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Advice from Strangers--MAYBE moving to CPA
I grew up in Mechanicsburg and now live outside of Philly. DH and I recently considered moving back to Central PA for two major reasons: (1) Having a baby and being away from family is really hard (2) The cost of living is so much better in CPA so we could afford a much larger home among other things
I was just offered a job in Mburg that I really like, however, Id be trading
the stability, flexibility and comfort of a govt job here for a private sector
job in CPA so thats a whole other post to try to figure out if its worth the switch or not.
Aside from that, heres my more pointed question for you ladies?.whats it like living in CPA as an adult? Really, I know youre biased, but can you help me understand the pros and cons? Despite the fact that I grew up there, I have never lived there as an adult with concerns like school districts, property taxes, safe bike trails, work commutes, ability to meet other young friendly familys etc. I sincerely hope I don?t offend anyone by saying this but whenever I visit my friends and family in CPA I just feel like Ive morphed back to 1991 by the look and pattern of the development, housing styles and the like. Don?t get me wrong, I understand there are positives too or I wouldn?t even be considering the option of moving back, but I just don?t know if I would be happy there. What do you think? What do you like/dislike about CPA? Are any of you like me-- grew up in CPA, left and have now come back to call CPA home?
Thanks for reading my current life story!
Re: Advice from Strangers--MAYBE moving to CPA
I left and lived in philly for 5 years. I went to college there and then worked a year in the Philly area. I love it here and I am in Northern Lebanon County and work in Harrisburg. My husband misses his friends and the sports of the big city (he travels for work so he really hasn?t had the opportunity to make adult friends here). I love the feel of small town and having so many family and friends near by. My son is so loved and we constantly have friends and family stopping by to love and spoil him.
I love that I can sit outside and enjoy a peaceful, quiet night on our patio with our fire pit that doesn?t back up to someone else?s backyard. I can also go on scenic hikes with in 10 minutes of my house and ride bike on the rails to trails in the area. Like you said, the cost of living here is another huge plus. We were able to purchase a 2500 square foot house in a decent school district at an affordable price.
My cousin lives outside of Philly in a really nice area and I live in Lebanon County and we both just built houses in developments using the same builder (Berks Homes) and our houses are really similar except hers cost a lot more. So I don?t understand the difference you speak of with the houses being in the 1990s up here as opposed to the Philly area. Although, it did make me laugh. I mean there are home developments up here where the houses are all bilevels and yea, those are associated with the 1990s. But there are areas of Philly that have the same issue. You just have to find an area and house that suits your needs and likes. There are a lot of girls on this board who have beautiful houses that are more modern/trendy than my friends? homes who live in the Philadelphia suburbs.
As with every area there are cons of central Pa. Depending where you are in central PA there is definitely a lacking for good restaurants that aren?t typical American fare. I tend to avoid the majority of the local dive bars and if we want to go out we head to Harrisburg which is a 30 minute drive. Most of the time we just get together with friends at someone?s house and hangout for the night, it?s cheaper and usually more fun. The shopping has improved over the past years and I can usually find what I need, but I do take one or two day shopping trips out of the area. We also travel a lot so I pick stuff up when I am on vacation. There are local sports teams but it isn?t anything compared to the games and team spirit in Philadelphia.
There are good school districts in the area and once you narrow down the place you want to be we will definitely be able to give you feedback on specific districts.
I also moved back (grew up in Dillsburg, moved to Sydney Australia, then to Philadelphia where I lived for almost 2 years before we decided to move back).
We decided to move back mainly to be near our familes. At the time we decided my husbands mother had just passed away and we just wanted to be close. Also (although this sounds really weird) we teach high school marching band and had done so while we were in college (in West Chester) and our best friend became the band director and wanted us around more (we were only coming back on some weekends by this point- in college we did Tues, Thurs, and weekends aka a lot of driving). Moving back was sort of a culture shock as it was when I moved from Sydney to Philly. I think I had just finally adjusted to Philly when we moved and for awhile I was sort of bummed - although I did not leave myself much time to think about it with a new job, new house and getting married. I really miss being able to walk to restaurants and bars and stuff. We lived in Fairmount so there was so much to do, plus we have a dog and we loved going to the dog park by the Lincoln statue- during the summer it was a blast with Yappy hour on Fridays. I must say after 2 years back here I love it. I love the fresh air and open spaces. I don't mind having to plan to drive to go to dinner or to the store and farmers market. We were each from here and to be back with our family and friends (many whom we had lost touch with, but now consider close again) is wonderful. And since it was just the 2 of us when we moved back we bought a smaller home (probably about 1200 liveable square feet with a full unfinished basement, but on an acre and a half of land by the Yellow Breeches) and our mortgage payments are only a little higher then what I paid for rent in Philly!
I won't lie though I do miss Philly every now and then and we usually go back once a year stay in a hotel and go to some of our favorite spots (Sabrina's and Spencers 2 on Sundays for Breakfast is a must!) But I love it here and I don't think we will ever move back to a city.
I'll just echo a lot of the points that the pp posters brought up... this scenario is always a constant discussion between DH and I.
DH and I both grew up in Dillsburg, PA and now live in Frederick, Maryland. While Frederick is by all means not Philadelphia, it is a much larger area, has a great downtown area and is close to Baltimore (where DH works) and DC. We enjoy doing a lot of things in these areas and love having a lot of the amenities down here that we feel would not be as accessible if we moved back to central PA. However, now that we have a 6 mo. old daughter, it feels like we are constantly driving back, or our family i coming down here. We dream of how nice it would be to be able to have brunch with family on a whim and not have to waste a total day with the travel time.
While I love, love where we live, we live in a 1400 sq. ft. house that does back up to lots of people. While we have lakes, trails, and lots of nice things, our mortgage payment could buy us a brand new, large home with lots of upgrades versus the current home we have in which we are starting to feel cramped in. I agree with RosePks... yes there are a lot of older neighborhoods, but at the same time, it seems that central pa has really boomed in the past 5 years with new neighborhoods with modern houses (esp. in Mechanicsburg, there are some great neighborhoods!).
And the biggest thing, when we get back home, we just feel like life is more calm and peaceful. Yes, this may be due to the fact that we're away from the pressures of work, things to do around the house, etc. but I'm almost convinced that life is just a little slower in central pa!
Good luck with your decision. We dream about moving back all the time, although I know it would be very hard for me to leave this area and the people we have down here. DH just accepted a new job in the DC area, so we know we aren't going anywhere soon. Unfortunately for him, there aren't the jobs in central pa.