Considering move from Houston (York, Media: house, neighborhood, middle school)

[Failed Engineer]

We are thinking of a move to the area in the next year or two. The reasons are multi-factorial, but mostly for the ability to be closer, but not too close, to a lot of extended family we have scattered all over central and northern NJ and the New York metro. A few families in Bucks County now as well.

I grew up in Media, left for my parents work in middle school, but have fond memories of the area. We made a trip to the area over the summer, I drove by my childhood home, it was nice.

My wife and I are mostly remote and likely will keep our jobs in the move. She has to fly to Europe often so a shorter flight is also a nice bonus.

We have kids in middle school, so schools are a primary factor. We have them at a very diverse public school with good, if not the best, academics. The school is both ethnically and economically diverse as well as being good and rigorous academically. These schools become a bit bifurcated academically as the grade levels increase due to the diversity of the schools but we still find value out of being at a school like that. We would be hoping for that but I'm not sure we'll be able to find it. These types of schools in a very desirable neighborhood was (to us) a unicorn in Houston so maybe we can find similar in the Philly area with your help.

As far as the home, the budget with which we could pay cash is $900k. We are looking at that as a relatively hard cap, to be exceeded only if everything is perfect. We definitely prefer an older updated home with acreage. Doesn't have to be too big, something around 3200 sqft is large enough, inclusive of finished basement space. Bigger is okay though. Hopefully 4 bedrooms, or 3 is fine. Would love a 1-story house as we live in one now but that's a want, not a requirement. Same for a first floor primary bedroom although I expect that in an older home to be rare.

I really have no idea what suburbs hit the mark so looking for guidance. We don't have any directional bias but don't want to be in Delaware or New Jersey because we do want access to public school college tuition for Pennsylvania universities.

[thedirtypirate]

Lower Merion

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Lower Merion

Ditto.

[TLC1957]

Failed,

Did you read this thread a lot of good information on the area.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/phil...enixville.html

Tom