Re-locating from Brooklyn to Central PA.. need advice on where to move... (Philadelphia: apartments, rental)

[mgharway]

I know this topic must have been posted previously, but I will bring it up again.

My husband and I are in our 40's, we have 2 children (11 and 8). We want to move out of Brooklyn, NY and into the Hershey area in 2010 when kids finish their respective schools. Kids will be ready for HS and Jr. HS then. Need a SAFE area, where we can rent a townhome if possible in a nice community rental development, that has parking, swimming pool a must, rents are reasonable ($1000-$1500), and accepts large dogs (I have a retriever/ridgeback). She's around 60 pounds.

Brooklyn has changed over the years and there is so much land development going on currently that for every 1 family house that is bought out by land developers, 6 small apartments the size of a sardine can are going up instead. You can't touch buying anything because costs of these "luxury condos" are ridiculous and close to $600-$800K for each small unit.

The HS's by me are horrendous, and that is the main reason we want to move so our children will be in safe, good schools.

We are thinking of the Hershey Area, Camp Hill we heard is nice, Mechanicsburg, but to stay clear of Harrisburg from what I've been reading on several posts here.

Any ideas where to check around in what areas, and what rental communities are ideal may be suited for us?

Thanks... - mgharway

[danwxman]

Hershey, Camp Hill and the Mechanicsburg area are all wonderful places to raise your children with good school districts. Hershey and Camp Hill are going to be the most expensive.

There aren't a lot of townhome "communities" but plenty of townhomes. If you want swimming pools and parks, you'll have to settle from what the municipality offers...which in most cases is pretty generous. For example, I know that Hampden township (where I live) and the borough of Mechanicsburg both have a community pool (Hampden's pool is very nice) and plenty of parks/recreation areas.

[teachbeach]

Hershey has a huge municipal complex; library, pool, community center. You might want to check Elizabethtown and Lebanon as well. Lots of good schools, sense of community, Pennsylvania pride etc.

[mgharway]

Thanks so much! I have been reading that there are apartment/townhome communities in areas around Hershey. Such as Windsor Commons and Keystone Arms which are both new. Keystone Arms is in Carlisle and Windsor Commons is in Red Lion. Anything anyone has to offer is always appreciated. I know more people are going to post here so I await hearing more of what the Hershey area and areas surrounding have to offer.


Since this move isn't happening for a couple of years, I intend to visit all areas that everyone is listing above and from what I've heard of before we make that final decision on where to go. We've been to Hummelstown and we loved it dearly.

Thanks so much!

[CHIP72]

Be prepared to have to drive nearly everywhere; the Harrisburg area isn't even in the same universe as Brooklyn when it comes to local public transit. It does have relatively good intercity rail and bus transit however, particularly to Philadelphia and New York.

[mgharway]

thanks chip72. i know from visiting the area several times that you need a car to get just about everywhere. i'm not too sure if we will go into the harrisburg area as from what i'm hearing its not a great place to live or even visit... we are thinking more hummelstown, hershey, camp hill, mechanicsburg areas because the schools are top notch especially cumberland county and dauphin county.

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by mgharway

thanks chip72. i know from visiting the area several times that you need a car to get just about everywhere. i'm not too sure if we will go into the harrisburg area as from what i'm hearing its not a great place to live or even visit... we are thinking more hummelstown, hershey, camp hill, mechanicsburg areas because the schools are top notch especially cumberland county and dauphin county.

Those are all considered the "Harrisburg Area"

[Marodi]

Originally Posted by mgharway

thanks chip72. i know from visiting the area several times that you need a car to get just about everywhere. i'm not too sure if we will go into the harrisburg area as from what i'm hearing its not a great place to live or even visit... we are thinking more hummelstown, hershey, camp hill, mechanicsburg areas because the schools are top notch especially cumberland county and dauphin county.

Yeah, as stated those are the harrisburg area. PA has really bad laws when it comes to actually expanding city borders, so the borders of harrisburg don't move while the harrisburg area expands. When people refer to Harrisburg, unless they specify the actual city itself, they refer to everything immedietly around it. This is true for any city in PA atleast.

What you were hearing is about the city of harrisburg.

[CHIP72]

The city of Harrisburg, like most cities, has good locations and bad locations. The downtown area has really revived over the last 10 years in terms of commercial development (mainly bars and restaurants), though the downtown population has not significantly increased. I work in downtown Harrisburg and have spent time there in the evening for various social activities (not barhopping) and have never had a problem, though it would be nice if there were more people out and about in the evening in areas besides 2nd Street. Midtown Harrisburg (between Forster and Maclay Streets) would be the gentrifying area; it has some increasingly nice areas and some still not-so-nice areas. In both midtown and uptown (north of Maclay), generally speaking the closer you are to the Susquehanna River the nicer the area (housing) is. Generally speaking the areas in far north end of the city (north of Division Street) are pretty nice; this is where 3 of the south central PA TV stations (Channels 15/21, 27, and 33) are located.

Most though not all of Harrisburg proper east of Cameron Street (PA 230) is a little rougher than much of the rest of the city. The bad areas in Harrisburg in particular are Allison Hill and especially the areas south of I-83 and east of PA 230. Allison Hill is centered on 13th Street near both Market and Derry Streets. The bad stretch along Market Street goes east to about 18th Street; things get dramatically nicer as you go a little further east along Market Street to near Bishop McDevitt High School. South of McDevitt and Reservoir Park is probably the nicest and most upscale residential area in Harrisburg - secluded, wooded, and very nature-oriented, with some very nice old houses. Things get rougher again but not real bad as you head further east to 25th Street where Harrisburg High School is located.

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by mgharway

we are thinking more hummelstown, hershey, camp hill, mechanicsburg areas because the schools are top notch especially cumberland county and dauphin county.

Every one of those towns is nice IMO. New Cumberland and Middletown are also nice towns, though probably not quite as nice as those already mentioned (don't know about the Middletown or Red Land School Districts though - don't have kids). Assuming you still will have ties to the New York area after you move, one nice thing about Middletown is it has a train station on the Keystone Corridor. Amtrak's Keystone Service runs fairly often by non-Northeast Corridor standards - 14 roundtrips/day to Philadelphia and 10 roundtrips/day to New York on weekdays, and 8 roundtrips/day to Philadelphia and 7 roundtrips/day to New York on weekends. Not every Keystone train stops at Middletown (though most do), but the service is a real plus for Middletown. Two other towns a little further out from Harrisburg that are nice are Carlisle and Elizabethtown; both are about 20 miles away. Both towns have small, liberal arts colleges. E-town is also along the Keystone Corridor (every train stops there) and is also about 20 miles from Lancaster. Carlisle IMO is one of the very nicest towns in south central PA; it is a real gem to my eyes, though there is a lot of truck traffic on I-81 and warehouse development 2-3 miles west of the town.