North-west Pittsburg Areas - Beaver Falls? (Pittsburgh, Aliquippa: townhome, neighborhood, public schools)

[tomaso62]

I grew up in Beaver Falls, left in 84 as a young adult, married and moved to Florida. My parents lived there until about 7 or 8 years ago, and my in-laws are snow birds (here in FL winter, PA in summer), living in Darlington, outside of Beaver Falls. We go back about every 2 years or so. I would never live in "downtown" Beaver Falls again, but Patterson Heights, Patterson Township, Big Beaver, South Beaver Township, and places like that have some nice neighborhoods and homes. Granted, the school district is Blackhawk, and I have some very smart nieces and nephews graduate from there (oh, and my wife too). It just breaks my heart to give props to the enemy. I'm a Beaver Falls Tiger and will be until I die. A lot of the towns around there are in the same situation. The mills closed, nothing left. But the places "out of town", like Center Township, Hopewell, etc are nice and easy access to Pittsburgh.

[suliata]

I am from Ellwood City originally, and now live closer to Pittsburgh. Ellwood is about 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh. So, it's a bit of a hike to Pittsburgh. But, if you don't have to commute into Pittsburgh every day, Ellwood has many good attributes. It's a traditional small town. There is a very cute downtown area and traditional neighborhoods surrounding the town. There are also more rural areas farther outside the town where you could probably buy a lot of land for very little money. There is virtually no crime in Ellwood. People who are born in Ellwood rarely ever leave. So, it's the type of small town where everyone knows each other (which can be both good and bad). If you decide to focus your search on Ellwood, let me know, and I can help to guide you.

I am also very familiar with Beaver County. Stay clear of Beaver Falls proper -- you definitely do not want to live in the town of Beaver Falls. A much safer and quaint town is Beaver. In Beaver, there are beautiful, big older homes and a cute little town area. Beaver has much less crime than Beaver Falls (and they're not that far away from each other).

If you're looking for a rural environment, there are parts of Beaver, Lawrence and Allegheny County which are very rural. In Western Pennsylvania, it's very easy to find a rural atmosphere not that far from the city of Pittsburgh.

[krlang223]

I would not go to Beaver Falls or Aliquippa. They are both in Beaver County, not Allegheny. Ellwood City is quite a ways from Pittsburgh also. I would try Moon Township or Emsworth. Moon Township can get pricey with housing, but there are some less expensive houses out toward Clinton. Moon is a very good school system. Emsworth has a good school district and is a much smaller area. Perhaps your son would not feel as overwhelmed at the class sizes there. The housing is much more affordable here. There have been quite a few new families moving to Emsworth with elementary age children. Feel free to contact me.

[Terri1050]

Beaver Area School District in Beaver are considered to be, and are consistantly ranked the highest in Beaver County

[South Range Family]

just like everybody else has said, Beaver Falls is not a desirable place to live, but Aliquippa is downright dangerous. You will die in Aliquippa. I'll throw a monkey wrench into the mix and say that Hopewell, and Center Townships, border both sides of Aliquippa and are nice places to live. They both also have Aliquippa addresses to make it even more confusing.
I wouldn't recommend a place to live until I knew where you would be driving to work every day. It makes that much of a difference.
I also wouldn't worry too much about mine subsidence. We haven't lost a house down a shaft in at least a couple of weeks.

[velcro21]

Beaver Falls can be an OK place to live if you are on the hill near Geneva College (College Hill area). Not the prettiest of cities but not dangerous like downtown Beaver Falls. (I lived there as a child and went to college there). BF schools are bad though. Aliquippa is very bad but, like so much of western PA, places will have an Aliquippa mailing address but be part of different township (like Hopewell or Center). For instance, there are a couple of very nice neighborhoods between Aliquippa and Center Township that are part of Aliquippa but are nothing like downtown Aliquippa.
Try Beaver, Big Beaver, Brighton Township, Center Township, Monaca, Patterson, Baden, Economy and others people have mentioned here. Places you will most likely want to avoid (but again, not a hard and fast rule on all of them) would be downtown BF, Aliquippa, Rochester, Freedom, part of Ambridge, and New Brighton.
A really good rule of thumb in Beaver County is if it is near the river and railroad tracks, avoid it. Head uphill in almost every town and the area gets better.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by velcro21

Beaver Falls can be an OK place to live if you are on the hill near Geneva College (College Hill area). Not the prettiest of cities but not dangerous like downtown Beaver Falls. (I lived there as a child and went to college there). BF schools are bad though. Aliquippa is very bad but, like so much of western PA, places will have an Aliquippa mailing address but be part of different township (like Hopewell or Center). For instance, there are a couple of very nice neighborhoods between Aliquippa and Center Township that are part of Aliquippa but are nothing like downtown Aliquippa.
Try Beaver, Big Beaver, Brighton Township, Center Township, Monaca, Patterson, Baden, Economy and others people have mentioned here. Places you will most likely want to avoid (but again, not a hard and fast rule on all of them) would be downtown BF, Aliquippa, Rochester, Freedom, part of Ambridge, and New Brighton.
A really good rule of thumb in Beaver County is if it is near the river and railroad tracks, avoid it. Head uphill in almost every town and the area gets better.

The exception to that rule would be River Road in Beaver. WAY nice....

[Ken_B.]

Can someone give me some detail on Economy (the town of) in Beaver? Looks close to the airport, decent distance to both Ross and Robinson shopping and not far from downtown?

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Ken_B.

Can someone give me some detail on Economy (the town of) in Beaver? Looks close to the airport, decent distance to both Ross and Robinson shopping and not far from downtown?

You can try looking at the stats on City-Data. I grew up in Beaver Co., but don't know a lot about Economy (lived in the Upper Valley). My general take is another old mill town, but I'm not sure. If you really want to live in Beaver County, I would recommend looking at Beaver.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

You can try looking at the stats on City-Data. I grew up in Beaver Co., but don't know a lot about Economy (lived in the Upper Valley). My general take is another old mill town, but I'm not sure. If you really want to live in Beaver County, I would recommend looking at Beaver.

Well -- I'm actually not sure here. I thought Old Ecomony was in Economy, but it turns out that's in Ambridge... Economy is up on Conway Wallrose Road. (Another road name I love, like P. J. McArdle Roadway!)

Checking the satellite on Google Maps, it doesn't appear that there is a Town town -- if that makes sense.... it's probably more of an area that has a postal code, although if memory serves there was a large nursery out there that was of Soergel Orchard-y gifty destination with pumpkin patch in October and Christmas tree farm. ( We do have lots of little non town towns -- hey -- my aunt lives near a little "town" that is literally a *Y* in the road with a post office in a little general store/gas station with one pump. It's on the map...)

However -- Economy puts you near my favorite little enclave called "Bradford Park". That's the section that puts you near to Cranberry with it's shopping and great highway access to 79, 19 and the Turnpike, but in Beaver County with great taxes -- although if you're not careful you'll end up in Allegheny in Marshall township. Look for Bock Lane, Bradford Park Road, and of course, Conway Wallrose. There is also new high end development going on, but I would have paid no attention to that, since I think new construction is icky.

Look for zip 15005.... and go higher than 100K