havertown definately sounds like a great option. Just over the city line, good schools and reasonably priced compared to neighboring towns. You'd be adjacent to all the wealthiest towns in the area so you're not far from any sort of conveniences that you would want

Wow. I live in NE Philadelphia and had NO IDEA that you could actually buy a house in ie. Havertown under 300K. The houses in some parts of the NE are well over 250K.

Good luck!

Collingswood, Westmont and Haddon Heights.

Nice areas in South Jersey. All near a Patco stop that will take you into center city.

__________________
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." —George Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

Don't count out Lansdowne. It's just a 20 minute commute to the city by the SEPTA R3. Not sure about the school district but here's a good list of links regarding Lansdowne:

http://discoverlansdowne.com/

Hello and Happy Thursday,

I hope this message finds you well and welcome to the area, here are some leads to help you in your search,

Main line starter houses in Narberth PA are a great place to raise a family, commute to town on the R-5 (15 minutes) and Lower Merion School System to boot is one of the best public school systems in the country.

Center City itself has become a hot spot.

Drexil Hill is another area to investigate.

NJ taxes are the highest in the country, lots of great areas and school systems like Haddonfield but taxes make it a tough choice.

DE probably to far away, but tax rates cannot be beat for the amount of land and property taxes.

Lots of luck and welcome to the Neighborhood and if you need the areas top home inspector to look over your new home. I just happen to be him. But do not take my word check out our website at www.asafensoundhomeinspection.com

Brian Connelly

__________________
Safe&Sound Home Inspections

There are well over 100 single/detached homes in the 250-300K range with 3 or more bedrooms in Abington, Jenkintown, Ambler, Springfield (Montgomery County), Whitemarsh,and Cheltenham Townships which are all just outside of the Northwest Part of the City and are in good school districts. You should have plenty of options in your price range that would be a good fit for you.

Have you had a chance to tour any of the areas around the city yet?

Good Luck and welcome to Philly.

__________________
Rich McIlhenny
Re/Max Services Inc.
www.Richmachomes.com
Rmac88@aol.com

Haverford Township does hve excellent public schools, the taxes are reasonable, and the commute to cc is about a 25 min. drive, or 30 via the p&w and the el. Homes start in the low to mid 200's for a twin, high 200's for a 3 - 4 bedroom cape, 300's to the 600's for larger homes.

I don't know much about montco, but the re taxes are high, lansdowne and drexill hill haver very high taxes and their scchools suck, broomall taxes are low and they do have good schools, but a 3 bedroom rancher starts at about 300k

In Philly besides the mean spirited people your best form of entertainment is to determine how many people were shot today or run over. Have you read my links to PA pollution and negative health links especially in Philly? Like most depression, f rated air,warned about 900,000 at risk for heart disese because of pollution , most crime, most childhood cancer, most reason for missed school days : asthma, oil refineries and coal production affects to arsenic and other poisons that affect us more then other places? most days without good air then most cities in N hemisphere, one in three homes with asthma, tens of thousands without jobs (just drive in the cities neighborhoods and look), thousands living in the street, and most of the negatives are ignored by people like politicians and pro business people like many here who assume if you ignore the most important things in life people will come anyway . We are in noncompliance to regulae two of the most important pollutants, that affect people which even the conservative epa says Philadelphia can't meet. If you move you will move to an area where you are about to see more commercials for healthcare then most places probably you have ever been to. Do you smoke? If so, you probably wont care your family will be poisoned by pollution that the ne keeps getting more and more of then rest of nation and trust me even with all that the negatives are underreported.

Lansdowne borders the bad sections of Upper Darby and West Philly. Taxes are high, property crimes occur there, and the schools are crap.

Drexel Hill is great but the schools have been declining in quality in the 20 years since I graduated. The influx of people from bad areas of the city is turning Upper Darby and parts of Drexel Hill into an extension of West and South Philly...I moved out for these reasons...