Suburb Recommendations :)

photoelise

Hi Ladies, My husband is being relocated to the Pittsburg area (his office is in Cranberry Township), and we need to start searching for a house! This is the 3rd time we've bought a house and the last 2 we made pretty quick decisions without knowing the area and ended up in an area that wasn't as nice as we were hoping, so I'm starting my research now! (holy cow run-on sentence!). Anyway, I need recommendations on areas/suburbs/towns to look in that are an hr or less away from Pittsburg and Cranberry Township. Ideally we'd like good schools, a nice community with nice parks/kids activities (Little Gym, mommy and me classes, etc), and in a perfect world an area that is bikable! Any suggestions would be wonderful! Cranberry Township looks adorable but I'd like some other options, too. Our housing budget is anywhere from $250-450 (depending on how much work we have to put in the house), and ideally we'd like to do a custom build. Oh, and anything I should know about PA? We've never been before (have lived in Minneapolis and Atlanta so far, so this will be a change!) K, I'm done rambling. Thanks so much!!

smynings_bride

Welcome!  We moved here from Atlanta 2 years ago.  We were in the Smyrna/Vinings area in Atlanta.  Dh works in Cranberry and we ended up buying in Franklin Park, which is one exit south of Cranberry in North Allegheny school district.  We love Franklin Park and there is a lot to do with kids.  We live near Blueberry Park but there are many parks and farms in the area.  They are building new homes right near the YMCA on Nicholson Road and on Wexford Bayne toward Wexford right on the border of Pine and Marshall Townships and in Venango Trails, which is Marshall township and a Mars address but in the NA school district.  Seneca Valley (Cranberry/Seven Fields) and Mars are also very good school districts with plenty of new construction.

kris356

Cranberry, Adams, Seven Fields, Bradford Woods, Marshall, Pine Township, Franklin Park, McCandless, Ross Twp, Hampton, Ohio Twp. all would fit your requirements.

I grew up in McCandless and my parents now live in Franklin Park. There is tons of new construction. My brother and SIL just built in the plan by the YMCA the smynings_bride mentioned and my parents live down the road. My sister lives in Bradford Woods which is all older homes but has a very different feel to the rest of the area (wooded, larger lots). All are two exits from Cranberry on I-79. Really, you should find an agent that is familiar with the area because there is a ton and you really can't go wrong. 

I will say a lot of the new construction is Ryan, Heartland or similar, there are a few custom including Venango Trails that is mentioned above. You could definitely do new construction in your budget.

AmandaJLewis

Hello!  And welcome, I will leave neighborhood recs to the girls who live north of the city because I live south and while Cranberry isn't too far away, I am just not all that familiar with that area!

Pittsburgh is a very family friendly city. 

bride2003

Ditto the above posters on Franklin Park, Marshall, Wexford, Pine Township... etc..  You can even consider Sewickley although I don't believe there are alot of places to build close to the town.
If you want to be close to someplace you can bike, then try in the plans around North Park. 

I am in Franklin Park, NA school district which is one of the top in the state although its very large.  You have your pick of places to build - there are a ton.  If you need a good realtor that knows the area let me know & I can recommend some. 

Jcubed2003

I live in McCandless and work in Cranberry. It is hardly a commute at all. One thing no one has mentioned is the difference in taxes between Allegheny County (the taxes are higher for most places mentioned EXCEPT, Cranberry, Seven Fields, Mars, Adams) and Butler County (where Cranberry and the rest are located). This would be something to discuss with a Real Estate Agent. I have a recommendation if you would need one. Best of luck to you!

denalea

I'm a Cranberry Girl!  It's a great, growing area with a very good school district.  I also think Mars is an excellent school district.  We are blessed with a number of strong schools in the North of Pgh. 

They are working on adding bike lanes around here, and depending on where you settle and where you husband is working, it may be possible to bike to work.  If you're looking for more recreational bike stuff, Moraine State Park and North Park are good options, both within 30ish minutes.  The city proper also has some very nice bike trails and would be in that same 30ish minute range. (Depending on traffic!)

There are some options for custom builders around here (we built custom), and my guess is that Mars would have a number of opportunities, too.  A realtor would be the best resource for that, as sometimes its hard to tell which new developments are custom/any builder, and which are limited.

Yay for you, and welcome.  Feel free to ask more ?'s if you have them.

psychgalbride

I am one of the few ladies on the board that has lived North, South, East, and West of the city. We are now in the North (Marshall Township) which is part of the North Allegheny School District.  Our plan borders on a large community park.  I love the green spaces and we are literally 2 minutes from Cranberry. Things to consider:  Cranberry is Butler County and the taxes are significantly lower but the North Allegheny School District (Allegheny County) is rated considerably higher.  Here is a slideshow with the school ratings.  School District was our first priority.  http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/slideshow/2013/04/05/pittsburgh-regions-top-105-school.html?ana=e_pit_bn&u=jHuE4oKxCovapvtlgq2PB0tYJGd

Welcome to the area!  Pittsburgh is a wonderful city and consistently rated one of best places in America to raise a family.  

ak111

My husband and I both work in Cranberry and we bought a house in Beaver about 4 months ago and love it so far.  We lived in Baden prior to that which is also nice.  Beaver is west of and Baden is southwest of Cranberry.  It takes about 25 minutes for us to get to Cranberry from Beaver (it's only 12 miles but a lot of back roads and stop lights), but we may be a little further from Pittsburgh than you would like (about 40 minutes).  I think there are some opportunities for custom builds outside of downtown Beaver but we live in town which is mostly older homes.  The school district is ranked well and I hear good things from other parents in the neighborhood.  We can walk to at least 4 different playgrounds/parks and the Saturday farmer's market and they have family activities pretty regularly like parades and concerts in the park.  There is an art studio that offers classes for children and the Beaver County YMCA is close by.  The main street in town has a few restaurants and shops including a grocery store and we bike or walk around town to run little errands and just to get outside with our 5 and almost 2 year old regularly. 

photoelise

Thank you so much you guys!!! This is awesome! I am so exited about a move to PA!!! Just looking at the school rankings, houses and things to do makes me so excited !! (The only thing I'm dreading is the winter!!)

And yes, if anyone has a realtor recommendation please pm me! We found out today that my husbands start date is January!!! Ahh!!!!!

And smynings we are in Smyrna!!! To be honest I love love love Atlanta but the crime and bad schools just kill me, I am so excited to move somewhere where I am not scared to go running without my dog.

egpitt22

sounds like you've received lots of great info so I just wanted to say hi and that I love the pic of your daughter!!  Good luck with the move!

photoelise

So, another question for you. Are there any areas to avoid (crime, sketchy areas, etc)? To be honest PA seems too good to be true! There have to be some places you would recommend not looking, right?

bride2003

photoelise said:

So, another question for you. Are there any areas to avoid (crime, sketchy areas, etc)? To be honest PA seems too good to be true! There have to be some places you would recommend not looking, right?

In the areas that you are looking are not known for high crime.  There are drugs in the high schools for sure but not violent crime there aren't any places in the areas that you are looking.  If you go further than Baden into Beaver you will find more crime but I doubt you would head there anyway. 

Will pm you a realtor recommendation...

Jcubed2003

I have PMed you a real estate agent recommendation. 

There are places I would avoid in the city, but it doesn't seem like you will be looking there. 

kris356

Yeah, if you were looking to live in the city there is definitely places to avoid but in the areas you are looking at, no. And schools in PA are much different than the South. We do not have county school districts, so they are a lot different. 

I pm'ed you agent info. 

4EvR&4AlWz

Considering that Cranberry (Southern Butler County) is one of the fastest growing suburbs in the country, you can't go wrong practically anywhere in about a 15 minute drive radius.  We personally chose to buy a house in Adams Township/Mars (very close to Seven Fields) 6 years ago and then this past year, we just built our forever house (a true custom build as in meeting with the architect to draw up plans and moving walls as we needed to adjust space) about 1/4 mile away from our first house.  We love love love love love the area.  You can find lots of options in Cranberry, Mars/Adams Township, Franklin Park, McCandless, Wexford, Pine Township, etc.  Keep in mind Allegheny County homes (Franklin Park, Pine, McCandless, Wexford) taxes are 2-3 times what taxes are in Butler County.  Also homes in Cranberry (Butler County) tend to be a bit cheaper than homes in Mars (also Butler County).  Cranberry/Seven Fields are in Seneca Valley School district where as Mars/Adams are in Mars School District.  Franklin Park and Wexford are in North Allegheny.  Pine is in Pine-Richland School District.

I will tell you that you will not find a true "custom" build in that price range.  In our experience, true custom starts around $600,000 and on up......You will likely have preselected plans from builder by folks like Ryan or Heartland (still good options to add in features as you need but you are limited to their cabintery/flooring/paint/sound system, etc folks).  I can go through + and - of each if you like.  We are so in love with our house now but it was a year of more decisions than I ever thought were possible.

Where were you 6 months ago when our house was just going on the market in that range???

Feel free to email me at kristininpa at gmail dot com and I'd be happy to show you around the area, give a tour, show you plans (new construction and existing).

smynings_bride

photoelise said:

Thank you so much you guys!!! This is awesome! I am so exited about a move to PA!!! Just looking at the school rankings, houses and things to do makes me so excited !! (The only thing I'm dreading is the winter!!) And yes, if anyone has a realtor recommendation please pm me! We found out today that my husbands start date is January!!! Ahh!!!!! And smynings we are in Smyrna!!! To be honest I love love love Atlanta but the crime and bad schools just kill me, I am so excited to move somewhere where I am not scared to go running without my dog.

I loved Atlanta too but the only 2 things I really miss now are my friends and the weather.  Dh also misses Jack's NYer Deli, where he used to eat breakfast 6 days/week and Padriacs.  When we flew back to Atl in March and drove out of the airport DD was amazed by all the flowers, green grass and trees with leaves.  It took another 2 months to have that here.  However, what I don't miss is the pretentiousness of Atlanta.  Also, although you pay  much higher taxes here than in GA, the schools are so much better.  You get what you pay for.  I'd rather pay a few thousand in extra taxes here than $25k/year to send DD to Woodward, Lovett or Pace.

photoelise

I just have to say you ladies are so nice! I am so excited to move up to PA! 12 weeks and counting! 

4EvR&4AlWz

I would recommend Nancy Kaclik as an agent with Century 21.  http://www.century21.com/real-estate-agent/profile/nancy-kaclik-10793209  She was our sellers agent and buyers/sellers agent for dozens of friends.  Her husband is a custom home builder too (so you can always ask about custom builds).  The other thing is that houses around here sell and they usually go up in price each year as Southern Butler (for the tax benefits) is a growing/expanding area with new businesses opening often.

In this area, there really aren't any areas to avoid in about 15 minute radius of Cranberry.  In the city, yes.  

Also, I like living east along 228 (we live about 2.5 miles east off the I-79 exit) as there's minimal traffic lights and all main roads with options for back roads if construction, accident, etc.  I work downtown and it's 22   miles from my house to my parking garage.  It takes me about 25 minutes to get in in the morning and 35 min to get home.

photoelise

Thanks everyone, so I have one last question. Looking on mls, it looks like taxes for a $250k home in Cranberry is only $650, that can't be right, right?

kris356

photoelise said:

Thanks everyone, so I have one last question. Looking on mls, it looks like taxes for a $250k home in Cranberry is only $650, that can't be right, right?

That may be the local real estate tax or the county taxes. You will pay three taxes: School, Real Estate to the township you live, and county taxes. So that definitely is only one.

ETA: Taxes are based on county assessments, NOT the selling price. So you could pay $250,000 but the county may only value it at $175,000. In Allegheny Co. you can look it up, but I don't know if Butler Co. has the same type of site.

Just be warned, that school district's will often try to reassess to match selling price if there is a huge difference. It has happened to several people I know. I am waiting for it to happen to us actually since we paid almost a $85,000 more than our assessed value.

AmandaJLewis

photoelise said:

Thanks everyone, so I have one last question. Looking on mls, it looks like taxes for a $250k home in Cranberry is only $650, that can't be right, right?

It could be that they did pay that little due to a ridiculously low assessment value on the house. The reason Allegheny Co homes taxes are higher is because we had a recent reassessment done to try to align home value to taxes paid.  You can usually find milliage rates for the community, school district and county online and use them to calculate your property taxes then compare it across townships. (i built a spreadsheet when we were looking across a few communities and figured out the taxes on a 100k house in each of the 4 neighborhoods to give us an idea of the differences)

photoelise

Thanks! Yep, the assessment on that particualar house is $23,000!!!! So thanks for the insight!! I hate figure out all this stuff...I just want to give someone my money and they can give me their house...it should be that simple, right?

photoelise

K, is Alison Park  not as nice? I found some cute houses down there, but dont' want to venture that way if we'd be better off with a smaller house closer to Cranberry/Mars.

Jcubed2003

Here is a weird thing about Pittsburgh. Some towns, i.e. Allison Park, only exist at the Post Office. Allison Park is really made up of parts of Hampton, Shaler, West Deer and McCandless townships. And each of those has a different school district associated with it. Some parts of AP could be kind of far from Cranberry. 

kris356

I am going to second jcubed, you really have to look at the school district or municipality not the mailing address. For example, our old house had a city of Pittsburgh zip code, but we where in Shaler SD. Our current house has a Carnegie mailing address, but we live in Collier Twp. and are in Chartiers Valley SD. Carnegie proper is Carlynton.

mrsnala

Some of the low assessed houses and low taxes could possibly be newer builds. When you build, there are tax abatement programs available, lowering the taxes. When you buy it, your taxes would greatly increase because you would not be the builder of the home, therefore not qualifying for the abatement.