How Bad is Wilkes-Barre? (Scranton, Clarks Summit: real estate, 2013, crime)

[Ell9677]

This is my second post. Everyone was so helpful when I posted on here several months ago, that I thought I would reach out again. I am looking to relocate to NEPA from Georgia. Long story short, my elderly father lives in upstate NY. My husband can transfer to Scranton this spring (once someone in the office retires there, giving him a seat.). My mother recently died and my dad is having terrible memory problems and difficulties. I'd like to be close by to take care of him on the weekends. We know that we want to buy a home in the Clarks Summit area. However, it is difficult to get a real estate agent to return our calls or give video showings to us since we are out of state. We got a house in Wilkes-Barre very cheaply without having to go through a non-responsive real estate agent. It has tenants in it. It is a block away from what I consider a bad neighborhood when I look at googlemaps (I would rather not say where since I am not going to insult anyone on here in case they live in that neighborhood, but I will say it is not in The Heights). Long story short, if something happens to my father before my husband's transfer, we can give the tenants notice and I can move in the WB house to be close to my dad and then we can look for a nicer home once up there. The WB house has good bones and could be renovated nicely. My questions are, just how dangerous is Wilkes-Barre? Would I need a good security system? Is there a large gang problem? Am I better off not renovating it since I likely would not want to live there long term and would never get my money back? Fortunately, we do not have to worry about schools for my son because my son will attend a private international online academy if we need to move to WB for a while. Any and all opinions on living in Wilkes-Barre are welcome! Thanks!

[charmed hour]

I think how "dangerous" a place is is subjective by person. I'm not overly familiar with Wilkes-Barre other than driving thru for shows and having dinner a few times. I never felt unsafe, but again I'm from somewhere else and grew up in a much more "dangerous" city. Cit Data actually has a pretty good map with stats break downs for crimes. //www.city-data.com/crime/crime...nsylvania.html




Personally, I am from the Bronx and I find the complaints about areas being "crime ridden" and "dangerous" pretty laughable as most of these "crime ridden areas" are really anything but. I advocate everyone have a home security system and practice situational awareness.

[Ell9677]

Thanks for the link. I appreciate it. My question about how dangerous Wilkes-Barre is was prompted by some posts on here and a Sperlings crime report putting WB well above the national average in just about every crime category. Having said that, I feel the people that live there can give me the best idea of what it is really like. The stats don't tell the whole story. For example, one city can have 5 murders and 93 people shot and city #2 can have 8 murders and 37 people shot. In this case, city number two with the higher murder rate is safer. The stats also don't tell me if the crime is random or gang on gang, etc. I'm just trying to get a realistic idea of the city and your feedback helps.

[Chefkey]

It really does depend on the block, if you PM me where I can give you a better answer.

[Gerania]

^^ Like big cities, it really is block to block and neighborhood to neighborhood.

My mom lived on South Street in the Heights and never had a problem. My friend from high school still lives there and has never had a problem. That doesn't mean that you wouldn't.

[thecoalman]

In 2013 they hade murder spike and it would of been in top 10 if it was listed among large cities. It's calmed down considerably since then. Walking the streets at 2AM in most parts of WB should not be dangerous.The crime is isolated into pockets. If it looks like a nice neighhood with well kept homes you should not have an issue at all.

[Ell9677]

Thanks for the responses Gerania and thecoalman. That's good to know! We are excited to make NEPA our home soon. Each time we drive through we notice how friendly people are and how beautiful the hills and trees are in the area.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

In 2013 they hade murder spike and it would of been in top 10 if it was listed among large cities. It's calmed down considerably since then. Walking the streets at 2AM in most parts of WB should not be dangerous.The crime is isolated into pockets. If it looks like a nice neighhood with well kept homes you should not have an issue at all.

I think most of them were at Sherman Hills (or whatever it's called these days). People from NY and Philly were using that cinder block hell hole to sell drugs and guns. Most of the people arrested were from out of town.

[Chefkey]

The area you are going is a solid nice area, you should have no issues.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by Ell9677

Thanks for the responses Gerania and thecoalman. That's good to know! We are excited to make NEPA our home soon. Each time we drive through we notice how friendly people are and how beautiful the hills and trees are in the area.

I've lived in five states and one European country. I'm the nicest person you'd ever want to meet. While I no longer live in Northeastern PA, many of my friends do. My best friend from elementary and junior high is now a senior executive at the VA. The boy next door became a general contractor. He's really a carpenter, and has a reproduction piece in a museum.

It's not the place where I grew up, but it's not the worst place in the world.