Thank you.

Northernmost New England would be my thing. I thrive in cold weather, plow snow for a town, love scrounging free wood for my stove and fatbike all winter. From what I can tell, that all kinds works up there.

I've lived in eastern PA for 50 years and am watching it get paved over and I need out eventually.

Route 611 through DWG is currently closed for months by PennDOT to stabilize the cliff face after a big rock slide there. If coming from the south towards Stroudsburg, going to need to use Route 33 to cross the mountain at Wind Gap.

That's nice to hear.

My state's overrun with crap like that plus huge electronic billboards, warehousing everywhere and traffic-filled trash-lined roads.

If I could afford to move there and fade out into the woods, I would somewhere in NEK but I doubt there's many jobs in Public Works departments up there.

I left teaching during that time period after 18 years due to a cheap ass school board in a wealthy school district in one of PA's wealthiest counties. Their cheapness resulted in my not even closely keeping up with the COL.

Shitty administration and unrealistic testing/curriculum standards created by clueless state and federal level legislators and bureaucrats didn't help either.

Ultimately my class sizes grew dramatically, student needs exploded, and virtually zero additional resources were ever provided to assist. You were on your own with hypocritical administrators ever ready to criticize and and everything. Meanwhile, I'd go years without a raise causing financial stress at home as well.

Ironically, I had almost zero problems with students or their parents. They weren't the problem. Our politicians, ed department bureaucrats and administrators who never get out of their offices to understand what current life in the trenches is like. Those are the problems along with bad ed law and shit funding formulas

Smart. Never worth it.

No termites up here in the Poconos but with such a mild winter, carpenter ants didn't die off and everything's gotta be checked for them too.

I heat my entire house with a woodstove using scrounged wood I need to cut, split and stack.

I'd add that that list of no-go woods includes anything still green; treated/creosoted/painted/stained lumber; and any conifer.

OP, I grew up and lived just outside Allentown from the early 1970s through the early 2000s before moving to Quakertown and then the Poconos, both not far from the Lehigh Valley. Still have family there.

I've seen the area change a lot over those years.

If you're strictly speaking looking within Allentown City limits, I'd stick to as far west as possible that you can still find rowhomes within your budget. Consider looking at twins in that same area if you can stretch your budget because there's more of them in the West End then rows.

The far East Side up against West Bethlehem might be an option too.

Avoid the 1st and 6th wards between the Jordan Creek and Lehigh River; the neighborhoods immediately surrounding CC; parts of the East Side; and the South Side (Mountainville). Those rowhomes are cheap for a reason: 1.) Usually need a lot of work to rehab - often old, neglected, and sometimes were rentals and 2.) a decent chance of having at least one crappy neighbor making your life hell.

Speaking of just outside Allentown, you might find a row or much more likely a twin in parts of Emmaus, Salisbury Township, or the Centronia neighborhood of South Whitehall Township, all of which will have lower school district taxes and better-regarded schools than ASD.

Early 1980s Billy Joel's "Allentown" song reference.

Eat at Shady Maples.

Well, more war it is then.

I remember Route 61 open pre-Graffiti Highway and the town still fully standing and populated

Yeah, it's more a way of life than a season anymore.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be nosey.

That might work for something small in Quakertown in Upper Bucks County or the Pennsburg or Pottstown areas in northern Montgomery County.

Prices in even those traditionally less expensive areas have been going up like everywhere else though.

It's better further north just past the mountain in Schuylkill (Pottsville or Tamaqua ) and Carbon (Lehighton area) counties but that's really pushing your 1.5 hour to Philly window.

What's your total monthly budget for housing including utilities like? That's going to help rule stuff in or out.

And I'm gonna mobilize 1.5 million potential dollars to buy the house of my dreams.

Ya gotta pay your dues in this town.

I thought lawyers flapped their gums a lot.

I plow and salt for a municipality and keeping areas clear of cars, trash cans, basketball standards, etc. and properly snow staked goes a long way towards a proper job and minimal risk of damage.

Nice area there though it's been about 20 years or so since I've been through there.

I remember there were still a lot of fields on that road between Cranbury and Plainsboro back then.

Lol, then literally the hospital I was born in sits basically right at that tri-point in Hunterdon, lol.

Figured as much, lol.

My backyard. I grew up south of Tamaqua with family from Mahanoy City and now I live near Jim Thorpe.

Sounds like Hazleton, lol.

I guess the firm now runs the risk of a toothless reputation in court.

In high school I ran in XC meets at Lehigh and later went to school there as well. Cool place.