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My husband and I are interested in taking a look at 55+ communities in Sweedesboro, Sewell and Glassboro, but we are totally unfamiliar to this area.
We currently live on Long Island, and we would like to find a more quiet living area...these places are still close to Philadelphia to find jobs, but seem to have a real suburb feel...is that true?
Hello
I live in Glassboro and although not a perfect town....are there any...it is now experiencing a revitalization. It is a college community but it isn't close to the 55 community. We have all types of churches if that is your interest. There is a 2 story Barnes and Nobel being built. A nice mall is 15 minutes (Macy's, Boscov's, Sears, Pennys) away but the town has grocery stores, Sears hardware, K mart for the quick stuff. The 55 and older community is on the outskirts of town and everyone that I know that lives in the community LOVES it. I do love living here and live about 2 miles from the location of the 55+ community. If you time your ride correctly...avoiding high traffic times...you can be in Philadephia in less than 30 minutes. The highway is about a mile from the community and is easily accessed.
I can't speak to the other 2 communities. So do come and visit all the sites.
The Sewell area is more crowded.
The only way I saw this is because you put Glassboro in your title. It comes to me in Google alerts for Glassboro. If you need more info you will have to put Glassboro in the title again.
Are you familiar with 55+ communities and how they work? Good luck
I am not familiar with Swedesboro, but I work in Pitman, which is right next to Glassboro and very close to Sewell. Pitman itself is a wonderful little town, IMO. I work there, and what I have found is that no one ever seems to move from there, it is the kind of place where families have been there for generations. I think that says a lot about a town. There is a strong sense of community, and has an old-fashioned feel to it especially downtown (which is very cute, and highly walkable). Lots of tree-lines streets, and seems quiet in general. Glassboro seems more busy, more traffic, and you have Rowan University there so lots of college kids in the apartment complexes. I don't know of any over-55 communities because I only go to work and back, but I can ask around at work.
Thank you for your replies....I think I will be taking an extra long 4th of July weekend and visit the three towns, and the communities. I come from Long island and I'm interested in seeing the difference between LI and NJ. Hopefully, I will also be able to visit Delaware and a few communities down there.
JKLKJ - would you say that Glassboro is suburban or rural? I work as a paralegal and one of the important things I'll be looking for is being able to find a job. I though Glassboro is near Philadelphia, and the opportunities would be better in this area.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oteyjoe
Thank you for your replies....I think I will be taking an extra long 4th of July weekend and visit the three towns, and the communities. I come from Long island and I'm interested in seeing the difference between LI and NJ. Hopefully, I will also be able to visit Delaware and a few communities down there.
JKLKJ - would you say that Glassboro is suburban or rural? I work as a paralegal and one of the important things I'll be looking for is being able to find a job. I though Glassboro is near Philadelphia, and the opportunities would be better in this area.
Thanks again for your feedback,
EM
This should have been posted in the subforum, which is for this part of South Jersey.
If you're looking for similarity to Long Island you may not care for South Jersey &/or Northern Delaware. If you're open to change, you may be very happy.
I would suggest that you look at a map to see where these towns are located. That may tell you more than we can tell you.
None are close to Philly. Swedesboro is closer to Wilmington, DE. All are close enough to commute to Philly, but it would not be an easy commute. PATCO will be running a train line to Pitman & Glassboro, but until that train line opens, you'd be driving, either to Philly or the existing PATCO line.
You can look for jobs in South Jersey. The pay is higher in Philly, but you pay the City Wage Tax there, too.
I'm really not looking for something like Long Island...it's just a basis for comparison. I've never lived outside of NY and that's why my husband and I want to "explore" other areas.
In what ways do you think Glassboro is different from LI? We figure that if we find an young active community we like and if we like the outside area, that would be "icing on the cake".
Our kids are in NY and we would like to stay driving distance to them.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,678,989 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oteyjoe
Hi Southbound_295,
I'm really not looking for something like Long Island...it's just a basis for comparison. I've never lived outside of NY and that's why my husband and I want to "explore" other areas.
In what ways do you think Glassboro is different from LI? We figure that if we find an young active community we like and if we like the outside area, that would be "icing on the cake".
Our kids are in NY and we would like to stay driving distance to them.
EM
Honestly, I've never been to Long Island. However, I lived in South Jersey for over 40 years, until I moved to NC, a couple of years ago. (I'm originally from Michigan & moved to South Jersey with my parents.)
In recent years a lot of people from Long Island, NYC, & North Jersey moved into my area. Some were very nice & when they realized that South Jersey was different went with it & blended in. Others were not happy & wanted everyone to know that they didn't like it, so based on that, I'll try to explain.
Philadelphia & South Jersey are in the MidAtlantic. People talk to total strangers, especially in stores. They aren't muggers, it's considered the sociable thing to do. People also rarely use their car horns. These seem to be two of the most visible differences.
As has already been said, Pitman is a very nice town that is between Glassboro & Sewell.
I've only been to Long Island twice (once to the "North Shore" and once to the "South Shore"), but it was definitely different than what I expected, although I guess I wasn't really sure what to expect. To me, it was just your typical suburb, although I felt trapped there because in order to get out of it you had to sit in hours of traffic.
Of the three towns you mentioned, Sewell is probably the most like Long Island, and is pretty much a typical suburb. Swedesboro is a little more rural but is still somewhat suburban. Glassboro is pretty suburban as well but as mentioned there are a good amount of college students there. You can commute to Philadelphia from any of the three, but you may be able to find a job in South Jersey as well.
To be honest, I would not willingly commute from any of those towns to Philly every day at rush hour. Both 55 where it merges with 42, and route 322 the entire length, are horrible at rush hour. I have experienced sitting on the 55 merge for 25 minutes - the merge is about 1/2 mile long! Have you looked at the Woodbury or Deptford areas? They are nice areas, both likely to have nicer over-55 communities, and extremely convenient to Philly.
Just comparing the three communities it would really depend on what you are looking for.
Sewell - Is part of Washington Twp. and is a far more urbanized and established suburb. There is a ton of shopping available and a wide variety of homes, but it is also very crowded.
Glassboro - Is rapdily becoming a stereotypical college town. It used to be a quieter second rate suburb. Not the nicest of areas, but not the worst either. It is very close to Sewell and Washington Twp., so they share the same amenities. However, if you are looking for an area to retire, I don't think this will be it. The town is quickly being taken over by Rowan University and it's expansion and traffic is getting worse and worse.
Swedesboro - I live in this area and it is more rural than the others you listed. Everything outside of grocery shopping and dining will be a drive to mainly Washington Twp, Deptford or Delaware depending on what you want. The area is still being developed and they are working hard to strike a balance between the rural feel and the need for more retail shopping. Swedesboro itseld is an old town and rather mixed. It has some nice shopping and stores, but the town itself is still in the process of revitalization and IMO is too early to tell how succesful they will be. However, Swedesboro is surrounded by several townships (Logan, Woolwich and East Greenwich) that are all desirable areas to live with a lot of housing variety. When it comes to 55+ the big community is located in the Weatherby development in Woolwich Twp. near the border with Logan. If you want a more rural feel while still having relatively easy access to things by car, this would be a good choice.
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