Moving to Bucks County (Bethlehem, Chester: real estate, house, employment)

[joer]

My wife and I are fed up with NJ. Here's our situation, I work from home three days a week and in Manhattan two days....so I need to commute once in awhile. We checked out Newtown and Doylestown. Although we liked these towns very much, we felt they were not rural enough. Ideally, we would like a home with two-three acres, close to a town center thats within two hours of NYC and located in Bucks county. Any suggestions?

[toobusytoday]

Did you look at Sellersville? It's to the West of Doylestown and a little more rural. http://www.sellersvilleboro.org/ The last two times we made a move we took out our PA map and drew a radius around where my husband worked and then looked within an hour of that, eliminating any areas that didn't have school districts we liked. Our priorites were excellent schools that were able to keep up with growth and less traffic. Once we had potential areas I really investigated the schools. If the district passed muster then we visited.

The area of Northern Bucks, Eastern Montgomery county and Southern Lehigh County all look very similar so for us it was a matter of which school district fit our family. Good luck with your search!

[jjj]

Originally Posted by joer

My wife and I are fed up with NJ. Here's our situation, I work from home three days a week and in Manhattan two days....so I need to commute once in awhile. We checked out Newtown and Doylestown. Although we liked these towns very much, we felt they were not rural enough. Ideally, we would like a home with two-three acres, close to a town center thats within two hours of NYC and located in Bucks county. Any suggestions?

We moved to Bucks County 7 years ago and I also did the commute to NYC for awhile. Look about 15 to 20 miles north of Doylestown . Stay on rt 611 north to rt 412 North. There is an area including Nockamixon, Springtown, Durham and Haycock that is still rural. 3 acres and up is not uncommon. If you stay within 5 miles of rt 611 its about a 40 minute drive to the Park and ride off rt 78 in Clinton NJ for the bus into NYC. This commute if done in the early AM hours is close to 2 hrs but if done during the later AM hours could be 2 1/2 plus. Thats what it will take from just about anywhere in Pa. to NYC. I can drive from here to Newark airport in an hr and 10 minutes with no traffic . These areas do not have large town centers but Doylestown, Quakertown, Bethlehem and a few other areas are within 15 miles. Hope this helps.

[toobusytoday]

jjj, I was thinking of Springtown and Nockamixon too but the lack of town center kind of threw me. I think your suggestions are good ones. If you want 2 - 3 acres, Joe, you would probably be out of town anyway. There is a bus stop in Hellertown that commuters take into mid-town Manhatten. if you don't want to do the drive. http://www.biebertours.com/schedules.asp (broken link)

[joer]

Thanks for the suggestions. Do people actually commute into NYC from the suburbs west of Philly as well? We really like the West Chester area, but I'm guessing that would be a ridiculous commute. Although, I know people that commute daily to the NY Stock Exchange from Delaware...go figure.

[digitalwoodshop]

I lived in Bristol Township, Bucks County when I worked for Sony and it was a nice place.

Good Luck,

AL

[toobusytoday]

Just thinking about commuting to NYC from West Chester makes me shake my head. All the roads between here (lehigh valley) and there (West Chester) are busy and accident prone and then you have all the ones from here to NY, they're busy and bad too. That's with just cars, add in some bad weather and you'll be putting your house on the market within 6 months. I can't imagine a worse commute unless it's NYC to Boston. There really are some nice communities within two hours of NYC, just come on down and drive around a bit.

[CarolinaOnMyMind]

The wife and I are looking to escape from NJ. Too expensive and too crowded. We are looking at various locations to see where we could find affordable housing (250 -300 K) and where we could make a decent living. I work in the financial accounting field and she is a nanny. Bucks county sounds very nice, but it appears that everyone living there has to commute to NJ or Manhattan for their job. Are accounting jobs hard to find out there? Thanks!

Gary

[toobusytoday]

Of course not. I don't know too many people that work more then 30 minutes from their homes. People often move here from Manhatten or NJ and keep their jobs there because they pay more. Because their salaries are higher they can afford a bigger, better house and then cannot afford to take a job that may pay less but is closer.

There are many large and small companies and opportunities right here in PA. My neighbor is a self employed accountant and had to stop taking new clients because she was so busy. I have another neighbor down the street that owns a nice accounting business about 10 minutes away.

When my husband wanted to change jobs (he's an engineer) after working for GE for 13 years, he contacted an executive employment agency and got another (better) job within just a few months. We were happy to move out of the busy part of PA. He commutes maybe 15 minutes to work. He just has to watch out for the wild turkeys and deer when he rides his motorcycle. I was a work-at-home Mom for 20 years and two years ago started working part time 8 minutes (unless I hit THE light) from our house.

[TravelSheila]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Just thinking about commuting to NYC from West Chester makes me shake my head. All the roads between here (lehigh valley) and there (West Chester) are busy and accident prone and then you have all the ones from here to NY, they're busy and bad too. That's with just cars, add in some bad weather and you'll be putting your house on the market within 6 months. I can't imagine a worse commute unless it's NYC to Boston. There really are some nice communities within two hours of NYC, just come on down and drive around a bit.

I second this comment, spending most of my life in/around Chester County. It can take 2 hours to drive from W. Chester to Philly on a bad morning commute, let alone trying to hoof it up to NYC. Ditto for living in Spring City or Royersford, each respectively on the Chester/Montgomery County border. The R5 train will take you from Points west into Philly, through the main line to Exton, Downingtown, etc. (But no commuter train out to Royersford anymore.) If you really wanted to live in this area then check the R5 train schedules and then those from Philly to NYC.

As far as real estate goes, even with the plummeting market you'd get more for your money in the Downingtown School District than W.Chester schools.

I did a google search on commuting which brought me here and saw a blurb about the high cost of taking the train from Philly to NYC. Don't know anymore about it than that, but something you'll want to factor in as well.