Happydragon

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help. My hubs has got sponsored job in Philly & they are also sorting it out for us all to go with him. Where are the best areas to look at moving too? I've got a 13yr old boy, 12 yr old girl & a soon to be 4 yr old boy. I've been trawling the internet but they say different things :-( thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give

Noorah101

I assume this is an L1 visa, transferring to the USA through his current employer? Either that, or it's an H1B for a non profit organization or educational institution?

Rene

Pulaski

I've visited Philly a number of times, but never lived there. By reputation (my wife lived near Philly for a couple of years), you're going to want to live a good way out in the suburbs, because the inner city, especially to the north and south are a bit rough. Like other cities, there is a move to higher cost urban living in Philly for young, and not-so-young professionals, but if you have children you're probably not going to like the schools in the heart of Philly.

Happydragon

Hi thanks for replying - I think it's a L1 visa he's going out on so we would go out on L2 visas. I really need to establish areas for the kids so we can source accommodation - exciting but scary

rpjs

Center City is pretty safe and has some very nice old row houses but s very expensive. If you want to be more adventurous, the part of West Philadelphia immediately next to the Penn campus is about as safe as West Philly gets but is very studenty, similarily the area of South Philly immediately abutting onto Center City is OKish and is popular with young professionals. Avoid North Philadelphia at all costs.

Philly is a relatively gritty city, more so than NYC these days, but has a humming music scene, excellent museums and galleries (better than NYC) and some fantastic restaurants.

But all in all the Philly City school system is a basket case, so if you end up in the city you'd probably want to put the kids in private schools. If you're at all risk adverse, you'll want to avoid the city and head for the suburbs. Philly has an excellent commuter rail system so it's easy to get to work in the city from the 'burbs.

Happydragon

Thanks Roy :-) Can you recommend any of the burbs?

rpjs

I'm afraid I don't know the suburbs as well as the city (wife was and s-i-l is a student there) but if no-one offers specific advice here I'd suggest you look up the SEPTA Regional Rail map and then use a site like City-Data to research the various towns. The ur-Philly 'burbs are along the old Pennsy Main Line, the modern SEPTA Paoli-Thorndale line, such as Bryn Mawr. Don't expect them to be cheap though.

MarylandNed

I asked someone at our Philly office. She said she likes Media, Ardmore, and Narberth. They're all relatively older towns, with nice downtowns, but close to the train for easy access to the city.

WEBlue

We house-hunted in Media. We loved the town, which had nice houses and a very attractive town center. Our priority was that we be able to walk from our house to some nice shops in town, something which is common in many/most parts of the UK but is NOT so easy to find in the US. Media filled the bill.

However, we have grown kids, so I have no idea about schools....

Guindalf

My SiL used to live in Montgomery County near a large mall (can't remember the excact name) and recently retired to The Villages in Florida. they both worked at Merck.

That always looked like a nice area. I can get more details if you need them.

WEBlue

Probably Montgomery Mall, on the Bethlehem Turnpike (Rte. 309).



Not really on topic, but Montgomery Mall has the first (maybe only?) Wegmans supermarket located inside a mall.

captainsensible

The wife and I live in Ambler, which is about 30 minutes by train to Center City and reasonably near the turnpike and other major roads - its a quite nice, quaint oldish town but then there are plenty of other towns like it. Plymouth Meeting area is mostly ok, as is Conshohocken. King Of Prussia (where the REALLY big mall is!) is not bad, but if you regularly need to drive down 202 by the mall, you'll soon be pissed off with it. Bridgeport (near King Of Prussia) is ok but it closely neighbours Norristown, which frankly, isn't.

It would be a good idea to get in touch with a local realtor if you can (or more than one) that covers the area you might be interested in - I know one that I trust in the Plymouth Meeting/Conshohocken area but it might also depend on how much your husbands employer are planning on doing for you as well.

Edited to add that Plymouth Meeting/Conshohocken (and the bit of Ambler where I am) is in the Colonial School District which has a pretty good reputation.

Sabrielle

My husband lives in West Philly and where the area is alright, the schools in his particular area are not very good and are under funded. It is not a place I would send my kid. My husband is in the process of moving states (again) to live with some close friends of ours. He did live in Downingtown (about an hour by train from Philly) and that was a beautiful and very safe area. But realistically I think it'd be expensive to commute from there and lengthy too. I would look around the outskirts in sort of countryside ish areas and look for reviews on the public schools in those areas (you can find that online). Literally google earth is your friend. Thats pretty much all I know about the area but Philly people love their city, it can be a great place to live. Living costs for a family, rent is going to range from $600 and more realistically to around $1000+ for a 2-3 bedroom apartment in Philly. It can get very expensive.
Enjoy.

WEBlue

Oh yeah, forgot that King of Prussia Mall is enormous.... that might be the "big" mall the previous poster was discussing, not Montgomery Mall, which is pretty modest in comparison.

I wouldn't want to live anywhere near a giant mall like KoP, personally, but that's just me. We'd cross any house near a mall, or near a highway leading to a mall, firmly OFF our possible house list.

Happydragon

THANKYOU for your replies - it's given me a starting point to research. :-D