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This thread was not meant to offend anyone, I was simply expressing the vibe that I've received in various parts of Delaware County. I felt at least semi-qualified to give my opinion given that I am a life-long resident. I didn't mean for my descriptions to come off as harsh, I actually love DelCo. I think it has a very unique vibe and structure that you just can't find in places like MontCo and ChesCo. However, some of that unique vibe and structure stems from socioeconomic disparity of Delaware County.
Concerning the areas that I seem to have skipped over -
Edgemont is a great area. I really like it. Unfortunately, I feel like it's often overshadowed by Newtown Square. Nether Providence Township is another nice area. Maybe I just have some sort of bias against Wallingford, I'm not sure. I'm not denying that there are some beautiful homes in Wallingford. I'm also not denying that it's a top-rated school district. Growing up in the area I knew quite a few kids from Wallingford who went through this top-rated school district and lived in gorgeous homes and they turned out to be not the greatest of people. I realize this sounds very trivial and dramatic, but I still get the same vibe from people from that area to this day. A lot of the kids I know from Wallingford grew up in homes where their parents were either alcoholics or casual drug abusers. These kids turned out to be alcoholics and drug abusers themselves. It just seems like a vicious cycle. I singled out Garden City in particular because that's the place where the kids would go to buy their drugs. Now, this information could be very outdated, and I truly hope it is. But because of my bad experiences with that area, it's not somewhere I would want my kids to hang out. I know drugs can happen anywhere, but you'd think that since Wallingford is a "wealthy area" it would be a little more discreet. In my experience, it wasn't.
When it comes to places in DelCo like Newtown Square and Radnor, you can't really argue the fact that there are people with a lot of money who live there. Radnor is definitely the wealthier of the two areas. I only say this because you can find a house for ALMOST any budget (within reason) in Newtown Square. I have quite a few friends who had budgets of anywhere from $200k to $350k and found nice homes in Newtown Square. You'd be hard pressed to find any kind of home (let alone a nice one) in Radnor for that amount. When it comes to school districts, Radnor wins hands down. The thing I dislike about these two places are the ostentatious displays of wealth. If you took 4 wealthy families - one from Drexel Park, one from Havertown, one from Newtown Square, and one from Radnor - and compared them ... I'd think that you'd find that the first two families might have gorgeous homes but may drive more practical (read: less flashy) cars, dress more sensibly, etc. The families from Newtown Square and Radnor would probably be driving BMWs or a Benz, wear clothes with designers all over them, etc. Again, blanket generalizations, I know, but the point of this thread was for me to talk about the vibes that I have personally received from these areas. I know there are families living in the aforementioned areas that do not fit my description.
THANK YOU, and thank you CPOMP for listing all the towns HE MISSED! I've lived in DELCO for over 50 years, and yes there are negative influences creeping in, but also a GREAT DEAL OF WEALTH, old money and gorgeous areas as well. Seems like he just want to highlight the negative end.
Collingdale
If you're looking to purchase real estate in DelCo, look elsewhere. Collingdale has a horrible crime rate, a low median income, and no nice houses to speak of. Not trying to be rude, just stating the facts. This is considered a low class town (as opposed to working class). The school district is one of the worst not only in the state of PA, but in the entire country. In some parts of Collingdale, it's not even safe to walk around late at night. Underage drinking and drug abuse is the norm here.
Feel free to make an addition or ask a question! I know there are some areas I've missed!
I was born & raised in Collingdale and am a product of SEDelco. I earned my B.A. at 21, my M.S. at 22, and my PhD by age 26 and have been a professor at a pretty darn good University, since. My kid sister (still lives in Collingdale), just graduated from college - with honors and will be going to graduate school in a month. Neither of us drink - even though we can legally do so. And we certainly didn't drink. My core group of friends from SEDelco all went on to get advanced degrees. So, we're not all low class
There are people on the street where I grew up (my parents still live) who do hold professional jobs (nurse, teacher, hospital administrator). They just decided they didn't want to leave their homes when things started to get a little rougher. For what it's worth, I'm pretty squeamish and haven't felt unsafe walking around Collingdale. It does make me sad that pride of ownership seems to have waned, and homes aren't as well maintained as when I was growing up. The vibe and look are different in different parts of the town, however. I do concede the area has changed - but calling an area (and by association its residents) low class, isn't very nice.
This thread was not meant to offend anyone, I was simply expressing the vibe that I've received in various parts of Delaware County. I felt at least semi-qualified to give my opinion given that I am a life-long resident. I didn't mean for my descriptions to come off as harsh, I actually love DelCo. I think it has a very unique vibe and structure that you just can't find in places like MontCo and ChesCo. However, some of that unique vibe and structure stems from socioeconomic disparity of Delaware County.
Concerning the areas that I seem to have skipped over -
Edgemont is a great area. I really like it. Unfortunately, I feel like it's often overshadowed by Newtown Square. Nether Providence Township is another nice area. Maybe I just have some sort of bias against Wallingford, I'm not sure. I'm not denying that there are some beautiful homes in Wallingford. I'm also not denying that it's a top-rated school district. Growing up in the area I knew quite a few kids from Wallingford who went through this top-rated school district and lived in gorgeous homes and they turned out to be not the greatest of people. I realize this sounds very trivial and dramatic, but I still get the same vibe from people from that area to this day. A lot of the kids I know from Wallingford grew up in homes where their parents were either alcoholics or casual drug abusers. These kids turned out to be alcoholics and drug abusers themselves. It just seems like a vicious cycle. I singled out Garden City in particular because that's the place where the kids would go to buy their drugs. Now, this information could be very outdated, and I truly hope it is. But because of my bad experiences with that area, it's not somewhere I would want my kids to hang out. I know drugs can happen anywhere, but you'd think that since Wallingford is a "wealthy area" it would be a little more discreet. In my experience, it wasn't.
When it comes to places in DelCo like Newtown Square and Radnor, you can't really argue the fact that there are people with a lot of money who live there. Radnor is definitely the wealthier of the two areas. I only say this because you can find a house for ALMOST any budget (within reason) in Newtown Square. I have quite a few friends who had budgets of anywhere from $200k to $350k and found nice homes in Newtown Square. You'd be hard pressed to find any kind of home (let alone a nice one) in Radnor for that amount. When it comes to school districts, Radnor wins hands down. The thing I dislike about these two places are the ostentatious displays of wealth. If you took 4 wealthy families - one from Drexel Park, one from Havertown, one from Newtown Square, and one from Radnor - and compared them ... I'd think that you'd find that the first two families might have gorgeous homes but may drive more practical (read: less flashy) cars, dress more sensibly, etc. The families from Newtown Square and Radnor would probably be driving BMWs or a Benz, wear clothes with designers all over them, etc. Again, blanket generalizations, I know, but the point of this thread was for me to talk about the vibes that I have personally received from these areas. I know there are families living in the aforementioned areas that do not fit my description.
For Edgemont, it does get lumped in with Newtown Square, but I personally think the Gradyville/Edgemont area is probably the nicest area in delaware county/arguably the entire area. Beautiful homes, big and small, old and new, large lots, and very leafy, and no retail.
Newtown Square does have a bit of a disparity, and yes you can find a home for 300k all the way up to 10 million(highest listing in newtown square right now) however, Newtown square is generally upper middle/upper class, the regular neighborhoods there are few and far between, and quickly being replaced by mansions. Not too much affordability there. Nearby Marple is more middle class.
And you forgot garnet valley/glen mills/chadds ford again. So.. Chadds Ford is very bucolic, estates on rolling hills, some old money, but in recent decades, million dollar homes are popping up everywhere, as well as retail saturation along 202. Top 5 school district in the area, one of my favorites towns in the area.
Garnet Valley/Glen Mills is the definition of nouveau riche. the populations have skyrocketed in the past 20 years. Most of the homes are 800k toll brother homes with a mercedes in the driveway. Very good schools, also saturated with retail along route 1 and 202. But these are great towns, a ton of families and a lot amentities minutes away.This is the new Delco, that a lot of older delco people are not used to or have not experienced because they do not travel that far out.
Yeah I can't say I'm too familiar with Garnet Valley/Glen Mills/Chadds Ford. I've heard good things about all three of those areas. I've been to Glen Mills several times and both of the homes I visited were on large plots of land, so that could be seen as a huge bonus (especially in somewhere as densely populated as Delaware County). In fact, Glen Mills and Chadds Ford visually remind me more of Chester County, but that could be because of my focus on the inner-ring suburbs of Delaware County. DelCo can be a vortex sometimes - it's hard to remember other areas actually exist!
I wish that Edgemont was not overshadowed by Newtown Square. I'm pretty sure the shopping center on West Chester Pike with the Regal movie theatre is technically considered Edgemont Township. Absolutely gorgeous area. I know it's considered a shopping center and is by no means "quaint," but I really like the look and feel of that particular shopping center. In my opinion, it's a perfect balance of visual appeal and practicality.
Garnet Valley may just not be my taste. I loathe those 800k Toll Brother homes. My favorite homes are pre-war colonials and tudors ... that just screams curb appeal to me. Which again, may be why I don't particularly love areas like Garnet Valley although there's really nothing wrong with them.
Perhaps my issue is that I'm very partial to the Main Line. I love the homes in older areas along the Main Line like Bala Cynwyd and Bryn Mawr. Of course, if someone paid for me to move into a brand new McMansion in Villanova or Malvern, I probably wouldn't say no - but there's something about the character and curb appeal of older homes that draws me more toward areas (in Delaware County) such as Drexel Hill, Havertown, and the Victorian homes in Ridley Park. That would be a good explanation as to why I wouldn't prefer to live in a perfectly nice community with a decent school district, such as Broomall.
Yeah I can't say I'm too familiar with Garnet Valley/Glen Mills/Chadds Ford. I've heard good things about all three of those areas. I've been to Glen Mills several times and both of the homes I visited were on large plots of land, so that could be seen as a huge bonus (especially in somewhere as densely populated as Delaware County). In fact, Glen Mills and Chadds Ford visually remind me more of Chester County, but that could be because of my focus on the inner-ring suburbs of Delaware County. DelCo can be a vortex sometimes - it's hard to remember other areas actually exist!
I wish that Edgemont was not overshadowed by Newtown Square. I'm pretty sure the shopping center on West Chester Pike with the Regal movie theatre is technically considered Edgemont Township. Absolutely gorgeous area. I know it's considered a shopping center and is by no means "quaint," but I really like the look and feel of that particular shopping center. In my opinion, it's a perfect balance of visual appeal and practicality.
Garnet Valley may just not be my taste. I loathe those 800k Toll Brother homes. My favorite homes are pre-war colonials and tudors ... that just screams curb appeal to me. Which again, may be why I don't particularly love areas like Garnet Valley although there's really nothing wrong with them.
Perhaps my issue is that I'm very partial to the Main Line. I love the homes in older areas along the Main Line like Bala Cynwyd and Bryn Mawr. Of course, if someone paid for me to move into a brand new McMansion in Villanova or Malvern, I probably wouldn't say no - but there's something about the character and curb appeal of older homes that draws me more toward areas (in Delaware County) such as Drexel Hill, Havertown, and the Victorian homes in Ridley Park. That would be a good explanation as to why I wouldn't prefer to live in a perfectly nice community with a decent school district, such as Broomall.
See I come from the other side of delco, where everything is big and green. That is why I like to make sure people know delaware county has a lot more to it than twin houses in ridley. Nothing wrong with them, but people from those areas are often shocked to hear that there are million dollar communities in Delco, which isnt that out of the ordinary, unless you live in one of the small older boroughs. Chadds Ford and Garnet Valley border chester county, which is why they have more of the chester o****y vibe.
I actually forgot about the Regal theator shopping center. That is Edgemont.
There are good and bad areas in every town. Some are worse than others (Chester, Darby, Clifton, Collingdale, Sharon Hill, Folcroft), but the majority of Delco has good parts. Ridley, for example, has some great areas. Of course Eddystone and Woodlyn give "Ridley" as a whole a bad name. But, it's a good middle class area. You could say the same for Springfield. If you drove through Morton and found out that it was part of Springfield school district, you would think Springfield is a bad area.
Actually the Giant in Havertown is NOT a Super Giant. I think the only Super Giant in Greater Philly is currently in Willow Grove, at an old Home Depot site. Not far from there in Flourtown, a former Kmart that sat empty a decade (and was rumored to itself become a Home Depot) was recently bulldozed for a new Giant which may or may not be a Super Giant. Barely a year ago, Giant bought the Genuardi's across the parking lot, which is about 75,000 square feet, the same size as the Giant in Havertown. I get the feeling the new Giant won't be that much bigger, but perhaps the current Giant, after many years of neglect by Genuardi's/Safeway, is in much worse shape inside than it appears to be on the outside. And by the way, the Super Giant in Willow Grove is still smaller than most if not all Wegmans stores.
I wish Acme and Pathmark could each have one store on MacDade in Delco, instead of the two they each have right now, and it seems excessive that Walmart has one store each on MacDade and one store on Chester Pike. It would be nice if Giant or Wegmans could be represented somewhere on one of these streets, along with Lowe's and perhaps Sam's Club, which to be fair is no other than Walmart, but in wholesale format.
I assumed the new Giant in Havertown was a Super Giant because of the gas station, kind of like how a WaWa is considered a Super WaWa if there is an attached gas station- guess I was wrong. A wegmans will never open on macdade blvd or chester pike simply because it wouldn't do well. Look at wegmans current locations in the immediate area- king of Prussia and malvern. I know there are good and bad parts all up and down macdade blvd and chester pike, but none of those towns have enough people with the money to support a wegmans.
For Edgemont, it does get lumped in with Newtown Square, but I personally think the Gradyville/Edgemont area is probably the nicest area in delaware county/arguably the entire area. Beautiful homes, big and small, old and new, large lots, and very leafy, and no retail.
Newtown Square does have a bit of a disparity, and yes you can find a home for 300k all the way up to 10 million(highest listing in newtown square right now) however, Newtown square is generally upper middle/upper class, the regular neighborhoods there are few and far between, and quickly being replaced by mansions. Not too much affordability there. Nearby Marple is more middle class.
And you forgot garnet valley/glen mills/chadds ford again. So.. Chadds Ford is very bucolic, estates on rolling hills, some old money, but in recent decades, million dollar homes are popping up everywhere, as well as retail saturation along 202. Top 5 school district in the area, one of my favorites towns in the area.
Garnet Valley/Glen Mills is the definition of nouveau riche. the populations have skyrocketed in the past 20 years. Most of the homes are 800k toll brother homes with a mercedes in the driveway. Very good schools, also saturated with retail along route 1 and 202. But these are great towns, a ton of families and a lot amentities minutes away.This is the new Delco, that a lot of older delco people are not used to or have not experienced because they do not travel that far out.
We moved from Garnet Valley several years ago, but I never thought of it as nouveau rich then so was surprised to see the above comment. I looked it up in Zillow and had a hard time finding many houses over $500,000. Garnet Valley PA Real Estate - 79 Listings - Zillow There are lots of larger houses on little lots, but not the crazy big expensive ones.
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