Income and rent/mortgage for a single-income family? (Harrisburg, York: how much, house)

[karenelizabeth]

I'm fairly new to posting on these forums, but have been a long-time reader/browser. My husband and I are a bit sick of the cost of living (among other things) in DC and we're thinking of moving to the Harrisburg area (though extending our search outward to Gettysburg, York, Carlisle, etc.) in the next few years. We are from PA and have family in this area and think it would be great to get back there when we start a family.

My question is though, what should we expect in terms of income and mortage/rent prices? If we have kids, I'd love to be able to stay at home, and down here it's just not possible. We're hoping in an area with a lower cost of living, we'd be able to make it work. How much income would my husband have to bring in for us to afford to be a single-income family? We're not extravagant people and live fairly modestly right now, saving more than we spend, etc.

I realize this is a VERY general question and there are a TON of factors to consider, but I'm hoping for some examples based on personal experience or just overall thoughts of how families make this work in the area.

[ki0eh]

That's way too general to answer any more directly than the various home affordability indices (that typically do rate the Harrisburg area well), but there are some NoVA cost of living and traffic refugees I know of in the area and stay-at-home parents seem more common too. Some stories of direct experience might be interesting but that's not the direction I came from so I can't really say.

[1timbo1]

The best I can say is that, yes cost of living is less here, and yes the pace of life is slower here. You would be pushing it commuting to DC but many people do Baltimore or other northern MD suburbs from the York/Hanover/Gettysburg areas. There are a wide range of neighborhoods and housing prices in the vast Southcentral PA region, but you'd definitely be able to find a nice small-ish 3br house in a good school district and safe area for under $200,000 to put things in perspective. Depends on what you're comfortable with, you could spend a lot more. You'd probably pay less in Carlisle, Gettysburg, Hanover than you would surrounding York and Harrisburg.