Accepted Job in Beaver (Relocating) (mortgage, lawyers, school tuition)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by South Range Family

I wouldn't rule out Brighton Township which is right above Beaver, or Chippewa which is only one more exit away.

If you have any interest in seeing the sun before noon, don't live down in the river valley. Stay on top of the hill.

One more thing I just remembered. If you can help it, live on the same side of the river that you will be working on. When they close a bridge for two years, things get real interesting with traffic. The Aliquippa bridge closure is proof of that right now.

I agree. You could also try Patterson Heights, especially if you like older homes, also Patterson Twp. These two, along with Chippewa Twp are in the Blackhawk SD. Chippewa has larger lots, in general, than the others.

[ditchdigger]

Frankly, we like bumping into our neighbors while we are out walking.

So it's YOU that Scott is always complaining about for being on the left side of the sidewalk...

One more thing I just remembered. If you can help it, live on the same side of the river that you will be working on. When they close a bridge for two years, things get real interesting with traffic. The Aliquippa bridge closure is proof of that right now.

Excellent point.

[ChloeBill]

In the Sewickley area, if you are interested in a balance between land and a neighborhood, you might consider Leet Township or Bell Acres. Both are part of Quaker Valley School District. Many of the houses there are on larger lots (variable, but often around an acre), yet still have a neighborhood feel. You'd be 5-10 minutes "up the hill" (in local parlance) from the Sewickley Village and from schools. Some find it to be a pain, others love the privacy and woodsiness.

[mairbryn]

Yikes, these people have you moving too far away from your job site. Brighton Twp is right outside of Beaver (just up the hill about a mile or two). Nice, nice neighborhoods with tons of kids and sports for them to join in. It's a hop/skip to work in Beaver. You can get a gorgeous lot with room to move around but without having acres to deal with. Beaver School District is great - lots of kids go to top-notch colleges from there with no problems. Pine Twp is very wealthy, but with the money comes other things you don't want to deal with with kids; it's beautiful but.... The others are too too far away.

[ocndvr]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I am flying down at the end of this week and spending all next week trying to find a home with my realtor from ReMax... Yes 30 mins is okay.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by mairbryn

Yikes, these people have you moving too far away from your job site.

That's because she said a 30 minute commute would be okay.

[okaydorothy]

When we were looking, we loved Sewickley. The kids loved Quaker valley school. It was just a wee bit too high in price for us.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by mairbryn

Yikes, these people have you moving too far away from your job site. Brighton Twp is right outside of Beaver (just up the hill about a mile or two). Nice, nice neighborhoods with tons of kids and sports for them to join in. It's a hop/skip to work in Beaver. You can get a gorgeous lot with room to move around but without having acres to deal with. Beaver School District is great - lots of kids go to top-notch colleges from there with no problems. Pine Twp is very wealthy, but with the money comes other things you don't want to deal with with kids; it's beautiful but.... The others are too too far away.

I don't know who you're referring to as "these people". I grew up in Patterson Hts; many of our neighbors worked in Beaver. It's probably 20 min, if that.

[ocndvr]

Does anyone have an opinion on Economy?

[greg42]

Originally Posted by ocndvr

Does anyone have an opinion on Economy?

I live in Economy. It's a fine enough place to live, mostly rather rural although some houses are in new developments. It's not an area where you're going to walk to businesses, although a few spots may be walking distance to a small park or similar. Some parts of Economy (particularly an area sometimes known as Bradford Park, not to be confused with the borough of Bradford Woods in the Wexford vicinity) are semi-convenient to Cranberry for shopping and really not too far from I-79 to get to the city, and those spots would still be about 20 minutes max from Beaver.

The big problem is schools. If you are going to look at some kind of private school, then it may work out better. And actually, Economy Elementary is not bad from what I can tell. (Make sure you find out that's the school they would attend though as parts of the borough may not actually attend this school.) But Ambridge Area school district as a whole is not so hot generally. This doesn't stop there from being parents who send their kids there with no apparent ill effect. My neighbor's kids for example who graduated from Ambridge High seem to be fine from what I know of them. But overall by things you can measure it's a middling to below average school district. Next-door Freedom Area schools actually rank significantly higher.

Economy also doesn't save you as much on property tax as some other areas in Beaver County. Ambridge Area has one of the highest tax rates of all Beaver County school districts, probably mostly due to spending money on building THREE new schools over about a 5 year period finishing a couple years ago. New schools sure don't make the student performance better.... Anyway, given that, you could look next to Economy in Allegheny County, which is Marshall Township in that same vicinity. There you would have North Allegheny schools.

Be careful not to spend too much if you do end up looking hard at Economy. While there are $300-400k houses there, that's already pushing the top end of the price range, and there aren't too many if any $600k ones. Maybe you can save enough on housing that your budget would allow for private school or something, don't know. (I also wouldn't know what private school to suggest. Apart from religious-affiliated schools the only one that comes to mind is Sewickley Academy that's anywhere nearby.)