Berks County, Douglassville??? (Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading: real estate, homes, buy)

[MrsMizz]

Does anyone have any imput on this area? Or living in Berks Co in general? Thanks, Amy

[KoZmiC NinJa]

Douglassville is a small, little town around Birdsboro, French Creek State
park etc....It is a 50's style, working class, bedroom community....sort
of rural but is getting some new development as that whole area is.
Depending on what you are used to it could be a nice area. I dont know
about the schools though.....your sort of close to Lanco, Reading on
the way to Allentown too....
Berks Co which is pretty much Reading and Morgantown, rural
areas are getting built up, fast. You can probably get a good
deal on housing right now. But, like anywhere else there is quite a
difference in types of housing and zoning in these areas they are
building up....it can go from trailers to McMansions in a mile.
I see you post a lot about PA...do you hit realtor.com at all or the
newspapers ?? WWW.Dailylocalnews.com is one you might want to
read online to get a feel for how that area is going / building out.

[Will Kelly]

Amy, Douglassville is a great area. I have friends who are building a home there right now. It has easy access to Philadelphia via 422 and you can buy a brand new 3000 square foot home for under $300,000. Real estate taxes on new construction are pretty high but the area has a lot to offer.

[berksco]

My wife and I moved from Philadelphia to (Amity Township) SE Berks County, PA, about fifteen years ago. We love it; hawks, deer, foxes, owls, bluebirds, right on the property.

We are six miles north of RT422, about 50 miles from Philly, but our four acres is surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland and close to the Daniel Boone Homestead park, which has several hundred acres. (Daniel Boone's father and A. Lincoln's grandfather are buried at the Quaker Meetinghouse, within walking distance. Even so, shopping is about six miles away.)

The schools are highly rated and, of course, the taxes aren't as low as they used to be, because of that. The other downside, no train to Philly. There were trains from Reading to Philly, several times a day, in 1907, but not 2007.
They are planning a computer rail line, but I'm not holding my breath!

We are downsizing our property and moving to Pottstown, where my wife teaches, so if anybody you know is re-locating up here, just shoot me an e-mail. There are lots of good places besides ours, of course. If you want to live in a development, there are a number of those going in, by 422. Also, there are stone colonial farm homes on hundred acre plots (with bank barns) for about half the price of something similar in Bucks County. The area is just now beginning to be discovered!