suburbs to move to

[morefromcali]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

I will just add another post instead of trying to edit. If you have kids from preschool to about middle school, you have a natural "in" to volunteer with school, sports, scouts, etc, and you will get into the swing of things much quicker than if you are a DINK couple or an empty nester. By high school, none of these entities need parent volunteers as much, in my experience. They just want you to sell stuff and give them the money!

Excellent point! We do have small children and they do open lots of doors Thanks for the interesting statistics!

[janiesgirl]

I realize I'm late to this. We live in Mt. Lebanon and have lived in our house for 15 years. We find the neighbors/neighborhoods to be very welcoming. In fact, friendly neighborhoods are a great source of pride here.

We have an elementary school child and 2 high school kids. Contrary to previous posts, there are plenty of parent volunteer opportunities at the high school. Additionally, if you have no kids, there are plenty of other opportunities to meet other folks outside of your neighborhood. Take classes at the rec center or high school, join a book or conversation group at the library, volunteer to garden at the library...

I hope you have found a good fit in Pittsburgh!

[rosekatherine]

we live in beaver county, just 15 minutes from the international airport and about 30 minutes to downtown and we love it here. taxes are lower here than allegheny county. there is no traffic, our schools are rated an average of 9 on a scale of 1-10 and our taxes are 50.2 mills. can purchase a huge (and i mean huge) home, all brick four sides around in the 400 thousand range, but average home is somewhere between 130 to 200's range. schools are gorgeous, with a brand spanking new one for grades K-3. our school district built this one, refurbished the high school, built a community fitness center for residents, and did not raise our taxes at all.

as far as moving to pittsburgh, we are from the other side of the state, where we have seen real estate go haywire crazy, traffic is nuts and people live so close they seem packed in there! just read an article about how several school districts are appealing to the state to let them raise school taxes above the legal limit in pennsylvania. my friends back there are outraged that we do so much with our schools and how high they are rated when their taxes keep going up (in the 128 mill range) and their ratings are mostly lower.

every community here has a huge park, and i mean huge. some have skiing with lifts, or full 18 course golf courses. it is unimaginable how much there is to do there, let alone the museums and other activities that are reasonable and not overcrowded! just took the kids to Schenly park for the vintage grand prix (race cars from about the 50's or 60's and we had no trouble going into the city at the last minute, parking and getting a great spot. they had a ball. around thanksgiving we to go light up night and watch fireworks, the city lit up for the holidays and tons of activities for children. we also purchase memberships to several museums and the zoo and we use them a lot...very worth it. the children's museum is awesome with exhibits i have not seen anywhere else, and they can do all kinds of crafts for no extra cost and we don't have to clean up afterwards!!! the zoo is incredible and the children's section has so much to do we spend hours in there.

just tons of advantages to living out here and it is a shame that more people don't realize it.

[goodgirl49]

As someone who was born and raised in Beaver County (Aliquippa) and now live in CA I'm wondering what area you are referring to. When I lived there, I never thought the school districts to be too spectacular.

[rosekatherine]

We live in Center Township, if you have not been here in the past 5 to 10 years you probably would not recognize it. We moved here in 1996 and are amazed at the growth here. Never thought when we moved here that we would ever have a Starbucks, but now we have two! I do know that Aliquippa, Monaca and Rochester schools are not as high as ours, but Center, Beaver, Chippewa are definitely great. Like I said Center has now a Primary opening up this Fall, an elementary, middle and high schools. I cannot remember the website, but i think it is greatschools.com, it rates the school districts on a scale of 1-10 based on PSSA tests and other criteria. Center rates 9 for elementary, 8 for middle and 9 for high school. The "best" school district in Bucks County where I am from is apparently Pennsbury where the scores are all 9's, but their taxes are outrageous and the teachers (among the highest paid in PA) went on strike last year!

Like I said, I am very happy living here in Beaver County, close to much, lots of advantages, but with a much lower cost of living. Also, if you check out the homes in downtown Beaver and compare them with homes in Sewickley, they are much the same but much lower priced.

Also, my favorite thing, 3 drive in theaters within 15 minutes of here, and the movies are the same as in the regular theaters. if you have not been in a while, there aren't "voice boxes", you just turn your radio to a certain station and enjoy the same movie for a third of the price! But we did get a stadium seating movie theater here a couple of years ago too!

[Catia]

Crafton Borough.
check out www.crafton.org

Big Old Victorian houses, old Colonials, nice yards, driveways, garages-safe neighborhood, good busline, close to everything.
You can get a huge house with lots of character, a nice sized yard and off street parking or even garage for less than Mt Lebanon. What I'm saying is more bang for your buck.

Crafton has everything Mt Lebanon has to offer-(i grew up in mt lebo)-but in Crafton there is less, um..."consumer competition"--meaning it's a strong middle-class / working class neighborhood where not everyone is concened with what type of car you drive or which designer clothes you are wearing.

Since I've lived in both, I can say that Mt Lebo is a little bit "snooty" with the "keeping up with the Jones's" type of mentality--right down to a list of what color your house can be. Mt Lebo is more "cookie cutter" type of neighborhood. It can be more difficult for teens fitting in--Crafton is a bit more down to earth, more freedom for creativity with your house. Both are great neighborhoods to raise kids.

LOL I'm not dissing Mt Lebo!!!-school district is great-great to raise kids, but I've found Crafton to be a great place to call home it has all of the same things--without the restrictions and costs less.

[badguykc]

The best Pittsburgh suburbs are south of the city (Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park) and north (Wexford, McCandless, Gibsonia). I'd also take a look at Plum. Lots of new developments there with decent-sized lots. I'd avoid most of the Allegheny River suburbs (such as New Kensington, Arnold, Verona). Lower Burrell is one possible exception to that. There are pretty well-kept, beautiful homes in most areas of Lower Burrell, but most people are VERY prejudiced/racist, insular, conceited, and nosy up there. I'd ONLY recommend Lower Burrell if you absolutely, positively couldn't find anything anywhere else.

Best of luck to you!!