Best and Worst Towns in PA (Pittsburgh, Allentown: mortgage, gated, mcmansions)

[pamomtwins]

We live in so-called "Main Line " area, which includes Bryn Mawr College and is also close to both King-of-Prussia and downtown. Reading is about 1 - 1.5 hr drive from us (do not know exactly).
I think your best bet is Malvern, which has pretty good public schools, or Paoli. Bryn Mawr is expensive, but closer to the city. The best scool districts are: Lower Merion school District (from Merion to Villanove), Radnor School District (from Villanova to west down the Lancaster ave) and Tredyffin (Wayne and farther. Haverford school district is OK, but not as good (or so I've heard when we were buying a house). If you'd like a community setting with small "downtown", the best ones are Narberth, Bryn Mawr and Wayne. Have heard good things about Malvern, but have not been there so far. My co-workers always praise the school district there (I think it has a website). We live in Lower Merion school district, which is excellent.
Moving from Florida, it would be hard to adjust to rural areas like Collegeville and Pottstown. I love Pottstown, but it is as rural as you can get. Cheap, too.

Good luck!

[KristinaH]

Thanks to all of you for your helpful opinions and suggestions. We arrived in PA on Saturday and have just begun to explore. We ended up in Thorndale just west of the Downingtown city limits. So far, we love it. We are so close to everything, yet we are still in a small town. The drive to Reading is about 45mins and about 1.5hours to Philly. We are very happy that we made this move.

[rainrock]

Good luck and take advantage of this freakishly warm weather while you can.

[PlainJane]

Downingtown Area School District is quite large and is primarily an upper middle class area with a per-hosehold income around 100 thousand dollars. The borough of Downingtown is not as wealthy but is certainly soldly middle class. The areas of Chester Springs, Exton & Lionville have great new housing and your 500,000K limit would get you a nice, bewer home with all the amenities. You might also want to consider Guthriesville, Eagle and those areas which are more rural but still part of Downingtown area school district. For a "small town" feel I would recommend Boyertown area (Berks County) but that is far from Philly.

You won't find small school districts in the Philadelphia metropolitan area but most districts have "neighborhood" elementary schools and then combine these schools at the middle or high school level. I have been delighted with my children's education at Downingtown and would recommend highly this district. I came here from a suburb closer to Philly and love the topography of the area. Take a drive around and see for yourself.

[carolinajack]

Reading, although there have been growing immigration to Reading by latinos, still Reading and York have the reputation of being Klan land, with an incident a few years back where I KKK member and official harrassed a Jewish mother who was a journalist there and here bi racial daughter.

[mansour]

what's a safe place to move in pa that 's family oriented town ?

tahnks

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by mansour

what's a safe place to move in pa that 's family oriented town ?

tahnks

Mechanicsburg, or pretty much anywhere in Cumberland County.

[Cougargm]

Waymart in NE PA is a great family town. It's small, about 1500 residents, and it seems as if most everyone knows everyone else. WHen you go to the supermarket, you run into ten people you know to say hi to or chat with (and there are only 15 in the store-LOL). The town has an old time small town America feel to it, with a Flag Day parade that involves half the town, with the other half lining the streets. At Halloween local vendors donate hot dogs, cider, hot chocolate,etc and much of the town gathers at the park for the food while trick or treating. The local Methodist church hosts a dinner social every Saturday night, and locals from all denominations come together for dinner, and the 'fee' is whatever donation you want to make.
The town has a supermarket, a few gas stations, pharmacy, a few small restaurant/pizzeria joints ( (Waymart) Hotel pizza is a real treat and something everyone needs to try!), etc. Honesdale is only ten miles away and has been described earlier in this thread. It has a SuperWalmart, K-Mart, Home Depot, YMCA, hospital, fast food joints, bowling alley, movie theater, etc, so those conveniences are close by. For 'bigger shopping', like department stores, the mall, etc, Dickson City is about a half hr away. Yet right outside of Waymart one can spot deer, turkey, etc on a frequent basis. It has a Mayberry type feel but is near urban conveniences. No doubt there are other family oriented towns but Waymart has to be among those at the top of the list

[toobusytoday]

Masour,
PA is a big state! Will you be commuting to NJ? If I wasn't concerned about schools or a job I would move an hour further west into the state and live in the country.

When my husband worked in King of Prussia we lived in Delaware and Chester counties. Everywhere we have lived has been pretty much family oriented assuming that means churches, good schools, boy and girl scouts, soccer, etc.

[42 year Lititz resident]

Originally Posted by KristinaH

My husband and I are looking at relocating to Pennsylvania from Florida. My husband's company is in Reading, PA. My company is in downtown Philly, although I will only be in the office a few times a month. I’ve done a lot of research on Reading and it looks like a pretty frightening place. The crime seems to be really bad and I haven’t found a single person with a nice thing to say about the city. I do need to stay within a forty five minute to an hour drive from Reading though, so that my husband doesn’t have a ridiculous commute, especially in winter.

We do not have children, so schools aren’t really an issue, though they may be some day. We couldn’t care less whether our neighbors are farmers with beat up old pickup trucks or Mercedes driving white collar professionals. If I had to choose, we would prefer a nice working class, family oriented community with above average houses and schools. I would like to be relatively close to shopping and health care, and would like to stay within the areas that are not too rural (aka, the roads are plowed regularly in winter), but all that I need within a fifteen drive is a grocery store. We would however like to have at least an acre of land, so we don’t want to go too close to the city. What’s really important to me is to find an area that is safe.

We are looking for housing in the 500K range, but certainly wouldn’t mind a more affordable neighborhood. I’ve done some research on Norristown and Downingtown and both of those cities seem nice. It’s hard to tell till we get there and have a look around. We will be there in two weeks and are hoping to narrow down are search to a few neighborhoods to look at.

Can anyone give me a list of the very best and very worst areas in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Lehigh, Berks or Lancaster counties. Especially along Route 422, 30 or 76!

All suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

I would not live in Reading !! Specifically I would check out Myerstown,Cornwall,Wyomissing,West Lawn Good Luck!!