Moving to Pittsburgh area and terrified! (Economy, Ambridge: house, to buy, top school)

[valleygal]

I vote for Beaver. It is a 20-25 minute drive, in "rush hour" from Leetsdale. I put quotes around rush hour because there realy isn't any. Your worst part willbe getting out of Leetsale Industrial Center.

Beaver is beautiful. It is the county seat, and most of the downtown homes have those lovely front porches. Beavers' real estate is somewhat higher than other communities in Beaver County, but you will still be able to find something in your price range. The town also has a nicely renovated dowtown shop appeal. It is all very clean, and a lot of attention is paid to landscaping.

Beaver is part of the Pennsylvania Main Street program, and looks like it! There is a large park right in the center of the town, Gazebo and all. The town hosts many family oriented activities, too. I believe you will find the residents very welcoming. Right next to Beaver, part of the same zip code, 15009 by the way, is a little place called Bridgewater, right along the river. Also nice. On teh other side of Beaver, on a ridge, is an area called Brighton Heights. This area is more rural. Larger lots and somewhat newer houses than in the town.

The school district is excellent, the best in the "Valley". Another area overlloked by posters is a town called Monaca. This is less expensive than Beaver or Center Township, similar town feel, but smaller than Beaver. Monaca Heights is the area you would want to look into. You will definitely find a great house there for your price range. The zip for Monaca is 15061. Monaca and Center Township schools just merged, Center has a good rep as does Monaca.

Center and Hopewell are also worth considering - I lived in Hopewell until recently. (Too bad my house is too small for you! It is still for sale). Many of the house in Center are new (and pricier). Hopewell is reasonable. My taxes were only around $1,500 and we had a huge yard.

Please ignore the comments on realtors. I am not a realtor, I worked for a Chamber of Commerce, but realtors work very hard, and are only as good as the information you give them.

Good luck, I think you will love it there. I was born in Beaver County and moved when I was seven or eight. I moved back in 1995 from suburban Pittsburgh, and really enjoyed my time there. It is family-friendly, and if you like to get involved in the community, you have found a home.

Let me know if I can help you out in any way.

PS Coldwel Bankers, Northwood Realty and Howard Hanna are the big real estate players. The agents work in both Beaver County and the Moon Township area someone mentioned. Ask them about apartments for rent in Moon - there are many as it is a college town.

One more thing - Moon is nice, except that it is a suburban community and not a town. Its' high school is OK - IMO Beaver and Center are better.

[rapchef2]

Thanks Valleygal. That info was great! We found a realtor through a friend of my parents, and she sent me a couple houses in Beaver. We are driving out Saturday night to look at neighborhoods Sunday morning, but we will only have a few hours.

Because we are a blue collar family on one income, I do have one concern about finding a house in areas like the Quaker Valley district. Perhaps someone with a similar backround can answer this question for me. In the more affluent areas, do children with less money tend to feel a lot of pressure to keep up? I can just see prom time (still aways off) with kids who feel like they can't compete with all the expensive clothes, fancy dinners, and limo rentals. And for more current situations, my 11 year old doesn't have a Wii or X box 360, we don't have 4 wheelers or snowmobiles, and we just don't spend a lot of money on things that other kids may have. Even in our small community now, we've noticed the kids do comparing. So although I know it will happen everywhere, will the pressure be a lot more intense at QV?

Thanks once again!

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by rapchef2

Because we are a blue collar family on one income, I do have one concern about finding a house in areas like the Quaker Valley district. Perhaps someone with a similar backround can answer this question for me. In the more affluent areas, do children with less money tend to feel a lot of pressure to keep up? I can just see prom time (still aways off) with kids who feel like they can't compete with all the expensive clothes, fancy dinners, and limo rentals. And for more current situations, my 11 year old doesn't have a Wii or X box 360, we don't have 4 wheelers or snowmobiles, and we just don't spend a lot of money on things that other kids may have. Even in our small community now, we've noticed the kids do comparing. So although I know it will happen everywhere, will the pressure be a lot more intense at QV?

It's not the other children who do the comparing, it's the children who don't have these things that compare themselves.

If your children are already comparing, they'll put even more pressure onto themselves in an affluent township.

[CaptainObvious]

Not that this will mean much to you, rapchef2, not knowing this area, but I would imagine Leetsdale is to Sewickley what Sharpsburg is to Fox Chapel. When a very affluent (and generally conspicuous-consumption-driven community) also incorporates a small district of "working class" folks, I can't imagine those average wealth kids feel great about themselves when their friends drive to school in their BMWs and wear Prada sunglasses their little 12 year-old heads will outgrow in 6 months. Getting stuck in the line of cars going to drop the kids off at Quaker Valley in the morning always made me laugh-- black BMW, black BMW, black Acura, black Audi, black Audi, black BMW, black Acura, black Infiniti, black BMW...for blocks. Pardon me, you'd see the oddball silver BMW from time to time too. Seriously, I've seen at least a dozen different people carrying small dogs in Gucci bags around town. Probably not the place for you if you can't keep up with the Jones'. I don't condone it, but wouldn't subject my kids to it either- you're not going to change it.

Having said that, the real cool thing to do in Quaker Valley school district is to poo poo the top 10 in the state school district they have in their backyard for free, and blow $25k a year to send their kids to Sewickley Academy. THAT shows you have arrived to the Sewickley crowd- when you'd rather pay a private school 2 blocks over from the public one to teach your kid in all reality the same thing. So to that extent maybe the kids really out there wearing $400 Citizen jeans to 5th grade go there and won't bother you at Quaker Valley?

[Benzman66]

When I moved here a few years back, I rented a motel room for about 3 months while looking for a residence to make my home. The Motel 6 on Thorn Run Road in Moon Twp was a great place. They gave a discounted rate, better than any others I checked) plus have a nice laundry area and free continental breakfast every morning in the lobby, plus the rooms were very nice and clean, quiet too!

And no, I nor any of my family are employed by Motel 6, just thought it may be a help for inexpensive interim housing while you search for your dream home,

[rapchef2]

Have been checking some homes around Beaver and am wondering what the thoughts are about Rochester? I saw some big old homes there, but the prices lead me to believe it is an undesirable location for some reason. Problem area, problem schools, run down, any details?

[mangmang]

The North Allegheny and North Hills school districts are good. Franklin Park, McCandless, Sewickley are all fine suburbs to raise a family. There's a lot of expensive housing, but not all of it is McMansions. The area is also only about 25 minutes' drive from the city, and all the excellent restaurants, shopping and wonderful neighborhoods therein. Beaver is too far from anything of interest for my taste.

[mangmang]

CaptainObvious made a pretty good observation about 'rich kids' in the area. Rich communities that also incorporate working-class communities.

[South Range Family]

A buddy of mine is the Rochester Chief of Police. It's not the best place, but certainly not the worst place either. I would call it a tweener. There are some undesirable characters right in down town, but there are also some very nice neighborhoods up by the school and around the edges. I'm thinking route 68, and sunflower corners.

Strictly rating Beaver County towns, if Beaver was rated best with a 10, and Aliquippa was worst with a 1, I would give Rochester a 6.5. You would have to check on the schools. I have never heard anything terrible about them.

I know it doesn't mean anything to you, but KDKA radio host Rob Pratt lives next door to one of my work buddies in Rochester.

[KmBubb]

Thank you Captain Obvious for your keen and subjective observations of Sewickley and the Quaker Valley School District. Nothing better than stoking the class warfare fires.

Our daughter attends QV high school and doesn' t make mention of negative stereotypes at the school. Her friends are very diverse, some are from upper class families, some are from lower class families. It makes no difference to us regarding our daughters friends/families "social status".

I guess since I drop her off in front of the school in my white 2003 Honda Civic (w/119K miles), I must be considered as one of the elite that are "lined up for blocks". Sounds like Captain Obvious may have his blinders on.

By the way, I' m a security guard and my wife is a nurse. We chose QV because it is an excellent school, and we don' t have animosity or hard feelings toward someone because of how little or how much money they have in their checking account.