Hot housing markets

[TheGerbil]

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Bankin...ide/P129581.asp

This is the list from the article:

12 fast-growing cities that are still cheap

City 1-year price rise 5-year rise Median home price

Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 30.5% 67.3% $169,400 

Coeur d'Alene, ID 29.0% 59.9% $169,000 

St. George, UT 28.3% 47.7% $200,000 

Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL 25.8% 62.0% $131,100 

Tucson, AZ 22.3% 61.4% $177,300 

Lakeland, FL 19.4% 56.7% $108,000 

Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 18.2% 65.2% $161,300 

Jacksonville, FL 18.2% 66.9% $150,700 

Eugene-Springfield, OR 17.4% 40.5% $164,900 

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA 16.9% 58.2% $207,300 

Charleston-North Charleston, SC 16.9% 49.2% $111,300 

Wilmington, DE  16.2% 62.5% $180,000 

USA national average 13.4% 68.3% $218,000 

Source: Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, National Association of Realtors, local Realtors associations

Congrats to our neighbors in the Allentown area. That is pretty close to Philly, correct?

I wish we'd see Pittsburgh on these lists though. I don't know when this lovely city will get some recognition and turn around it's population loss (albeit slow loss... ).

[Evergrey]

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Bankin...ide/P129581.asp

This is the list from the article:

Congrats to our neighbors in the Allentown area. That is pretty close to Philly, correct?

I wish we'd see Pittsburgh on these lists though. I don't know when this lovely city will get some recognition and turn around it's population loss (albeit slow loss... ).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Allentown area is quickly becoming a NYC bedroom community.

[TheGerbil]

Oh, I see. So I guess it's somewhat North of Philly. Interesting.

[ScrantonWilkesBarre]

The Allentown area is quickly becoming a NYC bedroom community.

As is the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. It's a shame, isn't it?

[PghUSA]

Not all growth is bad SWB, but I agree there should really be a regional way to oversee it and make it most useful to the whole region instead of making township compete with township.

[ScrantonWilkesBarre]

Not all growth is bad SWB, but I agree there should really be a regional way to oversee it and make it most useful to the whole region instead of making township compete with township.

Very true. With how fragmented our state is politically, one new project in one township ultimately hurts two neighboring boroughs and vice-versa. Any new chain store coming to Pittston Township hurts the tax base of Pittston City as another mom-and-pop store closes and gets taken off the tax rolls. For each new building lot that successfully attracts another resident from Pittston City into Pittston Township, the city's population drops and the tax revenue dips. If there weren't quite so many boundaries involved, then we wouldn't have the current case of Pittston Township being SO wealthy that residential property taxes have been eliminated while Pittston City, which borders us, is struggling to keep its bills paid.

[PghUSA]

The answer is to get Harrisburg to adopt a sunbelt style of local governance. The locals, as bad as they may be, are only doing what we elected them to do, fight hard for their truncated constiutency.

It is Harrisburg's entrenched "we need 200 municipalities per county" mentality that is destroying this state for the reasons mentioned above.

On the face of it SWB, some reading this might say what's wrong with a Home Depot or some suburbs sprouting up, Dallas has them. The difference is Dallas city, county and Plano/Arlington all get together and say to business and developers go downtown first, reuse and recycle old commercial buildings or fill up taxable land close to already built infrastructure like interstates, sewer, power lines, schools, libraries, fire stations etc. instead of taking possible nature preserves or trail space or recreation space out in the boonies and having govt. raise taxes there to provide all the yet-to-exist infrastructure and support services, and having taxes raised in the ever increasingly hollow city (less business the higher the rate has to go to meet obligations).

In fact if Dallas really wanted to they could just annex the heck out of much of any new development if the county ever balked to them. Try doing that in Pennsylvania, you can't annex unincorporated land, everything is something in this state, township councils etc.

[Jerseyman4]

^How many municipalites (twps, boroughs, cities, village, etc) are there in PA?

NJ has 559

[billpa]

Pennsylvania has a whopping 2,566 municipalities.

That's cities and boroughs and townships.

Having lived in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, I'd say the two states are almost identical in the way they have their respective towns setup. Both have numerous townships with the downtowns of those townships usually having their own identity as a borough. I don't know of any other state that uses this method- nor would I recomend it if another state were to be created today and wanted advice as to how to organize itself.

Here in the Harrisburg area, some of our boroughs are having a bit of a tough time financially, as they tend to be built-out, with no room for further growth. All the new development happens in places like Lower Paxton, Swatara and West Hanover townships where there is plenty of land still left and close proximity to people who have money to spend.

All is not lost, however, in my opinion. Some of the boroughs have a real urban feel about them and are, in some cases, beginning to get onboard with a redevelopment plan. That urban feel, as people on this forum likely would agree, is something that's becoming more desirable for many people looking for a place that doesn't require a drive everytime you wish to purchase a gallon of milk.

Also, there are at least two cases that I'm aware of in Central PA of older boroughs looking to merge. These are in their early stages and we'll see what happens. There are still many people who aren't ready to give up their town's identity.