Need good advise (Allentown, Bethlehem, York: crime, how much, school)

[toobusytoday]

Well, you might as well just look at Southern Lehigh and Saucon Valley together then. Houses are usually listed according to school districts. The Promenade shops are in Southern Lehigh School district. What's your price range? The acreage is the part that adds cost. Most of the neighborhoods don't have an acre. BTW, we don't usually call them subdivisions. We like to pretend that the 20-50 houses clustered together and built at the same time just happened. Sub-division or development seems to bring to mind bulldozers tearing up trees and farmland.

[needgudhelp]

Our price range is $300,000 - $450,000. Sorry about the "subdivision" word, I'm from the south.
I don't want a cookie cutter home but I do want the new amenities..... granite counter tops, vaulted ceilings, large master bath...etc.

We are going to visit next weekend... if I had to pick three places to scope out should they be: Bethlehem, Lower Macungie and Saucon Valley???? I really do appreciate all the advise and help!!

[toobusytoday]

Lower Macungie is not a school district, it's a township.

You need a map of Lehigh county. If you're coming up here next weekend you should be able to pick one up at the airport if you're flying into Allentown. If not, go to a Giant grocery store or Walmart or Target once you get up here and look for the "Greater Lehigh Valley" bookmap from ADC. That will cover the whole area with Allentown pretty much at the center. It's higher priced then the average map but worth it's weight in gold when you start house hunting and getting lost. We have a gps, but still have a drawer full of bookmaps.

You will be able to find houses in your price range anywhere in the Lehigh Valley. Your acreage is going to be the limiting factor for finding something in a neighborhood. You might look for re-sale homes that have been updated for two reasons 1) better chance that your neighbors would be your age 2) there are more older homes with larger lots. New Construction with an acre or more in a neighborhood won't even start at $400,000. I think. The new house owners on this forum would probably know that better.

I tried to google a school district map so you could see the areas we are talking about but every one I looked at was a Realtors site and according to the TOS of this site, we can't post that.

You can certainly look at the three places you've mentioned but I'm not sure how Lower Macungie got into the mix. The school districts surrounding Allentown are: Whitehall-Coplay, Parkland, East Penn, Southern Lehigh and Salisbury. The other districts a little further out but still in Lehigh County are Catasauqua, Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh. Saucon Valley (where Hellertown is located) is in Northampton County and is usually associated more with Bethlehem then Allentown.

[needgudhelp]

One more question if you don't mind.....Can you explain "township" and "borough" I have noticed them used several times but I'm not understanding it.....We have counties, school districts and towns here in the south.

[toobusytoday]

I am also not native to PA, grew up in Delaware, moved around for about ten years with my husband but have lived about the last 20 here in PA with my family, so if I mess this up, hopefully a REAL Pennsylvanian can correct me.

Townships are areas within a county and are governed by a board of supervisors and sometimes a township manager. I think they don't usually have a town center. In the school district where I live we have two townships and a borough. A borough is a town and has a mayor and a town council. A borough is not within a township - it stands by itself.

When house hunting it seems easier to look by school district because that's how the houses are listed and then you can narrow it down by township or town. As you know, schools are the be-all, end-all for families.

Once you become more familiar with the names you'll know that East Penn School district is southwest of Allentown and comprises the towns of Albertus, Emmaus and Macungie and the township of Lower Macungie and maybe another one or two. Southern Lehigh school district, where I live, has the townships of Upper Saucon and Lower Milford and the borough of Coopersburg.

You will often hear people describe their school district as encompassing certain townships and towns/boroughs. It's quite confusing. The school districts themselves can have parts of different townships and boroughs to make it even more confusing.

[jeffvivian]

Pa state is broken down in to governing townships. these townships control ordinances like zoning. Because Townships can cover a large area, boroughs exist within the township and normally they are concentrated areas (you can think of them as very smaller cities) within the township.

In this case there is Upper Macungie Township & Lower Macungie Township but there is a borough of Macungie.

I hope this clears things up?

[toobusytoday]

But boroughs are not governed by townships, including the townships zoning rules because they have their own zoning and governing boards. I think I need a fourth grader to explain this better.

What school district is Upper Macungie township- Parkland?

[FLhereIcome]

Originally Posted by needgudhelp

if I had to pick three places to scope out should they be: Bethlehem, Lower Macungie and Saucon Valley???? I really do appreciate all the advise and help!!

Hellertown is a nice quiet town that borders on Bethlehem. There's not a whole lot in the way of entertainment, shopping, etc. but you are just down the road from Bethlehem and the Promenade Shops. It's about 20-25 minutes from Lake Nockamixon and close to boat launches along the Delaware River. I don't know if there's new construction in that area or not, but I know there are existing homes in your price range with the acreage you are looking for. Lower Macungie is probably about 50 minutes from Lake Nockamixon, I don't know anything about home prices/acreage in that area.

[jimmyrocks]

If you're into sailing or other non-motor boating, Lake Nockamixon is great. I believe there's a 20hp engine limit on it though. You won't see water skiers or jet skiers out there. There are lakes in the Poconos that you can use for that kind of stuff.

As far as municipalities in PA, it goes:
There are 67 Counties
townships are subdivisions of counties

boroughs are generally subdivided from one or two townships, and can span counties

cities are a larger version of a borough, and have a different government structure. Cities can be in two counties. In PA, only Bethlehem spans two counties.

villages are just names of areas, pretty much old neighborhoods

School districts can span across townships and cites and boroughs
here's the only map i could find:
School District Demographics System - Census 2000 Map Viewer

[jeffvivian]

Toobusy,

Boroughs can govern themselves, I am speaking on sheer existence however sometimes boroughs can lean on the Township for those regulations and approvals (such as zoning) but it is rare.

For example if someone searches for a home in Whitehall township that may not produces results for Coplay borogh because some searches recongnize Coplay as an independent area, some don't. But Coplay borough exists within Whitehall & North Whitehall Township.

And yes Upper Macungie is Parkland.

I hope this clears things up?