Looking at moving from Northern Nevada to York area PA (Lancaster: transplants, for sale)

[iamtheonlykittie]

My husband, 3 kids and I are looking to relocate to the York area from north eastern Nevada and I was wondering if anybody could tell me what it's like there, best areas to live, and also the rental types of homes there. We don't have great credit (not bad but not wonderful) so buying a home outright is out of the question. Any suggestions? We just can't survive here in the desert with the cost of living anymore. Thanks in advance

[Love2Golf09]

Originally Posted by iamtheonlykittie

My husband, 3 kids and I are looking to relocate to the York area from north eastern Nevada and I was wondering if anybody could tell me what it's like there, best areas to live, and also the rental types of homes there. We don't have great credit (not bad but not wonderful) so buying a home outright is out of the question. Any suggestions? We just can't survive here in the desert with the cost of living anymore. Thanks in advance

York and Lancaster are both pretty similar. Both are very nice towns that are pretty conservative and family oriented. Both are being overrun with transplants from Jersey and NYC, along with people from from Philly and the Philly burbs because of the housing bubble and taxes. In my opinion, I think Lancaster is better, so perhaps you should check out that place too. Btw, I assume when you say York you mean York County. The city of York is...eh. If you want to be really close to the city, then check out the Central York and York Suburban school districts. Those are pretty nice areas and if you do buy a home, a place in the York Suburban sd will certainly help it's resale value later on. Personally, I think it's the best sd in the county. Dallastown and Dover Twp are also pretty nice. Also, you didn't mention where you would be working. York, Philly? Somewhere else? If your commute isn't too bad, then, again, I would check out Lancaster along with York. Good luck.

[iamtheonlykittie]

Hi, thanks for responding. My husband would be working for Univar USA in Harrisburg. We originally thought of moving there, but to be honest, bigger towns scare the crap out of me and with my kids I feel better being in a smaller area ( I'm a country girl, lol) where I can not worry so much about creeps, etc. My sister lives in Easton, but she doesn't know anything about other areas, so she's not much help there. Lancaster sounded nice to us too, but how far away is it from Harrisburg? The drive would have to be no more than 45 minutes for my husband to commute. Thanks for helping

[Love2Golf09]

Originally Posted by iamtheonlykittie

Hi, thanks for responding. My husband would be working for Univar USA in Harrisburg. We originally thought of moving there, but to be honest, bigger towns scare the crap out of me and with my kids I feel better being in a smaller area ( I'm a country girl, lol) where I can not worry so much about creeps, etc. My sister lives in Easton, but she doesn't know anything about other areas, so she's not much help there. Lancaster sounded nice to us too, but how far away is it from Harrisburg? The drive would have to be no more than 45 minutes for my husband to commute. Thanks for helping

On mapquest it says 47 mins, but I assume that's without much traffic. I have no idea how busy that route gets. I'm more familiar with 78. Are you ok with being closer to Harrisburg than eastern PA? Harrisburg isn't a huge city, only around 50k or so people. Also, there are many nice towns outside of Harrisburg, like Lebanon, Hershey, and Carlisle. All of these places are smaller, pretty close to Harrisburg, and are pretty affordable. Lebanon would also allow you to still be pretty close to your sister in Easton. It wouldn't take you long to get there on 78. I like Carlisle a lot, but if that's too far west for you, then def check out Lebanon and there are some other nice small towns near there too, like Jonestown and Palmyra.

[iamtheonlykittie]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will definately look into other surrounding areas. I google mapped Univar and I guess it's actually in middletown? I think that's right. Anyways, by next week we should know if he got the job, so I have to act rather quickly. We hope to be moved either before or a little after school starts (august 24th here) so our kids have a chance to be better adjusted. I'll have to map out how far away the other places are to get a better idea. Our ultimate goal is we find a place and won't move again. I was moved all over the country as a child and really don't want to do that to my kids.

[skippy9baller]

I lived in Dallastown, PA for 4 years. It was a very nice area with a very good school. One of the better ones in York County. I lived most of my life in Lewistown, Pa which is about 50 miles west of Harrisburg, so I'm a little familiar with the area.

Harrisburg is only about 50K people. In the center of the city it looks and feels like a small city IMO, but the city is not very expansive. You don't have to travel far at all to get into VERY rural areas. If you want small town feel, you won't have to travel too far. I would say york is the next biggest town in that general area. I'm not too familiar with the cost of housing in Harrisburg, but you should be able to find something affordable in the surrounding areas. For instance, I had a nice 1400sq ft. split level ranch in a nice neighborhood (Dallastown) that I paid 120K for 8 years ago. With the market the way it is, I think it would be about the same now.

I can't really recommend any specific towns except for York. We loved living there. I think Lancaster is a long way to travel. I know I wouldn't travel that far just to live in Lancaster. I don't think I would travel that far to live in York either. I would have to look at the school systems to see what they are like. Rush hour traffic can get very heavy around Harrisburg and even down to York. The route 83 from harrisburg to York is used by a lot of commuters. Many people that travel to Baltimore travel that route, so figure that into commute times. I'm thinking it would take at least 45 minutes in rush hour traffic if not more (from Univar). Harrisburg is not that big, you can find a nice place closer than that. Take some time and check it out first, if you can.

I hope that helps. Good luck.

PS...if you look at York, downtown is not good. I think the crime rate is too high for a town that size IMO. Housing is cheap, but I wouldn't do it. Outside of the center-city is good, though.

[ki0eh]

My post from last night disappeared. Middletown itself is probably one of the better areas - not scary but not expensive either. If you want to get into a better rated (who knows if really better...) school district Lower Dauphin includes Londonderry Twp and Hummelstown Borough within 5 miles of Univar, and Derry Twp (Hershey) includes a newer townhouse area with a Hummelstown postal address hardly 3 miles from Univar.

You're probably not used to the local political fragmentation of PA and its effects on living choices. This might help get you started on an understanding of what we're saying about the area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dauphin_County

Coming from north end of York to Univar wouldn't be too bad if you pay to cross the PA Turnpike bridge both ways each day. Trying to get through downtown Harrisburg on the free I-83 bridge would be longer and have MUCH more traffic coming and going. Unless there's some other family, interest, or job connection you haven't mentioned yet, I really don't see any reason to cross the river into York, it won't be any cheaper.

From Nevada to PA would be quite different in climate (humidity), population density (instead of crammed to nothing, you'll be from row homes to even in the "country" seeing 1-2 neighbors), and politically/socially (around here the main vibe is religious conservative not so much libertarian).

[iamtheonlykittie]

Thanks for all the info. Yea my husband and I considered Harrisburg and surrounding areas. The problem is finding a decent realtor online that isn't a scam at this moment. I talked with a very nice woman who had property for sale but due to our less than perfect credit, I doubt I will hear from her again. Too bad too, because her home was beautiful. It astounds me the pricing there for homes and land. Here you're lucky to find a 3 bd 1 bth for less than 180k. As far as the humidity, I don't think it will affect me that much because I've lived in humid climate before. My husband and kids on the other hand, I don't know. The county living I can definately handle I don't know about the conservative aspects though. Although I'm not persay liberal, I don't think I'm conservative either. Somewhere in between I guess. Anyways, I have a lot of great ideas now and thank all of you for all the input. It certainly helps to talk to people in the area.

[ki0eh]

The straightest real estate professional I ever dealt with was Walt Eby who happens to be in Middletown, but he might have retired. His web domain's gone, but he still has a telephone listing.

One odd thing about some parts of Middletown is that the land can be actually owned by a supposedly charitable trust but the improvements are owned by the homeowner who has to make a periodic lease payment to the trust. I've heard from my former co-worker who lives in that section that some banks won't loan on that unusual arrangement.

[iamtheonlykittie]

That is odd. I have never heard of something like that before. Well, we still have the rest of this week and possibly the beginning of next before we know for sure if he got the job, so I'm in not in a huge hurry. I plan on flying out to the area if indeed he does get the job beforehand to look at properties. Has anyone here heard of CR Properties before? They seem to have a huge list on craigslist and I was just wondering if they are legit.