People fleeing New York and New Jersey for the Poconos could give Pa. Democrats a new stronghold
By Julia Terruso, Philadelphia Inquirer
STROUDSBURG, Pa. —Before the coronavirus shut down in-person classes at the Bronx middle school where Vivian Jimenez runs an aftercare program, she would take the bus every weekday from Stroudsburg to New York, sleeping on the way there and listening to music on the ride home. The 14-hour days didn’t leave much time to get to know her neighbors — or to pay attention to politics.
“I never cared, and for me, it was never convenient,” Jimenez, 46, said of voting. But in 2020, frustration with Donald Trump and a pandemic that kept her home prompted her to vote for the first time. She registered as a Democrat in Monroe County and voted for Joe Biden.
Farther up in the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Jon Turco’s family fled a Manhattan apartment for their vacation home in Pocono Pines. Turco and his wife, both longtime Democrats, registered and voted in the woodsy vacation town, which is now bursting with full-time residents.
As Democrats look to where they can grow an electorate increasingly consolidated in the Philadelphia region, they might look to the Poconos. Both Monroe and neighboring Pike County shifted Democratic by about five percentage points from 2016 to 2020, two of only six Pennsylvania counties to move that far left. About one in four active voters in the two counties is newly registered since the 2016 election, compared with about 16% statewide, according to an Inquirer analysis of voter-roll data.
Priced-out families are discovering the Lehigh Valley and tiny towns, too
By Anthony Salamone, Morning Call
Rich Grucela has spent nearly his entire life in Martins Creek — a tiny spot in Northampton County that’s part of Lower Mount Bethel Township.
Its 437 residents, according to census data, live in a variety of homes — from brick ranchers to cement structures that represent a bygone era when the community played a key role in the Lehigh Valley’s “Cement Belt” manufacturing boom.
Many homes in Martins Creek — named after a stream that winds through the Slate Belt before emptying into the Delaware River — were passed down from generation to generation.
But that’s changing.
A house near Grucela’s on Fairview Avenue recently sold to new residents, and the $220,000 deal caught his attention.
“When I saw the price of that house, I said, ‘Wow, that’s good news for us,’” recalled Grucela, who formerly served as a township supervisor, county council member and state representative.
The housing market sales boom is being replayed throughout boroughs, cities, townships and unincorporated communities like Martins Creek around the Lehigh Valley, where the pandemic and other factors have created a sellers’ bonanza of multiple offers at higher-than-normal prices.
But it’s particularly intriguing in Martins Creek, where over past two years, the median home price in its ZIP code has risen by 19.3%, according to data from online real estate firm Zillow.
From February 2020 to February of this year, the median price in Martins Creek jumped 16.2%, from $193,012 to $224,225 — emblematic of a bidding war in the Slate Belt that has driven median home prices up faster than anywhere else in the Lehigh Valley. The Bangor area saw a 19.9% jump during the same period — tops among ZIP codes, according to Zillow.
That’s higher than the Easton area, (12.5% for all 2020, according to Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors group). Martins Creek and Lower Mount Bethel are part of both Bangor and Easton area school districts. The Pen Argyl area, also in the Slate Belt, saw median prices jump 18.7%.
The Lehigh Valley as a whole saw median home prices jump 11.9% for all of 2020, according to the Realtors group.
Zillow spokesperson Haley Mills said that by comparison, home values have increased 11.3% in the Philadelphia region, and 10.7% in Pittsburgh.
“It’s not weird to see the Martins Creek 18063 area experience price hikes,” said Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, citing its proximity to New Jersey and some of the wealthiest counties in the country (Hunterdon, for one). People move from New Jersey to Pennsylvania in part to escape Jersey’s higher property taxes, she said.
“And Martins Creek is absolutely beautiful,” Bradley said. “You’ve got the topography, the forested land, the farmlands, the river. You’ve got the viewsheds.
“Therefore, it’s got those quality-of-life factors that then drive up values.”
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