Best Places to Raise Kids: The 15 Most Family-Friendly Philly Suburbs

Huntingdon Valley

Population: 12,982*
School district: Lower Moreland
SAT scores: 537 math / 566 reading / 550 writing
Crime rate: .48 violent crimes per 1,000; 19.11 nonviolent per 1,000
Median home price: $365,000

Leafy and green, Huntingdon Valley doesn’t have a lot of shopping or decent restaurants, but it does have that rarest of modern commodities: silence. Sit out during the summer, and you can actually hear the crickets—and, blissfully, not much else. What the town lacks in Main Street amenities it makes up for in “a real sense of community,” says mother-of-three Linda Kline—“a sense that people are looking out for each other.” Parents are expected to be involved in the schools, and they are: Lower Moreland sends a staggering 97 percent of its students on to college, a long-standing tradition in one of the most well-educated and successful areas in the state. And while there may be little “there there,” fewer diversions mean more focus on actual family and neighbor connections. Says Kline, “You always have the feeling you’re raising your kids in a positive environment.” Sometimes, it takes a Valley …

* Population for Lower Moreland Township; includes Huntingdon Valley and other areas.

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