Not to be smart but Toby Farms is part of Chester Township and is really beginning to become a thorn in the side of Brookhaven.

Not really. Brookhaven up to Brookhaven Road is mostly cozy bungalows which go for $150-$175K. Cambridge and Sir Galahad neighborhoods($200-$275k) are nicer but they are partially vinyl sided 3 BR Cape Cods. There aren't many stone houses in Brookhaven to speak of. No comparison to Nether Providence but I will agree that Cambridge is a great neighborhood as is the western side of 352 behind Coeburn.


Penn Delco has seen better days,I wouldnt lie to you. ETR in Brookhaven is 2.23 so a $300K in Brookhaven would be taxed $6,670 dollars. To be honest I've never heard of a house in Brookhaven selling for 300 K. Most of the nicer houses in Brookhaven top out at $225-$275k.The average tax bill in Cambridge will be around $4500

90% of the houses in Brookhaven are partial brick/partial vinyl siding.Cambridge has about 80 houses not 200.

Once upon a time the William Penn School district was top notch and Upper Darby was so nice it would make present day Brookhaven look like a trailer park. But times change and if you dont think Brookhaven is immune from potential decline then you have to get a grip. I'm not saying Brookhaven will get whacked but I am saying they need to start being pro active to prevent decline. The walls are closing in Chester is pushing up into Parkside which is starting to see drastic changes for the worse,Upland and Toby Farms are toast. Brookhaven is next in line and I'll stick by my belief that Brookhaven needs to be on the ball here in the next 10-20 years.


Claymont was a very nice neighborhood many years ago. Its full of single homes just like Brookhaven and that neighborhood has gone to hell in a hand basket.

Your grandmother will be fine in Brookhaven. Now if she wills the house to you, 20-30 years down the line you may be in for the shock of your life even in Cambridge.

You do realize homes aren't reassessed in Delaware County often, right?

Find me an non-new construction home in Brookhaven with a $6600 tax bill and I'll give you $5. Seriously. You can PM me your addy and I'll send it to you in the mail.

MLS 5323300 Price: $299,900 (I know, won't get it) Taxes: 3833

MLS 5250505 Price: $264,900 (Probably a fair price) Taxes: 2913

I didn't see any homes in Cambridge on the MLS, but they'd be in this range and I can guarantee you the taxes are similar.

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NUTTER 2007

http://www.communitiesmagazineonline...lresources.htm

You won't find any house in Brookhaven with a property tax bill of $6600 because houses in Brookhaven usually sell between $150-$200K. I have a relative that lives in Cambridge and they pay $4600 in property tax for a house that was last valued at $200K.

That one Brookhaven listing for $290 K was a house built 15 years(very new by Brookhaven standards) an exception, not the norm. Dont get me wrong Brookhaven right now is a great residential town and an incredible value. That being said it is aging and it has a couple strikes against it.

Strike 1-Nearby Chester,Toby Farms,Upland
Strike 2- Very underwhelming retail sector, modest housing stock.




Average home in Brookhaven. Built 1963 asking $265K. If Brookhaven could just improve and upgrade their hideous strip malls I would feel alot better about its future.

I grew up in the house diagonal across the street from this one. What a great neighborhood, and its name isn't coming up in this discussion--it's Dutton's Mill.

I find it highly amusing that I opined similarly about Brookhaven on another forum about cities and their data, and was labeled a racist! I guess it just depends where you grew up and what you're used to.

I agree that the strip malls are gritty and old and generally unpleasant looking. That and the proximity to Chester are why I recommended someone from out of state not move to Brookhaven.

There is no reason not to recommend Brookhaven as a place to live right now. Its an incredibly safe, affordable town with a good(not great) school system despite what the retail looks like. Today Brookhaven is a terrific place to live, 10-20 years from now that might be a different story.Brookhaven is at the crossroads, Its surrounded by great towns on 3 sides, but the 4th side isnt so great and it has the very real potential to blow Brookhaven up if it isnt careful. Parkside, which is in the same school district as Brookhaven + Aston, is beginning to slide. If Parkslide blows up it eventually takes Brookhaven and Aston with it.


For the time being Parkside + Brookhaven need a plan, new commerce directors + zoning depts in the worst way.They have to start putting some pressure on these strip mall developers, get the crappy retail and discount supermarkets out of there. Who on earth decides a tattoo parlor, rim shop and a save alot supermarket is a good idea for the long term future of stable middle class towns. That extra little tax revenue isnt worth it.

[quote=PuntLemon;745392]There is no reason not to recommend Brookhaven as a place to live right now. Its an incredibly safe, affordable town with a good(not great) school system despite what the retail looks like. Today Brookhaven is a terrific place to live, 10-20 years from now that might be a different story./quote]

Would you really buy a house in a neighborhood that you think may be in the toilet in 10 years? It seems to me if people are looking to buy, they are usually looking to buy to stay, not uproot themselves when the area goes down the tubes...

PuntLemon: Take heart; not every neighborhood in the path of the expanding ghetto falls like a domino. I don't know DelCo like you clearly do, but I can offer you three examples from Philly. Mt. Airy, Fishtown, and East Falls were all in the path of destruction, and managed to blunt the forces of 'blight'. Fishtown established a defensible border at Front Street, with 'scouts' softening the blow of the ghetto even west of Front (including my uncle's wife on Howard Street). Mount Airy was saved by the cavalry (in this case, yuppies) just in time, and the East Falls people refused to run for the hills, even when crack dealers started moving into the neighborhood (including across the street from me, actually). There are neighborhoods in Delaware County where the people will stubbornly refuse to admit defeat and will work hard to keep their towns nice, and eventually the tide of the battle will turn and they can celebrate. I know; I have lived it. Unfortunately, other towns will crumple like tinfoil. Ask yourself this question; will the present inhabitants run from trouble or will they fight it? And I don't mean lip service, either. Will they really stick it out like the 2 streeters in South Philly or will they run like the rabbits who used to live in the 5th Street corridor two blocks over? I think people in Havertown are fighters, and that is why some PBers call them closed-minded or bigoted in some way. I consider them to be more ethnic, more clannish. That is a good sign, long term.

Regarding blue-collar types; I would never raise my kids in a world where they wouldn't interact with all kinds, and, more importantly, with the children of all kinds. Each group has its strengths and foibles, and my kids need to understand this. Kids from LM are 'sheltered' from this reality, and their parents aren't doing them any favors. Diverse means all types, not just a variety of acceptable types, which is what most people mean when they say 'diversity'. Blue-collar tradesmen, no matter how colorful, don't count as a part of diversity, which is sad, and shows how closed-minded some people are.

Thats the dilemma. Brookhaven imo can go either way in the future.It wouldnt shock me if it were able to ride along Nether Providence,Aston and Middletown Twp. coat tails and remain that stable middle class community.But it also wouldnt shock me if 25 years from now Brookhaven becomes an extension of present day Chester .Its about as tough a town to predict its future as there is. I can tell you that as of today plenty of young families are still moving into Brookhaven and they recently built a new sprawling townhome community and a 55+ community. Real estate values remain steady.

Thought I'd jump in here. I live in an area of Haverford Township called Ardmore Park, with an Ardmore zip code and mailing address, yet in Delaware County. It's crazy -- a few blocks away it's a different township (Lower Merion) and a different county (Montgomery) but somehow both sides of a street called County Line are "Ardmore". It's the zip code that defines it. There are two different neighborhood associations but they are starting to work together for the area as a whole.

This area is fairly diverse, no matter what people may opine. In my few block area there are college professors, teachers, contractors, and retired folks (to name just a few) as well as lesbian couples, African-Americans, Asians, you name it. It has a long history as an Italian enclave also. It seems to be a busy, friendly area with a real mix of "collars" "ethnicities" and "orientations". There are lots of families with young kids, and the baseball diamonds are full of people cheering for even the littlest players. Top this off with the ability to walk to all kinds of transit, Carlino's, the Head Nut, a fruit and veggie store, a brand new school, Haverford College's open-to-all walking trail, an easy commute into the city, and twin home prices in the 200's -- this place is great. (Taxes are worse here on the Delco side though.)