Franklin PA & Oil City PA

[WestGuest]

Thanks I did go through there and the area in general has so many nice old buildings that would make marvalous homes. I suppose not much has changed since I posted.

[RetireinPA]

Originally Posted by WestGuest

Thanks I did go through there and the area in general has so many nice old buildings that would make marvalous homes. I suppose not much has changed since I posted.

For the houses worth moving into, like the 'robber baron' houses in both, no one is selling so inventory is low and prices are up and out of line for the area (its easy to spend well over half a mil in a town where there are zero jobs. In the ubiquitous asphalt or asbestos shingled house with K&T wiring and no insulation, you can get 3/1 for as little as $40K but mostly in the 60-80K.


Franklin, is the nicer of the two in terms of curb appeal even the cranberry mall area on the hill is a bombed out shell of itself...a great place when I was a kid to hang out but today? meh. even reno strip has turned over into mostly abandoned.

[WestGuest]

The old Franklin Club 10,000 sq ft is selling for $219,000 it seems to be in good shape and the interior photos show lots of worksmanship.



Franklin has some cheap real estate.

[badguykc]

I lived in Titusville (to the north of OC/Franklin). The whole area is economically depressed, declining in population, and has little or no future to rebound on either front.

Furthermore, if you live in T-Ville/OC/Franklin area, financially and logistically it is unreasonable to commute to either Erie, Pittsburgh, or Youngstown, Ohio (the three nearest major cities) for work. You would drive (best-case scenario) AT LEAST an hour+ one way to do so. Also consider that the NWPA area gets pounded with lake-effect snow every winter that makes driving nearly impossible at times.

However, the countryside and scenery around the area is beautiful and a paradise for the outdoorsy-type of person. If you're retired and have a decent amount of money to live off of, and don't need to travel a lot (other than for groceries/other basic needs and necessities and the occasional trip to the big cities for Pirates/Steelers/Cleveland games), or if you can land yourself a good-paying telework-from-home job, I wouldn't rule out buying a house in that area.