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Radek

You have heard this before ... I want to live in America!

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I am thinking of crossing the border ... to PA! I am tired of NJ laws, especially 2A related, but many others. There are many other negatives, and I don't want to even go there ...

 

Unfortunately, my kids don't want to move (they don't know any better). My wife certainly would move anywhere with me. So, I am kinda stuck here and this is really getting to me at a personal level ...

 

I don't want to waste time, so I figure I would get a second home in PA and sometime later sell the NJ house. In all this, I need to become "resident of PA". For some time, it could be dual residency ... whatever works.

 

(I am also considering upstate NY, but need to do some basic research on firearms laws, location ...)

 

I travel to client sites on projects, so I can't be too far away from a major airport. That quickly narrows down to Philadelphia airport. I don't want to live in the city, I prefer the outdoors. An hour to hour and a half from the airport would work fine.

 

My needs:

- Few acres of land (10-15% cleared, rest wooded); I live on a cramped 50x100 property :( While growing up I have gotten used to large houses/land (seems like such a long time ago!)

- Has fast net connection (has become a must)

- Has access to electricity (if not, have to fall back on Solar + generator)

- Relatively low tax area (I am already getting socked in property taxes in NJ)

- Safe and friendly surroundings for kids (my younger one is turning 12 on 9/11! Yes, that's her B'day.)

 

My wants:

- Has small (1-2 BR) but ready to move in construction, ranch style ... (alternative is a trailer)

- Out in the boonies where I can shoot in my backyard

- Within reasonable distance of an outdoor range

- Water stream / lake nearby would be ideal ...

 

It's been over 25 years I went looking for property! I am looking for advice on the best places to look in the Philly surroundings. Anyone on the forum has lived in that area for long and assist?

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I'm not too sure about the Philly area, but you're still looking at a suburb of a major city. Prices may reflect that.

 

If you're willing to move a bit further west, you can probably find all you are looking for, and more, for what you're willing to pay if you head closer to Harrisburg. It has an airport, and is pretty close (from NE Jersey it's about 3 hrs). Plus it's very close to the Hamburg Cabela's! :dance:

 

You also have the added benefit of a relatively short drive to Philly, D.C., and Baltimore. You may have to get used to the smell of farm manure outside of the city though! :lol: You do get used to it, I can tell you from experience. I lived for 4 years in Gettysburg, about 30-45 minutes south of Harrisburg when I was in college.

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I hate browsing through all the classifieds on the PFOA site and seeing all the guns I can't own. Same thing goes with gunbroker, etc... Then my friends tell me their tax rates and I hate this place even more.

 

NJ is hard to beat though when it comes to location...NYC, Phily, Boston, DC and Baltimore, the shore, and the mountains are all within a couple hours of one another.

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Upstate is going NJ way for taxes

 

Try West PA , Pittsburgh is fairly close if you need a big city = 112Acres 150K.

http://www.eaglestar.net/cgi-bin/db/pag ... e;ID=26690

http://www.eaglestar.net/

 

Price: $ 150,000 USD

Parcel Size: 112.5 (+/-) Acres

Special Conditions: No OGM. Timber is not valuable

Property Location: East Brady, PA

Armstrong County, USA

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Screw upstate NY... property taxes are jacked up there as well, and they have some pretty wacky gun laws as well.

 

Sounds like you need to score a wooded lot and put a freakin double wide there with a mail box! HAHAH!

 

Yeah, read up on NY guns laws, pretty wacky too, so that's a no go. Back to PA!

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Upstate is going NJ way for taxes

 

Try West PA , Pittsburgh is fairly close if you need a big city = 112Acres 150K.

http://www.eaglestar.net/cgi-bin/db/pag ... e;ID=26690

http://www.eaglestar.net/

 

Price: $ 150,000 USD

Parcel Size: 112.5 (+/-) Acres

Special Conditions: No OGM. Timber is not valuable

Property Location: East Brady, PA

Armstrong County, USA

 

Man you are really putting me out there! :lol: Remember, initially I will be in PA less often than in NJ, so I would like to be able to drive to it in reasonable time. Maybe the target location is west of Philly / east of Harrisburg?

 

I am looking for a smaller parcel, maybe 25-50 acres. I need to keep some money budgeted to build a cabin or something overhead. I think I will make a motorcycle trip over and see what the scenery looks like! :D

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Man you are really putting me out there! :lol: Remember, initially I will be in PA less often than in NJ, so I would like to be able to drive to it in reasonable time. Maybe the target location is west of Philly / east of Harrisburg?

 

I am looking for a smaller parcel, maybe 25-50 acres. I need to keep some money budgeted to build a cabin or something overhead. I think I will make a motorcycle trip over and see what the scenery looks like! :D

 

Plenty of lots/land on Trulia.com .......I did go way out west though......subconscious desire to get away myself as far as possibble :mrgreen:

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I lived in Pa. back in the mid 80's. I was in Tannersville, which has gotten really over populated since then. I wouldn't live there again. Rented a 2 bedroom home on a lake where my next door neighbor would walk out of his house and shoot his dinner out of the sky regardless of if it was season or not. I was spending what I though was a lot of money on ammo even at 1985 prices, I could only imagine having the luxury of shooting whenever I wanted now. I'd be reloading. I'd sometimes bump into neighbors that lived on the other side of the lake, and we would talk about shooting. One of them once said "So you're the guy making all of that noise eh?" Yeah, I shot a lot.

 

Funny that the OP started this thread. We've been talking about leaving here soon, and Pa. is an option. We'll be taking a few weekend rides out there in the next couple of months to look around. But yes, it's time to leave. The 2A laws are only a part of it. I'm tired of a lot of things we go through living in this state.

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I live in NW jersey and use Lehigh Valley Airport sometimes. http://www.lvia.org/

You can get almost anywhere you just have to connect for most locations. I think I have flown direct to Florida and Charlottte form there.

 

Get about 30-45 minutes from there and you can be pretty remote.

 

Might be an other option.

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I live in NW jersey and use Lehigh Valley Airport sometimes. http://www.lvia.org/

You can get almost anywhere you just have to connect for most locations. I think I have flown direct to Florida and Charlottte form there.

 

Get about 30-45 minutes from there and you can be pretty remote.

 

Might be an other option.

 

 

Was going to suggest the same thing. I work out of ABE and with a connecting flight, as said you can get to just about anywhere.

 

As far as shooting on your own property, I don't know for sure, but would think in the suburbs around Philly, you wouldn't get away with that. A friend of mine whose parents live in PA mentioned about being north of a certain highway to be able to still shoot on your own property. Don't know how true that is.

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If you end up getting something out in the boonies, just be sure you can actually reach it with a bike! LOL! I've been up some dirt roads in PA that would be hell on anything short of a dirt bike.

 

Another option would be to buy some land OUTSIDE driving distance. I bet land down in TN or KY is pretty cheap, and their CCW is honored in most "non-PR" states. You could also look in NE WV, which is within reasonable driving distance. They have some really nice wooded land down there.

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If you end up getting something out in the boonies, just be sure you can actually reach it with a bike! LOL! I've been up some dirt roads in PA that would be hell on anything short of a dirt bike.

 

Another option would be to buy some land OUTSIDE driving distance. I bet land down in TN or KY are pretty cheap, and their CCW is honored in most "non-PR" states. You could also look in WV, which is within reasonable driving distance. They have some really nice land down there.

 

Yeah! WV great for riding along the blue ridge pkway! Dirt is good, then I have an excuse to buy a dirt bike :D

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I am using trulia.com and eaglestar.net to search, but so far I have come across really expensive land, probably because it's near some town or major highway. Tried within 10 miles of town / location (the only option), but no dice.

 

What's the best way to find land away from actual named towns in the boonies! My guess is local listings, but does any site do consolidation?

 

What are the other recommended search engines for land/lots? For now, I am still looking at PA.

 

Thanks all for the help!

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I've had the same conversation with my wife at least twice in the last 3 months. We looked around North of Scranton. Good prices, lots of land, but school systems suck.... SBR w/30rd PMag suppressed or "future" child's education? decisions decisions :think:

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I've had the same conversation with my wife at least twice in the last 3 months. We looked around North of Scranton. Good prices, lots of land, but school systems suck.... SBR w/30rd PMag suppressed or "future" child's education? decisions decisions :think:

 

You can always home school. :)

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You could always choose a target area and go for a ride! You may see wooded lots listed, or if a particular lot interests you you can ask around. My grandparents went around a small upstate NY town asking about empty lots. Turns out they knocked on the door of an older lady, she owned some lot, had no use for it...so they bought it and put up a real nice house! HA

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You could always choose a target area and go for a ride! You may see wooded lots listed, or if a particular lot interests you you can ask around. My grandparents went around a small upstate NY town asking about empty lots. Turns out they knocked on the door of an older lady, she owned some lot, had no use for it...so they bought it and put up a real nice house! HA

 

Nice story, find a place the old fashioned way ... sounds great! I will take a ride across the border. If nothing turns up, at least I will enjoy the ride and scenery.

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You could try looking around Upper Black Eddy, PA. It is pretty out in the sticks, but does offer everything your looking for. The down side is that the house prices out there have gone rapidly up as people have been moving out of Jersey.

 

On the plus side:

 

- 1 acre plus land sizes are normal.

- A lot of that area is state game land.

- High speed cable internet is available.

- Its right across the river, so that area is about 5 mins from Milford or Frenchtown and approx 1hr from PHL.

 

On the down side:

 

- Not as cheap as other parts of PA.

- Not likely to be natural gas, so oil or electric.

- Not likely to be public sewers, so septic.

- Not likely to be public water, so well water (although this could be a plus).

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Hamburg,Pa is 2hrs away from woodbridge, 45 mins from lehigh valley airport, and also 2hrs from Newark airport, and 1 1/2 hrs to Philadelphia int'l airport. Or is hamburg too dangerous for you financially because of its proximity to cabela's? :lol::lol:

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