Lansdale/Ambler (Butler, Doylestown, North Wales: homes, income, to live)

[NovaDragon]

Fiance & I looking for a starter home in Montco thats within 30-40min of Doylestown and near SEPTA for access to Phila. Recently looking at Lansdale and Ambler. Seem to have homes in our price range and fit our location requirements. (We also like the town aspect of each).

Question: Do either of these towns (the boroughs) have "shady" areas? I know I its hard to find a "dangerous" area in Montco to begin with but just curious to see if there were better parts of either of these towns than others. Recently drove through Ambler near the tracks south of Butler and while it may have been lower income, I would never feel unsafe there. Is that the same for Lansdale?

Thanks for your help.

[Angus215]

I live in that general area and have never heard about any bad areas in Lansdale. I have heard that there are some "not so great" areas in Ambler, although i'm not exactly sure where they are. I'm sure they're not THAT bad, however. North Wales may be another town worth looking at.

[NovaDragon]

Thank you. My fiance and & also have started to look into North Wales and definitely got the same vibe as Lansdale. Both seem like pretty good small towns. They may not be as developed as Doylestown or have the historic charm of a Newtown, but they seem very nice.

It seems like the boroughs of Lansdale and North Wales are very affordable and we can really get some great bang for our buck. Is this just because they are located farther from the city, therefore the lower price? I've also heard that Lansdale has been "slow" to develop its downtown, as compared to an Ambler or Doylestown. Is that the same for North Wales as well? Are they starting to develop more?

Thanks

[Angus215]

Originally Posted by NovaDragon

Thank you. My fiance and & also have started to look into North Wales and definitely got the same vibe as Lansdale. Both seem like pretty good small towns. They may not be as developed as Doylestown or have the historic charm of a Newtown, but they seem very nice.

It seems like the boroughs of Lansdale and North Wales are very affordable and we can really get some great bang for our buck. Is this just because they are located farther from the city, therefore the lower price? I've also heard that Lansdale has been "slow" to develop its downtown, as compared to an Ambler or Doylestown. Is that the same for North Wales as well? Are they starting to develop more?

Thanks

It's not completely proximity to city, because Doylestown is way out there in the middle of nowhere, yet it's still pretty expensive. But Doylestown is an exceptionally nice town, and i think that makes the prices higher. You hear a lot of people say how they'd like to live there, but for the remote location. I'm not sure that Ambler is any more or less expensive than Lansdale or North Wales. Those 3 towns all seem pretty similar other than the stage of redevelopment of their main commercial street.

Lansdale is probably 5-10 years behind Ambler in terms of redevelopment, but it appears that they are making strides. You get the sense that the government is really putting an effort into it. They are in the middle of a streetscape project that will replace all the sidewalks and trees in the downtown area. They've had some restaurants open fairly recently. A new brew pub is supposed to be opening in a few months. A commercial developer who did a lot of work in Ambler bought up several properties on main st and is supposedly redeveloping them for restaurant use. Virago bakery on main st is pretty new. I think 5 years from now, downtown Lansdale will look very different - it has a ton of potential.

North Wales has a nice little downtown, but it's much smaller so it's limited in terms of space. it has a few restaurants and a couple of bakeries, but there isn't room for a whole lot more.

This is an interesting web site that talks about some of these places:

http://www.classictowns.org/explore