Moving to Allentown, Pa (Bethlehem, Easton: sales, real estate, 2014)

[jwash67]

Hello, all; I am thinking of moving to Allentown, Pa.; I am black and my wife is Asian Indian and Thai Laotian. What are the best areas to fine a rental home near the New Jersey border? My family lives in New Jersey? Oh, I can afford any rental home in the price range of: 1,450-1,750, no children except for a 21 year old.

[Love2Golf09]

The closest town to NJ is Easton. It is right across the river from NJ. You can look for a home in Palmer Twp or Wilson Borough. Palmer Heights is in Palmer Twp and is pretty decent. You have to really do your homework though because most of Easton is pretty rough. I'm not sure why you mentioned your race, but if you've looked into some places already then you know that Palmer is about 96% white or so, but I've never heard of any severe racial issues. If you are ok with living a little farther away in Allentown, then I'd suggest you look into Whitehall. There are a lot of townhouses in your price range off of MacArthur Rd and a lot near the Wegmans too. You could probably find a good bit of nice homes in Lower Macugnie also.

[toobusytoday]

Do you work in the Phillipsburg area? Is that what you mean by the NJ border? We generally don't suggest that people move into Center city Allentown because there is a lot of crime. If you want to live in a city, then you should check out Bethlehem, it's the nicest of the three cities in the Lehigh Valley. If you fill out the new residents questionnaire at the top of this forum, you will probably get better answers.

[LifetimeLocal]

Why would you rent and spend 1,400 - 1,700? You could find a house/apt for under 1k easily. It amazes me that people would not do there homework and spend that kind of money for rent? That would qualify you to buy a 250,00k - 300,000k for that price range. If you want to throw money away then make someone who's about to get foreclosed on happy and spend away. When we rented I tried to use common sense and I know for a fact you can rent a nice home in any of the so-called better school districts like Parkland, East Penn, Saucon Valley etc for under 1k easy. While I would not be buying a home in this market if we didnt own already there is no way I would be throwing away money on renting something just to keep up with the Jones family.

Some people might not be aware that the Lehigh Valley experienced the same housing bubble that's currently sent our great nation into a depression. Prices more than doubled in our region during the bubble years and now prices are down around 30-40% depending on who you listen to. The local realtors who might as well be the writers for the morning call(local paper) tell you it's around 30% off peak. Anyone who knows house salesman will agree they try and paint the pretty picture because they are driven by sales. I would guess by simply knowing this area that prices are down a minimum of 40% and still going until it's back to pre 2000 levels and closer to 1995 prices before the bottom can be called. In fact I just helped out my cousin who lives in Emmaus move. He was paying $720 a month for a 2bedroom 2bath apartment in Emmaus but just moved into a 1/2 house off Chestnut street with 3 bedrooms 1 1/2 baths for $700 a month. There are so many properties for rent and prices of rentals are falling too. His new place was not listed in the paper(rip off) and not online but simply with a sign and word of mouth. That's how most rentals are because it keeps out the riff raff! It's silly reading about people moving here and paying all the money. That's why I home you spend a day or two simply driving around the towns you would like to live and I promise you without a doubt you can find a great place for way under 1k a month. Hell even the apartment Dougie left is cheap compared to what you're talking about. That place he left must be around 1,000 sq ft and the tenants and landlord were great. The landlord actually helped him move and a few others in the building helped out also.

Do your homework and save yourself lots of money. Until the average price of a Lehigh Valley home is back to 100k or less it's definately better to rent. It took over 5 years for prices to double so it will most likely be a few more years until the prices are back to normal. Check out this website to stay current of the housing/credit crisis. If not you cant say you didn't know like all these foreclosure people crying they didnt know there loan was going to increase, lol! They knew but simply thought they couldnt lose because the house salesman said "Prices always go up", "Better buy now or be priced out forever", "They aren't making anymore land"(except in Dubai and they are going down quick).

Housing Crash Continues

[valentine92]

Originally Posted by LifetimeLocal

Why would you rent and spend 1,400 - 1,700? You could find a house/apt for under 1k easily. It amazes me that people would not do there homework and spend that kind of money for rent? That would qualify you to buy a 250,00k - 300,000k for that price range. If you want to throw money away then make someone who's about to get foreclosed on happy and spend away. When we rented I tried to use common sense and I know for a fact you can rent a nice home in any of the so-called better school districts like Parkland, East Penn, Saucon Valley etc for under 1k easy. While I would not be buying a home in this market if we didnt own already there is no way I would be throwing away money on renting something just to keep up with the Jones family.

Some people might not be aware that the Lehigh Valley experienced the same housing bubble that's currently sent our great nation into a depression. Prices more than doubled in our region during the bubble years and now prices are down around 30-40% depending on who you listen to. The local realtors who might as well be the writers for the morning call(local paper) tell you it's around 30% off peak. Anyone who knows house salesman will agree they try and paint the pretty picture because they are driven by sales. I would guess by simply knowing this area that prices are down a minimum of 40% and still going until it's back to pre 2000 levels and closer to 1995 prices before the bottom can be called. In fact I just helped out my cousin who lives in Emmaus move. He was paying $720 a month for a 2bedroom 2bath apartment in Emmaus but just moved into a 1/2 house off Chestnut street with 3 bedrooms 1 1/2 baths for $700 a month. There are so many properties for rent and prices of rentals are falling too. His new place was not listed in the paper(rip off) and not online but simply with a sign and word of mouth. That's how most rentals are because it keeps out the riff raff! It's silly reading about people moving here and paying all the money. That's why I home you spend a day or two simply driving around the towns you would like to live and I promise you without a doubt you can find a great place for way under 1k a month. Hell even the apartment Dougie left is cheap compared to what you're talking about. That place he left must be around 1,000 sq ft and the tenants and landlord were great. The landlord actually helped him move and a few others in the building helped out also.

Do your homework and save yourself lots of money. Until the average price of a Lehigh Valley home is back to 100k or less it's definately better to rent. It took over 5 years for prices to double so it will most likely be a few more years until the prices are back to normal. Check out this website to stay current of the housing/credit crisis. If not you cant say you didn't know like all these foreclosure people crying they didnt know there loan was going to increase, lol! They knew but simply thought they couldnt lose because the house salesman said "Prices always go up", "Better buy now or be priced out forever", "They aren't making anymore land"(except in Dubai and they are going down quick).

Housing Crash Continues

I hope you are wrong in that prices will drop to 100k. I personally hope that doesn't happen. Homes going back to 1995 prices would be very scary for the economy here. Did you read this somewhere? I would like to read some information regarding this subject if you have any information it would be appreciated!

[LifetimeLocal]

Originally Posted by valentine92

I hope you are wrong in that prices will drop to 100k. I personally hope that doesn't happen. Homes going back to 1995 prices would be very scary for the economy here. Did you read this somewhere? I would like to read some information regarding this subject if you have any information it would be appreciated!

If after viewing this graph it should be very clear that prices are heading towards the mid 90's. It's just common sense. What goes up always comes down. This data is compiled since housing stats were tracked. Common sense should have told people that this was coming but greed won again and now people are all claiming stupid. Responsible home owners like myself who didnt use the false equitity that came almost overnight are fine and will almost always agree with me. Those who purchased during the bubble years or used the fake equitity to simply blow it are the ones who disagree. Oh and of course the used house salesman will not want the truth to be told but that's sales for ya!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...aph2.large.gif

Here is a website that is updated daily with real articles telling the truth about housing and the credit bubble.

Housing Crash Continues

The above site patrick.net is probably the best but there are a few others that are good also.

The Housing Bubble Blog

New Jersey Real Estate Report

[LifetimeLocal]

Originally Posted by valentine92

I hope you are wrong in that prices will drop to 100k. I personally hope that doesn't happen. Homes going back to 1995 prices would be very scary for the economy here. Did you read this somewhere? I would like to read some information regarding this subject if you have any information it would be appreciated!

Why would it be hard to believe? History has shown this time and time again to always happen. This bubble makes all the others in previous history seem like a walk in the park. Trust me prices are already down 30-40% off the peak. Here's how it breakdowns

2000-Average home in lehigh valley was around 100k
2007-Average home in lehigh valley was around 235k
2010-Average home in lehigh valley is around 170k(I think it's around 150k)

2012 -2014 Prices are going to be at minimum average of 100k but I think it's going to be around 85k.

[LifetimeLocal]

Estimated median house or condo value in 2008: $215,300 (it was $112,100 in 2000)
[LEFT]Lehigh County: $215,300Pennsylvania: $164,700[/LEFT]
Lower value quartile - upper value quartile: $147,700 - $297,700

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/county/Lehigh_County-PA.html#ixzz0gss0RAsG

These figures are a little off but close to what I stated. That's straight from this website.

[LifetimeLocal]

[LEFT]Place of birth for U.S.-born residents:[/LEFT]

• This state: 226086
• Northeast: 33319
• Midwest: 7361
• South: 11159
• West: 3467

[LEFT]Median price asked for vacant for-sale houses in 2000: $85,800[/LEFT]


Read more: http://www.city-data.com/county/Lehigh_County-PA.html#ixzz0gstPNHMR

Thats the stat that's around what our values were. We are in trouble, BIG TROUBLE! Let me rephrase that, people that made horrible choices are in BIG TROUBLE and anyone who works in the housing sector is ****

[valentine92]

LifeTimeLocal - Thank you for all the links and information. This is a bit shocking to me, especially since we bought our home in 2002. I guess I was hoping that my home wouldn't depreciate more than what I paid for it, but it looks like if this pans out we will be loosing quite a bit of money.