Possible move to Lewisburg (Lancaster, State College: sales, real estate, rentals)

[Tree]

There is a possible move to Lewisburg in our family's future and I was hoping for some information about cost of living, quality of life type stuff. I've checked out the school district information and the general statistics as well as the real estate sites. What do folks pay in property taxes in this area? How much are people paying for a gallon of milk?
We lived in Lancaster for a bit and the taxes on everything scared the bejeebus out of us.
We currently live in small town central Illinois.
Thanks in advance for any information you can share.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Tree

There is a possible move to Lewisburg in our family's future and I was hoping for some information about cost of living, quality of life type stuff. I've checked out the school district information and the general statistics as well as the real estate sites. What do folks pay in property taxes in this area? How much are people paying for a gallon of milk?
We lived in Lancaster for a bit and the taxes on everything scared the bejeebus out of us.
We currently live in small town central Illinois.
Thanks in advance for any information you can share.

Hello there!

The price of a gallon of milk should be uniform across the state of Pennsylvania as there is what I believe a minimum price floor of $3.39/gallon, and most stores won't want to raise prices much higher than that as it is one of the staples that attracts consumers into their stores in the first place and could lead them to opt for a competitor if they deem milk prices at one store to be exorbitantly high. Bear in mind though that dairy farmers, in my opinion, are very undervalued folks who deserve every cent of what they earn. Food items such as milk are tax-exempt in PA.

As far as property taxes are concerned, they should be lower than what you paid in Lancaster County, as that area's rapid sprawling growth has lead to spiking property taxes to offset the cost of new public schools, new roads, more services, etc. Union County, where Lewisburg is located, is growing much more slowly, and taxes aren't rising quickly as a result. Nevertheless they'll likely be higher than what you pay now in IL (if you even have property taxes there). Bear in mind that in a few years there is a very real possibility that a proposal to eliminate property taxes in favor of increasing the state sales tax could be enacted.

You might also want to check out my //www.city-data.com/forum/penns...hoto-tour.html

Best of luck, and welcome in advance to PA!

[Dawne]

The quality of life in the Lewisburg area is wonderful. There are many options for shopping, dining out, activities, etc. in the area or nearby.

Property taxes depend on your property, size of the house, in town or out of town, in a development or rural, etc. They can run from $1200 a year to $4000 or more a year. Houses can be under $100,000 for something in town that might need a bit of cosmetic work to over $400,000 in some of the upscale developments.

The school district is one of the best in the state and there are others nearby with similar reputations. Cost of living is lower than NY, NJ and New England, but higher than some of the southern states. I'm not familiar enough with central Illinois to hazard a guess as to how it compares here to where you are now.

Good luck to you, and keep us posted as things move along, and let us know if you need additional information.

[judd2401]

We've been looking in Lewisburg for several months, it's an upscale town, Bucknell U is located there which brings much culture to the town, you have to be careful about the flood zones, and the taxes tend to be high for the area, not high for larger and more congested metroplex areas in PA. There are very few nice houses for less then 200K anywhere, I guess it depends on what you want. The average price I believe is around $279K. There are many developments surrounding the town, the basic nice developments start around 180K, the upscale developments are 350-450K, sometimes up to 650K, and gets less expensive the further out you go. As the region goes, Lewisburg is the most expensive college town we've looked at including taxes but you get what you pay for, the schools are excellent, crime is very low, there is a good sense of community, the Bucknell students are not out of control compared to state university college towns [State College and Bloomsburg, but you do have to avoid sections of town full of student rentals near the University], there is also careful cooperative planning between Bucknell and a town association planning a fairway incorporating the University into the town in a tasteful way [link on this website called University Village], preserving the history of the town, but offering venues of commerce, and aesthetic walkways, fountains etc. Enter Lewisburg in the search section of the Pennsylvania blog, you'll learn a lot and can view the Lewisburg photo show. Good luck.

[Tree]

Thank you judd2401, for your reply. I read somewhere before about the decent planning going on between Bucknell and Lewisburg, and wondered if it was really true. - nice to hear this repeated.
Yes, there will be some sticker shock when it comes to real estate, after the price of housing in Central Illlinois (i.e. cheap!)
Thank you again for your reply.

[Tree]

SWB, I did not know there was a state set price for milk in PA! It is funny how each state does things a little differently, isn't it?
Property tax is alive and well in Illinois and folks upstate in the Chicago collar counties get hammered, while folks in downstate college towns also get beat upon. The rate for our town of Charleston is high when compared to towns of a similar size. For instance, we pay a bit over $2k for a house that is valued at $83k. The schools are ok, the roads and sidewalks are so-so. The snow removal is excellent however.
Thanks again for the information. At this point, we don't know if the job will come through or not. We certainly hope so though. We visited Lewisburg when we lived in Lancaster, and I remember it as a beautiful area.
Thanks again.

[Tree]

Dawne,
Thank you for the information. I feel a bit better about the cost of living. Living in Charleston (mid-state) is a bit like being in a bubble. We save money mostly because there really isn't much to go spend it on. I have to drive an hour to go to a Target, for example. I'm not a huge shopper but it stinks that WalMart is the only place for me to buy basic supplies around here.
We don't know yet if the job is going to happen, but if it does, we don't have any qualms about the quality of life in Lewisburg and surrounding area. Pricier in some ways there where we are now but it sounds like we'd be getting more for our tax dollars.
Thanks again.
I'll let you guys know if we get offered the job.