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Old 03-20-2014, 04:11 PM
 
54 posts, read 82,512 times
Reputation: 55

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I am looking at places for a house in Westmoreland County right now. I have seen several houses that match what we are looking for but they are all in different parts of the county, particularly Hempfield Township, North Huntingdon, East Huntingdon, and Murrysville. What are the recommended places? I'm not too familiar with those areas.

Here are some more details:

Family size: 5. My wife and I have three young kids (ages 5, 3, and 1) so good schools are a pretty high priority.
Budget: Max of $200,000
Property size: Minimum of half acre, would prefer an acre.

Prefer an old, (kind of) large farm house type. But open to anything else. Not really found of a ranch style. Also, I work in Downtown Pittsburgh but I would like to take the Westmoreland Transit commuter buses so close (about 20 minutes) to one of their park and ride lots would be ideal.

Thanks!
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Old 03-20-2014, 04:42 PM
 
146 posts, read 132,561 times
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In my opinion, the best schools are, in no specific order:
1) Franklin Regional - Murrsyville area
2) Hempfield - Hempfield Twp
3) Norwin - North Huntingdon Twp/Irwin
4) Penn-Trafford - Penn Twp/Trafford
5) Latrobe - Latrobe Area

As far as the commute, I'd suggest North Huntingdon. Rt. 30 isn't great, but once you get to the Pkwy East it's only 10 mins to the tunnel, then it's smooth sailing to downtown. Depending on where you live in North Huntingdon, I'd leave an hour early for work. Also, the Westmoreland Transit bus does go down Rt. 30 through NH, so that's a good option. Unfortunately most of the homes in North Huntingdon are either newer McMansions or ranch homes. The same can be said of Hempfield as well. There is probably an oddball property out there, but you aren't going to find many farmhouses within reasonable commute to downtown. North Huntingdon and Hempfield are very highly populated and Murrysville is getting that way as well. If you are really determined to find some farmhouses, check out the far southern edges of north huntingdon or Sewickley Twp, which is just south of NH and in Yough school district. This would also be within 20 mins of the Westmoreland Transit at the Rt. 30 stop in Norwin Hills. I really don't know much about Yough school district, but I can't imagine that it could compare with Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Hempfield, or Franklin Regional. As far as East Huntingdon Twp goes...that's just way too far out there. I don't see how you could realistically commute to downtown daily from there and I highly doubt the Westmoreland Transit goes through there very often, if at all. But, there would probably be some decent farm houses there!
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Old 03-20-2014, 06:13 PM
 
1,075 posts, read 1,683,043 times
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Hempfield has the largest population of any Pittsburgh metro suburb; however, that population is spread over seventy-seven square miles. There is a wide range of rural and suburban areas. Similarly, there is a wide range of housing stock, from historic log cabins, to 70's ranchers, to brand new McMansions. In addition, there are lots of working farms.

If you include Greensburg proper, which is surrounded by Hempfield, you can add urbanesque to the list of housing options. I know that this is not your preference, but I mention it to illustrate that the area has something for everyone. One major drawback is the commute into Pittsburgh, especially when factoring in tunnel congestion.

I believe that there is a park and ride in the parking lot of the Home Depot on Route 30 in Hempfield, which is adjacent to a Route 66 exit. Some areas along Route 66, which is also called the Amos K. Hutchison Bypass, seem fairly rural. You can cover a long distance quite quickly on Route 66, if you don't mind the toll.

Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hempfield Township Demographics, Census, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Last edited by Kippy; 03-20-2014 at 06:45 PM.. Reason: Silly autocorrect
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Old 03-20-2014, 07:15 PM
 
Location: A coal patch in Pennsyltucky
10,248 posts, read 10,496,131 times
Reputation: 12547
Quote:
Originally Posted by PenguinsFan14 View Post
In my opinion, the best schools are, in no specific order:
1) Franklin Regional - Murrsyville area
2) Hempfield - Hempfield Twp
3) Norwin - North Huntingdon Twp/Irwin
4) Penn-Trafford - Penn Twp/Trafford
5) Latrobe - Latrobe Area

As far as the commute, I'd suggest North Huntingdon. Rt. 30 isn't great, but once you get to the Pkwy East it's only 10 mins to the tunnel, then it's smooth sailing to downtown. Depending on where you live in North Huntingdon, I'd leave an hour early for work. Also, the Westmoreland Transit bus does go down Rt. 30 through NH, so that's a good option. Unfortunately most of the homes in North Huntingdon are either newer McMansions or ranch homes. The same can be said of Hempfield as well. There is probably an oddball property out there, but you aren't going to find many farmhouses within reasonable commute to downtown. North Huntingdon and Hempfield are very highly populated and Murrysville is getting that way as well. If you are really determined to find some farmhouses, check out the far southern edges of north huntingdon or Sewickley Twp, which is just south of NH and in Yough school district. This would also be within 20 mins of the Westmoreland Transit at the Rt. 30 stop in Norwin Hills. I really don't know much about Yough school district, but I can't imagine that it could compare with Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Hempfield, or Franklin Regional. As far as East Huntingdon Twp goes...that's just way too far out there. I don't see how you could realistically commute to downtown daily from there and I highly doubt the Westmoreland Transit goes through there very often, if at all. But, there would probably be some decent farm houses there!
I think this advice is very accurate. I would suggest looking very carefully at the Westmoreland Transit schedules and deciding what you could live with as far as a commute. For example, the last Westmoreland Transit bus at Arnold Palmer Airport leaves at 5:50AM. The last bus from Mt. Pleasant leaves at 5:56 AM.

You might want to consider the Delmont area. Part of Delmont is in the Franklin Regional school district and the other part is in Greensburg-Salem. There are Westmoreland Transit stops in Delmont, Export and Murrysville. You could drive to Murrysville and catch one of three Westmoreland Transit busses between 6:21 and 7:34.
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Old 03-20-2014, 07:34 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
7,541 posts, read 10,197,310 times
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Norwin is an excellent school district, and much of it is less than 15 minutes from the Port Authority Park and Ride on Jacks Run Rd, Rte 48.
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Old 03-21-2014, 01:12 AM
 
15 posts, read 19,386 times
Reputation: 14
I think the rankings have norwin and PT over hempfield but honestly, throw Franklin in and the 4 of them are all similar enough I wouldn't weigh one over the other at all if i were moving.

My personal thoughts on the 4
-Hempfield is furthest of the 4 from downtown so I would X that out. Its also HUGE and weirdly proportioned, so you can go to school with kids who are a good half hour+ drive away from you.

Franklin has the best reputation I would say. But I loathe the parkway east with a passion so even if i drove only 2 times a month I would rule Franklin out simply because of that, but thats just my opinion. It has a long business district along route 22 but there is a ton of wasted space and even driving down it 100 times you wont know or care about most of the things that are there. It is finally starting to let a few decent restaurants in or so I've heard.

Norwin is Suburban to a T right down to the brand new Walmart and Applebees.. Plus Its the only place you can see Sheetz from the other Sheetz parking lot
It has the most Amenities of the 4 as far as eats and shopping, but nothing real special..ton of chains and fast foods. Its also probably growing the fastest of the 4 with subdivisions throwing up 100's of upper middle class houses.

Penn Trafford is the same thing but without any real retail.
There is nothing about PT that would make me want to move there unless I wanted to live in a small town and only had 80k to spend and had to live in westmoreland county, then I might consider Trafford (its also at the very end of one PAT bus line so you don't have to rely on westmoreland transit, which can get annoying if you get held up at work and miss your bus)
Not that its bad but its just basically route 130 from Trafford, a small run down 'city', running 10 miles through housing developments until you get to Jeannette.
It does have a nice little league complex though.
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