taxes in Duryea (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Butler: middle-class, for sale, vacation home)

[I LOVE PA!]

My husband and I just drove through Blueberry Hill Estates and we thought this would be a possibility for our relocation, until I looked on line and found one house for sale within the community with taxes of $5,500. and another outside of the community with taxes of $5,300. Does anyone know why taxes are so high in this area.
I thought I was being given a sign from above that this would be 'the place', until I looked up the taxes. As we were leaving Blueberry Hill, I noticed a cemetery, and knowing that my grandparents were buried in a cemetery in Duryea, I wondered if this was the one. As we pulled to the side of the road to let a car behind us pass, we made a 3 point turn, and as our car was facing the fence, there right in front of me was my grandparents headstone, looking right at us. How is that for really spine tingling?
Well, we are still searching. If only I didn't mind all that lead in the ground over in Throop

[AVOCA1]

Hello, The reason the taxes are so high is to cover all the necessary services that are needed to build the development. i.e. sewer,water etc. Also, the is not a lot of tax base in Duryea so guess what, the homeowner pays. Also, all those pittston area school teachers need to be paid
Good luck, but my advice would be to move to another area. Blueberry is hype and badly built boxes called homes.
Nice moving story about the cemetery. Good Luck

[I LOVE PA!]

All of the communities that I have looked at are a little more upscale than this one, nicer homes, bigger lots, public sewer and water, and still have much lower taxes, not to mention that many of them are in the much sought after North Pocono School District. I did notice the houses in Blueberry Hill are plain, but I thought that would make it a little more affordable. Also, one house for sale was on Edwards St., not within this development, taxes still high.

[ScranBarre]

Quite simply, Pittston Area's school taxes are outrageous. Our family pays nearly $4,000 for a middle-aged 1,800 square foot, three-bedroom, one-bath home valued at around $175,000 in Pittston Township. Luzerne County, in general, also overtaxes homes in housing developments by default, as most homes in my subdivision of Butler Heights pay much more than larger homes "in-town." The main rationale is that those who live in these older, aluminum-sided "in-town" homes are often senior citizens on fixed incomes who "can not afford taxes", so they overburden the younger, middle-class, mostly college-educated families who live in our housing developments instead. If you think taxes in Bluberry Hill are bad, then you don't want to see some of the tax bills in Willow View, Quail Hill, or Highland Hills! A new countywide reassessment should be complete soon, after which the tax burden should be more reasonably distributed across the board.

Personally, I'm getting tired of hearing local senior citizens whining about "how bad they've got it" when our state spends more on aging issues than it does on education! Our state lottery even benefits "older Pennsylvanians", most retail stores offer "senior citizen discount days", AARP provides seniors with tremendous values, etc. When does the working middle-class get its break from the state? I'm in no way "attacking" the elderly; I just think they should shut up and truly appreciate how well our state takes care of them as opposed to so many others in this nation that "foolishly" make education a priority.

[Duryea]

Living in Blueberry Hill is a wonderful experience. Yes the taxes are high, but if you want the best environment for your family, especially young growing families, it's worth it! The comment about the homes not being properly built, I tend to differ. The majority of the homes built in Blueberry were built by the Healey Development Co. There is a reason why so many people opted for this builder. It's the quality of home they build. Ask anyone in this development about their Healey home, and I am sure you will get the same response, that their home is strongly and safely built. Blueberry is a tight knit, neighbor friendly place to live, so if you don't like neighbors and your not fond of walking down the street and having people wave to you, or you don't like being kind to people, then this is not the place for you. If you want what's best for your family and you want a safe, friendly environment where everyone looks out for eachother, then this is the place for you! Oh, and the teacher comment...just remember, you wouldn't be where you are today if it weren't for a teacher. If you can read this message, thank a teacher!

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Duryea

Living in Blueberry Hill is a wonderful experience. Yes the taxes are high, but if you want the best environment for your family, especially young growing families, it's worth it!

The main argument I have with that statement is that you, as a homeowner, should have a right to know why your property tax burden is as high as it is in relation to other communities. For example, if some homes in Bluberry Hill have a tax burden, as posted by another member, of $5,500+, (and I wouldn't doubt that some are much higher given the fact that a few homes here in Butler Heights are near to that burden), then why are homes along Susquehanna Avenue in West Pittston, which are also in an exceptional neighborhood, and, in many cases, have similar lot sizes and a larger square footage, assessed at half of the tax bill for Blueberry Hill? Look at the last page in the thread "Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Relocation Specialist" on this forum to see a list of homes currently on the market in West Pittston and their associated tax burden; none of those upscale properties pay nearly the amount of tax dollars that you do in Blueberry Hill (or Butler Heights). I'd assume that even ritzier-looking subdivisions, such as Willow View, Gable Crest, Quail Hill, and Highland Hills would have even WORSE tax burdens, by far! Why? Does a person living in Quail Hill receive more services than someone living a block down Pittston Avenue in Avoca? Of course not! The countywide reassessment couldn't come soon enough!

Originally Posted by Duryea

The comment about the homes not being properly built, I tend to differ. The majority of the homes built in Blueberry were built by the Healey Development Co. There is a reason why so many people opted for this builder. It's the quality of home they build. Ask anyone in this development about their Healey home, and I am sure you will get the same response, that their home is strongly and safely built. Blueberry is a tight knit, neighbor friendly place to live, so if you don't like neighbors and your not fond of walking down the street and having people wave to you, or you don't like being kind to people, then this is not the place for you. If you want what's best for your family and you want a safe, friendly environment where everyone looks out for eachother, then this is the place for you!

I actually don't dispute the fact that Blueberry Hill is probably home to some friendly people (I actually personally know three families who reside in there, including two former classmates and my dad's former co-worker at Prudential), but the one thing that draws my ire about Bluberry Hill (along with Quail Hill, Laurel Hill, Paradise Park, Maple View, Butler Heights, Willow View, Glenmaura, etc.) is that none of these new communities are doing anything to revitalize Downtown Pittston. Do you think many people living in Willow View or Highland Hills frequently-patronize businesses in Downtown Pittston when they can just as easily hop into the car and drive ten minutes in the other direction towards the mall area? I was the lone ranger behind the initial planning stages of a new grass-roots effort to help get the ball rolling on revitalizing downtown Pittston called "Pittston 2020" (You can see the flimsy shell of the web site at http://www.pittston.org). I gave up on my dreams of seeing our town thrive again because so many in our school district are, quite honestly, apathetic towards the issue of restoring our Main Street. I won't dispute the fact that Blueberry Hill may be very "charming", "walkable", or "friendly", but if you were to bulldoze all of Bluberry Hill, pick up all of the families, and plop them down within the city limits of Pittston, you'd have a similar "nice, friendly community" in Pittston as well, with the added bonus of the downtown bouncing back from these new people being willing to walk to Main Street to shop, dine, play, etc. As it is now, if you're already sitting in the driver's seat and about to back out of your driveway onto Blackberry Lane, then what difference does it make if you drive to Downtown Pittston and park at a meter to do your shopping or drive to the Wyoming Valley Mall? At least if people lived nearer to Main Street again, then perhaps a five-minute walk to a store would be more compelling than a 15-minute drive?

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Duryea

Oh, and the teacher comment...just remember, you wouldn't be where you are today if it weren't for a teacher. If you can read this message, thank a teacher!

I agree with you wholeheartedly. My sister is currently employed as a teacher at Pittston Area, and she earns a salary of around $33,000, which I don't consider to be "out-of-line", by any means for a college-educated professional. If anything, that's a little low, considering I'll likely be earning much more as a starting salary as a CPA with a similar educational background as my sister. As a 2005 graduate of Pittston Area, I can tell you that the school district truly is exceptional, and it doesn't warrant the awful reputation the local media and taxpayers have bestowed upon it. Then again, I also utilized all of the resources available at my disposal, including AP courses, gifted classes, and giving my undivided attention to the lectures of our (mostly) wonderful educators. Nevertheless, I still wan't even in the top 10% in class rank, which is a testament to just how many bright young minds our school district pumps out annually. Unfortunately, our wonderful gifted products are overshadowed by the community's overemphasis on high school football, but I digress.

[I LOVE PA!]

Blueberry Hiil is nice, I would live there if the taxes were 1/2 of what they are. I have been to many new developments and the taxes in Blueberry Hill just do not warrant the neighborhood. As far as paying the teachers, every school district pays their teachers, with a much lower burden to the taxpayers.
I am looking for a neighborhood that is close knit, where I can wave to my neighbors. Right now I have 7 or 8 houses on either side of me that are vacation homes with no occupants most of the year. I long to have neighbors to wave to!

[Duryea]

I lived in Pittston for 31 years before moving to Blueberry. The reason I moved is because the neighborhood I came from got tremendously worse as the years went on. Officials refused to put traffic lights in certain areas that needed them. My 3 year old daughter couldn't play outside. No one was doing anything to make my "old" neighborhood a decent place. Our family went to the mayor, as well as other city officials to make our streets nicer and we were hardly heard. Guess we didn't have the right Italian last name. I come from a great Italian family and I love Pittston. I am still in the Pittston Area District, but now my little girl can run outside and I don't have to worry about a speeding car hitting her, or I don't have to worry about bums and drunks that line certain parts of the streets in Pittston, knocking on my door (which has happened in the past). So if there was no change in my first 31 years as a Pittston resident, why should I stay and wait another 31 years? We are happy. My family is still there. Their neighborhood has gotten so bad now that they are thinking of moving too. Maybe the people with all the money and the prominant last names that have the power to make things happen, start making them happen. The decent families that once started this town are now leaving because of the slim that is now overpowering our once humble, honest neighborhood.

[ScranBarre]

What is your proposal to help "save" Pittston? I'm just a college student, and I'm truly out of ideas at this point. All I know is that I can't stand to see so much land wasted so needlessly for new housing developments all over the school district while the housing vacancy rate in Pittston hovers around 10%. Our family also hails from Pittston, and we left back in 1996, more or less, because my parents likewise wanted a "better environment for their children." Now, here in Pittston Township, we're becoming surrounded by even more development as well that will soon be diminishing our quality-of-life, including the new Pittston Crossings Mall, the Home Depot, and the Center Point project, all of which will continue to worsen congestion on Highway 315. Much to my chagrin, my parents are once again considering moving further away from the city AGAIN, to the point where I'm wondering if the sprawl will continue to follow them out to a new home as well?

What I want Pittston to become is the next Jim Thorpe, New Hope, Cooperstown, Lewisburg, Clarks Summit, Stroudsburg, Tunkhannock, etc. Pittston has an attractive setting at the confluence of the Lackawanna and Susquehanna Rivers and is equidistant to both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Why, then, is the city such a DUMP?! What exactly has Mayor Keating done to help revitalize the downtown since he took office? Not a damn thing! As a 20-year-old, I once wanted to move down into Pittston, become mayor, and help bring our city back from the depths of despair. My reasoning was "If Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are both starting to bounce back, then why can't Pittston?" Apparently, there's just not enough of a cultural community in Pittston that would appreciate having an artsy, revived Main Street with a theater, cafes, boutiques, antiques stores, etc. along with PRESERVED historic buildings (unlike the past policies of bulldoze first and ask questions later!)

Once again, I'm by no means slamming your decision to move to Bluberry Hill, which is indeed a very nice community; I just don't understand why nobody in this school district wants to see Downtown Pittston revived and liveable again? Everyone I know talks about Pittston as being a "trashy-looking, poverty-infested, drug-ridden dump", and I'm not at all proud to tell others from the region at committee meetings that I hail from Tomato Town. I'm known on this forum as being the "NEPA Optimist" of sorts, but, in the case of Pittston, I just don't see much potential. Too much damage has been done to destroy the city's historic architecture to make a successful downtown rebirth truly viable. The city's population has declined from 21,000 to around 7,000 today, and that number is expected to continue to diminish (thanks to neighborhoods such as Blueberry Hill continually sucking the middle-class out of the city).

What can be done to save Pittston? I'm among the college-educated youths that will soon be fleeing the town with my degree to my own "greener pasture" (Scranton's Hill Section). I just don't see any real "innovation" eminating from Pittston. Even the idiot mayor himself has a reputation for having dumb ideas, from hoping that the now-razed "Tomato Tarp" buildings would "become another parking lot" to the possible conversion of the soon-to-be abandoned Seton Catholic High School into even more low-income housing. Pittston is poverty-ravaged enough; it doesn't need more dirty parking lots or low-income projects. What it does need is to attract more middle-class families and young professionals back into the city limits to help to patronize any new downtown businesses that should happen to establish themselves on Main Street. I wish I could be mayor, but who in their right mind in this town would vote a minority into office?