Virginia vs Pennsylvania (Richmond, Charlottesville, Lebanon: fit in, rent, condos)

[livelovely]

Hello, everyone! Within the year I plan on moving and have narrowed it down to Charlottesville, VA; Richmond, VA; Harrisburg, PA; Lancaster, PA or Philadelphia, PA. My budget is 130,000 - looking for a condo. I would highly appreciate some advice on which would be the best place to pick. I have a 3 year old, so I want to keep it a relatively safe area and good schools. I love the snow, city life, cultural activities like museums, theater and such. Also, I plan on opening a clothing store within the next few years so looking for a good economy type town. Thanks everyone! I'm also taking suggestions for any place in between.

[RedRican]

I can speak about Richmond. Been here 18 years and we love it, is not perfect, but has worked out great for us (others will have differences of opinion). The economy is pretty stable with unemployment at 6%. Your budget is within the ranges of nice condos in good school systems. However, we don't get as much snow as the other cities, but you will be within an hour to the mountains and an hour and a half to the beach. Winters are not as cold, but summers can be brutal, especially July and August. Temperature in the summer can reach 100 with heat index in the 110-115.

Wish you the best.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by livelovely

Hello, everyone! Within the year I plan on moving and have narrowed it down to Charlottesville, VA; Richmond, VA; Harrisburg, PA; Lancaster, PA or Philadelphia, PA. My budget is 130,000 - looking for a condo. I would highly appreciate some advice on which would be the best place to pick. I have a 3 year old, so I want to keep it a relatively safe area and good schools. I love the snow, city life, cultural activities like museums, theater and such. Also, I plan on opening a clothing store within the next few years so looking for a good economy type town. Thanks everyone! I'm also taking suggestions for any place in between.

Did you purposely pick places that were as different as possible? Charlottesville doesn't really fit in any categories with the other cities, nor does Philly. Charlottesville is a good place to start a boutique, especially if the clothing store will be a hobby. Other than that, the others will top Cville in opportunity as well as affordability. You can't even begin to compare Cville with Richmond or Philly.

[JillyB123]

I would say stay clear from Philadelphia area or the surrounding suburbs. There are some very nice areas with great schools, but they are very expensive. The "Main Line" area as well as anywhere in the TE (Tredyffrin Easttown)school district is in the top 3 in the state. However, again, these are very high rent areas. There is certainly a lot of culture in the city, but from our own personal experience, the violent crime that Philadelphia is all too well known for is creeping into the suburbs on a very regular basis. You can just google philly news (I don't think I can post websites here) and you can read for yourself. It is a shame. We are moving out of the suburbs hopefully by this summer. Our children are young and we hardly ever venture into the city anymore to utilize the cultural resources. We are not just being paranoid - have seen the effects personally and have many neighbors and friends touched by this violent culture.
Lancaster is somewhere that we visit about 2-3 times a year. My kids love Dutch Wonderland and there are some great outlets on 30 right across the street. Your 3 year old would love it. There is also one theater within about 5 miles from Dutch Wonderland. That being said, our experience with Lancaster is all from a tourist standpoint. I would assume that it is safe, but can not truly comment on that nor do I know anything about the schools in the area. I hope this was somewhat helpful. I wish you the best of luck.

[ellar]

Wow! You picked entirely different locations! Lancaster, PA is known for its Amish population. It is rather rural, so if you like city life, I am not sure why you would consider that area. Also, many people who travel to this area to shop are looking for Amish goods. If you aren't Amish, you may have trouble competing since the Amish goods are known for their high quality.

Philadelphia, of course, is a large city known for its crime. It has one of the highest murder rates in the country right now. If you want to live somewhere safe, it will cost money. The suburbs of Philly are nice, but I don't know if the cost of living would work for you.

Charlottesville, VA is the home of UVA, and therefore it has many "college town" elements. I am not sure if that would be a plus or a minus in your book.

That leaves Richmond, which is a middle of the road city. I don't know much about the economy there, but I don't think it is doing as well at some medium-sized cities farther south, such as Charlotte.

I hope you plan some visits before you move because these locations are really different, so you may need to see more of these areas for yourself before deciding. Good luck!

Edited to add: I forgot about Harrisburg. I believe it is smaller than Richmond, so if you like city life, Richmond may have more city-like elements than Harrisburg.

[shan1004]

Hi! I'm moving this summer from an area just west of Harrisburg PA to Charlottesville. Whatever you do, do NOT live within the Harrisburg City limits if good schools is high on your priority list. The schools there are abysmal. There are some things to do in the area with kids, but personally we have not loved living in central PA. (we are natives of VA.) There is Hershey, which offers some stuff in the way of recreation and lots of outdoorsy stuff to do (camping, parks) within decent driving distance. You can find better schools in surrounding areas so you don't have to rule out the Harrisburg area altogether, just avoid the city. As far as snow... VA has gotten WAY more snow than we have in the 6 years since we've lived here. But you can drive a few hours from here and be in the Poconos if you're into skiing and stuff like that. Anyway, I can offer more info if you decide to hone in on Harrisburg... good luck with your search!

[cully]

I's say Charlottesville would cover all. If you are on fb, they have on their wall beautiful pix including some of the snowfalls...looks like currier and ives. There's an airport, albeit small. There's the mountains nearby and ocean a few hours away. Fairly stable because of the highly regarded university, UVA, and the medical school and hospital, also UVA. Intellectual group.

Harrisburg, PA. I really like it myself. We have stopped there for years. Beautiful scenery along the river. Great repurposing of City Island. That nature area with trails and raised paths over water flowers and alongside endangered species. History. Mt. views nearby. Snow. I will say that just as soon as you leave Harrisburg it is colder pretty quickly going north. If you want just enough snow to make it interesting, and fairly warmer...not hot south though, Charlottesville would be like that.

[livelovely]

Thank you all!! I'm looking into Harrisburg/Carlisle, PA any areas you recommend or should avoid within these two places?

[shan1004]

I would say a lot would depend on what you're looking for. In local terminology, Harrisburg and surrounding areas like Hershey that are east of the Susquehanna River is the "East Shore" and then there is the "West Shore" - Carlisle is maybe 20 miles west of Harrisburg. In between you have lots of places like Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Lemoyne, Enola, etc. All of the areas, save Harrisburg City, which is having all sorts of problems right now (not just crime and closing schools, but budgetary issues as well) have their perks. If you want to be near the river, Lemoyne might be for you. Carlisle has a college in it so if you like the college town feel, that might peak your interest. There are some areas of Camp Hill that are just beautiful and it's pretty conveniently located. As with all locations, every place has its problems and its highlights. One thing I really don't like about where we live currently is the size of the school district. It's fine at the elementary level, but there is one high school which serves, I think, well over 2000 kids. I know that's probably not unusual, but it's not for me. Other districts around here are not quite as big, I think. It's hard to tell which district a house will be in without outright asking because the dividing lines make no sense whatsoever. Good luck with your search!!!

[slowlane3]

Reality check: Lancaster City has had a huge influx of Puerto Ricans in recent years (this is also true of Lebanon PA, and Reading PA).