Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If you had to pick from Carbon, Pike or Monroe County, which would you pick?
Hi, I am looking into buying in house in one of the three counties. I can choose from. Carbon County, Monroe County and Pike County. My number one concern is crime. I am currently living in a crime heavy area and would like to live far away from this type of environment on my next move. Within these counties, are there areas that I should stay away from? I would prefer a quite, senior citizen heavy area. I don't even want to be surrounded by bad areas. I want to live in a neighborhood with a lot of land and greenery and the houses are not one on top of another.
I currently live in NY and have no idea about the geography of PA. Can someone also let me know about available public transportation in these areas as well as about the travel time by car from each of these counties. I also heard talks about some train that is being develope in the PA area to NYC and was wondering if any of these counties fall in the route of this train.
If anyone can shed any light on this matter it would be much appreciated. If anyone has any links that show crime statistics on these counties that would be wonderful too!
Between those counties, I would pick Pike. It's not really that urbanized yet as the other 2 counties you mentioned. Milford is a nice town in Pike county that isn't too far from the NY border and I-84. The train you speak off would run from Scranton to NY, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Most likely that would run through Monroe county into NJ. Hope that helps a little.
Thank you for those quick replies. Can you tell me why you didn't pick Monroe or Carbon? I want to learn as much as I can about the areas or PA as possible before I make this important decision.
I dont care for those two because of the excess population, too built up, school systems, crime, etc etc. There are some really nice rural areas in Pike, good schools, plenty of undeveloped land, etc.
Status:
"Pittsburgh: America's Most Livable City"
(set 23 days ago)
Location: Polish Hill, Pittsburgh, PA
23,755 posts, read 37,038,268 times
Reputation: 9105
Oops! I'm sorry! The title of your thread and the title of your poll are pretty much opposites, and I quickly voted for Pike County when I should have selected its neighbor to the South. Please disregard my vote! I thought the poll was to pick our favorite county.
Monroe County by far has the highest crime rate out of the three counties, but then again it also has a population much larger than the other two counties combined. Carbon County is relatively laid back, but there are also a lot of sleepy economically-depressed old coal towns there where drugs have begun to become a problem. The county seat of Jim Thorpe is cute as a button and is nicknamed the "Switzerland of Pennsylvania," but I've always found much of the rest of the county to be rather sad looking with a lot of unkempt rowhomes and vacant downtown storefronts. In the coming years I think Carbon County will rebound greatly as commuters from the Lehigh Valley continue to pour into Palmerton and Lehighton in search of inexpensive housing, people from Hazleton move to Weatherly and Tresckow to avoid the crime issues as of late that have been occurring there, and folks from Monroe County move to Lake Harmony, Albrightsville, and Jim Thorpe to get away from the increasing threat of urban sprawl. Pike County continues to be the fastest-growing county of the 67 counties in PA, but a large chunk of it remains unspoiled and rural. The western parts of the county near Greentown and La Anna should remain rural and tranquil for many years to come, while areas nearer to the Route 209 corridor, especially down near Bushkill and Dingman's Ferry, could become much more suburbanized within the next decade.
If you don't mind my asking though, why did you not include neighboring Wayne County, home to Hawley, Honesdale, Hamlin, Lake Ariel, and Waymart? This county has had the most sluggish growth out of the four counties in the Pocono region, which means urban sprawl and its accompanying crime and congestion will take the longest to affect it. Do you need to be a certain driving distance from Philadelphia, NJ, or NYC? Honesdale and Hawley are both cute, quaint small towns (check out my photo tours if you'd like), and I've always been shocked at how Wayne County (and much of Pike County) could continue to be so rural and unspoiled as Monroe County continues to explode in sprawl.
Oops! I'm sorry! The title of your thread and the title of your poll are pretty much opposites, and I quickly voted for Pike County when I should have selected its neighbor to the South. Please disregard my vote! I thought the poll was to pick our favorite county.
Monroe County by far has the highest crime rate out of the three counties, but then again it also has a population much larger than the other two counties combined. Carbon County is relatively laid back, but there are also a lot of sleepy economically-depressed old coal towns there where drugs have begun to become a problem. The county seat of Jim Thorpe is cute as a button and is nicknamed the "Switzerland of Pennsylvania," but I've always found much of the rest of the county to be rather sad looking with a lot of unkempt rowhomes and vacant downtown storefronts. In the coming years I think Carbon County will rebound greatly as commuters from the Lehigh Valley continue to pour into Palmerton and Lehighton in search of inexpensive housing, people from Hazleton move to Weatherly and Tresckow to avoid the crime issues as of late that have been occurring there, and folks from Monroe County move to Lake Harmony, Albrightsville, and Jim Thorpe to get away from the increasing threat of urban sprawl. Pike County continues to be the fastest-growing county of the 67 counties in PA, but a large chunk of it remains unspoiled and rural. The western parts of the county near Greentown and La Anna should remain rural and tranquil for many years to come, while areas nearer to the Route 209 corridor, especially down near Bushkill and Dingman's Ferry, could become much more suburbanized within the next decade.
If you don't mind my asking though, why did you not include neighboring Wayne County, home to Hawley, Honesdale, Hamlin, Lake Ariel, and Waymart? This county has had the most sluggish growth out of the four counties in the Pocono region, which means urban sprawl and its accompanying crime and congestion will take the longest to affect it. Do you need to be a certain driving distance from Philadelphia, NJ, or NYC? Honesdale and Hawley are both cute, quaint small towns (check out my photo tours if you'd like), and I've always been shocked at how Wayne County (and much of Pike County) could continue to be so rural and unspoiled as Monroe County continues to explode in sprawl.
I did the exact same............the title of the thread and the poll question were different..........
I love Monroe and then Carbon...........the best. So erase my vote too.
Status:
"Pittsburgh: America's Most Livable City"
(set 23 days ago)
Location: Polish Hill, Pittsburgh, PA
23,755 posts, read 37,038,268 times
Reputation: 9105
Quote:
Originally Posted by Summering
I did the exact same............the title of the thread and the poll question were different..........
I love Monroe and then Carbon...........the best. So erase my vote too.
It's nice to know I'm not the only one that had a senior moment.
Thank you for those quick replies. Can you tell me why you didn't pick Monroe or Carbon? I want to learn as much as I can about the areas or PA as possible before I make this important decision.
The reason why I love Monroe ( minus the areas of crime, and there are plenty areas without crime)
It is a great location for getting to just about anywhere in reasonable time.
This includes NYC, Philly, and the NJ and Delaware shore towns.
I love the shopping in Monroe, and its getting better all the time.
I also love that we have easy access to Easton and those Malls and stores.
The great Regal theater just off of route 22 is only 20 or less from me.
In that area also is Wegmans and Boscovs, Bon Tons......the wonderful
Palmer Mall.
I think we have good transportation here, Martz has lots of buses going in and out of our area.
The fact that we have Target, TJMax, Kohls, Lowes, Home Depot....that is good.
I love the Western End of Monroe, as there are good size pieces of land to abide on. Rather then being on a small lot crowded in.
Dogs are never an issue here, they have great properties to roam.
I dealt with route 15 while living in NJ and it was horrific 15 and 20 years ago, I can't imagine it now. It was just a slow paced tractor area, not made for all the commuters trying to get to NYC.
Another thing is that........I need Barnes and Noble by me, and Borders,
I also need the huge library by me. That is such an asset to our area.
The fact that I can go to Shop Rite or Mr Z's ...either...in 5 min. is wonderful.
I can't be so isolated from the things that are important to me.
( LOL, I didn't mean the grocery stores...were so important...)
I love that this area expands out to places like the Phillipsburg Mall, and other stores that way. It has such easy routes to get to Wilkes barre, Scranton, ......we're almost like a hub.
Carbon, I love because it also has great access to the above mentioned places. Its quiet, peaceful, with beautiful lots for homes. It is a soothing place to live. Yet.........take one back road.......and your in the Lehigh Mall area.......Just hang a left on McCarther Hwy......and your there.
The best of both Worlds........I think.
If you don't mind my asking though, why did you not include neighboring Wayne County, home to Hawley, Honesdale, Hamlin, Lake Ariel, and Waymart? This county has had the most sluggish growth out of the four counties in the Pocono region, which means urban sprawl and its accompanying crime and congestion will take the longest to affect it. Do you need to be a certain driving distance from Philadelphia, NJ, or NYC? Honesdale and Hawley are both cute, quaint small towns (check out my photo tours if you'd like), and I've always been shocked at how Wayne County (and much of Pike County) could continue to be so rural and unspoiled as Monroe County continues to explode in sprawl.
Thank you so much for that piece of info. The reason why I chose those 3 counties is because there is this home building company that only offers these 3 counties. You mentioned some of the other counties which I am intrigued to look into and you seem to be thinking on the same track as I am. I want to live somewhere quite, lots of greenery and predominately seniors. And definately stay that way for years to come. I definately don't want to be near any malls or areas of high traffic. I lived in the city all my life and I just want to get as far away from that environment as possible!
I don't mind travelling far. This house in PA will be my weekend/summer home, not a permanent place of living, at least not til I retire.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.