Macungie area or Clarks Summit (Philadelphia, Scranton: homes, job market, schools)

[familymom]

Comparing two places again, for their pros and cons. Schools, shopping, parks and reacreation systems, job market, housing prices. Any help or opinions would be great. Also I like trees, big old trees.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by familymom

Comparing two places again, for their pros and cons. Schools, shopping, parks and reacreation systems, job market, housing prices. Any help or opinions would be great. Also I like trees, big old trees.

Based on the job market alone pick Macungie. As far as shopping is concerned, both are fair rivals because Clarks Summit has a small downtown replete with upscale boutiques like Talbot's, Bennetton, and an organic foods market, as well as a location just five minutes from every big-box store imaginable and about twenty minutes from a lifestyle center whereas Macungie I believe isn't very far from a lot of great shopping too. The Clarks Summit area is probably more upscale overall than Macungie, as it is home to a lot of $750,000 homes, a tennis club, equestrians, country clubs, etc.---it is Scranton's version of Beverly Hills. The town proper of Macungie is much smaller than Clarks Summit.

I'm partial overall to Clarks Summit, but the job market in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is deplorable, especially when you can live in the Lehigh Valley and have more opportunity or be a short drive from one in the Philadelphia suburbs or NJ.

Best of luck to you!