Philly suburb towns - PLEASE offer advice. (Allentown, Montgomeryville: travel, house)

[newmarlig]

Originally Posted by movingtophillie

Thanks newmarlig, I figured that out too late, name is mine now : )

We drove over to Moorestown when he was up there interviewing. Loved it!! but it felt like the prices of homes were over the 500k mostly.... unless you went for a smaller brink ranch type home... If I am wrong, please let me know. It is a beautiful town.

Didn't get to see too much of haddonfield.

I will click on both your links and take a look. Thanks again.

Phillie!!

"Phillie" Prices are high in Moorestown and Haddonfield, but it's a buyers market now and prices are dropping (I guess that's not entirely good news to you since you are also selling a home.

You should also look at Collingswood in NJ.

http://www.collingswood.com/

and

Mt. Laurel

http://www.mountlaurel.com/

[rainrock]

Welcome to Philly.

On the Pa. side unfortunately you will have to go out pretty far(20+ miles) to find newer housing. You will be able to find plenty of housing closer to center city in the $400k range in great communities, with great schools, but the tradeoff for the easier commute will be older housing- e.g. houses built in the 50's 60's 70's. Anything newer built within 45 minutes of the city is extremely expensive.


Approximate 1 hour commute into center city gets you much nicer, newer housing and the landscape is much nicer to boot.If you have any interest in Pa. your best bet would be to drive up route 202 from Wilmington De all the way up to Doylestown. Check out West Chester,Westtown,Exton,Downingtown,Chester Springs,Great Valley,Kop. Then on the other side of Norristown(Gritty) the Montgomery County communities start.



http://www.weichert.com/PA/chester

Chester County

West Chester
Westtown
Exton
Downingtown
Chester Springs



http://www.weichert.com/PA/montgomery


Montgomery County

Collegeville
Plymouth meeting
Royersford
Phoenixville
North Wales

Good luck

[movingtophillie]

Thanks RainRock... When we were up there for our quickie trip, we did get out to Doylestown (which we loved). My fear is that my need for the big box shopping (target, kohls, etc) would be a little more difficult (don't get me wrong, I love quaint shopping, just have a need for my big boxes too). Please tell me I am wrong. We went towards Quakertown after Doylestown. This trip, we want to go the other way towards New Hope, etc. I also want to check out Exton, Chester, etc. My heart lies with Bucks County area (I think)... but I can see more newer home developments with the amenties in Chester County. Maybe I am wrong?

anyway, love the help you guys provide.

Phillie...

[rainrock]

No you are correct Doylestown and Quakertown are very rural, Big Box development is frowned upon in that neck of the woods.

New Hope is a smaller more artsy version of Doylestown.Its an even more rural area than Doylestown. It(NH) is verynice, very quaint and historic but real quiet, remote.This is also a definite No Big Box Zone. Quakertown I'm not too familiar with, all I know is that its very rural.

Just to the east of Doylestown you start getting back into typical american suburbia. North Wales-Blue Bell-Plymouth Meeting-Horsham.

Bucks County is great and it has alot going on for it and if you want elbow room and a quiet setting this is the place to be, but I still say Chester County is the hidden gem. Its Bucks County with bigger hills, better landscape and more progressive development. Between King of Prussia,Exton, and West Chester you'll have every modern store you'll ever need. Chester Springs which is a bit north of those towns has a tremendous amount of new housing development underway. Downingtown area which is just west of Exton is another area with alot of housing growth.

[movingtophillie]

Yep, that is what I was finding on my research. Thanks for confirming. We made arrangements to stay at a hotel in KOP, so we could easily get where we can check things out. We are really doing an area check, then we will know where to focus on.

thanks for your help.

Phillie

[BPP1999]

Did you look into pricing in Doylestown? A relatively modest house in the Boro of Doylestown can be well over $500k. From one of your earlier posts, this might be your threshold.

There is tons of big box retail on PA 309, about 8-9 miles south on US 202. 202 is mostly 1-lane each way, and while not really congested, it has too much traffic on it. They are building a "parkway" (this parkway was once to be a limited access highway but, this being Pennsylvania, has been scaled down to be another 1-lane each way local road). This parkway will essentially parallel "old" 202 and should help improve traffic flow in the area. 202 from D'Town to Montgomeryville (a big-box area) can be about 12 minutes with no traffic. At the wrong time it can take longer.

This new parkway will feed from the 202 expressway, which is near D'Town, and will go south and dead-end in Montgomeryville. There will only be about 7 at-grade intersections along the 9 or so miles of the parkway, so there shouldn't be too much congestion on it. My point is that though big-box is frowned upon in D'Town and New Hope, you can find such stores not too far away. Actually, there's also a Wegman's, a Lowe's, and some of big box stores south on PA 611 in Warrington, about 6-7 miles south of D'Town.

For more details of the parkway check www.us202.com and look under Section 700. Some of the most vocal people in this region are the most anti-change and anti-development. I guess you can thank them in part for Doylestown being so picturesque, but I also blame them in part on the lack of adequate infrastructure. This 202 project has been in the works for decades, and construction looks to begin soon.

[toobusytoday]

There is a Circuit City going in at Quakertown. There's a box store! It's right next to the brand new Target. In Montgomeryville there are tons of box stores (including Costco) and that's not too far from Doylestown. For 10 years we lived very close to many, many shopping opportunities. After a bit of withdrawl, I've found that it really is possible to live farther then 10 minutes to the big stores. The trade off is less traffic and a nicer slower pace of life.

[rainrock]

movingtophillie it might not be your thing but there are quite a few older communities that are closer to center city that are worth looking into as well, and although the housing stock is older the communities themselves constantly turn over with young families.

3 of the older suburbs made 2007 Money Magazines top 15 of the USA's top 100 Best Places to Live. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...oneymag/9.html

Nether Providence which is surrounded by Swarthmore,Media,Middletown Township is an incredibly convenient place to live as its 20 minute ride into center city and has 4 train stops withing 3 miles of each other.(Swarthmore-Wallingford-Media-Elwyn)

9-Nether Providence(Delaware County)
12-West Goshen(Chester County)
15-Horsham(Montgomery County)



9. Nether Providence (Wallingford), Pa.
Population: 13,600
Median home price (2006): $309,319
Average property taxes (2006): $3,640
Pros: Affordable homes, top-rated schools
Cons: No real downtown

Spend a little time in Nether Providence, a.k.a. Wallingford (its largest community), and you'll find yourself forgetting that Philadelphia is 20 minutes away by car or commuter train. A 4.6-square-mile township of lush green hills, old stone houses and expansive parks, Nether Providence also offers good schools, and a nice home can be had for $300,000 or even less. Nether Providence doesn't have its own downtown, but most residents can walk or bike to Media, where there's a movie theater and plenty of locally owned shops and restaurants.

If the Philly economy were growing more briskly, Nether Providence would rank even higher. About 30% of the town's workers commute into the city.

[JerzBoy]

How long is your husband willing to commute? Driving to Center City from the Western suburbs is BRUTAL. Commuting to center city from NJ or some Delaware County, PA burbs is much easier.

Don't get me wrong - the KOP/Exton/West Chester area is a great place to live - but it is a pain to get into the city. Just keep in mind commuting times when looking at neighborhoods

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by JerzBoy

Don't get me wrong - the KOP/Exton/West Chester area is a great place to live - but it is a pain to get into the city. Just keep in mind commuting times when looking at neighborhoods

From KOP westward to West Chester/ Exton is a piece of cake. From KOP eastward to Philadelphia is brutal. There is really only one antiquated highway going from KOP into the city(Scuylkill Expressway) The rest are two laned state roads like Route 1,Route 3,Route 30, Gemantown Pike and Ridge Avenue all of which have major congestion issues.

I was amazed at how easy it is to navigate from Cherry Hill into the city. The Pa suburbs which are nearly all older historic areas do get backed up. But if you are east of 476 the commute is comparable to Cherry Hill. West of 476KOP/Exton/West Chester/Malvern is a different story