What Are the Safest Areas of Sharon, PA? (Pittsburgh, Erie: rent, insurance)

[Lighthead]

Does anybody have an answer to my question asking if Mercer is better than New Castle? I'm curious about that. I'm sorry if this is a reply to you, Pitt Chick. I'm still learning how to navigate this forum.

[dbsteel]

I would say Mercer is better than New Castle, which has seen better days. But the surrounding areas of New Castle are fine. All my dads family is from Mercer, so I go there a lot. That being said, New Castle is bigger than Mercer which isn't very big at all (A lot of people who live in Mercer go to Sharon to shop).

Grove City which is right there is a decent place too. Its got more shopping.

If you wanted something a little bigger, I like Sharon/Hermitage better than New Castle.

These places are all fairly close to each other, so you could live in any and work in any.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed may be of some use.
Pennsylvania QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

Gritty old towns, lol. Unless you already have a job lined up, or you live on public assistance and that's portable, don't move here. How far are you willing to commute for work? Sharon is essentially a rural area. So is New Castle, except New Castle is lumped with Pittsburgh metro area for social services, senior services, and I don't know what else, but that gives it access to more services and money than Shenango Valley gets. New Castle has daily bus runs to Pittsburgh area. Sharon does not. All of the old towns around here have financial problems and lots of drugs and crime and problematic people and decaying housing. If you are looking at houses in town, you have to consider individual blocks because you need to know what and who are abutted to it. I know people who have wonderful houses on Case and Highland, but their kids got beaten up walking 2 blocks to school.

irrc, approximately 65% of Sharon housing was rental property, not owner-occupied, as of about 2 years ago. The "middle class" areas are mainly Highland Avenue, the streets over toward Buhl Park, and possibly the area bounded by 518 / Stambaugh or McClure on the west, East State on the north, Smith Ave on east, and perhaps George St on the south but the closer to Farrell you get, and closer to Stambaugh, the worse it is. North of State St, the older area encompassing Jefferson on west, to Highland on north, on out to the Hermitage border is holding its own, for the most part. The realtors should have a pretty good idea.

Avoid the West Hill, the streets that run to Farrell. You can look at a lot of them using Google Earth.

Downtown Sharon is looking better and some new businesses are opening in downtown storefronts. There is a Penn State branch campus there but many local students choose to go to Penn State Behrend instead, for campus life and also more employment in Erie. YSU in Youngstown gives Ohio in-state rates to western PA people, afaik.

You'd do better to perhaps post in the Ohio form, because the area is more closely tied to Youngstown and Warren than Pittsburgh.

But overall, the towns in Shenango Valley are just barely scraping by. The area lacks jobs and lacks college grads because there are no jobs. There's no gentrification because there's no inward migration of professionals to spur that, and the towns have been losing population for years. Most of the middle class moved out of Farrell and Sharon and to lesser degree out of Sharpsville beginning in the '50s. Hermitage schools are where most people want their kids. Hermitage was Hickory township, a rural suburb until it incorporated. There is no downtown Hermitage.

Mercer, West Middlesex, New Wilmington all probably have decent schools but are real small rural towns. Parts of Greenville are nice. This is a rural area for people who already made their money elsewhere and just want to live in a rural area. They are retirement communities, losing population and jobs and tax base steadily.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Another thing to be aware of with Sharon (not sure about New Castle) is there are state-operated halfway houses for criminals and sex offenders and who know what else scattered around. That is partly what made people bolt from the West Hill. Perkins Mansion just off of West State is one. There are "rehabilitated" former halfway house residents who've bought or rented homes on West Hill. The problems with Stambaugh, Spruce, Cedar, Prindle, Sherman, Spruce, S. Oakland and those other streets in that area mostly came from either Detroit or Farrell and are gang or drug related or both.

This is why most people advise live out in the suburbs. Warren and Youngstown OH have the same issues, and Farrell PA is too far gone and many of their problematic people are moving into Sharon now. This is what happens to areas that don't have jobs: Pretty soon, all you have living there are people with no jobs.

I think I managed to state that diplomatically.

[Lighthead]

Thanks dbsteel! I appreciate the info.

[Lighthead]

Well I guess that answers that question about Sharon. Funnily enough, I just talked to a real estate agent (based in New Castle) that backs up what you're saying. I appreciate all the info.

To all the people that think that I'm a troll, if you really want to know why I'm interested in that general area, I can tell you. It's not really random. We visited the Pittsburgh area several months ago looking for houses (houses in Pennsylvania are really cheap), and at the last minute saw that we really liked certain parts of New Castle.

If you're wondering why anybody would move out of California to go to Pennsylvania, you need to live out here for about a year or more. There's no jobs, houses are expensive, the cost of living is high, too much traffic, crime is everywhere (when I say everywhere, I mean that there really is no middle-class here), etcetera. Towns like New Castle are heaven compared to where we live now. Like I said, if you're living somewhere just because of the weather, you're not really happy.

[Velvet Jones]

Originally Posted by Lighthead

Well I guess that answers that question about Sharon. Funnily enough, I just talked to a real estate agent (based in New Castle) that backs up what you're saying. I appreciate all the info.

To all the people that think that I'm a troll, if you really want to know why I'm interested in that general area, I can tell you. It's not really random. We visited the Pittsburgh area several months ago looking for houses (houses in Pennsylvania are really cheap), and at the last minute saw that we really liked certain parts of New Castle.

If you're wondering why anybody would move out of California to go to Pennsylvania, you need to live out here for about a year or more. There's no jobs, houses are expensive, the cost of living is high, too much traffic, crime is everywhere (when I say everywhere, I mean that there really is no middle-class here), etcetera. Towns like New Castle are heaven compared to where we live now. Like I said, if you're living somewhere just because of the weather, you're not really happy.

I think you need to look at the flip side of things. For all of the hate California gets, prices are still going up there. That means it has value. Prices in many parts of western PA are great. You can get a nice four bedroom for under $50k(or maybe even $20k). There is a reason for that, and that reason as you might expect is not good. You can tell a lot about an area by looking at Google Earth. Go to Google Earth and look at Sharon, PA. You'll notice that on many streets the houses are very narrow and some are bunched together, but on most of the streets there are huge gaps between the houses. That is because large chunks of the housing has been demolished or burnt down. You'll find similar results in places like Warren/Youngstown, Detroit, or any of the other left behind rust belt towns. These places are basically burnt out shells of their former selves and will likely never return. So yes, you can get a place cheap but you will likely be stuck with it when you decide to move in a year or two. If you want to move to the area you would be better off staying closer to the Pittsburgh area. You can still get cheap housing even in the near suburbs. But again, avoid places that seem too cheap.

BTW, does anyone remember the famous CDer "INeedCheapHousing" or something similar? He was obsessed with Oil City and made it his goal to move there. I wonder if he ever found his Mecca.

[PenguinsFan]

I don't find it strange at all that you'd want to leave California and move to Pennsylvania. You may find that it suits you better and saves you a lot of money. Since this is the Pittsburgh forum, perhaps you might be able to find something you'd like within the Pittsburgh area There are many styles and ages of houses, so you'd have plenty to look through. You can live within a half hour of downtown and feel like you are in the country.

[Lighthead]

I didn't formally give my thanks to you sorryimovedback! I thank you very much. I'm used to a different forum that shows that you're directly replying to someone. I'll read your's soon Velvet Jones! Thanks in advance.

[Lighthead]

Originally Posted by PenguinsFan

I don't find it strange at all that you'd want to leave California and move to Pennsylvania. You may find that it suits you better and saves you a lot of money. Since this is the Pittsburgh forum, perhaps you might be able to find something you'd like within the Pittsburgh area There are many styles and ages of houses, so you'd have plenty to look through. You can live within a half hour of downtown and feel like you are in the country.

I'm pretty sure that I want to start a New Castle thread in the future. Hopefully, I will be able to get some advice about New Castle.