I know about those and you're right - that's all true.

What I meant was regarding high-quality geriatric emergency care for an elderly person being moved into a town by out-of-state relatives with no family or friends in the area. They're living alone and in the event of a major medical crisis, having to be transported to the LVH or St. Luke's in the Lehigh Valley, etc.

If buying a house there, do due diligence on its age, quality of original construction and any subsequent renovations. Get a good home inspector. A lot of Coal Region towns have poorly-documented abandoned 19th century coal mine tunnels under them which as the timbers collapse can cause subsidence so proper insurance is important.

If renting, make sure it's maintained to safe standards by a reputable local landlord. Plenty of instances of our-of-town or out-of-state slumlords out there.

Finally pay attention to the immediate neighbors and the condition of their properties. Often fires break out and due to poor construction practices and non-existent fire code back in the day, an entire row of houses can go up just like that.

None of this is meant to scare you out of doing this but not many people move INTO the Coal Region. Traditionally, people like my great-grandfather have always tried to get OUT, lol.

Good luck with your Dad.

I grew up and still live not that far from there and yes, Pottsville looks better than it used to in the 1970s and 1980s. So for some people it's going to be intriguing due to it's affordability.

However, I think at least a minor concern is that if Dad has any kind of major medical emergency, he's not likely to get too-quality medical care super quick there compared to what you might be used to in NJ.

Also the housing is cheap because a lot of it's basically hundred-plus year old miner housing with rickety frame construction, several layers of crappy siding put on over the years, crumbling foundations, outdated electrical, bad plumbing/HVAC, asbestos, old roof, etc.

The Skook's gonna Skook, lol.

Lowhill has just over 2,000 people in 14 square miles and my family still lives there.

It's still a fairly rural, really hilly township and even now has no 4-lane roads, not even Route 100 and just one traffic light at an awkward-angled intersection and no police department.

Warehouses have no business there.

Already been looking around up in McKean-Potter-Tioga for several years now and it's not nearly as easy as I thought.

Gas pads and pipeline easements everywhere, big acreage is kind of scarce, expensive and typically doesn't have its OGMs with it. Also a lot of land has been subdivided into weird narrow strips with stream wetland challenges or steep slopes. Plus usually neighbors with shit holes next door.

I grew up in the Lehigh Valley (Lowhill Township) and remember the 1970s when Upper Macungie hadn't yet been paved over with warehouses.

Now I live in the Poconos and they've begun bulldozing the woods for them here too.

I really, really hate what eastern PA has become and am looking to move somewhere far north without them.

And then the Scranton-Poconos-NYC line being proposed.

The Skook like you said is pretty cheap. So would be Hazelton in Luzerne County and the towns of the Panther Valley in Carbon County like Lansford.

Yes, I did as a kid back in the day . . . .

Gus is fn annoying too.

Yeah, probably exactly that.

I hope some c-suite execs at 9th and Hamilton are shitting a brick over this screw-up.

But at that level they probably think that it's just a joke

I was going to go with Lansford, Weissport, or Mahanoy City but Shendo's a good choice.

The Wawa nearest me doesn't even has gas pumps, lol.

I was referring to those Sheetzes along the segment of the Wawa-Sheetz boundary in the eastern part of the state.

Yeah, that wasn't Allentown's case. There it was on the land parcel vs. size of building on it to encourage more taxable development.

Hickory Run area where I live has relatively dark skies and is convenient to the Turnpike.

On really clear nights you can see the Milky Way. But going out to Cherry Springs represents the real deal.

I vaguely remember the city of Allentown doing a land tax.

Yeah, I like it here overall but it's a little bit of a commute to work down in Bucks County, lol.

Turkey Hill's not bad for what it is but we could use something, either that or a Wawa or a Sheetz but something at the Turnpike Mahoning Valley exit.

There's one in the middle of Allentown and one just east of Scranton.

I'm not near either of them but still in between them in the middle of nowhere beyond Jim Thorpe, lol.

I'm in the weird overlap here in the Poconos between a few of the most southeastern Sheetzes and northwesternmost Wawas with a lot of Turkey Hills and independents filling the big gaps in between especially in Carbon County.

Parts of Pottstown itself aren't good but I don't think they're worse than Norristown.

You'd probably be better out in the immediate surrounding Pottsgrove townships if you could swing that.

Or for a more rednecky but still reasonably cheap deal still in Montco check out East Greenville-Pennsburg-Red Hill boroughs but by that point you're on the way towards Quakertown and the Lehigh Valley. The Upper Perk S.D. isn't that bad there.

You know how every PA county has that one place that's the shitter in that county? Norristown handles that role in southern Montco and Pottstown as a bonus does the same for northern Montco.

Don't do it. Buying a house in a truly shitty town rarely gives you any return on investment and if you buy one with a lot of issues to fixed you're doubly-fucked.

I made that mistake buying a place needing work in a Bucks County borough I thought was on the upswing and after 10 years I had to sell and the town wasn't really any better so I lost big time. Also the school district quality can screw you over even more which happened in my case too.

I'd say Northwestern Lehigh. I grew up there up Route 100 and 309 from Allentown and it probably checks your boxes for both farthest-out Lehigh Valley school district with some decent quality to it AND available acreage because it's four fairly rural townships zoned for acre-plus lots.

The issue with East Penn, Parkland, and Southern Lehigh is much of each has transitioned to more dense population on smaller lots due to public water and sewer unlike NW Lehigh.

Whatever you do, avoid Northern Lehigh S.D. with poor quality schools and very, very high taxes.

Ah, sounds like the Kunkletown - Pleasanr Valley - West End I know so well, lol.