Ideal towns with land (10 acres+) and great schools in Bucks or Northampton Counties? (Quakertown: house)

[TheImportersWife]

We're in the beginning stages of looking into areas in PA. My husband and I just spent the weekend driving through some towns that we thought might be promising for us, but it was hard to really gauge anything based on a drive through.

This is what we're interested in:
*Land! Preferrably 10 acres or more. (We're not really into the idea of a sub-division or McMansions that were created on farm land.)
*Excellent school district or nearby private school (we have a 3 yr old and 1.5 yr old)
*2 hour drive or less to NYC
*ideally, 90 minutes or less to Morris Plains, NJ
*Nearby village with shopping & restaurants
*and ideally 800K or less.


We drove through Kintnersville (very pretty!), Ottsville (we loved the area near Nockamixon St Pk), Doylestown, Coopersburg and wanted to check out Quakertown, but didn't have enough time. We didn't get a chance to drive through Northampton Cty at all and I'm afraid I don't know much about it.

Does either county seem to have an edge when it comes to the schools?


I initially started my search in New Hope and Newtown because it seems like they have towns & conveniences similar to where we live now (which we love), but finding a house with some property is too costly.


Any comments, suggestions on areas we're not aware of?

Thanks!

[toobusytoday]

Lehigh County (where Coopersburg is located) is between Northampton and Bucks County. In order of quality schools I would say Bucks, Lehigh and then Northampton. Prices will go in the same order with Bucks as the hands down highest and Northampton as the lowest. Good luck finding something with ten acres or less with a house on it, for $800,000 or less in Bucks county. You could probably find that in the rural areas of Lehigh and Northampton but the more rural you get, the worse schools but if you want private schools, no problem. The average house in Southern Lehigh (Coopersburg, Center Valley) is close to $400,000 on less then an acre.

[TheImportersWife]

TBT, thank you for your reply! I kind of figured I was living in a dream world. LOL

What's Quakertown like? I keep finding listings for 10+ acres under 800K in that area.

[toobusytoday]

Quakertown is hard to classify. The schools get good ratings on these sites - SchoolMatters - Home (http://www.schoolmatters.com/ - broken link) and Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools. but the town itself seems very lower middle class to me. I don't quite know how to describe it. I'll give a shopping analogy. A new shopping center was built just north of Q-town on route 309. I was happy when they put in a Target. I like Target over Walmart any day of the week. They also put in a Best Buy, which made all the other people in my family happy. But then they put in an Aldi's and are building a Sam's Club. They had the chance to put in a Trader Joe's or Wegman's along with a Costco but they put in Aldi's and Sam's Club. That's the demographic that they are targeting. I'm a bargain hunter but I want quality and quirky not cheap and cheap. Anyway, that's my totally subjective review of Quakertown.

Like I said, the schools are good, they have some nice parks and a newish library, nice walkable downtown and it's safe too. You'll have to see it to discover how you feel about it. Don't forget to visit the Q-Mart too. QuakerTown Farmers Market Just a strange but interesting farmers market with off the wall stuff, great fresh produce and meat.