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Old 05-19-2014, 02:13 PM
 
1 posts, read 5,031 times
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My family is moving to Pittsburgh due to work relocation. We don't know anyone here but see the area of Cranberry, Seven Fields, Mars to be interesting due to low taxes, good location for that new job, schools and convenience to shopping/restaurants/etc.

My questions:
- what is the difference between the three?
- Is there a reason to pay more taxes for Wexford area?
- Which schools are the best?
- What neighborhoods in that area are most popular? We have 1st graders so a family friendly, near a park or pool is our target neighborhood…..


Thanks in advance for the help and advice…...
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Old 05-19-2014, 06:03 PM
 
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Our Cranberry, Seven Fields, Mars expert hasn't been around for a while. There's really not much difference between them, including Wexford. They're all suburban districts with housing developments built on old farms. The area is quite congested traffic-wise because the road infrastructure was never updated for the increased population.

Cranberry and Seven Fields are in the Seneca Valley School District. You'll hear mixed opinions on this school district but most negative opinions come from people who live in Allegheny County and don't have much knowledge about Butler County schools. My sister's children attend this school district and she has been very pleased.

A portion of Wexford is in North Allegheny School District and another portion is in Pine Richland School District. North Allegheny is a great school district but has a massively large number of students. The other portion of Wexford is in the Pine Richland School District. Pine Richland School District has a budget disaster due to having the wrong priorities building an unnecessarily expensive stadium for football. While North Allegheny is a good school district, I don't think it's worth paying the higher taxes if having lower taxes is important to you.

Mars School District is a small quality school district that splits an affluent housing development with Pine Richland.

I can't advise you on neighborhoods with playgrounds and popularity. Any newer neighborhood will be family friendly with lots of children since families with children who like suburbs seem to prefer newer developments.

There is a great community park with a pool located between Harmony and Zelienople. My sister was very tempted to sell her house and move to the neighborhood next to this park. The houses are older, but it's a great community neighborhood with the elementary school within walking distance. I don't think you can find the same small town community feel anywhere you're considering like you will find in Zelienople and Harmony. These both are interesting quirky artsy towns. They are served by the Seneca Valley School District. Traffic isn't congested in Zeli and Harmony until you get closer to Cranberry for shopping, etc.
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Old 05-19-2014, 06:54 PM
 
Location: Beaver County
1,273 posts, read 1,629,931 times
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I agree with Hope..they are all rather interchangeable and for the most part your typical suburban areas. I personally liked Mars just because it was a bit more rural...and it has my favorite nursery/garden center. Cranberry has a really nice park..North Boundary Park that is surrounded by several suburban housing developments. https://www.visitbutlercounty.com/at...nity-waterpark.
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Old 05-19-2014, 09:10 PM
 
15,630 posts, read 26,112,792 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopes View Post
Our Cranberry, Seven Fields, Mars expert hasn't been around for a while.
Would that be me? I lost my mother in 2010, and she kept me up to date with everything going on around home and I came home every couple of years to see her, and got to see what was going on. I'm out of the loop now -- and if we move back, it won't be to Cranberry. More North Hills.... or better yet Bradford Woods.

Seven Fields is a housing development on 228 between Mars and Cranberry. Paraphrasing Gertrude Stein -- there is no "there" there. Although they had stables.

Just looked it up -- how cute, they think they're a "borough" now. Maybe they'll pay fees to Cranberry for all the services they want. They sure whined about paying the library.

I was never a Seven Fields fan.
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Old 05-19-2014, 09:34 PM
 
Location: Downtown Cranberry Twp.
41,018 posts, read 17,992,158 times
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Moved out of Wexford 15 years ago and moved to Cranberry. I paid wayyy too much tax money to Allegheny County.

As far as schools go, I don't know the number of students at Mars, Seneca, NA, or Pine-Richland these days but NA has always been huge. huge. Mars and Seneca have come a long way from what they were. Pine-Richland has always been a good school district.
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Old 05-19-2014, 11:40 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
1,304 posts, read 3,021,385 times
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Hopes frequently likes to mention in her posts that the North Allegheny School District is uniquely huge. What she fails to mention, however, is that the student enrollment in Seneca Valley has numbers comparable to ( and in some segments, higher) than NA. Our state school sports association (PIAA), in fact, ranks SVSD as the largest school district in district 7. Comparing these two school districts alone, you will definitely have lower taxes in Seneca Valley (but surprisingly might not be a low as you might anticipate), and this is probably the best/only advantage. North Allegheny is a nationally acclaimed school district, large enough to offer more advanced placement class options than virtually any school district in the region, but still able to have a predominance of neighborhood elementary schools and the 3 modestly sized middle schools. Both McCandless Township (entirely in the NASD) and Wexford (partially in the NASD) have been both rated as two of the best places to live in the US by differing reputable publications. For the real estate taxes that we paid to send my children through NA schools, and living within the multitude of amenities, we have always felt that we made the correct choice locating here.

If your priority is to find a home in Butler County, I would definitely look for a home in the Mars School District first. Recent test scores have the school district among the highest in the region. It is a district significantly smaller than either NASD or SVSD. The biggest drawbacks would probably be the constant traffic congestion, relentless growth, and the "cookie cutter" prevalence in much of the new construction.
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Old 05-20-2014, 12:07 AM
 
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Retiredcoach fails to mention that he's a retired coach at North Allegheny, and he has a vested interested in being a resident there.

North Allegheny and Seneca are both large districts. NA has 8,190 and Seneca has 7,575. But Seneca has cheaper taxes, and it has areas where you can live that have a small town feel.

I agree with him about Mars School District, and I know he agrees with me about Pine Richland based on our discussions in other threads.

I personally prefer a small school district. Mars has 3,237 pupils. The roads are congested. The relentless growth isn't any different than growth that happened in Wexford, Pine, Richland and Cranberry in years past.
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Old 05-20-2014, 06:49 AM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
12,527 posts, read 17,437,653 times
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While I agree that 7 Fields and Cranberry are similar with housing I agree. Mars Boro is an older town with a walkable shopping area and a flying saucer. I think you mean Adams Township.
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Old 05-20-2014, 08:23 AM
 
43,011 posts, read 107,614,039 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Copanut View Post
Mars Boro is an older town with a walkable shopping area and a flying saucer. I think you mean Adams Township.
We're talking in terms of school districts to make it easier for the OP to understand different areas since she asked about schools. Mars Area School District is Mars and Valencia Boroughs, Adams Township, Middlesex Township. Valencia Borough shouldn't be confused with the mailing zip code of Valencia, PA, because 10% of residences with a Valencia zip code are in the Pine Richland School District.
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Old 05-20-2014, 08:35 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
1,304 posts, read 3,021,385 times
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I do not have nearly 40,000 posts, and I strive to write only about those topics that I have an actual working knowledge. It is true that that I had worked within the North Allegheny School District throughout my long educational and coaching careers, but I have also worked in dozens of other Western Pennsylvania school districts, as well. My insights are probably more unique, as I feel that can offer a working perspective that goes beyond what can be read on the internet.

To the OP- You owe it to yourself to explore the advantages and disadvantages of each of the communities that you have listed. Although it has been quite a few years since I purchased my home in McCandless, we explored the same venues that you did (plus Pine-Richland and Hampton). We did not wish to be near the main corridor in the Mars community (route 228), so we made a lot deposit on a lot off Myoma Road. Fortunately for us, we opted not to see this through. Beyond the outdated road structure, exaggerated construction costs, and the iron-laden well water, we were forced to choose another lot. We liked the fact that our taxes were slated to be lower in Mars/Adams Township, but the prices per square foot to build, the postage stamp lots, the crazy road structures, and the lower standard school district (at that time) forced us to re-examine our options in Allegheny County.

Although each community has its own advantages and disadvantages, the McCandless Township area held the most appeal to us. We were quite surprised to find that we could get a whole lot more house and lot size, for the money, in McCandless than in either Cranberry or Adams Township. We did a ton of research and found that the school district was among the best not only in the region, but in the country. We liked the fact that a large county park with many of its free/inexpensive activities served as a hub for the community. The local hospitals, transportation access, the colleges, shopping choices, the fantastic library and community activities for the kids added further appeal to us. We purchased a serene 3100 square foot brick home on 1 1/2 acres of land within 3 minutes of McKnight Road, and we have had no regrets since. Our real estate taxes originally were around $4500 annually, but today, are about $6500 (although, I am honestly under-assessed). Bottom line- kids received the highest quality public school education for the tax deductible property taxes, that is/was much cheaper than a comparable private academy education.
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