Finding a Place To Live in Philadelphia

Many of you will be moving to the Philadelphia area and thus looking for a place to live.  I last had to move thirty years ago so I hope that others will add to what I put down here.  I'll focus here on what I think I've learned by living here a long time.

There are many general resources on the process of  moving available such as those that show up in this Google Search.  One that looked pretty useful to me was this About.com piece on planning and preparing.  Another pretty good site for those planning to buy a home is Trulia - it includes school information and demographics

Where Current Faculty Live

It may help you to know where current Drexel Faculty live.  This Google Mashup shows their location by zip code.

Area Descriptions

Here is my take on the general locations people live with some characteristics.  Note that I've  necessarily left out a number of areas without any intention of slight.

Location	Comment
"Center City"	The urban heart of Philadelphia, where Drexel's health programs are located.  Drexel's main campus is just over the Schuylkill river to the West.  It tends to be more expensive. WP Areas just north and south of Center City are also popular: Art Museum; Old City; Queen Village.
West Philadelphia	Drexel and Penn are both on the eastern edge of West Philadelphia.  Powleton Village is a residential area to the NW of Drexel. The residential area to the west of Penn & Drexel is usually known as University City.
Northwest Philadelphia	Northwest Philadelphia isn't a common term.  Usually you hear the neighborhoods:   Chestnut Hill tends to have larger houses and be more expensive.  Germantown & Mount Airy tend to have smaller, less expensive houses.
Main Line	The "Main Line" follows the old Pennsylvania railroad's main tracks to the Northwest and also Route 30.  It has many communities (and colleges) along it.  The general reputation is for larger and more expensive houses. WP
Western Suburbs	Houses here are often more modest and less expensive than in some of the previous areas. Areas include:  Upper Darby; Havertown; Lansdowne; Springfield; Swarthmore and many more.
New Jersey	Quite a few faculty live across the Delaware close to Philadelphia.  Towns include:  Cherry Hill; Collingswood, Haddonfield and many more.

Note:  WP = wikipedia - a number of other links are to wikipedia too.

Jim Mitchell