Buying in Drexel Hill and Property Taxes (Philadelphia, Lansdowne: how much, townhome)

[Coffee2]

Hi,
I have lived in "South Drexel Hill" for over 30 years. While I will agree that housing prices are down there; the prices are down all over Drexel Hill. I haven't seen any increasing crime either in my area. In fact, it was worse in the 90's with some motorcycle gangs. The area is more diverse than it was, however so is all of Delaware County. Mostly I find the some individuals in the area resent the diversity and use it to explain the "downhill" expression. I am not in anyway saying those here are saying that; just that some do.

[Trimatty471]

Originally Posted by Coffee2

Hi,
I have lived in "South Drexel Hill" for over 30 years. While I will agree that housing prices are down there; the prices are down all over Drexel Hill. I haven't seen any increasing crime either in my area. In fact, it was worse in the 90's with some motorcycle gangs. The area is more diverse than it was, however so is all of Delaware County. Mostly I find the some individuals in the area resent the diversity and use it to explain the "downhill" expression. I am not in anyway saying those here are saying that; just that some do.

Always.

[Burger Fan]

Originally Posted by Coffee2

Hi,
I have lived in "South Drexel Hill" for over 30 years. While I will agree that housing prices are down there; the prices are down all over Drexel Hill. I haven't seen any increasing crime either in my area. In fact, it was worse in the 90's with some motorcycle gangs. The area is more diverse than it was, however so is all of Delaware County. Mostly I find the some individuals in the area resent the diversity and use it to explain the "downhill" expression. I am not in anyway saying those here are saying that; just that some do.

this right here.

[Droop]

Drexel Hill used to be almost completely white. Some view the increased racial diversity as decline, some see it as a sign of social progress. Drexel Hill is still made up of upper middle class people, they are just more diverse racially. It is also still a great place to live. The taxes havemade me consider moving in the past but the quality of life here makes that too hard to do.

Also, as Burger mentioned, real estate taxes are tax deductible. As a result, what you actually pay in real estate taxes is the gross minus the percentage based on your tax bracket. For example, $10k in real estate taxes and a 30 percent tax bracket means you are really only out of pocket $7k.

[leweslogeman]

is .61 all in so for a 100,000 dollar house you're paying 6100 or so I' m lead to believe... seems outrageous to me, so 18,300 for a 300th house, even more ridiculous

look up millage rates under delaware county . com

[leweslogeman]

everyone in Delaware county or PA should be involved with PTCC Pennsylvania Taxpayers cyber coalition, working to repeal school taxes that have gotten out of hand

[Pilot1]

Originally Posted by Phillywander6767

I think the area the person is talking about in "SOUTH" Drexel Hill is the area south of Garrett Road the corner of Garrett Road and Burmont Road (near the 3 way border between south drexel hill, lansdowne, and clifton heights).

This area is in a huge decline.... as houses are very cheap and crime has increased... I lived here my whole life.

Well you have close in suburbs which in and of themselves are pretty bad, as well as nearby sections of the city that are really bad. So, Drexel Hill has always had a tendency to be rougher than the outer suburbs. My cousins that grew up in DH, and went to Bonner, and Prendy were TOUGH because they had to be. I don't know what it is like now, but it used to be a pretty working class burb, with hard working, hard nose people.

Still, it has to be better than Upper Darby, Darby, Clifton Heights, etc.

[ActualUDResident]

Originally Posted by soulsurv

Always loved Drexel Hill! Never understood why places with an abundance of industry, i.e., Springfield, have climbing obscene tax rates when industry is supposed to temper taxes . Can someone explain that to me?

Springfield has literally never had an abundance of industry unless you count farming or something.

It's as suburban as it gets.

Also, if it's a mystery to you then maybe you should ask some people from places that once had a lot of industry. It's not exactly a secret.

Kukla's history of Upper Darby is also completely wrong and just a lazy generalization. It was never a classic suburb. It was a largely industrial township with streetcar suburbia near the El and trolley lines. It's the people from these streetcar suburbs who say these ridiculous things about the area going downhill or about the east of the township being a drain. What most people probably do not know is that the majority of people who moved to the township's more modest housing developments from Philly were Italian. Before that, the township was largely Irish with some Polish. There were also of course those who moved to the streetcar suburbia from the city who do not fall into any of these groups. Upper Darby has had communities surrounding industry for a long time.

I also don't think Kukla knows much about the township at all. It's not segregated, and the eastern part stopped being segregated a long time ago. I'm also not sure what that whole part-time leadership and other nonsense was about. The township has been controlled by the same Republican party machine for a long time.

[soulsurv]

Originally Posted by ActualUDResident

Springfield has literally never had an abundance of industry unless you count farming or something.

It's as suburban as it gets.

I was referring to THE RETAIL INDUSTRY - the "Golden Mile," the mall, restaurants, etc., all of which (so the townspeople were always told), would LOWER their taxes, Never has. I grew up there.

[ActualUDResident]

[quote=soulsurv;56267110]

Originally Posted by ActualUDResident

Springfield has literally never had an abundance of industry unless you count farming or something.

It's as suburban as it gets.

Originally Posted by ActualUDResident

I was referring to THE RETAIL INDUSTRY - the "Golden Mile," the mall, restaurants, etc., all of which (so the townspeople were always told), would LOWER their taxes, Never has. I grew up there.

People tend to refer to that as commercial.

See the thing that a lot of people from that area seem to overlook is that it was largely built up around the same time. That means the infrastructure was as well. Well that now needs to replaced, which costs money. That area peaked in the '70s, has lost its upper class, and has had many people from more working class areas and even Philly move there for the past almost twenty years. They've built very few new upscale housing since then, and every commercial area continues to become less upscale. In short, it's not aging well nor will it age well in the future.

They continue to develop every available square inch with more tract housing or "townhomes" but that also means more money is required for services, and none of that will ever make the property taxes start going down. That ship has sailed.