Going to Philly 10/12 to find rental in suburbs--need advice on where to look (Chester: where to stay)

[Jane0218]

Hello,
We are a childless couple in our mid 40's. Originally from NY(40+ yrs) (eastern Long Island---agricultural based, but still NY mentality, Westchester County, mostly mid-range income areas), NH, CT , then to AZ, then to NC, and now to PA. We miss the NE attitude and hope to find it in the Philly area.
NY is too expensive for us and so is the Boston area. We checked out Manchester, NH but the population and job base aren't large enough.

We are tired of moving sooo slooowww here in NC. We want to be around educated, opinionated people. My husband is naturally politically- and sports-oriented and loves to get into discussions/debates about those things. I'm not like that, so he needs a place where he can meet people, even if on a casual basis, where he can have discussions like that. In NY and NH he found those things at the local gyms, but in AZ and NC no such luck...

So, we are going to PA, near Philly, 10/12, for about a week to find a place to rent. We want to live AND WORK in suburbs of Philly, leaving Philly available for concerts, museums, stuff like that. I do bookkeeping and he's thinking of probably doing forklift work until he gets certified as a Personal Trainer. We are going under the assumption we'll only find a reasonably priced rental, where my husband can garage his Harley, in the suburbs. Plus we have 2 cars...

But after reading so many posts, we're still confused. We are looking to rent, not buy, for about 6 months and then make a final move to a permanent home (maybe purchase) after that.
We don't care about school systems. We care about being safe, not renting in a place with a bunch of loud kids/teenagers/adults. Not far from grocery shopping. We'd like to have short commutes to jobs (no more than 20 minutes). I haven't found many posts commenting on good commercial cities for jobs outside of Philly. Any suggestions?

We'll be there for about a week to find an apartment and want to stay in a hotel in a safe location that isn't outragously priced. We'd like to stay under $130/night, if possible, with access to laundry/laundromat, fitness center.
So, any ideas on where to stay for a week? Any suggestions on towns we could look to live and work, with short commutes and rents around $700-$775/month (we're fine with a 1 bedroom place for the first 6 months) ? To reiterate, we don't have kids, so schools are not a factor for us. We want to live where the general population is more highly educated than not.

And we're looking for a moderate liberal mind-set, not too conservative---that is SO important to us. We want to be able to say what we think and not have people look at us as if we have 3 heads each! We can't stand that here in NC...everyone is just so 'proper' and 'perky' it's driving us nuts!

[JerzBoy]

You're rental range will limit you. Going to be hard to find something in decent areas.

[BPP1999]

Try Media and Wallingford (the latter was just 9th on the best places to live survey by Money Magazine).

If you want very liberal, try Swarthmore.

Check into Plymouth Meeting and King of Prussia, both great job centers, but suburban sprawl-ish. Also, check out Ambler and Conshohocken.

[rainrock]

ApartmentGuide.com - apartments for rent, apartment finder

West Chester(Chester County)
King of Prussia/Valley Forge(Montgomery County)
Plymouth Meeting(Montgomery County)
Lansdale(Montgomery County)
Doylestown(Bucks County)
Media (Delaware County)

[maf763]

Jenkintown, Glenside & Ambler are all easy train rides to Center City and close to the industrial parks in Fort Washington and Horsham.

[Jane0218]

Originally Posted by maf763

Jenkintown, Glenside & Ambler are all easy train rides to Center City and close to the industrial parks in Fort Washington and Horsham.

When you say "easy" what does that translate into as far as time?

I'm looking for no longer than a 20 minute commute....
Thanks...

[maf763]

Jenkintown is about 25 minutes and three lines (R2, R3, R5) stop there, Glenside is the next stop after Jenkintown (about 2 minutes further), only the R2 and R5 stop there, and Ambler is about 10-15 minutes past Glenside, and only the R5 stops there.

[Jane0218]

Originally Posted by maf763

Jenkintown is about 25 minutes and three lines (R2, R3, R5) stop there, Glenside is the next stop after Jenkintown (about 2 minutes further), only the R2 and R5 stop there, and Ambler is about 10-15 minutes past Glenside, and only the R5 stops there.

Thanks for the info...