moving question (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg: how much, house, transfer)

[happy2move]

My husband is currently an police office and we are looking at transfering out of state. We are open to move almost anywhere we love our current city but are ready for a change. We have two young children and are trying to figure out how much we are going to need to make in order to relocate. Can anyone tell me what the price of a 4 bedroom home in a decent area cost? What areas or towns should we be looking at? What cities are good for police officers to work in? What ones are good pay? And anything else we should think about before making deciding anything. We'd like to make this move in the next few years so we have time to plan. Thanks

[XHollyX]

Are you looking at PA in general or just western/central/eastern?
There is a huge difference in pay and cost of living and job opportunities from region to region. I personally would recommend Harrisburg, State College, Williamsport or Mechanicsburg. They are bigger areas but not to big to worry about the danger to your husband like you would in say Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

[happy2move]

We are totally open to all and any areas. We have been in Washington State, Florida, Colorado, California so we are not new to moving but thought we would see what other people thought before we just threw a dart at the map. I will look up the cities you told me to and see what we think. Thanks

[firefightermom]

I am in southcentral PA, and it's more rural here...smaller, more quiet compared to the bigger cities, such as Harrisburg. When we were house hunting last year, we found 4 bedrooms to range from $200,000 up to $400,000 or more, depending on your wants and needs. There is still some new building going on here also. The older, smaller homes are of course even less.

I don't know about salaries for police, but there are quite a few small departments around here, but I've heard more talk of a lot of part time opportunites rather than full time. There is a PA State Trooper barracks here too.

We moved from the Metro DC area, looking for a slower pace and more family friendly area. We definitely found it here, but it was quite an adjustment. Less shopping, restaurants, night life, but in exchange we have less traffic, beautiful countryside, and tons of family friendly entertainment.

[pinetar10]

Being a state trooper would pay more than a town cop somewhere. Western Pa in general is cheaper living than eastern pa. Southcentral PA is a nice area, though home prices are a bit inflated compared to western pa.

[Cowgirl15]

PSP has excellent pay and benefits, but he'd have to go through the Academy again and it is a live-in Academy. Also they are in the middle of the hiring process at the moment and won't be accepting new applications for a while as they are still in the oral boards phase. If PSP is an option then see patrooper.com and http://www.psp.state.pa.us/bhr/cwp/v...av=|6957|6959|

Currently the Metro York Police Testing Consortium is accepting applications, yorkpolicejobs.org. Basically its one application for 11 agencies, some civil service some non-civil service. The written exam is on March 6 and 7 and you stay on the eligibility list for a year. The average starting pay is around $40,000. He'd have to contact each of the departments to find out more about the benefits and exact pay range. Harrisburg is also hiring, I don't know the details for them.

Also he could check out the PA forum on officer.com, there are a ton of threads for different PDs that are hiring and there are a number of PA LEOs on the forum. Pennsylvania - Police Forums & Law Enforcement Forums @ Officer.com

Hope that helps from the LE standpoint.