SAFE, Up-And-Coming Areas In/Outside of SCRANTON? (Johnstown, Washington: real estate, how much)

[W-B proud]

Check out the East Mountain neighborhood.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by W-B proud

Check out the East Mountain neighborhood.

The views from much of that neighborhood are absolutely breathtaking. I envy the folks who own the home along Route 307 directly opposite the overlook.

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by to570717

Well, i am only saying that in my opinion, Clarks Summit or Clarks Green, Waverly Chinchila, Glenburn any of thoes areas are a great place to live.

Sure they are.. Whats the average cost of a home in Waverly or Clarks green? Reasonable for a recent single gradute? The affluence of the Abingtons is passe and really its just becoming a sprawl filled area. Those "families" won't have a choice much longer......Oh ya by the way you should move to waverly I think its the home to 2 superfund clean up sites.....Hows the water doing up there? How's Sandvik treating you now???

Blah blah, friendly sons blah blah.....Crony

[noisynora]

thanks, MrKrabs, that's some great info...she'll have to check into the West Side, and hopefully come up with something "affordable", which translates into CHEAP...no money pit, but alittle work wouldn't be bad to live in a decent neighborhood

[noisynora]

Thanks, ScranBarre, I really think she would prefer to live right in the city somewhere...what right-minded young single woman wants to move to the suburbs? Not that the city is a hub of events and night-life, but just the energy level in a city is more to her liking at this stage in life. Seems like the West side keeps coming up, need to check that out.

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by noisynora

thanks, MrKrabs, that's some great info...she'll have to check into the West Side, and hopefully come up with something "affordable", which translates into CHEAP...no money pit, but alittle work wouldn't be bad to live in a decent neighborhood

There are plenty fo houses for sale in Scranton but beware of the 3.4% wage tax that Scranton has. It is one of, if not the highest in the state. We also have a under staffed fire and police depts that are in the middle of a battle with the city. The city wants to actually cut more jobs in the depts in order to break the local unions. The city gov't is being run by the worst financial leader that this city has ever seen. In the last 7 years he buried the city under close to a half of billion in long term debt.

I love the city, but those buying or moving here must be made aware of the pitfalls of living in this city BEFORE they buy or move here.

Please don't blindly follow the advice on this board, myself included, and do the research on your own.

Study the cost involved with buying a house in Scranton, i.e. tax impacts on the purchase, property taxes, wage tax, public services or lack there of, roads, furture tax increases and last but not least the municipal debt that the city is in. The debt will adversely affect the city and its tax base for generations and needs to be heavily taken into consideration.

This is a investment in her life and future and all aspects should be considered if you want to have a positive financial and emotional return on that investment.

[FightinPhils]

Dan, but Dunmore is not in great financial shape either. They have had to go to court to petition to be able to raise property taxes above the limit allowed by law. If it wasn't for Uncle Louie, Dunmore would have been bankrupt long ago.

[FightinPhils]

Even with all of the political corruption, I still don't regret moving to Scranton and buying a house here. Home prices in Scranton are much lower, you can get much more house for the money in Scranton and still be in a nice neighborhood. Even with the 3.4% wage tax, the ridiculously low price I paid for my house more than makes up for it. And my property taxes are not bad....only about $1,200 a year.

And Scranton is not the only town around here with corrupt politics....this whole area is a political cesspool, Scranton is not alone there.

[weluvpa]

I agree but I was just filling in the missing pieces for Scranton. They do seem to be left out of the discussion more then they are added.

Dumore has been hanging on for a awhile but they have that benefactor to turn to when they need it and we don't.

I wasn't knocking the city, just providing additional info. We don't want any surprises like we have had with ReturningtoPa. Moved back here based on some shotty info and is now very unhappy and having a hard time finding a place to live.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by MrKrabs

Dan, but Dunmore is not in great financial shape either. They have had to go to court to petition to be able to raise property taxes above the limit allowed by law. If it wasn't for Uncle Louie, Dunmore would have been bankrupt long ago.

Ditto Pittston. Add Nanticoke. Same for Plymouth. Edwardsville, anyone? What about Dunmore? Naturally Carbondale is included here as well. Basically EVERY older borough or city in our region has been faced with dire financial straits due to the NATURAL phenomenon of stable middle-class taxpayers fleeing en masse to larger, newer homes in the suburban areas, leaving fewer and fewer residents each year to pay for increasing expenditures (hence higher taxes). In my opinion Scranton is still the nicest "city" in our area. Sure, there are nicer "boroughs" (West Pittston, Dallas, Clarks Summit, Clarks Green, and Moscow come to mind), but not only is Scranton the region's largest city (pop. 70,000), but it is also the most liveable, in my opinion, as you can EASILY avoid the drug-infested parts.

Dan is absolutely 100% correct that newcomers to the city need to be presented with my cheesy rose-colored glasses "positives" and photo tours as well as his gloom-and-doom "negatives" and anarchist rants in order to make their OWN educated inferences. The city is not the wannabe-trendy Valhalla I show it off as nor is it the moribund Titanic that Dan makes it out to seem while Les Spindler and Joe Pilchesky play the violins in the background. In my opinion MrKrabs has been the only Scrantonian on this forum to consistently post "fair-and-balanced" reviews of the city. He hates the mayor. He loves the city. He doesn't permit his hatred of the mayor to overshadow his love of the city. He has lived in the suburbs as well as the city proper, so he can judge both. On the same token he doesn't live in "denial," as some may say I do as I pretend the mayor doesn't even exist (I think sometimes that would be giving him too much credit).

Scranton's 3.4% wage tax is an absolute disgrace and is its lone Achilles' Heel from my point of view. I still think the benefits of wanting to raise my children near smaller schools, their friends' homes, parks/playgrounds, SIDEWALKS (you especially all know how much I foam at the mouth over the lack of these in my own suburb), etc. are WORTH the premium I'd pay in taxes to live in the city, but I know many others feel differently. Hell, if Scranton's wage tax were 0% we probably would have seen well-educated, morally-upstanding, middle-class families like new2pa and her husband move into the city instead of opting for Dunmore especially BECAUSE of the high wage tax. I can name at least one other family that moved to Dunmore instead of Scranton because they wanted that historic flair and walkable atmosphere in a neighborhood WITHOUT being whammied with such a ludicrous wage tax. How many others are out there?

Call me nosy (which I am), but one night for "fun" I went onto the University of Scranton's web site and cross-referenced the administration and faculty with their home addresses, as per the county's assessment database. Guess what hometown was the most frequently occurring (and by a HUGE margin at that)? Scranton? Not by a long shot. South Abington Township. I'd presume that many of these professors would LOVE to live in Green Ridge, the Hill Section, Petersburg, Hyde Park, East Mountain, or Minooka, but they instead flocked like lemmings to those South Abington cul-de-sacs to avoid paying the high wage tax. I did the same for the faculty at King's and Wilkes here in Wilkes-Barre and found that an OVERWHELMING majority lived in Kingston---a town with a very similar flair to many neighborhoods in Scranton with the sidewalks, shade trees, and well-kept older homes on tidy small lots within walking distance to downtown.

If I were mayor of Scranton I'd run on a platform of introducing a host of NEW taxes that would seek to reduce the city's wage tax to 1.0% (the school district's portion) while accounting for the other 2.4% that used to go to the city through an amusement tax, commuter tax, more parking regulations, and other means to help shift the burden off of the city's residents exclusively and more fairly amongst both residents and suburbanites alike. After all, is it fair that nearly 1/4 of the real estate in the city is tax-exempt (hospitals, universities, churches, synagogues, charities, government offices, etc.) while it is utilized largely by suburbanites who pay NOTHING to help mitigate the services the city has to provide to them? The Johnstown Flood Tax revenues could begin pouring in next year to the tune of SEVEN-FIGURES ANNUALLY into the city. Between those revenues, the amusement tax, and the other fees I propose, there is no reason in hell why the city can't eliminate their portion of the wage tax and...gasp...perhaps finally give firefighters the raises they've deserved for so many years!