Moving Out Of Philly! (Philadelphia, State College: to rent, house, college)

[XDemo KnightX]

I'm about to get my Nursing degree and I'm looking to move out of Philly! My original plan was to move to western NC but for a first move that pritty fair. So now i'm looking around in PA. I'm looking for a rural area like not see your neighbours from your house kinda rural. I'd like to be an hour drive to a city of some sort for work, play, shopping and looking for it to be as cheap as possible. Not sure if i want to rent or buy. Any help on where to look? thanks!

[Hopes]

Pritty fair?

[XDemo KnightX]

oops, pretty far*

No edit button?

[PeeAye Native]

First thing that comes to mind, the small, rural communities in Berks County, Leesport, Fleetwood, Kutztown, Kempton, the list goes on. These are the 'population centers', with many homes 'in the country' along the roads in between them. Easily one mile between neighbors. Start looking along Rt 662 and Rt 73.

[dberger]

I hate to be contrarian, but I would encourage the North Carolina move. I am also escaping Philadelphia for North Carolina after getting my degree and, despite the distance, I really would highly recommend it. Especially the Charlotte area, with plenty of hospitals and still close proximity to the mountains of WNC.

Just my 2 cents...

[Hopes]

North Carolina's economy has completely tanked. Did you miss the memo?

[XDemo KnightX]

Does that mean the Floridian invasion has stopped?

[donsabi]

As a PA person stay away from WNC unless you have a family or family members in the area. Otherwise you will feel like you moved to the moon. Coming from a place like Phila or PA for the matter I strongly urge any NC move to limited to Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham area, or Wilmington. The only town I would consider in WNC is Boone. Although there is always a demand for medical personnel I would not venture a move to NC with a guaranteed job.
Secondly, since I retired I have lived in DE, NC, SC, and TN and I never found a better place to live and nicer people than in PA.
If you don't mind snow take a look at Tioga county. Absolutely beautiful there!

[Alexus]

How about the State College area? I lived there for 3 years and it's not a big city and the areas surrounding it felt rural. It's a college town because of Penn State. Maybe too far from a bigger cityfor you?

[dberger]

Originally Posted by Hopes

North Carolina's economy has completely tanked. Did you miss the memo?

No, I just paid attention to the part of the memo that said "you can't make a blanket statement about the economy." There are healthy sectors of every state's / region's economy. The health professions are doing relatively well down there, as I understand it, as well as in our very own Philadelphia, but of course the OP wants to 'escape' Phila.