In Search of a Great Town (Philadelphia, Allentown: apartments, new home, find a job)

[LookingForAFreshStart]

Hello- my husband and I along with our child are in search of a town in Pa in which to relocate to. We currently live on Long Island, NY and are looking for someplace in PA that is no more than around a 3 1/2 drive (preferable closer) to our family here in NY. Schools as well as a safe area are extremely important. If the area is rural and shopping is not super close, that's ok, however I'd like it to take no longer than 20 or 30 minutes To get to a grocery store, ect. We would be looking for a new home preferably in a new community no more than $450k or so but we would look up to around $500k. I'd like a scenic area if possible. Also, it would need to be somewhere where there were employment opportunities within an hour or so (preferably less) as far as commute goes. We were thinking of Nazerath but any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[JohnZ963]

The commute will be a major factor. I don't know what field of work you are in, but the number of jobs around here outside of healthcare that can support buying a $500k house is fairly limited. Many if not most of the people buying these homes I suspect are doing 1+ hour commutes east. If commuting to NJ during rush hour and wanting less than an hour of a commute you will probably want to be near or east of Route 33. Nazareth area may work depending on how deep east into NJ the job is. Bottom line, get the job first, then decide exactly where to live.

[tupdegrove]

For $500k, you can live anywhere in the Lehigh Valley. Unless you wanted to be deep in the country, 20-30 mins to shopping isn't a problem. Like John posted above, maybe find a job first. Parkland and East Penn are the two bigger school districts to the West of Nazareth.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by JohnZ963

The commute will be a major factor. I don't know what field of work you are in, but the number of jobs around here outside of healthcare that can support buying a $500k house is fairly limited. Many if not most of the people buying these homes I suspect are doing 1+ hour commutes east. If commuting to NJ during rush hour and wanting less than an hour of a commute you will probably want to be near or east of Route 33. Nazareth area may work depending on how deep east into NJ the job is. Bottom line, get the job first, then decide exactly where to live.

Yep. Get the job first. There are many great places to live and good school districts but no sense worrying about a place to live if you can't get a job or having your heart set on a location and then getting a job that makes it a bad commute.

[LookingForAFreshStart]

Thank you everybody. I appreciate the feedback. We are still doing a lot of research and securing a job is a major priority.

[tiffanyin2000]

Yes, 500K can get you a very decent house pretty much anyway in the Lehigh Valley.

If you are working in the NJ area, living in east Lehigh makes life easier (take route 78). The best school district here is Southern Lehigh (18036, 18034).
Nazareth is not in a good school district IMO, and I've seen housing prices fluctuate rather dramatically here.

If you are considering working in the Philadelphia area, living in west Lehigh is a better option (take route 476). The best school district is Parkland School district (18104, 18069, maybe 18103) and East Penn school district (18062).

A good school district helps maintain the value of your property, and I found it very true here in Lehigh.
(Always double check the school district, because many times one area code spans across two school districts. )

[LookingForAFreshStart]

Thank you for the insight. I noticed that the Nazerath school district is rated an 8 on greatschools.com so I thought it was considered pretty good but I will also look into the other districts you mentioned because that is one of the most important factors for us. Also, we are looking for a new community and are in search of the right builder. Any suggestions if you have them on reputable builders would also be appreciate. Thank you so much...

[Gettingouttahere]

I am dubious of greatschools and most of those sites - they are a starting point, but not the final word. They can skew one way or the other based on factors like reviews and, say, a great elementary school that hides the mediocre high school. I like word of mouth, I like graduation rates/college attendance percentages, and avg. SAT scores, AP classes and % taking them; extracurricular offerings and matriculation lists. Some of those are hard to get at greatschools - many can be pried out of schools through persistent calling.

[LookingForAFreshStart]

Thank you for the feedback :-)

[andre7777]

Lower Macungie is a residential town in Lehigh Valley (Lehigh County) Pennsylvania. It has a population of about 30,000. It is located in a good school district. The median average income is close to $70,000 a year. (This may fluctuate from year to year) According to the lehigh valley newspaper, Lower Macungie is where all the smart people are. It says that lower macungie has the most educated residents. It is a "safe" community and also relatively new. It is located in the east penn school district which is a good school district. The best school district some say is parkland school district, but not by a whole lot. They started building alot of nice homes in Lower Macungie about 10 years ago. Parkland school district is comprised of not just towns but also a lot of little small villages.

Lower Macungie has alot of nice homes within in your price range.
There is a lot of open land in lower Macungie and a tremendous amount of cornfields in some parts of lower Macungie. Why am i telling you this? Well, no one knows what the future will be in terms of the population if they continue to build apartments, more homes and things. I would think that in years to come, population could "easily" grow. All I'm saying is, if you don't want the population to increase, then this wouldn't be the right place. But it is one of the nicest places in Lehigh valley (lehigh county). However, i hear that Bucks county is considerably nicer, overall than lehigh valley (lehigh county). But Bucks county might be further away from new York City. I'm not sure, you'd have to check that out. There is a relatively "big" Giants Food Stores 2-3 miles away from Lower Macungie. There are two relatively decent shopping centers, both being 5 miles a way. One on Hamilton crossings shopping center (mall) and the other in Trexlertown (about 5 minutes away)
Not that it may matter to you or anything, I have noticed how the overwhelming majority of the kids and youth in this area tend to be "good looking" especially those who go to giants food stores in Trexlertown area. I cannot say if they are cliquish (the kids) because i never went to school over in lower Macungie even though my family and i moved over here about 10 years ago. Having said all of this, it seems that a lot of places in Allentown, which is very very close to Lower Macungie, Emmaus, and Whitehall, the people there don't seem to be very friendly unless they know you or see you over and over again. Allentown is the closest city to lower Macungie. I don't know if its just me or what but i think a lot of areas that surround Lower Macungie aren't that friendly. But maybe that's typical for a lot of places. But Lower Macungie and Emmaus have "friendly" people. Also, Upper Macungie people there have a good median average income but it is not a new town like Lower Macungie.
Oh, and by the way, Allentown which is just a few miles away from Lower Macungie and Emmaus has the highest high school drop out rate. Again, the two best public schools in lehigh valley is parkland school district and Emmaus high school. Of course there are even better schools in other counties.