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Old 08-01-2012, 09:02 AM
 
Location: a swanky suburb in my fancy pants
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Portions of downtown Wilmington and all of Chester City PA are the only really bad areas around there until you get to Upper Darby which is on the edge of Philadelphia.
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Old 08-01-2012, 10:12 AM
 
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Originally Posted by bryson662001 View Post
Portions of downtown Wilmington and all of Chester City PA are the only really bad areas around there until you get to Upper Darby which is on the edge of Philadelphia.
The only "bad" part of Upper Darby is Stonehurst, and even that isn't anywhere near as bad as parts of Philly. Chester city is bad though and so is Darby. Certain other parts of Southeast Delco are getting worse these days but I'm not sure if I'd label them bad. Really just stay out of the actual neighborhoods of Chester, don't spend too much time in Darby or maybe also in the Long Lane area of Upper Darby and you'll be fine anywhere in Delaware County.
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Old 08-01-2012, 04:53 PM
 
Location: New York City
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If your planning on children I would not recommend living in Delaware. The public schools are not good. Pennsylvania is much better across the board.
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Old 08-01-2012, 08:04 PM
 
Location: Shaw.
2,226 posts, read 3,833,748 times
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Originally Posted by cpomp View Post
If your planning on children I would not recommend living in Delaware. The public schools are not good. Pennsylvania is much better across the board.
As a Delaware resident, I'll agree with that.
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Old 08-01-2012, 09:54 PM
 
2,933 posts, read 4,087,820 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seppdelaney View Post
We've been looking at a number of homes in the Wilmington/Philly area and there are quite a few that we like from the photos- we'll have a realtor take us around when we visit. Since we don't know the area very well, we don't really know the areas from which we need to stay.
As a general rule anywhere in the Delaware Valley (from Trenton south) - if you're looking to buy a home - stay away from the towns on the river. The only exception to this is for a few towns in Burlington Co., NJ and for some neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

I don't know enough about New Castle County to comment much - you're better off posting in the Delaware forum for that. As far as Delaware County goes, a decent school district + proximity to a train/trolley station will drive value.
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Old 08-02-2012, 05:34 AM
 
Location: South Jersey
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Originally Posted by drive carephilly View Post
As a general rule anywhere in the Delaware Valley (from Trenton south) - if you're looking to buy a home - stay away from the towns on the river. The only exception to this is for a few towns in Burlington Co., NJ and for some neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

.
Why is that? I have not heard anyone say to stay away from towns on the river..
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Old 08-02-2012, 12:45 PM
 
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Originally Posted by frankgn87 View Post
Why is that? I have not heard anyone say to stay away from towns on the river..
There are exceptions, like I said, but generally speaking it's because they're the oldest towns in the region with the oldest housing stock and the most underperforming schools. They were usually built around manufacturing (which doesn't exist anymore) and the towns still haven't transitioned to a service/knowledge economy.

On the NJ side you have Beverly, Riverside, Florence, Delanco, Palmyra, Pennsauken, Camden, Gloucester City, Westville, Brooklawn, National Park, Paulsboro - all of those school districts are in the bottom 20% in the state.

On the PA side you have, well, pretty much all the towns on the river in DelCo. The city. In Bucks you have Bensalem, Bristol and Morrisville. None of those are great either.

When you look at a map that's a huge chunk of real estate on both sides of the river.

If you don't have kids or don't plan on having kids it's probably less important. Only a few of those places could be considered "not safe" (Camden, Chester, etc) but I mean, really, who wants live next to a refinery in Paulsboro or Marcus Hook? Or downwind from a landfill in Florence? A lot of those towns have seen better days.
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Old 08-02-2012, 12:52 PM
 
Location: a swanky suburb in my fancy pants
3,391 posts, read 8,740,558 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankgn87 View Post
Why is that? I have not heard anyone say to stay away from towns on the river..
I don't know why but I know it's true. I saw a map once that showed per capita income and the further away from the Delaware river you get, whether it's east or west, the higher the incomes get. Bensalem has an upscale area on the river but it's only a blip. Probably because the river is the oldest settled area and had so much industry.
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Old 08-02-2012, 01:41 PM
 
Location: South Jersey
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That makes sense.. Riverton is one exception too. But most of seem to be "eh" on the river, you guys are right
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Old 08-02-2012, 04:00 PM
 
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Originally Posted by frankgn87 View Post
That makes sense.. Riverton is one exception too. But most of seem to be "eh" on the river, you guys are right
It's not just the river. Before certain places knocked down their mill houses, it was everywhere that was near a creek or any other kind of body of water like that. Kellyville, Stonehurst, Conshohocken, Darby, Chester, Millbourne, Manayunk, even the easternmost part of Havertown. It's not that they were built around manufacturing. It's that they were built around mills. Only Marcus Hook and Trainer stayed somewhat stable because refineries didn't go out of business when the mills did.
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