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Give u an idea what were looking for.Were in our late 20s early 30s so we would like to be in a area that has a easy commute to stores, etc. Were expecting so now were concerned on schools. We want to live in a safe area. We already visited burlingon,willingboro,and summerdale towns and they were horrible and the people looked really sketchy. I'm hoping these towns are better. We did see a house in cherry hill that we liked and we liked that area but the house is pretty small and we want to continue looking before we make an offer.
Give u an idea what were looking for.Were in our late 20s early 30s so we would like to be in a area that has a easy commute to stores, etc. Were expecting so now were concerned on schools. We want to live in a safe area. We already visited burlingon,willingboro,and summerdale towns and they were horrible and the people looked really sketchy. I'm hoping these towns are better. We did see a house in cherry hill that we liked and we liked that area but the house is pretty small and we want to continue looking before we make an offer.
Of the towns on your list, Barrington, hands down. They have a good elementary system & go to Haddon Heights for high school.
I've posted these resources before, but here goes...
Two places you may want to check out to help you make a comparison between towns.
1. The NJ Department of Education ranks all of the towns/school districts in the state with a scale known as "DFG" or District Factor Grouping. They are expressed by a letter code running from A (lowest), B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J (highest). The groupings are based on a composite of socio-economic data. It looks at median family income, poverty rate, education level of population, etc. to come up with the ranking. This is an expedient way to look at towns and make a comparison.
Blackwood (part of Gloucester Twp.) = DE
Stratford = DE
Bellmawr = B
Barrington = DE
Runnemede = B
Magnolia = B
So among those towns, Blackwood, Barrington and Stratford are the highest socio-economically.
2. Check out the school rankings on the Great Schools website. They rank schools/districts from 1-10 compared to other schools in the state. A "5" is considered average for the state. It can get tricky as you need to know not only the elementary districts, but also what high school or regional high school may be involved. Wikipedia is great for this. Just look up "*town name* wiki" and read the education section. It will tell you what the high school setup is.
High School (9-12):
Sterling High School (Mangolia and Stratford) = 5
Triton High School (Blackwood, Bellmawr, Runnemede) = 4
Haddon Heights High School (Barrington) = 7
So, of all the towns you listed, it is exactly as southbound said, Barrington hands down. It is socio economically equal to or higher than any others on the list, but it's school district and high school rankings are much higher.
I think they are all great towns. I especially like Bellmawr, the east side of town along Browning Rd in between Black Horse Pike and Clements Bridge Rd.
High School (9-12):
Sterling High School (Mangolia and Stratford) = 5
Triton High School (Blackwood, Bellmawr, Runnemede) = 4
Haddon Heights High School (Barrington) = 7
Great info, but Blackwood goes to Highland.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJPhilliesPhan
I think they are all great towns. I especially like Bellmawr, the east side of town along Browning Rd in between Black Horse Pike and Clements Bridge Rd.
I'm not sure if I'd call any of those towns "great," but I'd probably call most of them good (except for maybe Bellmawr). They are pretty much middle/working-class areas which are safe for the most part. However, the schools are not the greatest (with as has been mentioned Barrington having the best).
However, I would probably consider all of those towns pretty comparable to Somerdale (which is what I'm assuming you were referring to), so if you thought Somerdale was "horrible" then you might not be a big fan of these towns. Most (I think all) of Somerdale goes to Sterling High School which NJGoat mentioned in his post as where Magnolia and Stratford attend.
There are many threads on here about Cherry Hill which is a safe town with great schools, but of course the prices will be higher there than all of the other towns you mentioned.
Thanks for that correction, I always get confused about which towns go to which of the Black Horse Regional schools.
Quote:
I'm not sure if I'd call any of those towns "great," but I'd probably call most of them good (except for maybe Bellmawr). They are pretty much middle/working-class areas which are safe for the most part. However, the schools are not the greatest (with as has been mentioned Barrington having the best).
However, I would probably consider all of those towns pretty comparable to Somerdale (which is what I'm assuming you were referring to), so if you thought Somerdale was "horrible" then you might not be a big fan of these towns. Most (I think all) of Somerdale goes to Sterling High School which NJGoat mentioned in his post as where Magnolia and Stratford attend.
There are many threads on here about Cherry Hill which is a safe town with great schools, but of course the prices will be higher there than all of the other towns you mentioned.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. It is really hard to give people recommendations if they don't also include a budget and what they are really looking for and what they want to be near. There isn't anything "wrong" with any of the towns on that list, but as GoPhils said, if you don't like Somerdale, most of those towns are just like Somerdale, it's just the general vibe of that whole area.
Some options might be going closer to Philly along Route 30, Barrington is sort of the border with sections that are more "Somerdale" and parts that are more "Haddon Heights". Another affordable option that has a "nicer" vibe than those towns is Audubon. You could also look into the Oaklyn or West Collingswood sections of Haddon Twp. to find more affordable housing, but still have better schools.
It really all comes down to what you are looking for, what's important to you and what your budget is. Towns like Bellmawr, Blackwood, Runnemede, Magnolia, etc. aren't dangerous and they are convenient to a lot of things, but they have areas that some would consider "sketchy" and the school systems aren't as good as other options out there for similar money.
I'll rate them as far as my feelings on them being decent places - 1 being best. (The school stuff i agree that you should look up, i dont know that answer.)
I generally don't like to quibble with other peoples interpretations of towns, but what makes you place Magnolia number 1 on that list? Mine would probably read in descending order taking into account schools and the town in general:
The last three are all pretty similar, so hard to rank against each other.
My in-laws live in Magnolia, so I have a pretty good sense of the town, but they moved there when my wife and her sister were older and also sent them to private schools. They have a gorgeous home (there are a lot of nice old victorians in Magnolia), but many parts of the town are poorly aging tract housing and there are a LOT of homes that have been converted into multi-family apartments. There is also a major trend for developers to buy older homes on double lots, split the property and throw up cheap construction. Many of the older sections that were dominated by large homes on large lots with old growth trees are now packed with subdivided lots and cheap new construction that really ruins formerly nice neighborhoods, but there is nothing the residents can do as the town is wholeheartedly supporting this trend to increase revenues. There also seems to be about a 50/50 mix of people that actually take care of their properties and people who don't. The PK-8 school there is also the worst out of the Sterling sending districts. On top of that the taxes aren't any bargain compared to the neighboring towns.
On the positive side, the town makes an effort to do some nice things. They have decent holiday parades and events that are very kid friendly. Their rec leagues are also plentiful with a lot of people involved to make them run well, though the facilities are in pretty poor shape outside of the rec center. Crime itself in Magnolia is pretty rare, but there have been a lot of issues including a couple shootings over the past year or so in neighboring Lawnside.
I have friends that live in Magnolia and they really like it. When i've been there, and been thru it quite a bit, i liked it too. (I put in my post that i didnt know anything about the schools anywhere.)
I think most of the areas of it give a good small-town feel, and it's a decent area. Most of the other towns i felt had more "bad areas" and would not be my choices to buy/live. I have friends that live in all of them except Runnemede, where i've been numerous times.
Well our budget depends on the taxes in the area. Were looking at houses in the $150-170k range. We cant go over $6k in yearly taxes. We have to be within driving distance to mcguire afb. We are expecting our first child in a few months so we will want to be concerned on schools preschool to maybe middle school. I dont see us living here more than 10 years. We have two dogs and we need a large yard. Townhomes and condos are out of the question. I had to quit my job to move with my husband so our budget is limited and with a baby on the way. I just want a few shops or grocery store gas station etc near by. You know the usual things you may need. We made an offer on a house in stratford but the inspection did not go well we may have to keep looking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT
Thanks for that correction, I always get confused about which towns go to which of the Black Horse Regional schools.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. It is really hard to give people recommendations if they don't also include a budget and what they are really looking for and what they want to be near. There isn't anything "wrong" with any of the towns on that list, but as GoPhils said, if you don't like Somerdale, most of those towns are just like Somerdale, it's just the general vibe of that whole area.
Some options might be going closer to Philly along Route 30, Barrington is sort of the border with sections that are more "Somerdale" and parts that are more "Haddon Heights". Another affordable option that has a "nicer" vibe than those towns is Audubon. You could also look into the Oaklyn or West Collingswood sections of Haddon Twp. to find more affordable housing, but still have better schools.
It really all comes down to what you are looking for, what's important to you and what your budget is. Towns like Bellmawr, Blackwood, Runnemede, Magnolia, etc. aren't dangerous and they are convenient to a lot of things, but they have areas that some would consider "sketchy" and the school systems aren't as good as other options out there for similar money.
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