Moving From New York, NY To Philadelphia (Pittsburgh, Chester: transplants, sales)

[leeleebaby]

I’ve been a resident of New York for 5+ years, & I am looking to move to Philadelphia as I’m newly engaged, expecting, & both my fiancé & I have close family & friends that live in Philadelphia. We’re currently living in a three bedroom apartment here for $7700.

When are you moving? Next few Months
Where are you coming from? New York, New York
Why are you moving? Closer to family and friends , looking for a considerably cheaper place to live
Where will you be working? Remote
Have you been here yet? Yes, have visited family & friends
Will you buy or rent? Rent
If buying, are you looking for a house or a condo? How much can you spend?
If renting, are you looking for an apartment, a townhouse or loft? How much can you spend? An Apartment, Up To $2 to $3k
Do you have a preference of living in a NJ or PA suburb? PA Suburb
Are you married or single? Do you have children? Engaged & Expecting
Do you prefer public or private schools? Private
Do you have pets? No
Do you want or need a yard? Yes
Are you keeping a car? Yes
Do you prefer bustling activity or calm and quiet? Calm & Quiet

What do you want to be closest to? Grocery Store,
Nightlife, Shopping, Childcare
An Area That Is Both Driveable & Walkable, An area where there aren’t a lot of college students
Favorite Beverage - Craft Beer, wine, water? Water

[Midcoaster]

If your relationship does not last, would you still want to be in Philadelphia - or Pennsylvania in general?

visiting is just that. It is a true saw that renting somewhere for 3 months will usually tell you what you need to know, but you are pregnant. There are less-expensive places to rent in NYC. Is it so urgent to leave such a great place to raise kids?

[Pennsport]

Originally Posted by Midcoaster

If your relationship does not last, would you still want to be in Philadelphia - or Pennsylvania in general?

visiting is just that. It is a true saw that renting somewhere for 3 months will usually tell you what you need to know, but you are pregnant. There are less-expensive places to rent in NYC. Is it so urgent to leave such a great place to raise kids?

LOL... yeah, if you end up calling it off with your finance and baby's father, consider staying in NYC. You should definitely plan for that scenario.

OP, for 2-3k for an apartment, you're in pretty good shape for a smaller 2B Philly apartment, but probably a little below budget for a place in the best Philly burbs. You don't specify the size or general location you'd be looking for, but most Philly suburbs have limited apartment stock - much more single-family home situations, and limited rentals in the desirable areas. You'd probably be forced to rent a single-family home, and this could get difficult with 3k in a lot of the top Main Line, Bucks and Chester counties. You need to provide more details, but for a start, go to www.zillow.com and see what's out there.

[Flyers Girl]

Don't listen to Midcoaster or FKD. An early welcome to our fair city and surrounding areas!

We may still need a bit more in terms of type of vibe or neighborhood that interests you, but you could look at Ardmore, Wayne, Media, Ambler to start. I know you mentioned not wanting to be around a ton of college-aged folks, but downtown West Chester is a gem of a place. Yes, West Chester University is right down the road, but there is so much to do in the town itself. I'll let another poster, TLC, who lives there tell you more.

I live in Havertown and love it. It's not the same as the others I mentioned in terms of having one specific "main street" business district, but where I live in the Oakmont section is very walkable to lots of places. Lots of young families here.

[Redddog]

I came from NY.

It's a great move.

[TLC1957]

As Flyers Girl said check out West Chester. Regardless where you decide to live if possible spend a long weekend or a few days at a hotel, Airbnb etc to get a feel for the town. What you read and experience can be very different. We had many recommendations from folks and reading a ton of blogs. For example we wanted a walkable downtown area alive during the day and weekends with restaurants and small shops. We visited Dover DE was great on a weekday but dead on the weekends. Come to find the town was a business center with all leaving for the weekend!

In 2015 we retired moved to West Chester Borough, we love it. People are very friendly, the town has a community spirit, downtown is alive with always something going on, tons of places to explore, live theater, 75 plus restaurants and many shops. The Halloween and Christmas parades are amazing and not to be missed. It seems they always have something going on downtown where they shut down the streets and have a great time. Here is the Borough Parks and Recreational web site to give you and idea of the things happening.

https://west-chester.com/139/Parks-Recreation


If you love gardens Longwood Gardens is 20 min drive, amazing place a must see. We are members and visit many times during the year. Longwood Gardens is a botanical garden that consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the United States and is open to visitors year-round to enjoy native and exotic plants and horticulture (both indoor and outdoor), events and performances, seasonal and themed attractions, as well as educational lectures, courses, and workshops.

https://longwoodgardens.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwood_Gardens

Just a short drive away are more gardens are in Delaware

https://www.visitwilmingtonde.com/th...tions/gardens/

With a tradition of horticulture going back 300 years, Philadelphia is America’s Garden Capital.
Visit more than 30 public gardens, arboreta, and historic landscapes, all located within 30 miles of our landmark city.

http://americasgardencapital.org/?fb...wTHsIAEGJ_jMo-

If you like mansions more in Delaware with many DuPont family homes and other attractions.

https://www.visitwilmingtonde.com/th...o/attractions/

The area around West Chester has many walking and bicycle trails.

https://www.chescoplanning.org/resou...circuittrails/

Delaware the place with no sales taxes(think liquor, stoves, tv, washer/dryer, etc.) is 20 mins away. Train service to Philly is 15mins away in Exton, local train you are in center city in 55 minutes . You can be in the country in 10 mins. Schools are rated very high. Tons of shopping nearby, King of Prussia mall is 20 mins away, largest mall in the east. Many others malls in the area. The Philadelphia Airport is 40 minutes away.

West Chester is a university town, West Chester University with about 13K students on and off campus, if that bothers you may not like it. You have to be careful not to live near student housing, this website from the borough lists all student housing
http://www.west-chester.com/DocumentCenter/View/34
With that said we have had no problems living near the university. We take advantage of the many free concerts, lectures, etc the university has to offer. The University has a large music program with many talented students. We attend quality concerts 2-3 nights a week, all for free.

https://www.wcupa.edu/music/eventsCalendar.aspx#/?i=1

The local police and campus security keep close tabs on the students and pretty much do not put up with a lot of stuff. Our encounter with students have been great, we were moving in a couch and struggling when all of the sudden it got lighter, a few big guys saw us and stopped and helped and would not take anything for their time.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center http://uptownwestchester.org provides live theater, and concerts.

Also the University has live theater, concerts and lectures for a fee. https://www.wcupa.edu/oca/wcuLive/

Some streets parking can be a problem so look for homes with off street parking or where parking is not restricted. They love to give out $25 parking tickets! Here is a map http://www.west-chester.com/DocumentCenter/View/764 of where parking is controlled.

Homes can come on the market and be gone in a few hours or a day or so.

When we were looking to move out of NJ,we looked at Media, Chestnut Hill, Phoenixville, Doyestown and several places in Delaware including Hockessin, Newark near the University and Dover and settled on West Chester a decision we do not regret at all.

More info here
http://www.visitphilly.com/towns/west-chester/

Great blog on West Chester

https://hellowestchesterpa.com

Overview of West Chester

https://savingplaces.org/stories/how...n#.YmztLBopChA

Chester County Parks and Playgrounds

https://westchesterpa.macaronikid.co...and-recreation

Video of good & bad of West Chester
https://youtu.be/Lfip35t-XgM





Good luck in your search.

Tom

[Oh2Me]

Appreciate those welcoming the prospective residents. We’re also transplants, moved from San Francisco when we realized the wildfires were getting much worse and we’d likely never be able to afford a home with good paying jobs.

We bought a house here (Francisville) and are expecting our 3rd child in December. Recently considered moving to the suburbs, or upstate NY but decided we want to stay here. I’m not going to lie schools were a bit of a challenge (we have a son who is academically driven) but we were able to find a good placement.

We love being near Fairmount, the Free Public Library, good cafes/restaurants and museums. Some areas you may want to look into: Newtown Square is beautiful and still near Philadelphia proper. We have friends with families who live near us in Fairmount and a bit further away in Rittenhouse.

We also went out to Manayunk and King of Prussia before deciding on our home base. We felt like KOP was too far away and felt a bit negatively suburban. People were really nice in Manayunk (actually got invited to two dog park groups in 1 day!) but the area itself wasn’t our vibe.

Wishing you the absolute best with your future baby and welcome to PA

[Redddog]

Good lord.

Philly is an old school, NE major city that has many of the same qualities that NY has. It's just a hell of a lot cheaper, and much more manageable. Nothing more, nothing less.

[FKD19124]

Different culture different type of people.

Originally Posted by Redddog

Good lord.

Philly is an old school, NE major city that has many of the same qualities that NY has. It's just a hell of a lot cheaper, and much more manageable. Nothing more, nothing less.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by leeleebaby

I’ve been a resident of New York for 5+ years, & I am looking to move to Philadelphia as I’m newly engaged, expecting, & both my fiancé & I have close family & friends that live in Philadelphia. We’re currently living in a three bedroom apartment here for $7700.

When are you moving? Next few Months
Where are you coming from? New York, New York
Why are you moving? Closer to family and friends , looking for a considerably cheaper place to live
Where will you be working? Remote
Have you been here yet? Yes, have visited family & friends
Will you buy or rent? Rent
If buying, are you looking for a house or a condo? How much can you spend?
If renting, are you looking for an apartment, a townhouse or loft? How much can you spend? An Apartment, Up To $2 to $3k
Do you have a preference of living in a NJ or PA suburb? PA Suburb
Are you married or single? Do you have children? Engaged & Expecting
Do you prefer public or private schools? Private
Do you have pets? No
Do you want or need a yard? Yes
Are you keeping a car? Yes
Do you prefer bustling activity or calm and quiet? Calm & Quiet

What do you want to be closest to? Grocery Store,
Nightlife, Shopping, Childcare
An Area That Is Both Driveable & Walkable, An area where there aren’t a lot of college students
Favorite Beverage - Craft Beer, wine, water? Water

Here's the OP^. When someone comes to a forum, let's welcome them and answer their questions. You'll note they did not mention NYC or Pittsburgh. Off topic posts will be deleted and infractions may be issued. The latter is very likely if you are a repeat offender.