commuting to philadelphia (Chester, Springfield, King of Prussia: buying a house, neighborhoods, buying)

[phillysmiles]

My family is moving to philadelphia but we are not sure of where to live. My husband will be commuting to center city and I will be commuting to west chester so we're looking for something in between in a good school district...any suggestions would be helpful!

[rainrock]

Newtown Square/Havertown/Broomall/Springfield would be the midpoint between West Chester and Center City. They are all nice stable communities but are older auto-centric suburbs. The newer/fresher towns are further west, closer to West Chester e.g. Upper Providence,Willistown,Glen Mills, Edgmont,Westtown, East Goshen,West Goshen.

Upper Providence area around Springton Lake is fabulous.

Good luck.

[BillyBurrito]

King of Prussia/Main Line area is in the middle. Very nice area. Expensive, lots to do.

You could get alot more home for your money if you stretched up into Bucks County (we're in Quakertown that would mean about an hour commute in both directions, but we love it here, great family town!)

[phillysmiles]

Thanks for the advice! We're not looking for a long commute, we're interested in buying a house @500K in a newer neighborhood with good elementary schools...any suggestions would be appreciated...

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by BillyBurrito

King of Prussia/Main Line area is in the middle. Very nice area. Expensive, lots to do.

You could get alot more home for your money if you stretched up into Bucks County (we're in Quakertown that would mean about an hour commute in both directions, but we love it here, great family town!)

I'm sure Quakertown is a great place to live Burritoman but that would be an unnecessary ill-advised frustrating daily commute on two counts.

The general West Chester area is upscale but $500 K gives you some excellent options phillysmiles. West Chester is 25 miles(45 minutes) due west of Center City Philly. The newer communites in that specific area do not start until you are 15 miles west of Philly and all the new communities have outstanding schools and little if any crime.

The general rule of thumb looking at a Philly area map is the towns east of 476(Blue Route) are older more mature dense towns. The towns west of 476 are new fresh communities. There are also regional rail stops nearby in the WC area that go into Philadelphia that many commuters take advantage of.

Septa is the mass transportation system here. You can look up their website to see exactly where the train stations are.

Communities/Towns that I would recommend looking into are Edgmont,Upper Providence,Westtown,Glen Mills,Garnet Valley,Thornbury,East Goshen,West Goshen,West Chester,Birmingham Township, and Chadds Ford.IMO you cant go wrong in any of those towns.


Good luck.

[toobusytoday]

I would suggest living in West Chester and having only the husband commute. It's not that bad of a commute and you would be able to get home quickly if children need you. West Chester schools are great.

[thesixth]

West Chester area would give you more of a chance of "newer" neighborhoods. Commute for your husband would be @ 1 hr.

[CHIP72]

In my not so humble opinion, in your situation I'd try to live somewhere that not only had good schools, but was also near a SEPTA rail route for your husband's commute. SEPTA's regional rail does not go to West Chester (like it once did), but there are places not too far from that borough where SEPTA does go that from my limited experience in those areas are nice (not sure about the schools though). I'd check out the Paoli/Malvern area (along the Main Line, on the SEPTA R5) or Media (on both the SEPTA R3 also the Route 101, the latter of which is a trolley route that goes to west Philadelphia and meets up with the Market-Frankford Line). Media is also near the Blue Route (I-476), while Paoli/Malvern are near US 30.

[happyinexton]

I live in Exton extremely close to West Chester about 20 minutes. Great area, outstanding schools best in the area. Amtrak and Septa trains run through to here. Station about 10 minutes from my house. My husband also works in downtown Philly and takes the train everyday. He use to take the Septa R5 train and it took a little over an hour but tried the Amtrak train and it actually takes him less time about 40-45 minutes. Moderator cut: advertising