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New Jersey Suburbs of Philadelphia Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County, Salem County in South Jersey
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Old 08-30-2010, 10:17 AM
 
14,780 posts, read 43,562,007 times
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Magnolia is a safe town, it's just not what I would consider one of the "best" towns, even in that area. My in-laws have lived there for 10 years (they bought a huge Victorian and restored it) and they have never had any problems.

The biggest critique I would have on Magnolia is the school system. To put it plainly, it's not very good, but not horrible either. From talking to my in-laws neighbors it seems the school is trying very hard and has a lot of dedicated and caring staff, but they are really restricted on funding and have a lot of diversity to deal with. I will say though, that the entire town places a lot of emphasis on the kids from sports to events, they are all geered towards the kids and done pretty well.

You have to look at Magnolia as three sections: Lawnside area across Route 30, The "triangle" between the Pike and Atlantic Ave. and then the Somerdale/Runnemede area along Evesham Rd on the other side of Atlantic. All but the Lawnside area are pretty decent and a mix of housing styles with most pretty well kept. The Lawnside area is what generates a lot of the issues as that section has a ton of cheap multi-family rentals. People who live there seem to think a lot of the school systems issues come from that area.

Overall, there are 5 towns that make up the greater area that Magnolia is in: Stratford, Somerdale, Hi-Nella, Magnolia and Laurel Springs. These 5 towns are all part of Sterling High School. Sterling High School itself is a bit of a mix, but is overall an average school. Of those towns Stratford and Laurel Springs are considered the nicest and are solidly middle class, they also have the best schools. Somerdale is a mix of middle and lower middle and has decent schools. Hi-Nella and Magnolia are more lower middle class.

There has been a lot of talk recently of merging all of these towns, who already share extensive services and forming "Sterling Township". This is still being explored AFAIK. I think if that happens it will be a very positive thing for Magnolia.

At the end of the day, I would not personally buy in Magnolia or the other "Sterling" towns. There are just too many unknowns about the future and it could either become a desirable area again, or it could go down quick. Nearby Barrington has similar housing stock in some sections, but has much better schools and that would be where I would buy if I had to pick something in that area and was on a Magnolia budget.
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Old 08-30-2010, 11:22 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia
691 posts, read 3,054,021 times
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Originally Posted by Whoelsebutcharles View Post
Do you know anything about Bellmawr?
Bellmawr, overall, is a solid blue-collar town. The side east of the Black Horse Pike (Rt 168) is definitely the nicest - bordering Haddon Heights and Barrington. Some areas west of there can be shady (especially west of I-76/Rt-42).
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Old 08-31-2010, 07:38 AM
 
6,321 posts, read 10,284,970 times
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(I feel like I'm repeating myself from the Stratford thread but changing the names of the towns, but...) Magnolia is fine, but Lawnside and Bellmawr are not exactly the greatest areas, although there are definitely worse areas out there. Since someone specifically asked about Bellmawr, I'm not quite sure if I'd describe it this way, so take it FWIW, but I've often heard Bellmawr described as "white trash."
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