Looking to move anywhere in PA that I can afford with a family... (Pittsburgh: for sale)

[Kimonoskunk]

Well I am fairly new to these forums but I have read quite a bit before my first official posting.

I live in Phoenixville, (Chester County) Pa. with a gorgeous blonde wife from NC and we have a 4 1/2 year old lil girl.
I currently would like to move to a smaller town that I can find a small home in a safe neighborhood. I am the one that is working in our family as wife is a stay-at-home mom for daughter, until she starts going to school, and then she would consider working.

What we would 'like' to do, is find a home for aboot (heh i'm canadian... ^^) $20,000 - $25,000, or rent for 500 a month, or pay a little more rent to own if possible . We are waiting on wife's mother's home and estate to settle, probably within a month or 2.

I'm doing a LOT of reading online, and wondering of Northeastern Pa from Scranton, westward (Maybe Johnstown?)... to Oil City, Pa. (Is that close to Pittsburg?)

What I would 'like' to do, is put 10-15 k down on a place to own, and have a mortgage that would be a reasonable $350-$500 a month. The reason in being, is that if I can only get a job paying $8-$12 an hour, I wouldn't have to worry aboot making the paycheques stretch quite as much to pay the bills every month.

I am a driver by trade, (I have a CDL A license, but more comfy driving a B class truck, like dump trucks and such) But I do not mind doing small deliveries like car parts, windshields, courier work, that I would use a standard Class C license for. Car, Truck, or Van otherwise.

I can also do light industrial or factory work as well, but I do have a somewhat bad right knee I hurt a few years ago, so heavy lifting is pretty much a no-no. And getting hurt pretty much F-ed my credit score.

Overall, is this smart to do, or should we continue to rent for now?
I am applying at all the places I can think of, but no replies as of yet.

Does anyone have small towns that they can recommend as safe, but accessable to food shopping, and that small town feel?
We are a quiet minded family, no criminal record, but can make friends easilly.

I'll answer all and any replies as well as I can.

Thankyewwww
Kimmyskunk

[RoughCollie]

There are homes for sale in your price range in New Castle, PA:

Real Estate Listings, Homes for Sale and Rental Property Listings – REALTOR.com®

You can check out houses for sale and rentals. You can pick a town and specify for the site to search within up to 20 miles of that town, which helps locate homes available in hamlets.

[Gracie2001]

You might look into some of the mobile home parks. And before you say anything, there are several in Lancaster County that are just lovely. A home for $20-25K is going to be hard to come by in a place where you can get a job: that is the conundrum for many, many people. And of course, the problem with lower priced homes is that if something goes wrong, you need to make a repair. But you can find places in PA that are more reasonable than Phoenixville. Maybe target more "urban" areas - where you are more likely to get work - and move out from there. You already know that lots of PA is very rural. You can find rentals near the towns around Pittsburgh and Lancaster for $500/month. But obviously not in Chester County. Those "small town" communities in PA are getting harder to find. Johnstown has a little town square, there's Ephrata and many around P-burg. Harder to find in the Pocono area because of the coal problems. As far as jobs go, it is sometimes hard to find something when you are not in the area.

[W-B proud]

Wilkes Barre, Pa.

[no1mom]

Well if it is just you, your, wife and your daughter, i would think that your looking for at least a 2 bedroom. Scranton is nice, you would be able to rent within your price range and there are a lot of places to shop. As far as finding a house in the price range you mentioned, I don't think so, you'll be buying a shack lol. Scranton is more like a small city. Nothing like NJ and NY. Some say its bad but I don't, Its diverse, the school systems are great, a mall downtown, small movie theater across from the local mall. Parks all over and recreations. Scranton also has a bus and taxi service, I mean it doesn't run like a city bus but it will do the job. There are 3 hospitals in the city of scranton and also a few warehouses for employment and I think the minimum pays about $8 and hour.
Well good luck on your move

[ker8]

I would suggest Erie. We do have a small-town feel. And you can def find a home here for cheap. In the better neighborhoods in Erie, you can get a nice home 3-bed home built in the 50's for 90K. If you were to move into the city, not quite as safe, but there are lots of homes up for sale under 20K.

Definitely try to find a job though first, b/c although PA hasn't been hit extremely hard by the economic downturn, it seems like it's starting to move it's way here.

Erie's a nice little city though (about 100K people city, maybe 250K entire county). And if you were to want to live out in the more rural sections of the county, you should be able to easily find affordable living as well. And from most places around, the drive into Erie is less than 30 mins, unless you move out to Union City or something (where housing is extremely affordable, but about 45 mins from Erie).

I've been to Johnstown as well. Not a bad city, but it seemed to me to be very deserted. Perhaps that was a bad misconception, but it seemed as if all the businesses were empty and their wasn't a soul in sight. But I will say, the whole area down there is EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL. I've been to Ebensburg many times, and between the two (Johnstown and Ebensburg) I'd suggest choosing Ebensburg. Seems like a very nice little town to me (my dad's family is from the area).

[Yay Sayer]

I live in Lancaster county now & just took a weekend trip to look at houses in Oil City I found online. There's LOTS of trucking & driving jobs there, and everything is close in minutes, compared to Chester co. You can have your retirement home with privacy & a rural feel and still be close to the airport in Franklin and walmart, the mall, etc and a major hospital in Cranberry. Take a trip out, stay in the Motel 8 in Reno (it has a beautiful view of the Allegheny River and mountainside opposite) and have a realtor give you a tour of the homes.

Here's how you make the move work. Sell your expensive chester, co house that causes you to have to work so much you miss the childhood of your daughter. Use the proceeds to buy 1 home to live in and as many $20k rentals as you can. A 2 unit rental in Oil city makes about $700 a month. Pocket the profit, get a different job that lets you spend more time with your family. The job can pay less because you are making money with your rentals.

I'l see you there, I'm selling my house right now so I can move to Oil city.