(upbeat music)
- [Briggs] What is going on everyone?
Are you sick of living in the city?
Wanna find a rural town, get a mortgage in Pennsylvania
and get in on that life and death debate,
which is better, Sheetz or Wawa?
Who doesn't, right?
Today we're looking at great rural towns
in the Quaker State, Pennsylvania.
It's also known as the Cornerstone State.
Pennsylvania is one of my favorite states.
As a matter of fact, what I consider
to be one of the best small towns
in the US is in Pennsylvania.
And yes, it is on this list.
There are a ton of great rural towns in Pennsylvania,
but hardly any had all the things we look for
in these videos.
So many didn't make the list because of crime,
poor internet, or they were just clumped together
with a few other small towns and making them a city
and not really a rural town.
I promise I miss some really good ones on this list.
And if you know some that I overlooked,
we'd love to hear about it in the comment section.
If you haven't watched these videos before,
what we are looking for is that sweet spot,
a decent place to live, isn't too close to a major city,
easy on the crime rate, not five hours away from a hospital
and not so far out in the sticks,
you can't get good internet.
In the past videos, I explained
that not all states have good rural towns,
and I don't wanna waste your time throwing a bunch in there
that don't really cut the mustard just to get to 10.
Got it, get it, good.
Let's take a look.
Number six, Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
Honesdale is one of my favorite small towns in the country.
Honesdale is a rural small town in Northeast Pennsylvania
not too far from the New York border.
And I've spent a lot of time in this place
and I love Honesdale.
They've got great people, a great vibe
and one of the coolest hotels
I've ever stayed in, Hotel Wayne.
You could actually see that one
on some of those ghost busting YouTube channels,
you know the ghost hunter type things.
They've had a couple episodes done on Hotel Wayne.
This is a historic hotel in a historic town.
Lackawaxen River flows straight through Honesdale
with creeks and lakes surrounding this place.
If you like fishing, hunting, all that good stuff,
Honesdale is perfect for that.
They get about 4,000 residents here
and they get a thumbs up for their crime rate.
It's 34% lower than the national average.
They also get a thumbs up for their internet.
They have Blue Ridge,
which offers one gig to 80% of the town.
They have like four other companies that offer one gig
and they cover anywhere from 10 to 40% of the town.
If you've got any healthcare issues,
they got you covered in Honesdale.
They have Wayne Memorial Hospital in town.
This place is huge.
It's one of those situations where it seems too big
for the town, but it covers a lot of the county.
They've got an emergency room, everything you need.
Pretty big for such small town.
It's not some small clinic with a couple doctors,
full blown hospital.
When it comes to real estate,
Honesdale gets a big thumbs up too.
They got plenty to choose from
and they got a wide selection of prices,
starting off at 155,000 right now.
That one's gonna need a lot of work,
but you could get something decent for 220 to 270.
If you really want something nice,
you're looking at about 350 to 400,000.
And unless it's like right downtown Honesdale,
chances are you're gonna have a creek
or a pond on your property.
If you do go there looking for property,
call Tim at the Re/Max in Honesdale, Honesdale Re/Max.
He's family's been there a long time.
Number five, Emporium, Pennsylvania.
Emporium sits about three hours Northeast of Pittsburgh
in Northern Pennsylvania
right where a whole bunch of creeks meet.
There's like four or five good sized creeks or streams
that meet at this town.
That's one thing you notice right away
when you visit Pennsylvania, there is water everywhere,
ponds, creeks, rivers, streams, lakes, springs.
They always seem to be a short walk away
from wherever you are in this state.
Emporium has a population of about 2000
and they get a thumbs up for their crime rate.
It's 55% lower than the national average,
which is pretty good.
When it comes to their internet, they also get a thumbs up.
They have Windstream offering one gig to 99% of the town.
If you take a look at the healthcare here,
we're gonna give them a faded thumbs up.
They have a few doctors and some clinics in towns
along with a dentist, but anything major
or an emergency room,
you got about a 30 minute drive to St. Mary's.
When you look at their real estate,
they're doing pretty good.
They get a thumbs up there too.
100,000 will get you home or actually under 100,000.
There's a couple for like 80,000, 75,000.
Those are gonna need some work.
So if you're low on cash
and you just want to get in someplace,
this is a great option.
If you get anything over 200, 220,000,
it's gonna be livable and ready to go.
It's a beautiful town too.
Number four, Portage, Pennsylvania.
Portage sprung up around 1834 when they built a railroad
over the Allegheny Mountains
to connect Pennsylvania's Canal system.
Portage sits about 10 miles Southeast of Edinburg
and about 22 miles Southwest of Altoona.
This is another great place to live if you're on a budget.
Let's say you're retiring on a fixed income,
you could probably afford a house here.
It's that cheap.
Portage has a population of about 2,600
and they get a thumbs up for their crime rate.
It's actually 59% lower than the national average,
which is pretty good.
Their internet, again, big thumbs up.
They have Xfinity.
I hate the company, but they give good internet.
They offer one gig to 90% of the town.
On top of that, they have a few other companies
that offer one gig and they're cover like four
and 10% of the town.
So chances are you'll be able to get something,
always call ahead.
Don't just move someplace, counting on them having internet
at whatever place you buy or rent or whatever.
When it comes to healthcare,
we're giving them a faded thumbs up
because they don't have like an emergency room
or a urgent care in town.
I look, I did some research, it seems like they should.
I couldn't find anything.
If I'm missing something,
let me know in the comment section below.
But they do have a couple clinics
and a couple doctors in town,
along with like a physical therapy place.
Anything like an emergency room you need,
you're gonna have to head out to Johnstown,
which is about 25 minutes away.
And that's to the Southwest.
If you're looking for real estate in Portage, good news.
They get a thumbs up here too.
They have a lot of things for sale right now.
And a lot of them are under a 100,000.
I'm talking 80,000 to 130,000.
They need a lot of work
and you're gonna have to do some reconstruction,
but you can get into a home for 30,000 here.
You might have to get a trailer while they redo your house
for a couple months, but that's how cheap it is.
That's in town.
In the rural areas outside of town, you can get some acres.
And that usually starts around 200 to 300,000.
Like any place in Pennsylvania, the winters can get harsh.
So I didn't mention that at the beginning,
but Pennsylvania does get some pretty harsh winter.
So keep that in mind too.
There's summers, I've been there
during the summer three different times, I loved it.
Winter's a different story.
I've also seen snow there get up to about your waist.
I was amazed at that type of snow
and the person I was with going, "Oh, I've seen much worse."
I don't even wanna think about it.
Number three, Seneca, Pennsylvania.
Seneca is a census-designated place
about 90 minutes south of Erie, Pennsylvania, Lake Erie.
So it's a designated area.
It's technically not a town, but we're going with it.
It's also across the Allegheny River
from a place called Oil City.
That sounds like a place that should be in Texas
if you ask me.
This is a great part of Pennsylvania
if you like to do some fishing.
Smallmouth, walleye, lake trout,
rainbow trout are all big here.
If you wanna be away from a big city, Seneca's worth a look.
They have plenty of small towns and villages in the area,
but they're a good distance from anything
that could be remotely mistaken for a big city.
The nearest city is Pittsburgh and that's a little
over an hour and a half to the South.
Seneca has about 1300 residents and they get a thumbs up
for their crime rate.
It's 60% lower than the national average.
When it comes to their internet,
they also get a big thumbs up.
They have Xfinity, they get over a gig
for about 86% of the homes here.
And they also have a company called Armstrong
that covers about 40% of the town with a gig.
When it comes to healthcare, they also get a big thumbs up.
They have UPMC Northwest just outside of town,
like five minutes outside of town.
And that's got everything.
It's a huge hospital, emergency room, open 24 hours a day.
Anything you need, you'll get taken care of there.
I really doubt there's much you'd have
to go into Pittsburgh or something like that to do.
They should be able to handle everything.
They also get a thumbs up when it comes to real estate,
they have a lot of options, starting off around 70,000
and working their way up to a place for 560,000
that's got some acres.
But anything below a 100,000, I should say 120,000,
you're gonna need to do some work.
But those houses are available.
What you really wanna be ready to spend is over 250,000,
that'll get you a nice home that's decent, livable
and you might need to put a coat of paint on it
or something like that,
but you're not gonna have to redo the whole house.
Number two, Hometown, Pennsylvania.
Yes, it's really called Hometown.
Hometown is a village in rush township
in Eastern Pennsylvania
about 90 minutes Northwest of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
This is a great area if you like to be outdoors,
hunt, hike, whatever.
They even got a golf course just west of town,
the Mountain Valley Golf Course, which is right there.
In Pennsylvania, it's my experience,
I'm sure they have them, but I haven't seen
as many golf courses around some of these small towns
as I've seen in other states.
This part of Pennsylvania is coal country
in case you didn't already know.
I mean, they've still got coal mines around this area.
Matter of fact, just down the road,
they got a little village called Coaldale.
Hometown has a population of 1300
and they get a thumbs up for their crime rate.
It's actually 70% lower than the national average.
That is phenomenal, congratulations.
They get a thumbs up for their internet.
They've got Service Electric Cablevision,
which offers one gig to 99% of the town.
They have some other ones too, but that's the main one.
They also get a thumbs up when it comes to healthcare.
They got a dentist in town
and like a little nursing rehabilitation center.
But if you need a hospital right down the road,
like 11 minutes away in Coaldale,
they have St. Luke's Miners Memorial Hospital,
which is a full-blown hospital everything you're gonna need.
If you do need a specialist or something,
they can't handle there, you probably gonna have to go north
about 42 minutes to Wilkes-Barre.
They have big hospitals there.
If not, I'm sure Scranton does.
Another thing I like about Hometown,
they're not too far away from Jim Thorpe,
which is a really cool place to visit like on the weekend
and they have this little train there.
That's a really cool town.
I wouldn't live there, but it's a pretty cool town to visit.
Hometown also gets a thumbs up when it comes to real estate,
they don't have a lot for sale right now.
Actually they only have two places, one's going for 250,000,
the other one's going for 240,000.
It is honestly hard to find a place here
that is over 300,000.
Most of the homes that have sold
for the last five or six months go for under 200,000.
They might need a little work, most of them look decent,
they're not totally falling apart or anything like that.
They look like decent homes that may need a paint job
and a little work and you're good to go
for a home that's probably $150,000.
Not bad.
All right, before we get to number one,
don't forget we have another channel called On This Day.
Love it if you went over there
and give some videos a big thumbs up
and subscribe and all that good stuff.
Don't forget to give this video big thumbs up.
All right, on to number one.
And number one, Muncy, Pennsylvania.
That's right, Pennsylvania has their own Muncy.
Muncy sits about an hour west of Wilkes-Barre
on the west branch of the Susquehanna River.
This is another great town if you like to go fishing.
I was watching videos on YouTube
of guys pulling good size brown trout out of the river here.
A little over 2000 people call Muncy home.
And they get a thumbs up when it comes their crime rate.
It's 91% lower than the national average.
That is outstanding.
They also get a thumbs up for their internet.
They get one gig from Xfinity
and they cover about 75% of the town.
Then they have Windstream that has one gig
and they cover about 90% of the town.
So you got some seriously good options there.
Plenty of internet to stream, game, whatever you want.
Matter of fact, you might as well stream The Office,
that if you've never watched The Office in the show,
their headquarters was in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
which is not too far from here.
It's right up the road from Wilkes-Barre.
Muncy is also a great place to live
if you got some medical issues
because they got a pretty good hospital in town.
They get to thumbs up for their healthcare
because they have UPMC Muncy in town.
On top of that, they got some doctor's offices
and some clinics in the area.
So you're good to go
on just about anything you need taken care of.
Anything they can't take care of,
I'm sure if you just went up to Scranton,
they've got a nice size hospital there,
they'll be able to cover you.
Muncy also gets a thumbs up
when it comes to their real estate.
Currently they only have three places for sale,
but in the last month or two,
they've sold quite a few places.
Your starting money here is around 200,000.
And that'll get you a livable home
that's a little bit older, but decent.
And then it goes up to 250, they have a nice one.
And anything over four or 500,000
is gonna be a really nice place.
So you got a wide selection for whatever your budget is.
I'm sure if you decide to move to Muncy,
they'd be happy to have you.
That's one good thing I like about Pennsylvania.
I've never got that vibe and I've never heard people
in the comment section or seeing people
in the comment section say don't come here.
Like Colorado people,
no matter what you're saying about Colorado,
they always gotta get in the comment section about,
oh, don't come here, we're full.
They say the same thing about Idaho, Wyoming, Montana,
all those places.
Pennsylvania, these are good people
and they'd be happy to have you.
(upbeat music)
All right, that's today's video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
Now go out, have a productive day and be nice to each other.