to relocate when you don't know the area - I just went through it. Best of luck!

We recently started searching for homes in the Macungie area and I am so confused. Do you think you get more for your money in Lower Macungie, because some of the homes we had lloked out really did not have a lot of land and when we went to see two homes in Upper Macungie they seemed to have more land. You seem like you did alot of research and I wuold relaly appreciate all of your advice that you can give me. Also, are there any homes in your development still available, since you seemed to get a really large lot. thanks