Future NE Penn. residents looking for personal opinions and experiences! (Carlisle: car insurance, new house)
Northeastern PennsylvaniaScranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 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.
PA has the highest Gas tax in the country and still has the worst roads; some infrastructure program . In addition some local school districts are going belly up and cant afford payrolls and are raising mills like crazy! PA is not the state to move to for tax breaks!
What are the freedoms? NEPA has a huge outmigration of the educated. Which hinders revitalization efforts, and also the corruption of the small local governments make improvements tough!
The small boroughs and cities in NEPA turning into a refuge for illegal immigrants and criminals from Jersey and Philly area to buy up or rent low cost older row homes and half doubles.
I'm comparing Wayne county pa. to sussex county nj.
pa has the freedom, low taxes and friendly people. Sussex does have lower fuel taxes and probably better roads. But your taxed to death here.
85 percent of nepa is just the dumping ground for criminals and raw sewage from the urban northeast. You still have some rare nice wooded area in Wayne and Pike Counties. But geez go further southeast the place is surrounded by coal banks, those ugly windmills, Cogeneration plants and depressing mountain laurels.
85 percent of nepa is just the dumping ground for criminals and raw sewage from the urban northeast. You still have some rare nice wooded area in Wayne and Pike Counties. But geez go further southeast the place is surrounded by coal banks, those ugly windmills, Cogeneration plants and depressing mountain laurels.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; which I stated before. 70 years here and no major problems; other than problems anybody can have no matter where they live. Here, in Monroe, I do not see coal banks and I do not see windmills - at least where I live. I do see plenty of wildlife every day; deer, wild turkeys, crows are plentiful and on some occasions we will see a bear. As far as "depressing mountain laurels" that says much about our differences. Currently I have a one and a half mile commute to work that I continue to do because I feel it is healthy to stay active. I pay our taxes and remain debt free by living within our means.
I hear others that miss the areas that they grew up in; of course we will have some that came here with expectations out of line with reality. You can blame misleading adds; but it is always buyer beware - do your homework and don't move to areas along side your "Cogeneration plants" (I haven't found one in my county).
I'm not sure this has been discussed, but have you considered renting for a year before committing to buying?
Yes, we have considered renting first and decided that it would be best to not rent first.
The main reason is that we plan to move during the children's summer break this time next year, thereby not disrupting too much in the way of their schooling. My husband comes from a military family and had to change schools/locations often and feels strongly about making as few moves as possible. We know that want to move to PA and put down roots immediately, settling the kids in an area/school/district they will remain in for the duration of their time before college.
As it is, we are concerned about them "fitting in" and finding their niche (not just socially), and feel that for our children, potentially moving AGAIN after a year of getting settled somewhere will do more harm than good. That's why we are doing so much work a year out.
My father is still living on the east coast and plans to do a lot of "leg-work" on our behalf, and we plan to take several trips out there during the kids' breaks to see things for ourselves. We feel fairly confident that wherever we choose to buy will be the best choice for our family because it will be the most informed, without having to possibly pack up and move yet again.
All of that being said, I am SO HAPPY to hear that you are looking to/able to move away now! It is such a relieving feeling to know that you are able to leave a place that is not good for you and yours. I speak 100% from experience on that one!
Of those two areas I going Wayne County, It's beautiful country up there and you've got Lake Wallenpaupack nearby. We visit that lake at least once a summer, it immense size reminds us of the ocean. We considered relocating there but for living in Wilkes Barre we really lucked out with a nice neighborhood high up at the top with a great view of the back mountain. If I was told I had to move though Wayne County would be high on the list.
Sounds SO wonderful!!! I am absolutely looking forward to being back in nature. We have a "lake" across the road from our development and its just... depressing. They were originally going to allow paddle boats and fishing, but decided the water was so polluted and nasty that it would be too much of a health risk. Now they won't even allow you to let your dogs take a dip! Its basically just runoff from the handful of storms we have here... Nothing but oil and nastiness from the roads... People try to make the best of it, and great for those that can... but it just makes me sad.
Sounds SO wonderful!!! I am absolutely looking forward to being back in nature. We have a "lake" across the road from our development and its just... depressing. They were originally going to allow paddle boats and fishing, but decided the water was so polluted and nasty that it would be too much of a health risk. Now they won't even allow you to let your dogs take a dip! Its basically just runoff from the handful of storms we have here... Nothing but oil and nastiness from the roads... People try to make the best of it, and great for those that can... but it just makes me sad.
The lakes are one of the reasons why we love our area. We have a very small pond on our property. However; 20 of us own a 35 acre lake not too far from our house (about fifteen minutes away). There is no storm runoff into our lake; it is mainly spring fed and over one mile from the nearest blacktop road. The only 'health risk' in our lake is dangling your toes in front of one of our forty five pound snapping turtles! So far everybody still has all their toes!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; which I stated before. 70 years here and no major problems; other than problems anybody can have no matter where they live. Here, in Monroe, I do not see coal banks and I do not see windmills - at least where I live. I do see plenty of wildlife every day; deer, wild turkeys, crows are plentiful and on some occasions we will see a bear. As far as "depressing mountain laurels" that says much about our differences. Currently I have a one and a half mile commute to work that I continue to do because I feel it is healthy to stay active. I pay our taxes and remain debt free by living within our means.
I hear others that miss the areas that they grew up in; of course we will have some that came here with expectations out of line with reality. You can blame misleading adds; but it is always buyer beware - do your homework and don't move to areas along side your "Cogeneration plants" (I haven't found one in my county).
I appreciate all of the responses I have gotten so far... even the negative ones... But I want to offer up some bit of perspective...
Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder...
Case in point, I would give just about anything to look out of a window and not see the side of my neighbor's house, or a large block wall... I would like to be able to have actual grass in my yard instead of rocks or "astro turf"! Our HOA forced us to tear up $1500 worth of grass IN OUR TINY BACK YARD because they claimed it was too close to the walls and the house... and watering it would waste precious water. (HOAs are pretty much the standard here too... so avoiding them is next to impossible unless you want to live in the REALLY bad areas).
I already relayed the state of our "lake" in a previous post... There are two "actual" lakes close by, but they are so polluted and dangerous... And my children have only been able to experience snow a handful of times since we lived here. We had to travel up into the mountains to an area where all of the residents go and had to wait in an obscene line just to take a sled down a hill once or twice. The snow wasn't even hearty enough to build a tiny snowman with. My children have never experienced a true fall or spring... and we have to drive over an hour just to see things that I could see just looking out of my window on a typical morning growing up.
Weather and nature aside... We live in what is considered a "really nice area", yet there was a dead body found just behind my children's elementary school a couple of months back. Some kids even got to see the bodybag being removed. At least once a week there is someone in my "safe" area who is on our Nextdoor app reporting a car was broken into, their home was broken into etc. Teachers molesting students in middle schools... Gangs, drugs, trafficking, rampant homelessness/poverty/addiction... you name it!
Still, there are people here who are OK with all of that and think that this place is perfect for them and their family. I can't get inside their heads and if they think its OK for their families then that is 100% their choice... I am choosing to get outta Dodge before it gets any worse and my children get wrapped up in the fray. They deserve to be around LIFE and BEAUTY!
We were forced to come here for lack of options when my husband was medically discharged from the military... We tried to make the best of it... but now that we have the means to go we are going and we are going to make the best of wherever it is that we land. Pennsylvania has everything we feel we need... now its just a matter of finding a school that will help them develop into good, intelligent, social human beings, in an area where they can see that nature is beautiful, accessible and not something to hide from. I want them to be able to see the leaves change and experience things that my husband and I did as children... Rather than be cooped up inside 6 months out of the year because of the relentless heat, dust storms, poor air quality and general unhappiness from its transient occupants.
Perspective is everything... I want the very best for my kids and will do my best to give them a life and environment that is far from this place...
I guess what I'm saying is that while I appreciate the negatives and take them with a grain of salt, I would like to convey that FOR US, there is little chance that, aside from some areas, it will be worse than what we are living in now... I want to know about good and bad schools... and dangerous areas... but we know in our hearts that where we are focusing our attention is where we will thrive as a family unit.
I just hope that for all of you who are clearly quite unhappy, you find that peace of mind and/or peace of home that EVERYONE deserves... wherever that may be.
Rant over!
Have a great day everyone.
Last edited by MamaDee333; 06-13-2017 at 01:25 PM..
The lakes are one of the reasons why we love our area. We have a very small pond on our property. However; 20 of us own a 35 acre lake not too far from our house (about fifteen minutes away). There is no storm runoff into our lake; it is mainly spring fed and over one mile from the nearest blacktop road. The only 'health risk' in our lake is dangling your toes in front of one of our forty five pound snapping turtles! So far everybody still has all their toes!
Actually me and my sisters are selling our mother's land that has a stream, pond and waterfalls on it's 14.83 acres. But with buying the property and building a house you would be well over your projected limit. Also the property taxes in Monroe would be steep on any 'nice' new house - but there would still be enough acreage left to keep it in 'Clean and Green'.
Several years ago I found one house that I liked down in Perry County (south/central PA). It had 8 acres and one nice trout stream through the middle of the property. The house and land was listed around $150K. But my wife loves our house and we do like our area - regardless of what others think. At that time my trucking job had moved down to Carlisle and I also liked that area. Perhaps I just liked the food - truckers do that! In the long run we are glad that we did not move.
I just wanted to toss in one other plus for our area - the weather. We are far enough inland that most hurricanes are tempered by our hills. It isn't that they cannot affect us; but no where near as bad as living on the coast. Our hills also protect most of our area from tornadoes. Yes; we have had some - but it is not the norm and usually they only hit some of our valleys. We have never had a bad earthquake; just a rumble from many, many miles away. Some places in our Country have these worries all the time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 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.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 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.
People try to make the best of it, and great for those that can... but it just makes me sad. 
