Looking to move in Lehigh Vally Area (Allentown, Reading: apartment complexes, lease)

[MBellucci]

Hello

Could someone please guide us? We areLooking to move in Lehigh Vally Area.

I like the format toobusytoday (moderator) provided to answer this type of request.
===================
When are you moving?
Where are you coming from?
Why are you moving?
Where will you be working?
Have you been here yet?

Will you buy or rent?
If buying, are you looking for a house or a condo? How much can you spend?
If renting, are you looking for an apartment, a townhouse or loft? How much can you spend?
Do you prefer hi-rise or walk up?

Are you married or single? Do you have children?
Do you prefer public or private schools?
Do you have pets?
Do you want or need a yard?
Are you keeping a car?
Do you prefer bustling activity or calm and quiet?

What do you want to be closest to?
Work
Shopping
Basic services (supermarket, drugstore, etc.)
Nightlife
Train or subway stations

Do you want to live with people of a similar age, race, religion or sexual preference or do you prefer a diverse neighborhood?
====================
My husband got a job at Reading Hospital in West Reading, where as I work at for a pharmaceutical company in Clinton, NJ. So we are looking for a place in somewhere in the middle. So we are thinking about Macungie or Emmamus.

We are planning to move in June. We currently leave in New York City. We visited Bethlehem downtown (near St. Luke's Hospital) and (Reading Hospital) Wyomissing Area.

Will you buy or rent?
We are thinking of renting for 3 to 6 months and then buying, but if we find affordable house, we would prefer to buy right away.

If buying, we are looking for single house and may spend upto 450,000.

We have 2 kids, DD is 7 years and DB is 1 year. We would prefer public school, if possible with gifted program, as unfortunately son is diagnosed as Gifted So keeping him busy is the highest priority. So looking for violin, Taekwondo, swimming, chess classes. We do not have any pets, except for a dollar turtle.

We would love the yard, after coming from tiny city apartment :-)

We will need two cars, right? Currently don't have one. Is there public transport to Clinton, NJ for me, and West Reading for hubby? Or we must have cars? Can we survive with just one car?

Prefer bustling activity in 30/40 minutes distance, but calm and quiet everyday/night.

Would prefer to be closest to activities for kids, as our life revolves around them (for now) :-) . Would prefer to be near bus station, as once a week I will be working company office in New York City.

We would prefer to leave around young parents. We love Indian/Thai (with lots of spices) and obviously hearty Italian food (husband is Sicilian), so any neighbourhood with restaurants serving this kind of food would be nice.

Based of lots of good information and pointers on this forum, we are considering East Penn (specifically Shoemaker elementary in Macungie), Parkland or Center Valley school district. We are also going to look at Lehigh Crossings Tollhouse development in Macungie. Any other places we should look?

Thank you for your valuable time!

-Monica

[KristyLiz]

Originally Posted by MBellucci

Based of lots of good information and pointers on this forum, we are considering East Penn (specifically Shoemaker elementary in Macungie), Parkland or Center Valley school district. We are also going to look at Lehigh Crossings Tollhouse development in Macungie. Any other places we should look?

We are in Lower Macungie (Graymoor - the Pulte development off Sauerkraut) and our kids go to Shoemaker. We moved here a year and a half ago after a long search of the Lehigh Valley.

If you have kids, I highly recommend this area - right where I live there are several developments (Graymoor, Brandywine, Brandywine II, Farmington Hills, Beomont) so there is no shortage of friends for the kids and parents!

Instant message me if you have any specific questions - I'd be happy to help.

[toobusytoday]

I think Kristy's area is a good one, especially since you will need to get to the Reading area fairly often. Living on the west side of Allentown is a great idea. There is a bus stop in near there that goes to Port Authority in NYC several times a day during the week and weekends. Bieber Tours - Home

Yes, you'll need two cars. You will definitely miss the restaurant selection here. We've got them, but not a huge selection. Fortunately, that seems to be improving every year. There is a great spicy Indian place up in Whitehall called Spice India: Spice India There is a great Thai place close to me called White Orchid in here: Welcome to The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley

Welcome to the area!

[mainegirl]

My cousin lives in Coopersburg and loves it. He and his wife have three children. It's a very nice area.

[MBellucci]

KristyLiz, mainegirl and toobusytoday,

Sorry couldn't post early as we had a family emergency.

KristyLiz,
Glad to know that the kids and parents will have lot of friends :-)
If you don't mind asking, did you rent in the area before you bought the house? That is what we are thinking to do. May be a short term (3 to 6 month) lease. Visiting from New York City to see the houses is painful. Are there any apartment complexes nearby, which are zoned for Shoemakerl?

toobusytoday,

Thank you for your help. Also, we will check White orchid when we visit next time.

Mainegirl,

We will take a look at Coopersburg, but I believe the commute to Reading will be little longer, right?

Thank you,
Monica

[toobusytoday]

MBellucci - I live just outside of Coopersburg, and you are right it's east of Macungie and would be a longer commute to Berks county. While I am partial to our area, I think Macungie would be a better choice for your family location-wise. I think you will have a hard time finding such a short term lease, but I may be wrong.

[MBellucci]

toobusytoday,

Thank you for confirming about the Coopersburg.

All,

We did visit the Macungie and Emmaus yesterday. We visited Graymoor, Brandywine II, Farmington Hills and Lehigh Crossings. Lehigh Crossings may be out of question at this point as we want to move around July/August, and they may not have any new home ready by then.

Anyway, We were late, so could not visit any of the model homes. But spoke with few people in each of these development.

As KristyLiz said, the people were very friendly and open. We are planning to visit again next weekend, but we will focus on visiting the model homes.

We did see the Schools (Shoemaker and Macungie Elementary) and spoke with some parents from the nearby Middle school as there was a some event at that school. They were very happy with the schools.

Lets see how things go moving forward.

-Monica

PS: toobusytoday, we stopped by at White Orchid for Dinner, the food was very good. Little mild for our taste, but next time we will have to order "Extra Spicy" :-)

[toobusytoday]

Glad you had a good visit - It's not usually this warm in April! My daughter and I were at the Promenade Shops yesterday late afternoon too.