Reply to Where could you live comfortably on 80k a year?

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Where could you live comfortably on 80k a year?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You can get a nice home in the Lehigh Valley in West Allentown or historic Bethlehem for that budget.

Lancaster would be an option as well. I’d prefer both of these places to Pittsburgh because they’re close to big cities like New York and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh is isolated.

An example of what you can get in West Allentown. Obviously you can go lower than $400,000 and pick up something nice, but smaller and not as updated.

https://www.redfin.com/PA/Allentown/2729-W-Allen-St-18104/home/196135126[/quote]

They are an hour to an 1 1/2 hours to those cities.  Pittsburgh is a million times better then slightly depressed towns like Allentown, Bethlehem (the best of the three) or Lancaster.[/quote]

I’d rather be 1 1/2 hours from the best city in the world, NYC, than be 4 hours from any major city, like you are in Pittsburgh.

If you move to Pittsburgh you need to really like Pittsburgh, because it’s not close to anything except Ohio.

Lancaster, Allentown, and Bethlehem are all mid tier cities with plenty of amenities that are close to world class cities. And there are nice places in all three of these cities, just like there are depressing neighborhoods and nice neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. The house in Allentown posted above is in a very nice Pre WW2 neighborhood with big parks and a university within walking distance.[/quote]

I don't consider Lancaster, Allentown, or Bethlehem cities at all, mid tier or not. Allentown is the largest, at 124k, the other two are smaller than 100k. They are large towns, or exurbs.

In Pittsburgh, if you want to go to a play, an art museum, the ballet, a major sporting event, or a concert, you can go tonight. If you live in Pittsburgh, you could be there in 15-30 minutes. If you are north of town or in South Hills, you can be there in less than an hour. That's what it means to live in a city. You can live in a dense neighborhood in Pittsburgh with restaurants, bars, cafes, and bakeries walking distance from your home. You could live in certain neighborhoods and rely on public transit for most travel. You have access to activities on multiple major university campuses, plus all the Carnegie museums.

To do any of those things from Lancaster, Allentown, or Bethlehem, you have to travel into Philly or NYC and you're going to get home very late or have to spend the night. If you are right downtown, you could be walkable to some restaurants, bars, etc., but there will be more limited selection and variety.

The one advantage of these towns versus a place like Pittsburgh is international travel because of proximity to international airports. But on domestic travel, living in Pittsburgh puts you closer to a major airport. But your day to day life in Pittsburgh will have many more amenities of city life than living in an exurb of Philadelphia will. [/quote]

The Lehigh Valley has 800,000+ people. Pittsburgh has 300,000. There are at least 4 universities in Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. It has a lot to do and is not an exurb of Philadelphia. It has its own culture and a lot of people are from NYC there.

And you are 1 hour from Philadelphia and 1.5 hours from the Lehigh Valley. OP said the people she was referencing were in their 40s or 50s, not 80. These are easy day trips at that age.

And you have several international airports less than 2 hours away and a regional airport in the Lehigh Valley.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics