Help for Young Family? (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: real estate, mortgage, how much)

[roxxy]

Are there any areas near Pittsburgh that are safe, have good schools, and inexpensive housing? By inexpensive, I am talking about 100,000 or under for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. My husband would be looking for a job as an automotive service advisor/ shop manager. I am a stay at home mom right now and would like to keep it that way until my youngest starts school. Times are tough, though, so we would like to lower our mortgage payment, if possible. We are searching for an area we can do this, and still be within reasonable driving distance to a nice zoo, museums, etc. Would Pittsburgh work for us?

[PeterRabbit]

If neither of you have a job how can you qualify for a mortgage? Are you paying cash? Good school systems here have high taxes.

[roxxy]

My husband has a job now, and he would need to secure another one before we relocate. There are almost always jobs available in his field. He is an honest, hard worker, and he has good references. We will never be rich on his salary though. We are just trying to find the best place to survive with our children. We would be able to make a down payment after selling our current home. We are paying about 1800/ yr. taxes on a $86,500 home we bought about 9 years ago. The home is worth at least $140,000, though I don't know how it would do with the current market. Our schools here are underfunded though, and my daughter does not have the advanced courses she needs available to her. Special needs or gifted programs are extremely limited, if at all available, in our area.

[hnsq]

I have been looking around for a house as well, and home prices are very reasonable right now. You can find 3 br. houses in bloomfield/friendship for around 100k. Go here and browse...you might be pleasantly surprised.

[Copanut]

I would suggest Ross Twp or West View boro. Lots of homes in the 100K range and quite a few car dealerships in that area.

[roxxy]

If any one can tell me which of these areas has the best schools I would very much appreciate it.

[PeterRabbit]

There's plenty of nice houses around Pittsburgh for under $100,000 and Pgh. has car dealerships all over.

First things first. Check the want ads in Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Tribune Review as well as craigslist.com to see if your husband's kind of job is even mentioned. If that's a go then check out a school site to determine the better school districts you might be interested in. Post your questions back to us about those areas with more specifics about what you'd like to have. In my area I suggest checking out Plum Borough at a site like Real Estate in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Harrisburg, Akron, Canton, Erie, Youngstown, West Virginia, New York - Howard Hanna Real Estate From their site you can get a good idea of housing costs in any area of interest around Pgh.

You won't find good public schools in the city in your price range. I think there's only one anyhow.

School taxes are very high in areas with good schools and probably somewhat high even in areas with bad schools. For a $100,000 house figure $3,000 a year, more or less. That includes county, local and school taxes.

- You need to sell your house
- Your husband needs to have a job wherever you're going to relocate

[roxxy]

Thank you. I guess good schools go along with high taxes. Upstate New York, another area we may look into, seems to have the same deal. Hopefully, we'll get something for what we are paying. Good schools are important to us. I'll also have to figure those taxes into the mortgage payment. I don't necessarily want to be in the city. I just like to be able to take the kids to museums and the zoo every now and then. I was also thinking there may be more car dealerships near the city, but this isn't always the case. I have done a preliminary search and have found some job openings in different areas. Since I am not familiar with the Pittsburgh area, I have no idea if these areas are safe and if the schools would be decent. Some areas that came up are Greensburg, Bridgeville, Coraopolis, West Mifflin, and Monroeville. I thank everyone for any input.

[PeterRabbit]

Allegheny County (where Pgh. is) has the highest real estate taxes in the state. Greensburg is the county seat of Westmoreland County. Your taxes would be considerably lower, how much I don't know. You can look it up, compare the millages.

Greensburg is 25 - 35 miles from Pgh. It's an easy drive and the zoo and museum are closer than downtown. The main road is Rt. 30. It's a populated area with a fair amount of car dealerships and large malls/shopping, etc. There are other towns around it like Jeannette, Irwin, North Huntingdon.... I think the better school system out there is Norwin, but not sure. Latrobe is about 10 miles and has Arnold Palmer Airport and Arnie has a car dealership there. Greensburg is very near farm country and wide open spaces, good countryside.

Monroeville is about 7 - 10 miles from downtown and is the main shopping area in the east. Traffic here can be as bad as it gets. The PA Turnpike and parkway is here. There's a dealership for most car makes. The main road is Rt. 22. The school system is alright, maybe better than that. Plum, which I mentioned before, borders Monroeville and has a better school system. Plum used to be desirable because it had the lowest taxes in the county. I don't know if that's still true. I think you'd get more house here for your money.

I don't know anything about those other areas. Somebody here will fill you in.

Where do you live now? It's possible one of us is familiar and could choose a similar area here. Tell us some other things you'd like to have.

[roxxy]

Thanks for the information. That gives me something to work with. If I could get something in our price range in the country that would be a dream come true. I will check out jobs and schools near Greensburg. Right now we are living in a small town on the outskirts of the Lehigh Valley. We can not afford the houses in what are considered the good school districts. My daughter is very unhappy in school. It is about a 1 1/2 hour drive, usually more with traffic, to get to the good museums and zoo in Philadelphia. The town I am living in is small, and it seems like it has been going downhill in the past few years. The most important things for us are safety, good schools for the kids, and a reasonable cost of living.