Phillipsburg-Clinton NJ vs Lehigh cities (Allentown, Bethlehem: luxury, living in, restaurants)

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by blazerj

Clinton is in Hunterdon County, which has great schools and is pretty quiet and peaceful (except during commutes on 78 & 22).

The town itself is cute and enjoyable and the surrounding area is mostly farms/ neighborhoods. It’s similar to the suburban Lehigh Valley. The benefit of the LV is that it’s cheaper and the benefit of the Clinton area is that it’s closer to NYC. We looked for houses in both areas, but thought Clinton was a little too rural (although it depends on exactly where you are). There is a Walmart/ ShopRite plaza and not much else, until you go to Phillipsburg or Bridgewater (15-20!min in either direction), but again it depends on exactly where you are.

Phillipsburg is in Warren County and the schools are reportedly not great, but there are some nice neighborhoods in the area. The town of Phillipsburg is like if Easton never got nicer.

In terms of good school districts and wealthy areas in the LV, basically all of the suburban school districts are fine (roughly the same) and the city ones seem fine after talking to people that send their kids there, but require more parental involvement. (they get dinged on online reviews because of the socioeconomic status of the students).

I’d say the same for wealth. I’d be surprised to find a suburban town within a 15 min drive of A, B, or E that doesn’t have at least one $700+ neighborhood.

I disagree with the bolded part - City schools get dinged because their scores are low, and the socioeconomic status is a big part of why the scores are low. You can get a look at schools here and compare them. https://futurereadypa.org/#

[bluewin888]

Still try to find a good location closed to NJ/border.



Cetronia, Macungie, Emmaus, Center Valley, Williams, Chestnut hill-forks-Zucksville, are TOP choices?




See a house at 207 Frost Hollow Rd at easton selling $259K -- $480 monthly tax, 7-score Forks El school

[ringler24]

Originally Posted by bluewin888

Still try to find a good location closed to NJ/border.



Cetronia, Macungie, Emmaus, Center Valley, Williams, Chestnut hill-forks-Zucksville, are TOP choices?




See a house at 207 Frost Hollow Rd at easton selling $259K -- $480 monthly tax, 7-score Forks El school

If you don't mind being on a busy road...

[VintageSunlight]

I'm familiar with both areas. Basically:

Lehigh Valley Pros: lower taxes, slightly cheaper homes, newer homes (in general), better shopping and restaurants, more diversity (this can be a pro or con, depending)

Lehigh Valley cons: more industrial areas, less educated people, less varied restaurants (more meat and beer, less poke bowls and sushi), further from NYC, more crime

Clinton/Phillipsburg I-78 corridor pros: closer to NYC, more rural/exurban, generally more educated population, lower crime, closer to the Shore

Clinton/Phillipsburg I-78 corridor cons: higher taxes, older houses, less shopping areas (no real mall to speak of), area is clogged with commuters during the week, and tourists on the weekend from northeast NJ many of whom are not friendly.

I'd add that I'm not sure if you are an outdoorsman, but Lehigh Valley is/was mostly farmland. Its not a forest based area, suburban land was farmland before it was houses, not forest. I have to travel north to the Poconos to get to the dense forest. Clinton/Phillipsburg is a mixture of both- there are more opportunities with dense forested areas to camp, fish, swim in a lake, etc. In other words, more forested parkland in NJ (surprisingly). I find myself traveling east into NJ to be in the woods sometimes, which is not something you hear often.

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

I disagree with the bolded part - City schools get dinged because their scores are low, and the socioeconomic status is a big part of why the scores are low. You can get a look at schools here and compare them. https://futurereadypa.org/#

Which is why the parents need to be more involved. My friends (and random parents that I speak to) all day that what happens at the “urban” schools is that there are groups of kids who are all in AP/ Honors classes and do very well and they hang out together. The schools look bad for the reasons you say, but we need to look at the distribution of test scores as opposed to the average to see if what I’m hearing is true.

Also, there are very nice neighborhoods that go to the urban schools (e.g. the development where Manor road intersects with Hecktown road has $1M+ homes and goes to the BASD).

[ScubaV]

My wife and I live in Clinton, NJ now and will be moving to Lehigh Valley next year when our lease is up. Clinton is really nice, but there's not much there besides the walkable, but small downtown and the Walmart/ShopRite plaza.

We did one scouting trip and really like the Macungie/East Texas area because of the nice neighborhoods and proximity to Whole Foods and that shopping area. Is that also a good area for diversity and are there good quality restaurants nearby with different cuisine types?

We've utilized the unofficial Costco diversity index as a crude measuring tool. Flemington, NJ Costco is 90-95% white, the one near Macungie was about 80% white. Bridgewater, NJ is probably the most diverse of any with a pretty even mix of various ethnicities. Edison, NJ Costco is mostly East/South Asian and only 20-30% white.

[Diver4242]

Hey ScubaV if your username is an indication that you're a diver, check out Dutch Springs (where I work). Great freshwater dive site in Bethlehem/Nazareth. Dive to your heart's content a few minutes from home!

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by ScubaV

My wife and I live in Clinton, NJ now and will be moving to Lehigh Valley next year when our lease is up. Clinton is really nice, but there's not much there besides the walkable, but small downtown and the Walmart/ShopRite plaza.

We did one scouting trip and really like the Macungie/East Texas area because of the nice neighborhoods and proximity to Whole Foods and that shopping area. Is that also a good area for diversity and are there good quality restaurants nearby with different cuisine types?

We've utilized the unofficial Costco diversity index as a crude measuring tool. Flemington, NJ Costco is 90-95% white, the one near Macungie was about 80% white. Bridgewater, NJ is probably the most diverse of any with a pretty even mix of various ethnicities. Edison, NJ Costco is mostly East/South Asian and only 20-30% white.

Love the Costco diversity test but I'm not sure how accurate it is. EVERYONE goes to the Costco in Macungie, not just East Penn residents. That's the only Costco within the area. I'm there once a week.

[Patmcpsu]

I recommend that everyone check out their local supermarket when considering moving into an unfamiliar area. However, Costco tends to attract more upscale customers, and that shopping center in itself is the most upscale one in a 5 mile radius. As TBT said, it's the only Costco in the area, so a large chunk of its customers actually live miles away.

Instead, try visiting the Giant in Trexlertown; it provides a much more accurate cross-section of the locals. Those are the type of people you'll be encountering on an everyday basis. You'll see that mostly everyone there lacks pride in how they present themselves, are generally miserable and bickering with their family members, and lacks common-courtesy on how to share a public space.

And I'm sorry if that sounds snobby, but the "Costco diversity test" simply doesn't serve the purpose you're hoping to use it for. Check out Giant, and see if you can tolerate the white trash. If you can, great. Otherwise, live amongst people you can tolerate and commute to Costco.

PS: I find that gauging racial diversity is most efficient by looking on niche.com for the racial composition of each school district's student body.

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by Patmcpsu

I recommend that everyone check out their local supermarket when considering moving into an unfamiliar area. However, Costco tends to attract more upscale customers, and that shopping center in itself is the most upscale one in a 5 mile radius. As TBT said, it's the only Costco in the area, so a large chunk of its customers actually live miles away.

Instead, try visiting the Giant in Trexlertown; it provides a much more accurate cross-section of the locals. Those are the type of people you'll be encountering on an everyday basis. You'll see that mostly everyone there lacks pride in how they present themselves, are generally miserable and bickering with their family members, and lacks common-courtesy on how to share a public space.

And I'm sorry if that sounds snobby, but the "Costco diversity test" simply doesn't serve the purpose you're hoping to use it for. Check out Giant, and see if you can tolerate the white trash. If you can, great. Otherwise, live amongst people you can tolerate and commute to Costco.

PS: I find that gauging racial diversity is most efficient by looking on niche.com for the racial composition of each school district's student body.

Wow. I just did a quick lookup of a few places that I have lived and niche.com seems pretty accurate.

I'd also agree with the costco test. It seems accurate for the Jersey examples, but there is only the 1 in the Lehigh Valley, so people drive 30+ minutes to go there (same with Wegmans, since there are only 3 and they tend to attract the wealthier crowd).

Try the Target or Giant test. I have not been to the Trexlertown one, so can't comment on it, but I think the test accurately describes the areas of the 4-5 other Giants that I have been to.