Malvern / West Chester (?List:Best areas/neighborhoods/elementary schools?) (Downingtown: crime, house)

[runbikeswim]

Hi,

Our family is relocating to the Malvern / West Chester area.

We are young professionals with small children and would like to learn about the best parts of each town: Malvern and West Chester.

For example, each town has a borough/historic district, as well as more suburban neighborhoods.

We are looking for safe areas with great schools and hope to squeeze into a single family home (~ $475K). We are highly educated but down to earth and looking for similar neighbors.

Anyhow, could you please recommend and rank neighborhoods in these two towns????

Since high school districts may cover too large of an area, please consider recommending elementary schools and middle schools.

Your help is greatly appreciated and invaluable to us.

Thanks
RBS

[Affirmed09]

West chester would be your best bet. You can try lionville/exton to get more house for your money...Malvern is ok but too crowded if you cant afford the million dollar properties that have more room around them

Avoid downingtown and coatseville. Cheaper but the crime is higher in those areas...i lived in Exton for 5 yrs and never had any problems in the area

[orrmobl]

Disagree.

Great Valley is an excellent SD, a good bit better than West Chester. And you can get a decent home for less than $500k.

Also Downingtown schools are a notch ABOVE West Chester's and there is no crime in that district that I'm aware of.

Now if proximity to walkable chi chi downtown is your goal, West Chester is the place to go. In Malvern down town is so small it's barely there...but the horse farms and natural beauty are there for sure...and the new Wegman's just opened yesterday!

Downingtown also has a Wegman's btw.

[GinaMomof4]

agreed with orrmobl, downingtown is a great place to live. no crime, awesome schools and great place to raise a family. to rate the schools you can check out www.schoolsmatter.com there is great information on this site.

[pman]

they're all pretty good. the main difference between west chester and the others is west chester is more economically diverse. the schools are good, numbers don't tell the whole story (in other words, it's up to the parents, it's not like the school itself is bad).