Small Towns in SW PA?? (live in, place, winters)

[andyd33]

Connellsville is probably the nicest people wise. Great School District. Lots of snow. and very beutiful!

[bananaboat]

We live in southern Indiana County - it is sooo beautiful! We moved here 10 years ago from NJ. Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking you can get the kind of real estate you are used to for under $200,000.
We thought we would get a big beautiful house on 10 acres of land for next to nothing. If you are willing to settle for a broken down old farm house next to trailer parks and junk yards, then you can do very well.
That said, prices ARE lower than somewhere like NY, NJ, VA etc. We wound up building a beautiful 4 br colonial on a 1+ acre lot. We paid a little more than we originally expected, but have a georgeous place to live. (sad thing is a transfer opportunity now has us putting this beautiful home up for sale!)
It is within a reasonable drive of many good college and Universities (Penn State, Pitt) too. We are only a short drive from Johnstown, Greensburg and only an hour from the beautiful city of Pittsburgh, yet we live in this rural setting all year round. There are many beautiful places near us and the people are really nice also. Good luck!

[mrswoogie]

Originally Posted by trlstreet

I would suggest Mount Pleasant. That town impresses me every time I drive through, it seems to have a cool little downtown area. And you are only a half hour drive from one of myt favorite places, Ohiopyle.

Any more info on Mt pleasant or nearby bear rocks neighborhood would be greatly appreciated, because I plan on moving there within the next 5 years, and have yet to go and see it for myself.

[Kevicky50]

mrswoogie,

This is my first post on city-data. I've lived in Mt. Pleasant for 10 years, now live 3 miles down the road in Scottdale, where I grew up. The bear rocks community is about half-way between Mt. Pleasant and Donegal. Very wooded very hilly property with narrow roads most of the houses are split level or A-frames with a lot of Wood. The up keep on these is very high due to the very moist wooded properties. A lot of people I know haven't liked it there too much and have moved out. There are some nice older houses and some newer developements in the Mt. Pleasant area. Ligonier another smaller W.Pa. near Latrobe is by far the most Beautiful town in this part of the State.
Slightly higher taxes than some of the other towns, but very nice! Bullskin township between the Mt. Pleasant/Scottdale area and Conellsville. has some very nice homes. Pleasant Valley Country Club and low taxes in the Connellsville School district. Still pretty rural area with some very pretty property. Hope this helps some.

Kevicky50

[InspectorAshburn]

Most towns east and south of Pittsburgh have their own niche. The towns listed from other posters Greensburg, Mt. Pleasant, Ligonier, Latrobe, and Zelienople all are great places. Ohiopyle, which is close to all listed except Zeliey, has excellent white water rafting, hiking, and biking trails. Their is a bike trial that is on an old rail road line that runs almost all the way to DC from Greensburg. My wife and I have biked this trial many times, smooth very slight grade and very soothing.

[cathy17320]

Don't move to Fairfield Pa, alotta nasty weird people there and its expensive

[CaptainObvious]

You also mentioned south CENTRAL Pennsylvania... I might also suggest the area near Chambersburg and Greencastle. You can live in town or get out as rural as you want (no neighbors for miles) and still be within 15-20 minutes of shopping and dining. Fantastic schools and very friendly people in that area. Soooooooo much different than big city life. I've lived in, oh about 8 communities in PA, from Pittsburgh to Philly and lots of places inbetween and I have to say, the south central part of the state knows what's up!

The south WESTERN part of the state tends to me more depressed, in general, economically as much of the area was built around natural resources that are no longer viable economically: iron, coal. Johnstown, PA has one of the most depressed economies in PA- It is one of the few communities around that shows a population decrease over the last 10 years. Having said that, if you're going to look into that area, I'd suggest going east of the city- toward Windber and Paint. The Mount Pleasant area has little in the way of its own econmony- if you're going to be looking for a job, that probably means looking in Greensburg. The area from Mt. Pleasant over to Somerset has a ton of natural beauty (mountains, streams, waterfalls, etc.) and is quite rural.

As far as that area goes, I'd second the nomination for the Ligonier area. Again, you'd most likely be looking for a job elsewhere as it is such a tiny community, but it is a very nice area (if you don't mind snow!). Just a matter of personal preference, and without knowing you it would be hard to say, BUT...I dare to say you might find Ligonier more "charming" than some of the other areas mentioned...it really is quite a unique community.

enjoy,
Captain

[Dave53]

Hey, what about Derry Pa. don't forget about us people here. LOL

Just about every town mentioned here is nice but if you're thnking about Bear Rocks I gotta ask one question, Got lots of money??? LOL

My wife and I both grew up in Johnstown but right after we were married we bought our house in Derry and we both just love it here. Yeah, it's a little laid back here and you may have to drive a few miles to get to some bigger stores but we've been here 30 yrs and I wouldn't wanna live anywhere else. A traffic jam here is 3 cars in a row, and ya better watch driving or ya might hit a deer, or worse, a cow that got loose. LOL .

[dollparts]

I live in Claysville, PA. It's about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, half an hour drive from most restaurants and stores. There are a lot of cute houses and neighborhoods around here. Washington, PA is where the nearest stores and such are. Cranberry, PA is a good mix of everything... smaller neighborhoods, right outside of where everything is at.

[maerick_100]

Are you crazy? i attended school in connellsville, my friend lives there, it is the crappiest place in the world and the school system is the worst and the teachers don't know anything.