Should I move to Williamsport? (Scranton, Hazleton: rentals, mortgage, house)

[billtownrocks]

Loyalsock Rocks. Do not move to Montour.

....I am going to return one day for my 2nd retirement home. In the meantime I have to continue building my multimillion dollar empire in Los Angeles.

[ShadowCaver]

Originally Posted by billtownrocks

Loyalsock Rocks. Do not move to Montour.

....I am going to return one day for my 2nd retirement home. In the meantime I have to continue building my multimillion dollar empire in Los Angeles.

Why the good regarding Loyalsock?

Why the negative concerning Montour?

Good luck in LA

[Dawne]

Yeah, Billtownrocks, why the diss on Montoursville?

Montoursville and Loyalsock have many similarities in their school systems. Both are excellent, but Loyalsock has Pennvale (the local "projects") so perhaps there's more of a swing to extremes in socio-economic status.

I will say that if you want multicultural, then Montoursville is not the place to be. It's a very "white" town, with very few minorities, if any. The only time we saw kids of color when I was growing up was when we had a foreign exchange student from a South or Central American country. However, I do feel we were taught to be tolerant and open to all people and I never felt that the people around me were racist in any way.

[alliu23]

Originally Posted by Big Muncy

I'd stay away from communities who I feel still have more of a backwoods mentality as well.....i.e. Montgomery, Warrior Run, Jersey Shore......

c'mon.. we aren't that bad

[billtowner]

All in all Williamsport PA and surrounding area are a very nice place to raise a family.

I grew up in Florida and I find Williamsport (PA in general) is far behind much of the rest of the world, 10 years or so. But that said, it is cheap to live here, crime is low and it's close to many places.

If you can live in Williamsport and do business elsewhere you have it made.

[nevermovehere]

never move to lycoming county. lets just say that the gene pool never gets any new donors.

moving from the lehigh valley to williamsport seemed like a good idea. just out of college and that is where the job took us.
the 1st year wasnt too bad, you could tell the cleaner sections from the trash and the ghetto. people werent too friendly (we are white and clean), but figured that we havent met the right people. working with the public everyday was a good way to see how the people were.


let me tell you, if you do not look like you are from lycoming county, people are more rude. again refer to the 2nd sentence.

i can understand being rude to people from the ghetto or the usual trash, but being an outsider being nice and polite, rudeness was all that was received.


in 5 years i have met a handful of nice people, they were truly nice.


drivers, there are a lot of people killed up there, crossing the highways and running red lights.

you actually have to be very very aware and fear for your life as you drive thru the area.

and please keep your own kind in lycoming county, i can spot you in philadelphia allentown and harrisburg.

always hanging out in the passing lane holding up traffic, or going so slow looking for your destination. if you want to be incognito so people have no clue where you are from? remove your "potter county" license plates and also the dealer trim plates from your favorite fairfield or alexander dealership.


property values are not improving, so do not plan on buying in this century long stagnant area.


people are not moving to these area.


my place of work i would see many people in a day.

i could always tell who was from out of the area, mostly by their normal and slim looks.

i would ask them(without saying anything positive or negative about the area) what they thought of the area and people.

i kid you not, the exact answer i would get: people are rude and very unhappy, and there is also nothing to do. you get teh nothing to do in a lot of areas to be fair.


the wife and i did not want to have kids and have them grow up in that area. we want them to grow up in an upperclass environment which was lacking in williamsport area.

the biggest insult you can do to an area is to spend your hard-earned dollars out of the area you live and work.

we made it a point to purchase vehicles and autoparts out of the area, also furniture would be trucked in. the only thing we would purchase was groceries and occasionally gas. unfortunately we had to pay our overweight disgusting landlord rent, but we were very clean so anything we did would improve their property.


thankfully we did not have a house to sell in williamsport, so moving was easy


now, back in a metro area, we are much happier and have many places to choose to shop and eat(which w-port lacked)

even in this poor housing market our house is appreciating in value, met more friendly people in one month than in 5 years.


not a rant but a very good observation and experience in williamsport.

if you need nice people and nice areas to live don't move to lycoming county. if you like the wilderness and slow people this is the place for you and make sure you bring your miserable attitude and you will love this

[ScranBarre]

Once again I am inclined to disagree. I was a tourist to Williamsport earlier this year for my photo tour, and I was so impressed by the friendliness of everyone there that I plan to return to do a second photo tour in 2008 of areas I missed, like the Grampian area in the north of town, Penn College of Technology, Faxon, and Newberry. I've even met some very friendly people from New Jersey, a state notorious for its jerks, so if you found that the majority of people in Williamsport were hostile and distant, then perhaps you simply rubbed them the wrong way? I was so pleased with the friendliness of my waitress and the Bullfrog Brewpub as well that I left her a VERY generous tip---most servers here in Greater Scranton are like "Whaddya guys want?"

The only credit I'll give you is that the people in Williamsport had a really rude staring problem that grated on my nerves. I'd snap a photo of a historic home and then turn around to see several cars at a red light with every neck craned in my direction with unblinking eyes like I was a piece of meat. Those people have all been very friendly folks, but apparently nobody ever told them that staring at people isn't proper behavior. (I guess they were just shocked to see a tourist in town and didn't know how to react).

All in all besides the rude staring my visit to Williamsport was nothing but positive and met with smiles and politeness. I find it hard to believe that everyone in the town just banded together to ostracize you, especially since I too was an "outsider," and had no such problems.

[nevermovehere]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

so if you found that the majority of people in Williamsport were hostile and distant, then perhaps you simply rubbed them the wrong way?


All in all besides the rude staring my visit to Williamsport was nothing but positive and met with smiles and politeness. I find it hard to believe that everyone in the town just banded together to ostracize you, especially since I too was an "outsider," and had no such problems.

1. no, live there and you will have a different view. i was very polite

2. no one "banded" together to **** me off, i know of about 4 dozen professional people who say the exact same thing, who moved to the area for jobs from all sections of the state. i am well educated and pretty well rounded and have dealt with the public for almost 20 years.

good luck on your next visit

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by nevermovehere

1. no, live there and you will have a different view. i was very polite

2. no one "banded" together to **** me off, i know of about 4 dozen professional people who say the exact same thing, who moved to the area for jobs from all sections of the state. i am well educated and pretty well rounded and have dealt with the public for almost 20 years.

good luck on your next visit

This is sad to hear. I'll still be sure to visit again in 2008 for my next photo tour, and I hope I don't bump into any of these folks who made you feel so uncomfortable and unwelcomed. Good luck in wherever you live now.

[nevermovehere]

damn the edit owned me. well i was going to add, that when we were house shopping we came across a house that had a stream in the backyard. i was curious if the neighbors would know how much the stream flooded.
so we walked to their property and asked them about the property. after we told them that we temporarily lived in williamsport, but also added that we are from coal country, and us not prompting them, they mentioned how rude people were there.


you know what people from lycoming county call coal crackers?(people from coal country) coal n*ggers. pretty inbred if you ask me. i am white