no mcmansions pls! (Allentown, Scranton, Bethlehem: middle-class, big home, established neighborhood)

[eflynn90]

Hi - relocating from Atlanta. In search of an safe area with young families and great schools. We are not interested in mcmansions in a subdivision, are much more bungalows-in-a-neighborhood type of family. Work would be near Allentown. I am a SAHM with two children under age 5, would love to find a walkable neighborhood and be a short drive to target, grocery, etc.

Price up to $600k.

Have gotten great info from schoolmatters and some excellent advice from posters here. Just wanted to ask one last time before we go visit!

Thanks!!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by eflynn90

Hi - relocating from Atlanta. In search of an safe area with young families and great schools. We are not interested in mcmansions in a subdivision, are much more bungalows-in-a-neighborhood type of family. Work would be near Allentown. I am a SAHM with two children under age 5, would love to find a walkable neighborhood and be a short drive to target, grocery, etc.

Price up to $600k.

Have gotten great info from schoolmatters and some excellent advice from posters here. Just wanted to ask one last time before we go visit!

Thanks!!

First of all, welcome in advance to Pennsylvania. Judging from your criteria I think the communities of Fountain Hill, Coopersburg, Macungie, Emmaus, Hellertown, or even Bethlehem's Historic District would fit your bill. You'll see others recommending places such as Forks Twp., Palmer Twp., Saucon Valley, etc., but McMansions rule supreme in these areas.

I'd also like to commend you for being quite possibly one of the few folks moving to PA who are looking for an established neighborhood whereas everyone else is looking for cookie-cutter. As a 21-year-old who spent nine years growing up an a quiet in-town neighborhood with sidewalks near a few business and friends' homes and the past 12 years living in a subdivision along a busy four-lane highway, I can tell you that you're not missing out on much by eschewing the tract housing for a TRUE walkable neighborhood. I HATE having my car attached to my hip even just to drive somewhere to walk!

Finally, I would also suggest that you post this inquiry into the Lehigh Valley sub-forum as well if you haven't done so already.

[orrmobl]

Bethlehem was voted one of the best places to live by Money magazine a few years back. My family lives in the Allentown burbs and I know that the Parkland school district has the more affluent families so I'm assuming its very good...

[PeterRabbit]

What is SAHM?

[toobusytoday]

Stay at Home Mom.

Hey, eflynn90, how did you weather that Tornado?

[eflynn90]

Hi - it was scary! I was out in oakhurst having a drink with some friends at the time - about 4 miles or so NE of downtown. It came out of nowhere!! Fortunately everyone we know is ok and no damage to our houses. The scene downtown is insane though.

Thanks for asking!

[eflynn90]

SWB - thanks for the info- I hadnt seen fountain hill before - great location! Also - bethlehem's 'historic district' - is that the north side or south side? I understand the south side is the more up-and-coming artists' type district, but just wanted to ask...

[toobusytoday]

eflynn,
SWB lives in Scranton-Wilkes Barre. I think a few of us have mentioned Bethlehem before with the caveat that their schools are lacking. The North side, near Moravian College is the section of the city that would have the houses that it sounds like you would interested in. But drive around and see what you think. The Lehigh River is what divides the North side from the South side. Lehigh U is on the South side, and Moravian College is on the North side.

If you check out SchoolMatters - Home you will see that the south side, which is where Fountain Hill is located, has some of the lowest scores (even at the elementary school level) for the whole county. If you appreciate diversity, this would be a good location as 57.6 % of the students come from a Hispanic background, 14% are African-American and 27% are white. For people with a Hispanic heritage, this would probably be a plus.

When we were looking for a new place to live the most important thing was schools and living in a neighborhood where our kids would be able to make friends easily. For our last move our kids were going into 7th, 4th and pre-school. We had already lived in four houses where we spent substantial time fixing them up. It was nice to move into a neighborhood where there were numerous families with kids in elementary school and a house that didn't need repairs.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

eflynn,
SWB lives in Scranton-Wilkes Barre.

Yes. However I do have family and friends in the Lehigh Valley and visit often. After all, you're only an hour south of us. I can tell which towns consist of cookie-cutter subdivisions (mostly the upper-middle-class townships for that matter) and which towns have the sidewalks and smaller, older homes (mostly the aging boroughs). I thought I'd just toss out a few suggestions as this poster and myself are essentially looking to raise our families in the same sort of environments. I can say that the view from Route 22 continues to become more and more disgusting each time I visit as I see fewer trees and more tract housing.

Bethlehem is a city, and it is to be expected that urban schools throughout PA tend to fare much more poorly than their suburban counterparts. Why? Suburban schools tend to cater to children of parents who are generally professional and/or somewhat educated people who are more actively-involved in their childrens' educations and hold their teachers to a higher standard of accountability than you'll find in the city, where disproportionately higher enrollments of ESL students and those with disabilities also help to drag down standardized test scores for everyone. From having spent time in both Allentown and Bethlehem (and from what I've heard from others about Easton), if I had to choose on of the three cities to raise my family in, it would be Bethlehem's North Side with Allentown's West End trailing not far behind.

I still think a smaller borough like Emmaus, Hellertown, Coopersburg, Macungie, etc. would be a better fit though, as you get better school districts while still having the same types of neighborhoods that this person seeks. Emmaus was actually rated as one of the "Best Places" as per Money Magazine's annual list. Then again, so was Hackettstown, NJ, and I found that town to be nothing special.

[toobusytoday]

Didn't mean to step on your toes, SWB. You do tend to focus more on houses then schools though. Excellent explanation of urban schools.

I think it's plain hard to move if you are looking for the exact same town in a different location. Frankly, I can't think of any town in the Lehigh Valley that has very good schools, great down area and big beautiful houses. I love Coopersburg and it does have great schools, great big homes downtown - very walkable, safe, etc but our downtown is a bit lacking. Emmaus has a great downtown, great schools, but not that many nice big old houses. Sort of similiar in Hellertown. Doylestown, imho, has everything but not really commuting distance to Allentown.