Moving to Philadelphia Suburbs... Please Help with Your Advice (Levittown: real estate, rent)

[LiveLove27]

Hi. My fiance and I are young professionals who are relocating to the Philadelphia Suburbs and need advice on where to buy our home.

Who: Young professionals who plan on getting married and raising a family.

What: Buy a home in suburbs

When: July 2011

Work: One of us will work in Center City and the other in West Mount Airy.

Where: We want to live in the suburbs. We are tired of city life (NYC) and want to have a yard, a deck, etc. However, we still want to be close enough that we can access city things within a 30 minute commute. I have been focusing our search in areas such as Oreland, Ambler, Blue Bell, Glenside, Flourtown, and other R5 rail towns that are near public transportation (because I have to commute to Center City via rail/train) but still close to highways for my fiance's car commute. We have also considered Plymouth Meeting (family near there) and Abington.

Important Features We Need:
1 A really good school district. We plan on raising a family in our new home and it is of utmost importance that we have a really good school district. We want a district that produces results such as very high SAT scores, challenging work, and very high 4 year college acceptance rates.
2 An EXTREMELY SAFE environment. I want to feel extremely comfortable walking around my neighborhood, the shops, and the downtown/main street by myself as a woman and eventually as a woman with kids. I do not want to live in an area that has "pockets" of good mixed with "pockets" of bad. Instead, an overall solid neighborhood would be great.
3 Close to public transportation. I do not own a car and want to avoid doing so. Being close enough to public transportation where I can get to CC in about 30 minutes is important but not a deal breaker.
4 Some young families in the area with family oriented activities/events. It is not necessary that the whole area but young families but enoough families where we can have a community like feeling when raising our kids. It would be great to have family events and activities where again, we can raise our kids in a community environment.
5 Affordability. We want to buy a home in the 200s. I want to have a comfortable mortgage and refuse to corner myself into becoming house poor. Areas with really high taxes stress finances so I rather an area with affordable taxes (such as $5000 or less).

How are GLENSIDE (THE SIDE TO THE NORTH OF THE TRACKS), ORELAND (NORTH OF THE TRACKS), ORELAND (SOUTH OF THE TRACKS), FLOURTOWN, AMBLER, ABINGTON (BOTH EAST AND WEST OF TRACKS), BLUE BELL (BY TRAIN), PLYMOUTH MEETING?

Also, are there any other areas out there that you recommend?

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE! I TRULY APPRECIATE YOU TAKING YOUR TIME OUT TO HELP! (you rock!)

[chessimprov]

Glenside can be iffy, but I hear it's still pretty good. The other areas sound good from what I know. Maybe you can consider KOP, Conshohocken, or areas near there. Norristown can be shaky I think.

[Avalon08]

Oh, here we go again -- an unrealistic budget for what you want: The highest-rated school district, the house with yard, the safe neighborhood, and low taxes, all in the 200's. I'm sorry if that sounds mean, but I see it very often on this site. I know home prices have dropped and I know there will be realtors who jump on here and disagree, but as a recent househunter, I'm pretty familiar with the pricing in the Philly suburbs, or at least some of the suburbs you mention. For example, homes in Plymouth Valley, East Plymouth Valley, Penn Square Village -- all 1950's Levittown-style developments of small ranchers -- are priced in the 200's. And they are in less-expensive areas than you mention. Or maybe you'd be OK with that (small rancher) -- I just noticed you don't have any kids and aren't even married yet. For that matter, since you're years away from having kids in school, why not just live in West Mount Airy, a really cool area of beautiful but affordable homes? Much closer to work for both of you and, when your future child is closer to school age, who knows where you'll want to be at that point....just sayin'.

[maf763]

Originally Posted by LiveLove27

How are GLENSIDE (THE SIDE TO THE NORTH OF THE TRACKS), ORELAND (NORTH OF THE TRACKS), ORELAND (SOUTH OF THE TRACKS), FLOURTOWN, AMBLER, ABINGTON (BOTH EAST AND WEST OF TRACKS), BLUE BELL (BY TRAIN), PLYMOUTH MEETING?

Glenside is a great area, I don't know anyone else who would call it iffy. South of Mt. Carmel Avenue and the tracks, you would be in Cheltenham township which generally has higher taxes than neighboring Abington. You can find houses on the 200's but they'll tend to be smaller or need some updating. Train commuting options are good; some parts of Glenside might be closer to the Ardsley station than the Glenside station, but the Glenside station is better because two lines run through there. Search in zip code 19038.

North of the tracks in Oreland puts you into Upper Dublin school district, which is excellent, but it's a smaller neighborhood and between the scarcity and school district, prices and taxes are high. Anything in the 200's either goes quickly or needs a lot of work. Your money will go a lot further south of the tracks (actually south of Pennsylvania Avenue), but the houses and lots tend to be smaller. You'll also be in the Springfield school district, which is good district but not as well regarded as Upper Dublin. There is one train line through Oreland, and some parts of Oreland will be a mile or more from the station. Use 19075 for your search.

Flourtown (19031) is nice but pretty expensive and further from the train stations (Chestnut Hill East or Oreland).

There's a lot to recommend about Ambler borough for walkability and convenience to the train. Wissahickon is a very good school district. You will be stretching the 30 minutes to Center City, though not by too much, and it's a further drive to Mt. Airy, but still within about 25 minutes. The houses in the borough tend to be older and there are a lot of twins and rowhouses. Options for singles are more limited.

Abington is too widespread an area to summarize. Prices will be a lot cheaper close to the Roslyn or Ardsley stations than they will be near the Rydal or Meadowbrook stations.

There are better options for what you want than Blue Bell and I'm not as familiar with Plymouth Meeting. You could try being close to the Jenkintown station, where there is a real range of housing options and there are three train lines that run through there. Conshohocken is further from Mt. Airy and tends to be more expensive, but there is a pretty wide range of options there as well so you can find things in your price range.

Your wish list isn't unreasonable, given that you only need to find one place. It will be tougher to find things in the $200's but not impossible. A quick search on zillow for <$275K found over 30 places in Oreland, over a hundred in Glenside, and over 30 in Ambler. Zillow isn't the most reliable site and not all those places will fit your criteria, but you'll have options.

[JHG722]

For the 200s, you should just rent and wait til you can afford something in the 400s+. 200s won't get you much, even in suburban yet rural areas.

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by maf763

Glenside is a great area, I don't know anyone else who would call it iffy.

I agree.

[cpomp]

Some of those towns you mentioned are very expensive for your list of requirements. I have some good suggestions but they are very expensive as well. Philly burbs arent any cheaper than NYC, so maybe rent for a while so you can save up, or come down and visit listings in each town in your price range and see what is offered.

[maf763]

Nonsense. There are plenty of options in the $200's. Here are singles in Glenside, Oreland and Ambler for under $275. Plenty of them will fit the OP's criteria.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by maf763

Nonsense. There are plenty of options in the $200's. Here are singles in Glenside, Oreland and Ambler for under $275. Plenty of them will fit the OP's criteria.

I just looked up real estate listing in these towns, and they are not going to find anything they want in Ambler for 200k. There are a few homes in the 200-250k range and they need work done. Most homes in Ambler listed are pretty pricy, some outrageous. Glenside there is more a selection, but the list doesnt offer much. Oreland has the best selection of homes.

[Angus215]

I think you could get a small house in ambler borough that fits your wish list. ambler is kind of a working class town, but has a nice, small downtown and is in a good school district (wissahickon). people on here may get confused between ambler postal (which includes parts of upper dublin, horsham, etc) and ambler borough. you would want to focus on the borough. i do believe there are some not so great neighborhoods in ambler, so just watch out for that.