Poconos used to be small town/rural. It isn't anymore because so many people have moved here. Traffic is particularly bad because so many people who live here commute, many people commute through the area and we don't have very good public transport. We are basically a suburb of NYC and Jersey.

If you’re scratching the Allentown area off your list you leaving out a lot of nice areas. Reading also.

[deleted]

Maybe Hershey? Lots of medical employment options there. Lewisburg is further east than State College, but a nice college town. I live in Schuylkill County where the cost of living is super low, and nurses are definitely needed. It’s a rural county within a couple hours drive to major cities.

Danville area. Great hospital. Rural. Not overrun with people around the area. Can live in the country but have modern conveniences not far. And Knoebels is close by (ticket ride amusement park that also allows dogs on leash)!

As someone born and raised in the Poconos, I would avoid the Poconos area as it’s filled with transplants from NY and NJ and the area as really seen a steady decline. I moved north outside Scranton where people are friendly and the cost of buying a house is much cheaper. There’s good internet, lots of forests and state parks, plenty of hospitals and any kinda shopping you could wish for in Dickson city.

Hershey, Danville, Lewisburg

All 3 are more rural than suburban. All 3 have large hospitals for employment. Many people jump back and forth between working at the hospitals in Lewisburg and Danville. Low crime.

You described the Harrisburg area perfectly. You have plenty of hospitals to choose from. Areas that are more rural: West Hanover, fishing creek, lewisberry, Halifax. The area between mechanicsburg and Carlisle (boiling springs sort of) can be nice but it's getting more expensive.

I wouldn't venture in to Hershey as it's much more expensive and living in somewhere like west Hanover township or even annville/palmyra will allow you cheaper living with quick access to shopping and amenities in Hershey. Hummelstown is a nice little town, but also getting more expensive and not as much rural area left with the new developments popping up.

If it were me, I would find a place in fishing creek. It's only 15 min from Harrisburg city, super quiet, close to shopping on the west shore, and close to some hiking areas. It can be expensive but you typically get a few acres if you are willing to pay for it.

Why Pa ? People move out of here for the most part

We have horrible roads , highest gas tax , highest public university tuition and most poor cities in the country like Philly being the poorest largest city in the USA

Also bunch of small poor cities

Ps .. forgot low quality schools and crazy high real estate taxes to support them

[removed]

NEPA, there are lots of rural areas around and between Scranton/Wilkes Barre and there’s Geisinger facilities literally everywhere (hospital and various offices and other locations).

NEPA here. We live close to the border and use NY healthcare for the most part, but some of my neighbors have had good experiences with Guthrie in Sayre, PA. That's a pretty area.

the Medical Center in Hershey would have openings and you could find rural places within driving distance. There are also a couple of hospitals in Cumberland County with rural areas to live.

PA is beautiful

I would suggest the harrisburg area. Lots of hospitals including a large VA hospital that is almost always hiring (my wife is a doctor there). Lower cost of living compared to philly or Pittsburg. But lancaster city provides most of the amenities of a larger city. Housing in the burbs can still be had in the 300kish range. I also have 1gb up and down for internet.

Please don’t move to my area. We have enough people. We like it the way it is. Thanks

So is the rest of the country ..

Lotta good comments for central PA. My personal favorite area is around Col Denning/Tuscarora state forest but that is probably TOO rural.

If you want Eastern PA but not right in the Philly suburbs, have you considered Easton to Perkasie to New Hope triangle?

There some real pretty areas around, I’m personally big into with the area of Upper Bucks along the Delaware, and if you’re flexible, you can find decent house and a little bit of land for still a (comparatively) decent price in this market. Decent parks to check out are Ralph Stover/Tinicum, Ringing Rocks, Tohickon Valley Park.

In general it’s pretty grew up that way- look on Google earth for example, in comparison with the Philly burns- but still a lot of access to stores and healthcare job opportunities.

[deleted]

Suburbs of Hershey, Harrisburg, or Lancaster. Just don’t work for LGH (Lancaster General). York could also be an option as it’s more affordable to live there and you could commute to a myriad of hospitals.

I live 5 minutes from inner city Reading and it's totally fine. As long as you aren't hanging out downtown at night you can live normally. The surrounding Berks county has nicer areas (Wyomissing) and country.

Does your wife love working there?

She likes it, she is from a military family (army). You can't beat the federal benefits. We are in Mannheim so her commute is under 20 minutes.

I lived in Illinois for a couple years. If I was in the army, I'd say I had a shit deployment. Higher taxes, worse roads, worse schools. I grew up in jersey, again worse taxes slightly better roads, I miss people pumping my gas.

I don't know, I know some docs at LGH and they are happy there.

I have lived all over PA. TL:DR? The bigger towns like Reading, Lancaster, York, Hanover/Gettysburg, and Harrisburg/Hershey/Carlisle will meet your needs.

Based on what you are asking, I would say that Reading is a good fit (there is a large and growing medical industry, it has every big box store you could need, and the malls of the Philly suburbs are about 45-60 minutes away).

Alternatively, Gettysburg/Hanover/York could be another good fit. The suburbs of DC and Baltimore are both creeping north but prices in PA are still much lower than MD. Frederick and Westminster in Maryland have hospitals and shopping and are both 30 minutes away (depending on which town you leave from). All three have hospitals, though G-Burg is smallest. Hanover and York have the big stores (Walmart, Target, Sams, Dicks) and the DC area has everything that Philly has.

I have never lived in Lancaster, but I’ve lived all around it. It’s a good sized community with small farming towns around it. There is shopping and dining (chains, box stores, and local stuff). Penn Med, Penn State Med, WellSpan, and UPMC are all expanding across the state (buying up local hospitals) and Lancaster is seeing PSU and UPenn both moving into the market. It is located close enough to Philly that a train ride to hospitals in the city feasible (but pricy) on commuter rail. I took that train a few times and it is much less stressful than driving in at rush hour.

Harrisburg’s suburbs will be fine for you, too. Solid internet and a wide array of shopping/dining. On the medical side, Hershey Medical Center (east of Harrisburg) is the Penn State Med School. They have a massive complex. There are hospitals scattered around the Harrisburg “metro” area (metro is a strong word for Harrisburg). I would recommend against Harrisburg proper as well as the river towns of Steelton, Highspire, Middletown. They aren’t bad, but they have a distinct post-industrial vibe. Hershey, Mechanicsburg and Carlisle may be a good place to look.

State College is (wait for it) a college town. It has amenities and shopping, but it also has tens of thousands of college students coming and going. It can get wild on weekends (especially home games) and it is pretty isolated from anywhere else.

Pittsburgh is hardest to recommend…it is a big town that thinks it is a city. It defiantly has the population to be a city, but there are so many small communities with their own vibe that it is hard to nail it down. The terrain around the city is very hilly, which makes commuting/driving a challenge. If you aren’t by a highway, it may be a lot longer than a map would have you think, since all the roads seem to follow creeks. UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) is the big name in town, but the outlying communities still have smaller, local hospitals and clinics. A good number of the towns around Pittsburgh got hit hard by the decline in industry and have not fully recovered. Crime is higher, incomes are lower, and (when I lived there pre-pandemic) heroin/opioids were a big problem. That said, there are great communities and places to live around Pittsburgh.

Away from the larger towns, you will struggle with internet and cell service. It is getting better, but the mountains and ruralness of the state make service spotty. Perhaps check the service in areas you are considering? A rule of thumb to imaging PA is to visualize a big T in the middle of the state running up from the Maryland line and branching east and west parallel to I-80 and the NY line. In the T you have large swaths with small towns, plenty of parks and protected woodland and not much else. There are some small college towns, but otherwise, it is mostly rural/agricultural. Finding reliable high speed internet within that T will be harder than finding it in the suburbs of Philly or Pittsburgh or one of the more developed areas like Reading, Scranton, Allentown, York, Lancaster, Erie, or Harrisburg/Carlisle.

Pennsylvania has a TON of state parks. Like 100+. They are largely spread up the arc of mountainous land that runs roughly parallel to I-81/78 from Chambersburg to Allentown, but they are all over the state. You swim in a Great Lake (Presque Isle, Erie), hike a trail with a dozen waterfalls (Rickett’s Glen), see the darkest skies on the East Coast (Cherry Springs SP) or go white water rafting (Ohiopyle state park) all in the same state. There is a ton of history - the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philly, the Gettysburg Battlefield is interesting, Fort Necessity (where young Lieutenant George Washington hid from angry French soldiers and Native warriors prior to ‘getting famous’) is outside Pittsburgh. And NYC and Washington DC aren’t more than a few hours away from most anywhere in the state (expect Erie…everything is far away from Erie, except Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio, that’s not far…)

A lot here…hope it helps

Don't sleep on Berks

This was super helpful! Thank you so much!

Happy to do it. I worked for Penn State and that took me all over the state. If you have specific questions when you get closer to a move, I’m happy to help.

Also, cable tv was invented in Schuylkill County, so high speed cable internet service has never been an issue for me.

South Central PA sounds good, couple of decent hospitals, Gettysburg and York, near the blue ridge mountains. You have the National Park in Gettysburg and a couple of great state parks within a 30-40min drive. Shopping is also close by. I can’t recommend Gettysburg enough

We are looking to move to Monroe County. Can you give me any details when you have the chance? sorry to bother you, I am kind of shy about making a post. We don’t need to commute but we have family in Hunterdon County, NJ would like to be an hour to two from there.

I wish I could - NePA is not somewhere I have a ton of knowledge about. I’ve been through the area, but haven’t lived there. I suspect there are plenty of folks on this sub that can help!

Cranberry Township!! It’s where all the young/successful people go who don’t want to live directly in Pittsburgh. Its about 20 mins away from Pittsburgh.

It’s super family friendly, amazing council that’s always making up to date decision, I am obsessed with cranberry!! I’m building a house there and cannot wait to move!!!

Lower taxes too!

The downside is, the homes are a little more expensive since it’s one of the more desired towns.

My husbands a competitive gamer so internet is also important!

The Laurel Highland area may be nice for you which is in Southwestern Pennsylvania. There is Ohiopyle, Laurel Ridge, Coopers Rock is nearby in WV, Youghiogheny Lake, pretty close to Deep Creek too. There’s a few hospitals in the general area and you’ll be close to shopping

Williamsport is a small city, go 5 miles out and you are in a rural area. There is reliable internet, access to highways, state parks all over the place, NYC, Philly, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh all within about 3 1/2 hours. The Fingerlakes in NY are close by as well. It is east of State College. Cost of living is low. My 3800 sqft home is appraised at $442k.

Check out the DuBois area. They have a decent sized regional medical center and very low cost of living in the area.

The Main Line is the best area for people in healthcare. It stretches from Philadelphia to Lancaster. Obviously, the closer you get to Philly the more dense in population it becomes. As you get further west it becomes more suburban and by the time you hit the Lancaster area it's mostly farms (Amish country). I think you'd probably like the western part of Chester county and the Lancaster area. The Hollywood Casino is just north of there and the Valley Forge Casino is about 45-60 mins northwest.

I lived in Mount joy for a few months, didnt seem like a bad area, had a mix of farm land and a small downtown area.

Yeah not sure why this is not included. Lehigh Valley Hospital just opened in Dickson city too, so the entirely area is opened up.

You want to live in a rural area with reliable internet? Good luck. The is a reason internet is only reliable in a dense area. More bang for your buck to the companies.

Rural was prolly bad choice of word. Cities <60k people

Plus Reading has a minor league baseball team so it gives fun summer options for the kids to break up monotony!

[deleted]

Live in ChesCo. It’s great. But it is also PRICEY. It would not be a low cost of living area, IMHO.

Tons of great walking / biking trails though. And convenient.

Hey hey! We have independent baseball in York/Lancaster too!

Honestly if your a fan of that York/Lancaster is a great place because we have the Revolution in York, Barnstormers in Lancaster and Senators up in Harrisburg so if there's a night you really want to see some baseball odds are over the summer at least ONE of them will have a home game.

Carlisle.

[removed]

Most of York county and rural lancaster county would probably meet your needs

Danville, lewisburg, Selinsgrove, Lime Ridge (better school district than bloom and berwick), Elysburg all great places up this persons alley

They don’t call it Pennsyltucky for nothin’. Choose carefully. 😉

I'll second the Berks County recommendation. The Reading Hospital and adjacent health care networks are massive. The land is beautiful, with hills, valleys, forests, rivers, and lakes. I've lived in both rural Berks as well as Reading proper, and it's a really great area.

Ohiopyle area, Dunnegal perhaps? Ligonier?

Every City is just a bunch of smaller communities cobbled together to build a city.

Pittsburgh is just cooler. Plus we have Andy Warhol and more bridges per capita than any other city on Earth.

Reading schools are awful

I wasn’t trying to put down Pittsburgh. Living in Mohnton, Shillington, Wyomissing, or Exeter Township near Reading will be pretty much the same. Reading City is “a city”, the communities around it are “suburbs” without much in the way of unique flavors.

Shadyside is different from South Side which is different from Homestead which is different from McKees Rocks or Mount Washington, despite all being fairly close to one another and all being “Pittsburgh”. Never mind the spread of suburban communities…McKeesport isn’t like Sewickley or Cranberry.

There is more diversity in the communities of the tighter Pittsburgh area. That is a good thing, but it makes it harder to recommend one area or another.

[deleted]

OP look into taxes in PA, be aware. Retirement taxed differently etc.

Erie has lots of healthcare jobs, plenty of state parks nearby, the Allegheny National Forest, a huge lake, and a reasonable cost of living. We lived in NEPA for sixty years but abandoned it because of the Marcellus Shale activity. We have family in Philly and Harrisburg and think that both are expensive and hard to get around. We live within the city limits and like it but rural areas are just a few minutes' drive south. The weather hasn't shocked us, we were at 1600 ft elevation in NEPA and the winters we've experienced in Erie are much easier so far. Pittsburgh is a two-hour drive, Cleveland is about ninety minutes, and Buffalo is just over an hour. There are casinos in all three. Ashtabula, Ohio, a half hour west, has a live poker room, too. We are much closer to Detroit than we are to Philly, it's a big state! Good luck with your search.

Don’t ignore the political culture of the areas you’re considering. Especially the rural areas.

A cheaper place close to Harrisburg is Perry County, check around the Route 11/15 area. That is a main street with many small towns. If OP reads this, you described Perry County pretty well in your list of needs.

Yeah scratching my head a bit on that. I get not wanting to live in Allentown, but the outlying areas are really nice and benefit from proximity to a larger city.

This is a terrific summary. Myself, I’m in Lancaster (13 years now after a lifetime in Brooklyn and North Jersey) and I think it makes a credible case for its boast as ‘the coolest small city in America.” I disagree about Pittsburgh. It is sophisticated and urban yet small enough to be low-key about it. It is definitely a city in its look, feel and vibe. I love it.

I went to school in Gettysburg and grew up in State College. Gettysburg area has good proximity to DC and Baltimore, about an hour away depending on traffic. State College is great but you are 2-3 hours away from any other decent size towns. It’s literally surrounded by State Forests.

Not a lot of love for State College here! Haha

I'm a transplant from a smaller New England town, but have lived here for 15 years now. It's got some unique smaller towns surrounding it like Victorian parts of Bellefonte and Boalsburg that have charm. It's a great combination of larger city options in dining, events at BJC and Penn State athletics, while also retaining a small town feel. You can easily avoid campus and the vast majority of college students if you choose, or you can head down town for a fun night of drinks and music if ya want. Lots of outdoor activities and hiking etc.

For a smaller town, we have one full size hospital and then two smaller ones (Penn Highlands is about to open). And a VA hospital about 40 minutes away in Altoona. (Don't live in Altoona though..)

I'd definitely encourage giving it a visit! I went to school outside of Harrisburg, and while it's got some nice subburbs like Camp Hill and Hershey, it's definitely still a larger city feel.

NYC is self-described as a "City of Neighbourhoods" (NYC.gov).

Youre not describing anything about pittsburgh that's not true for literally any major city on this planet. Name one homogeneous major/big city.

You'll find the same is true for Philly, LA, all of them. It's perhaps arguable that this is more pronounced for East Coast cities than West Coast because of their historic nature, but it's true for every City. Pittsburgh is unique in a lot of ways, but this isn't one of them.

Yeah. I’d add that they should look at Susquehanna County and Wayne County as well as the Lackawanna Valley.

Centre county is very nice.

National Aviary, Pittsburgh PA

I was going to bring this up as well. Which is a shame. Though PA overall is a blue working class vibe that people like. Pockets of crazy in the middle.

Little league world series is the best!

It is. We go to as many games as possible

I stopped reading when the OP said Reading and assumed his entire comment was about Reading oops! Yes IronPigs also have a way cooler mascot!

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

Right? And I’d take Allentown over the Poconos any day

Check out Jim Thorpe. Great outdoor action and a beautiful small town. Close to multiple hospitals

It's a mistake to scratch off the Allentown area. The whole Lehigh Valley has gone through a massive resurgence that past ~decade, and I think it's wildly improved across the board. Bethlehem is becoming a great place for my mom to live and checks a lot of your boxes.

Absolutely. My ma moved out Philly to Bethlehem recently and I think that'd be a great place to live. Granted, I only visit ~4 times a year, but she loves it, as do a lot of my thirty-something friends.

Shhh, there's enough people moving to the LV

Save yourself a lot of time and just move to Lancaster.

I just moved to Franklin county and have loved it so far. It has everything my family needs- close to the Appalachian trail, a bunch of major cities, and was affordable to buy in. The only downside was a lack of real estate inventory. Happy to answer any questions if you’re thinking Chambersburg/waynesboro/greencastle area. I heard a lot about how politically extreme it is here, but I haven’t felt it. I did come from Florida though lol

I would highly recommend Stroudsburg or Pleasant Valley school districts (not East Stroudsburg or Pocono Mountain); if no kids, still within those school districts'. Almost all shopping is along 611 and traffic blows on 80. Avoid the Walmart in East Stroudsburg. Some great state parks are fairly close, and the AT as well.

Thanks!

Shippensburg

[removed]

[removed]

Aside from the Poconos (which is gentrifying with the speed of a NYC neighborhood), the towns you are thinking of visiting work well. But I do have a suggestion.

First, some history and context:

State Parks: in the 1950s, Maurice Goddard made it his goal that every Pennsylvanian be within 25 miles of a state park and I think he got pretty close to that, so it depends what TYPE of state park you want (there is a subculture that, like Pokemon collecting, seeks to visit all the State Parks).

Crime: there are areas with higher rates of crime, but a lot of those rates come down to particular neighborhoods. For example: Philly has a certain reputation, but there are still low crime neighborhoods.

Internet: Comcast got its start in Philadelphia, so Comcast rules over most of us (and monopolies have no incentive to provide decent service). That being said, there are areas of fiber internet popping up.

NOW! With ALL of this, here is my suggestion: Belleville, PA. It recently got fiber internet, is close to the Lewistown Hospital (and other nursing homes/rehab facilities), is not too far from State College's shops, and there are a TON of Amish folk whose crimes are a bit more infrequent than the average group of people. It is VERY close to the Seven Mountains region that has multiple State Parks, natural areas, hiking trails, and scenic vistas. Belleville is located in a place called The Big Valley, and there are mountains all around.

I also believe Belleville is within your travel distance from those casinos.

Also, there is a REASON Belleville is called Belleville: it is so damn beautiful. I'm sure it has its problems (everywhere does) and while I don't live there nor is it my hometown, I still think it is a picturesque little mountain town

(Added bonus: mineral extraction will be limited to quarrying since Belleville is nestled in the folded mountains physiographic region. So no real need to worry about fracking or strip mining)

The one downside is that it is 38-39 minutes from State College, but there is a Walmart and Lowe's only 21 minutes away in Lewistown. There is also a grocery store in Belleville, so you don't need to travel too terribly far if you need some groceries

I’d give State College some real consideration. I grew up there and went to Penn State for my undergrad and it’s quite a bit different now, but despite it being a college town, unless you live close to downtown, you can pretty much avoid most of that. A lot of my friends who still live there are in Boalsburg which is outside of town and has a different, more local feel. My grandparents lived in the DC area and that was about a four hour trip back when the speed limit was 55 and there were a lot of two lane roads on the way. I think it actually hits a lot of your requirements.

Check out Dallas, PA. It’s a peaceful place with good community same as hunlock creek.

Altoona is mountains. Small city(pop 43,000). Very quite. Low crime and (usually) no murder rate. Friendly people. All the shopping and restaurants you can stand.

Scotch valley in Hollidaysburg (pop. 5500)is spectacular. If you enjoy a large property and forest mixed with $200k-1m dollar estates, its perfect.

PRR/Conrail locomotive shops/Horseshoe Curve. Blair county Ball Park. Very low cost of living. Great churches. Great history. Lots of small farms. Easy commutes.

Reading Airport had a bar/nightclub in it, as of a few years ago when we visited the area! Klingers!

Ive just heard from a couple people those areas have gotten more dangerous / high crime, are they just being dramatic?

Again.... I wouldn't want to live in Allentown proper.... But largely... Yeah they are being dramatic. There's a lot of safe areas around the Lehigh valley. I'd look at crime statistics vs anecdotal evidence.

Luckily, Mullenberg, Mifflin, Wilson, Conrad Weiser, Exton, Antitim, and Wyomissing are not. All within about 10 minutes.

Choose your suburbs wisely.

Shhhh don’t tell them. Then they’ll come in droves!

Oh, um, Reading BAD,, stay away, there is no Berks county only scary Reading!

(Do you think they bought it?)

I’ve heard if you throw a Mercedes Benz key fob into a cornfield a subdivision of McMansions will sprout in 6-12 months.

🤣