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View Poll Results: Belmont Hills - decent neighborhood for 2 academics and their kids?
Great neighbors, school, location; go for it 1 100.00%
If you like the house, do it; the rest will work 0 0%
Unfriendly people, dangerous hills, bad neighbors 0 0%
Your children will die on those hills; you will wreck your car in the snow annually 0 0%
Voters: 1. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 03-26-2015, 08:23 PM
 
7 posts, read 11,300 times
Reputation: 10

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My wife and I are academics and are looking at possibly buying a house on the upper end of the scale in Belmont Hills - in part for the school district. The upper end there is the lower end in Lower Merion, as house prices go. This is a nice old house, and we're used to working class neighborhoods, having lived for 8 years in Ardmore on the Delaware County side. But those hills are scary. Can you drive them in the snow? Do young kids get hit by cars riding their bikes on those hills? Housing prices run the whole gamut in that neighborhood; does that make it a weird community, or do neighbors get along there? Any advice or thoughts from experience would be appreciated.
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Old 03-26-2015, 09:05 PM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,325 posts, read 12,995,234 times
Reputation: 6174
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiat View Post
My wife and I are academics and are looking at possibly buying a house on the upper end of the scale in Belmont Hills - in part for the school district. The upper end there is the lower end in Lower Merion, as house prices go. This is a nice old house, and we're used to working class neighborhoods, having lived for 8 years in Ardmore on the Delaware County side. But those hills are scary. Can you drive them in the snow? Do young kids get hit by cars riding their bikes on those hills? Housing prices run the whole gamut in that neighborhood; does that make it a weird community, or do neighbors get along there? Any advice or thoughts from experience would be appreciated.
Belmont Hills is perfectly safe for children, and the main roads are generally well-plowed. It is a very tight-knit community--lots of multi-generational families--and the feel is still very white ethnic blue collar. I do think the bang-for-buck factor is lousy, though. If blue-collar is what you're after, you're better off looking in the Lower Merion portion of Ardmore below Montgomery Avenue or the Northeastern quadrant of Narberth.
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Old 03-26-2015, 09:26 PM
 
7 posts, read 11,300 times
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We're not after blue collar; we just can take it if we have to. But thanks for the thoughts.
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Old 03-26-2015, 09:38 PM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,325 posts, read 12,995,234 times
Reputation: 6174
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiat View Post
We're not after blue collar; we just can take it if we have to. But thanks for the thoughts.
If that's your attitude, then I'd definitely shy away from Belmont Hills. What's your budget, anyway?
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Old 03-26-2015, 09:45 PM
 
7 posts, read 11,300 times
Reputation: 10
Into the fours. But we want to avoid the tight little colonials in Wynnewood if we can, and that's about what we can get at that range.
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Old 03-26-2015, 09:58 PM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,325 posts, read 12,995,234 times
Reputation: 6174
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiat View Post
Into the fours. But we want to avoid the tight little colonials in Wynnewood if we can, and that's about what we can get at that range.
Then I'd look elsewhere. Lower Merion/LMSD schools are great, but it sounds like you'd be stuck with a home or neighborhood that would make you unhappy. Why not Media Rose Tree, Wallingford-Swarthmore, Colonial, Upper Dublin, or any other number of places?
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Old 03-26-2015, 10:01 PM
 
7 posts, read 11,300 times
Reputation: 10
That's all too far out. We'd like to be closer to work. Plus, we want the best school district, which is Lower Merion or Radnor (which is too far out). In the area we want for the price, you've got Narberth (in the 5s unless it's a fixer-upper), the Montgomery side of Lower Merion or Wynnewood colonials. Perhaps we should just buy a fixer-upper in Narberth? Walkability would be great.

Last edited by Wiat; 03-26-2015 at 10:14 PM..
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Old 03-27-2015, 07:37 AM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,325 posts, read 12,995,234 times
Reputation: 6174
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiat View Post
That's all too far out. We'd like to be closer to work. Plus, we want the best school district, which is Lower Merion or Radnor (which is too far out). In the area we want for the price, you've got Narberth (in the 5s unless it's a fixer-upper), the Montgomery side of Lower Merion or Wynnewood colonials. Perhaps we should just buy a fixer-upper in Narberth? Walkability would be great.
If the LMSD is non-negotiable, then yes, I recommend Narberth or the walkable adjacent portions of Merion or Wynnewood.

Last edited by ElijahAstin; 03-27-2015 at 07:50 AM..
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Old 03-27-2015, 08:17 AM
 
40 posts, read 46,811 times
Reputation: 48
People love Belmont hills. Walk to school, walk to the pool, walk to the library.
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Old 03-27-2015, 09:07 AM
 
23 posts, read 37,893 times
Reputation: 25
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiat View Post
having lived for 8 years in Ardmore on the Delaware County side.

Is that where you live currently? If so, why do you want to move? That always seemed like such a great area. Is LMSD really that much better than Haverford school district? Just curious.
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