Philly Suburbs with a 30 min train commute (Philadelphia, Chester: real estate, house)

[LIGIRL08]

Hi! My DH and I were thinking about relocating to PA in two years from LI (sick of the taxes, crowdedness, commuting an hour+ to work).

we love the PA area - I am trying to research good school districts that are an easy commute (about a half hour for me) to Center City (I work in Finance so I would think this is the best place for a job). DH is a teacher, andwhile I have read that its hard to get a teaching job, its impossible on LI so he would be willing to work in Philly (he works in NYC now, cant get much worse!).

If we were to move now, our budget would be about $350-$400. 4 bed house, colonial, doesnt have to be new construction (I actually cant stand the cookie cutter mcmansion neighborhoods). I would like a family friendly neighborhood, good schools, yada yada. What are the property taxes like? (Right now I pay $9k a year for a 3 bed high ranch!). Would like to be near shopping, but not too congested.

Sorry for the long rambling, but choosing an area to move is a difficult task (which Is why im starting now)

[orrmobl]

Believe it or not that's a tall order.

You can have great schools, close to the city, congested, smaller house.

Or great schools, further from city, less congested, bigger house, generally newer construction.

If you could prioritize that would be great.

Taxes probably average $6K but are well over that in some areas, slightly below in others, just depends.

As for real estate, waiting til next year will definitely buy you more house...

[LIGIRL08]

Thanks for the reply! I guess in order of importance would be:

Good Schools
Near Shopping
Bigger house (doesnt have to be new const!)
Close to the city
at least a third of an acre of land.

Right now we pay almost $9K in taxes in central/eastern suffolk county, ny, and it goes up almot $1k a year. how are the tax hikes in PA?

out of your list - i would like less congested, further from the city - but how far from the city would I have to be?

[akorosdc]

Originally Posted by LIGIRL08

DH is a teacher, andwhile I have read that its hard to get a teaching job, its impossible on LI so he would be willing to work in Philly (he works in NYC now, cant get much worse!).

I don't know if this is still accurate, but I think that to work for the School District of Philadelphia you have to actually live in the city. For years we had our aunt "living" with us so she could still work and not move from Cheltenham. There's a chance that this was all changed, since they really need teachers, but it's something to check out.

If this is true and you want to live in a suburb, then he should look at some other districts, or maybe private or parochial schools.

[akorosdc]

Originally Posted by LIGIRL08

Thanks for the reply! I guess in order of importance would be:

Good Schools
Near Shopping
Bigger house (doesnt have to be new const!)
Close to the city
at least a third of an acre of land.

out of your list - i would like less congested, further from the city - but how far from the city would I have to be?

I'm thinking Bucks County. When I visited a friend in Stony Brook, NY it reminded me of a flatter Bucks. Port Jeff reminded me of New Hope (a little, and replace the sound with a river). That would put you about an hour from Center City. There might be other suburbs that are better, but I'm not familiar with many west or south of the city.

Also, even though many finance jobs are in Center City, there's a good amount of office space outside of the city, in places like King of Prussia. Maybe take a look at where you'd like to work, and see where those offices are located. KoP v. Center City is a big difference.

[LIGIRL08]

I did not know about teachers needing to live in Philly to work there - thanks for pointing that out I will do my research.

I actually live in the Stony Brook/Pt. Jeff area now - Bucks county is definitely on my list. An hour commute is not optimal, but definitely doable for the right area.

[ajb842]

I would check out Wynnewood, which offers good schools, relatively close to shopping and restaurants, access to CC. 350-400K should definately get you a lovely stone colonial and I suspect you would love the area, it's very pretty. The property taxes aren't bad, for the size house you want, I would say under 6k. Also, if you're willing to commute a little bit further, check out Lafayette Hill and Plymouth Meeting. You have access to the turnpike and the blue route so you can get into the city relatively easily, the schools are very good, and the property taxes are low(I just looked at a home for 310K in Lafayette Hill and the property taxes were less than 3K!). Lafayette Hill in particular is beautiful and very close to anything you might need. Maybe check out King of Prussia as well, but it will be congested, however in your price point you would get a lot of home for your money. Hope this helps!

[orrmobl]

To find a house that big for that price, you're looking at places like Downingtown/Exton/Lionville which has really good schools, great shopping, or maybe West Chester, which is family oriented with a walkable downtown, but it doesn't have a commuter rail line so you have to drive over to Exton to take a train into center city.

Also King of Prussia/Upper Merion fits the bill as well but the schools are nowhere near as good as the other two...

Further out, you could check out Collegeville but that commute would be hellish.

I also agree that you should look into working in Malvern or King of Prussia or Wayne. That would decrease your commute significantly and open up your housing options a bit.

[Empress_Valencia]

King of Prussia/Wayne is a good area. I would also recomend Abington or Rydal. Abington was voted one of Money Magazine's top 100 places to live in America this year and was the only community in PA to be named. Abington School district is always voted a blue ribbon shcool every year. Also, 30 minutes from Center City (45 to 50 with traffic) by car or you can park and hop on the R2 ($39 a week for a trail pass, zone 3 if you want to save on gas). King of Prussia, West Conshohocken and Wayne are also major business areas and the commute would be 30 to 45 minutes. You can find a house that matches your budget paying less in taxes that what you pay in LI. Hope this helps and good luck with your move.

[LIGIRL08]

Thank you all for your suggestions, you are a great help!!
The places you have suggested sound exactly what we are looking for.