Coming from Austin (Scranton, Doylestown, Rochester: houses, neighborhood, buy)

[oc2nyc]

We are planning a move from Austin, Texas to PA by the end of the year. We are keeping a small residence in Texas in order to go back to visit grandchildren but want our larger home will be in PA. Our daughter and son-in-law will be moving to Rochester, NY for his residency. in June so being a little closer will be nice. We are driving them back there and want to spend some time exploring possible places to live in PA. Austin has been nice these 10 years but we don't want to put down permanent roots here.

It has always been a dream of mine to live somewhat close to NYC, so we thought we would give it a go. We would like to live close (within a couple of hours) to Manhattan but try to be as close as we can to Rochester, meaning nothing too far south. As long as we can get to Rochester for weekend visits that would be perfect.

We have looked at some places in Bucks County/New Hope/Doylestown but I am also interested in new builds. We are in our fifties and not looking to renovate an old home. My husband has family in NJ, we love visiting, but we don't really want to live there.

Our price range for a turn-key home would be up to 900k. A neighborhood with some land would be great. We don't want to be on top of other homes but my husband travels so I want to feel safe when he is gone which is why a neighborhood would be nice. I also want to be within 20 minutes of some shopping --- nothing fancy just Target, Homegoods, some restaurants, etc.

If anyone has any suggestions of places to look I would really appreciate it.

Thank you!

[Wells5]

You can be close to NYC/NJ or Rochester but not both. I suggest looking into Hemlock Farms in Pike County, which is about a 2 hour drive to NYC. This is a gated community with a wide variety of houses and amenities. For half of your housing budget, you can buy a very nice property there.


For closeness to Rochester, I suggest looking into either Wellsboro, Mansfield, Towanda or Coudersport in PA's northern tier. Wellsboro is especially nice and the people are friendly. New build homes are hard to find as those areas are not growing but there are estate type homes on acreage, which fall well within your budget.

[oc2nyc]

Thank you so much. This is exactly the type of info. I’m looking for! I appreciate it

[bluecarebear]

Wellsboro
Scranton
Elmira, NY

[PAhippo]

I think Corning would be preferable to Elmira if you're going into NY. Maybe Binghamton. Haven't been there in years but it used to be a nice city. There's SUNY Binghamton actually in Vestal.


Both Corning and Binghamton have lots of creativity floating around. Elmira not so much although still a decent city.




Coudersport is gathering momentum in its uphill climb from what it was. Still a ways to go but for that amount of money you probably buy about half the county. ok, slight exaggeration.


Wellsboro and Mansfield, about 12 miles apart connected by rte 6, are both very musical. Actually most of Tioga PA county really. (There's a Tioga county in NYS too).


Lots of quilters around too. Also Tioga County PA has lots of hiking trails, kayaking, fishing, hunting, all kinds of outdoor stuff.



Caveat: if you look anywhere in the northern tier of PA, check out where the fracking has occurred. And especially the water quality unless you move to a place that has community water.

[loose cannon]

In this era it baffles me why anyone would want to be close to NYC.