Luzerne county (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, York: real estate, mover, low crime)

[jrice]

On our visit to NePA this week the wife and I will be looking at a few homes in the Luzerne county area, 2 of the properties are in Fairmount township and another in the Butler township. Are these good areas? Are there any pros and cons to this county and towns?

[W-B proud]

Both areas are nice suburan areas. I think both are in the Crestwood school district (Butler Twp might be in Hazleton area school district). Crestwood is one of the top ranking school districts in the region, if you have children.

[WasPA]

Fairmount Towhship is a rural township in the area of Benton, Routes 118 & 239, near Huntington Township, etc. I believe that many if not all students attend Northwest Area H.S., a jointure north of Shickshinny on Rte. 239. Fairmount is near Rickett's Glen State Park, a beauty but the area is rural, magnificently so, yet not for everyone.....

Butler Townshp is in a beautiful section of Luzerne County, near Hazleton and the picturesque Conyngham Valley. It is semi-rural to small town in atmosphere......

You can obtain other facts, characteristics and history by doing a mini-search for "Butler Township PA" and for "Fairmount Township PA" by typing each into your url........or Yahoo/ orGoogle search engines....

[jrice]

Well our trip hasnt started out all that well, got to the Vegas airport and after sitting at the gate for 20 mins we were informed that we had too much fuel so they had to take some out--took an hour. Arrived in Cincinatti(spell) at 7:25 pm, and had a connecting flight to Scranton at 7:40pm--after running thru the airport with our 5 year old we were informed the flight was delayed due to weather. Around 10pm they announce the plane is on route and we should leave at 11:30, at 10:50 we were told the flight was cancelled due to the crew being over on time allowed working. So after fighting with the Delta rep we were told we could take a 7:35am flight to Philly and be driven to the airport in Scranton.

My wife is thinking perhaps this is a sign of things to come

[ScranBarre]

Oh dear! I'm sorry to hear about your negative experience thus far! This is the exact reason why if I do ever decide to relocate out of our area I'm only going as far away as I can still come home to visit friends and family via rail, bus, or car---the airline industry has just gone so far downhill over the years in service!

I'm sorry I didn't notice your thread before this morning, but I'd like to add that Fairmount Township is very rural and isolated. It's probably the most desolate community out of the 76 in Luzerne County. It is home to Ricketts Glen State Park, which features beautiful trails that run right beside some gorgeous waterfalls (including the 94' Ganoga Falls), and the quaint country hamlet of Red Rock, but you'd be about a half-hour or a bit more from shopping, dining, nightlife, etc. in either Wilkes-Barre or Bloomsburg, and probably about 40- or 45-minutes to Williamsport.

Butler Township is by far the fastest growing community in Luzerne County, being that the nearby city of Hazleton is now experiencing a "White Flight" as a very large Hispanic community moves into the city, so if you take an interest in a home there, be sure that you can verify the zoning status of nearby undeveloped land so that you won't end up with unwelcome neighbors in the future. We made that mistake here in the boom 'burb Pittston Township, where our home that was once bordered on two sides by trees is now home to a new home on one side and will be home to a regional shopping center on the other, increasing our pollution, noise, and traffic. As of right now Butler Township, which the locals know as Drums, is generally residential with an industrial park thrown in for good measure, but now that the community is nearing a population of 10,000 more retail, dining, etc. options may be on the way.

I've lived in Luzerne County my entire life, and while I'm more than likely going to settle down in nearby Lackawanna County (Scranton Area) to raise my family after college, this county isn't so bad. A reassessment for tax purposes has just occurred, so I wouldn't trust any property tax estimates you see with online real estate listings, as they would be subject to change with this current reassessment. Supposedly 1/3 of all property owners were supposed to see a tax increase, 1/3 a decrease, and 1/3 remain neutral, but at least where I live it seems more like 2/3 increase and 1/3 decrease. My grandmother's taxes just about doubled, my sister and brother-in-law's home went up by $1,200, and our home jumped by nearly $500. The reassessment was necessary though because so many properties were out-of-line, as it was the 1960s the last time a county-wide reassessment was done! Now market values should reflect property taxes---a 2-story home valued at $250,000 in Butler Township should be taxed at the same, per se, $4,500 as a $250,000 2-story home in Pittston Township.

You'll notice that people in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties are chronic whiners and Debbie Downers. We have very low crime, reasonable property taxes, reasonable wages (judging by all of the newer cars on our roadways), great shopping and dining options, a new casino (that will be opening this Thursday with high-end shopping and dining included), skiiing, concerts, minor-league sports, festivals, etc., yet in case you can't tell by this forum a number of people can only focus on the negatives---dirty politics from the good 'ole boy Democratic network, potholes, and "out-of-line" city taxes that are really only "average" in most educated people's eyes. People in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre might pay an average of $2,000 per year in property taxes on a typical home while whining that's "ludicrous," yet the same home in Northern New Jersey or Westchester County, New York might have property taxes of $7,000. Some people just don't realize how good they have it. I do, which is why I've chosen to stay locally (pending location of suitable employment), to raise my family, restore an older home, and become active in the community.

[WasPA]

^^^Whoa. desolate can be a useful depiction at times but not in the case of Fairmount Township, if I may."Desolate" would characterize the high Andes, maybe..... treeless, rocky and all but useless by virtue of its barren-ness. Fairmount Township is simply rural, with a population of about 2,000 spread out over many square miles.

[jetgraphics]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

You'll notice that people in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties are chronic whiners and Debbie Downers. We have very low crime, reasonable property taxes, reasonable wages (judging by all of the newer cars on our roadways), great shopping and dining options, a new casino (that will be opening this Thursday with high-end shopping and dining included), skiiing, concerts, minor-league sports, festivals, etc., yet in case you can't tell by this forum a number of people can only focus on the negatives---dirty politics from the good 'ole boy Democratic network, potholes, and "out-of-line" city taxes that are really only "average" in most educated people's eyes. People in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre might pay an average of $2,000 per year in property taxes on a typical home while whining that's "ludicrous," yet the same home in Northern New Jersey or Westchester County, New York might have property taxes of $7,000. Some people just don't realize how good they have it. I do, which is why I've chosen to stay locally (pending location of suitable employment), to raise my family, restore an older home, and become active in the community.

I must be a Chronic Whiner...

I relocated from the L.C. to Deep Dixie, and it's a whole 'nuther lifestyle.
3 Bd, 2 ba, 2 car garage, 1/2 acre lot : $89k, $600 year taxes. (Outside of Hot 'Lanta)
Mild winters, little snow. No salt on roads to rust out your car in 4 years.
Not unusual for car owners to keep theirs for 15-20 years. (which explains the proliferation of auto parts stores!)
Summer is a tad humid, but with A/C, who cares?

Like guns? Kennesaw has an ordinance that all home owners have to have guns (lowest burglary rate in state).

Atlanta metropolitan area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The area is the world's largest toll-free calling zone spanning 7162 square miles (100 miles in diameter, roughly).

Hartsfield Jackson Airport - It is the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic as well as landings and take-offs. Home of Delta airline. It has the world's busiest automated people mover, with over 64 million riders in 2002.

Nearby hydropower (TVA) and power co-ops keep electric bills down.

Atlanta Metro population is growing about 15% per year.