New Homes Near Philadelphia (Lancaster, King of Prussia: neighborhoods, purchase, YMCA)

[maryBtoP]

Hello everyone, my family and I will be moving to the area from Boston area in the coming months and need some help on where to move! Job location will be in Malvern.

My husband and I have 4 children: ages 2, 4, 7, and 11. We are looking for an area obviously fit for raising a family: parks, schools, others kids, neighborhoods, etc. We prefer private schools, or public would have to be top notch. We prefer new construction, would like to keep price around 1million or under. We hope that keeps our options large.
I have looked into garnet valley and chadds ford and Media areas. They seem nice with a lot of new construction, New construction in Media is noticably more expensive however. Would they be a good fit?

Also Our children are involved with swimming, so it would be great to get them involved in some club swim teams in the area if any knows of them that would be great!

And of course I would like to be close to shopping: grocery/drug store, restaurants, and bloomingdales.

I would appreciate any help!

[frankgn87]

an excellent fit, Great areas with wonderful schools. You are on the right track

[FindingZen]

Of your choices, Media is the only one with a downtown area; that is likely a factor in why prices are relatively higher. State Street in particularly is found to be charming by people of all ages. The Rose Tree-Media School District is very well regarded. Garnet Valley and Chadds Ford are deeper suburban/exurban areas thought it won't be difficult to find your basic daily necessities.

Your budget should allow you to purchase a home in at least 95% of the suburbs, including many along the Main Line, a string of traditionally upscale communities along Route 30/Lancaster Avenue including Malvern itself. It sounds like that you prefer an area that's a little bit lower density. While your favored options are south of Malvern, the closest Bloomies is due north in King of Prussia, home of the second largest shopping mall complex in the country. Certainly not the worst commute if you can go outside of rush hour.

While I don't know anything about swim clubs, I believe you and your family will be content with the lifestyle in all three of your choices.

[bryson662001]

I don't feel like repeating it for the 20th time so use media as a search term here at City-data to get the whole story. Basically Media is a small boro where you probably won't want to be living but it's zip covers a huge area that gets called Media even though it isn't. You should automatically be steered to the right areas by your price point. You won't find any million dollar houses in Media boro. I can tell you that within that zip code, I think it's Middletown but it will be called Media, the Rocky Run YMCA is a huge and fabulous facility with several indoor pools that your kids will love. The closest Bloomingdales is at the King of Prussia Mall I-76 and Rt 202. Its pretty far from the Media area but it's worth the occasional trip since it is the largest and one of the fanciest malls in the US

[cpomp]

All 3 areas you mentioned are great. I would of course always suggest Media over the others, just because it has the extra downtown feel, and it is stil not far from big box stores. And the Rose Tree Media schools are possibly the best of the 3. Its either Rose Tree Media School District or Chadds Ford Unionville Schools. Garnet Valley is still excellent though.

All 3 have a good amount of new construction. Most new homes in all of these areas are 500k and up, so you shouldnt have any trouble finding a very nice home. Also as far as swimming, there is the Rocky Run YMCA, excellent facilities I am a member there. And Suburban Club Swim Team in Newtown Square pa, which is a great private club swim team. Newtown Square is a nice town too.

And King of Prussia isnt that far from Media, maybe 30 minutes or so.

[maryBtoP]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I will be sure to check out the mentioned towns as well as continue to research the ones we are interested in.