Moving to Bucks County, commuting to brooklyn/philly (Philadelphia, Morrisville: apartment, to rent)

[comingtopa]

Hello,

My husband just got a job offer in Philly, and I love my Brooklyn job too much to leave--we're thinking of moving to Bucks County, PA. He would commute by car, while I would take the train from Trenton. I'm ok with the 2 hour commute, but we're trying to decide where exactly to move. We're looking at Yardley, Langhorne, Morrisville, Newtown...we'll be renting for a few years before we buy, looking to spend about 2500/month and ideally would like a home (over a townhouse or apartment--had enough of apt living in Manhattan!)

So where should we go, exactly?

Thanks for the help!

[momma said no]

Wow - Bklyn to bucks.
I live in Bklyn and have a house in Yardley. Can't imagine commuting between the two.

Yardley is wonderful and saves you 20 minutes no matter what method you commute (car,train).
Newtown is only 15 minutes further than Yardley but at rush hour ........ it adds up. Yardley also is a bit easier to get on I95 south to philly at rush hour. Newtown just has more cars making that commute and traffic bottles up.

Yardley residents typically drive to the Hamilton station and take NJ transit to Penn station. The train is just over an hour. Hopefully your Bklyn job is near the ACE or 123 lines so that you only need one subway.

Your budget is more than enough to rent a house in Yardley. Stay as close as you can to the boro or south of the boro (to shave minutes off the trip to the train). You can buy a lovely home for that payment too.

Morrisville has some nice neighborhoods (north of pennsylvania ave) and near the yardley border its hard to tell where the boarder line is.
If you have kids - I would not consider morrisville at all (schools). I also wouldn't buy there as the school taxes are higher and property values are affected by the not so great schools.

Langhorne is not my preference although there are lots of great neighborhoods there. Neshaminy schools are as good as Pennsbury (yardley), or Council Rock (newtown). Langhorne just adds time to your train commute and offers nothing additional over Yardley to make it worth it. imho.

When your driving between NY and Yardley learn the route that has you getting off the turnpike at 7A. then 195 into trenton crossing to pa over the morrisville bridge. God knows I've tried every route and that's the fastest.

What neighborhood is your bklyn job in ??
I can probably give you a pretty good transit estimate.

Best of luck on the move.
Being a PA resident will save you a lot of money in taxes alone. It's an incredible area to live in and raise a family in.

[comingtopa]

Thank you, MSN, for the informative response! My job is in downtown Brooklyn, close to all the trains.

Yardley sounds like a good option, but since we'd probably eventually purchase a home nearer to Philadelphia, we're also considering renting right outside Philly on the R5 main line, in which case I would take the R5 septa train to the 30th street station, then amtrak (I know, way $expensive$) to NYC, then subway to BK. Yikers. We want to avoid the Philly city tax. But that Amtrak monthly pass is so unconscionable!

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by comingtopa

Thank you, MSN, for the informative response! My job is in downtown Brooklyn, close to all the trains.

Yardley sounds like a good option, but since we'd probably eventually purchase a home nearer to Philadelphia, we're also considering renting right outside Philly on the R5 main line, in which case I would take the R5 septa train to the 30th street station, then amtrak (I know, way $expensive$) to NYC, then subway to BK. Yikers. We want to avoid the Philly city tax. But that Amtrak monthly pass is so unconscionable!

With your consideration of the Main Line area, I hope that your job/career is eventually moving down to the Philly metro... or that you have a compressed schedule. Even when taking the Acela into account, that sounds like at least a 4.5 hour daily commute. Any of those Bucks County towns you're considering would allow an extra hour or more a day that your whole family can be together.